Iran Interview and Analysis: Ahmadinejad's Show Begins with Washington Post --- An Easy Ride on Nukes, And Nothing on Human Rights

An extract from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's interview with Piers Morgan of CNN

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Perhaps most striking is the Washington Post interview is the lack of concern with any developments inside Iran, and thus any consideration that these may be linked to the Islamic Republic's foreign policy. There is nothing here on the economic situation, nothing on the political manoeuvring within the system, nothing about the 2013 Presidential election, and --- perhaps inevitably --- nothing about the post-2009 repression and human rights.

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Iran Opinion: The "Left" and the Non-Aligned Movement --- A Guide for the Perplexed (Postel)

How do we say we are against imposing the privations of sanctions, against subjecting the Iranian people to the violence of US/Israeli bombs, but are willing to take no position when those same people are subjected to violence by the Iranian government? This would make us an anti-war movement disconnected from social justice and life on the ground for ordinary Iranians; it would mean we have lost our moral compass.

We argue for the need to free all political prisoners, from Guantanamo to the Iranian prison Evin; to end the death penalty in the US and in Iran and everywhere; in other words, to build solidarity between our movements here and the movements there.

If we don't support Iranians struggling in Iran for the same things we fight for here, such as labor rights, abolition of the death penalty, and freedom for political prisoners, we risk a politically debilitating form of cultural relativism.

It is not only possible, but imperative, to simultaneously stand against all forms of outside intervention in Iran and against all forms of domestic oppression targeting ordinary Iranian people.

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Iran Snapshot: Head of State TV Admits Mis-Translation of Egyptian President's Speech on Syria (Press TV)

Head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), Ezzatollah Zarghami, has accepted a mistake in the translation of the Egyptian president’s address to the 16th Summit of the Non Aligned Movement (NAM) in Tehran.

“The shortcoming was only in the one case of translating the name for Syria into Bahrain in one of the [IRIB] television channels,” Zarghami said on Sunday. He added that, while Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi was addressing the summit, a technical mistake occurred during the IRIB Channel 1’s live broadcast of the speech and therefore another translator was replaced, who made the mistake.

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The Latest from Iran (1 September): After the Summit

See also Iran Feature: How News and Social Media Are Changing --- An Interview with Jahanshah Javid
Will Israel Attack Iran? --- Daniella Peled and Scott Lucas on Monocle 24
Iran Propaganda 101: Press TV Re-Arranges Ban Ki-Moon's Words
The Latest from Iran (31 August): The Failure of the Charm Offensive

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2124 GMT: Nuclear Watch. Back from a day out to find a couple of intriguing perspectives on Iran's nuclear programme and the possibility of an Israeli attack....

Gareth Porter takes a closer look at the briefing of the latest report by the International Atomic Energy Agency to argue that Tehran has decreased the amount of enriched uranium that could be diverted to military purposes:

The data in the two reports indicate that Iran increased the total production of 20-percent enriched uranium from 143 kg in May 2012 to 189.4 kg in mid-August. But the total stockpile of 20-percent enriched uranium that could be more easily enriched to weapons grade – and which has been the focus of U.S. diplomatic demands on Iran ever since 2009 – fell from 101 kg to 91.4 kg during the quarter.

The reduction in the stockpile available for weapons grade enrichment was the result of the conversion of 53.3 kg of 20-percent enriched uranium into fuel plates --- compared with only 43 kg in the previous five months.

Iran was thus creating fuel plates for its medical reactor faster than it was enriching uranium to a 20-percent level.

And reporters for Time magazine, drawing from US and Israeli officials, assert that Washington is limiting participation in a major military exercise with the Israelis to warn them against a strike on Tehran:

Seven months ago, Israel and the United States postponed a massive joint military exercise that was originally set to go forward just as concerns were brimming that Israel would launch a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. The exercise was rescheduled for late October, and appears likely to go forward on the cusp of the U.S. presidential election. But it won’t be nearly the same exercise. Well-placed sources in both countries have told TIME that Washington has greatly reduced the scale of U.S. participation, slashing by more than two-thirds the number of American troops going to Israel and reducing both the number and potency of missile interception systems at the core of the joint exercise.

“Basically what the Americans are saying is, ‘We don’t trust you,’” a senior Israeli military official tells TIME.

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The Latest from Iran (31 August): The Failure of the Charm Offensive

See also Iran, Syria, and the Non-Aligned Summit: 5 Questions and Answers
Iran Special: Regime Show Collapses as Morsi Gives Tehran an "Islamic Awakening" on Syria
The Latest from Iran (30 August): The Big Names Arrive at the Non-Aligned Summit

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Photo: Hamid Forootan/ISNA/REUTERS1543 GMT: Your Tehran Friday Prayer Update. Ayatollah Mohammad Emami Kashani took the podium today to convince the faithful of the success of this week's displya in Tehran, "Holding the Non-Aligned Movement Summit in Iran was a show of power and political manoeuvre for Iran under conditions that the country is facing various threats. Such moves foil all plots and destroy them.”

The cleric called for expanded influence for the organisation, "This movement should be deepened and should move towards providing security in the world."

There is no indication that Emami Kashani spoke about the address by Egyptian President Morsi or the remarks of United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon.

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Iran, Syria, and the Non-Aligned Summit: 5 Questions and Answers

Ban Ki-moon Said Iran should have an important role in the solution of Syria crisis. What is your opinion? Can Syria be settled down without Iran’s involvement? Why？

Ban Ki-Moon's attitude is similar to that of Egyptian President Morsi, with the added condition that Iran must stop giving military assistance to the Assad regime.

There is no political resolution of Syrian crisis, with or without Iran, at this point. The regime is committed to defeating insurgents; insurgents are committed to fall of Assad.

Instead, the planning is over what form of aid should be given to insurgents, including a possible "buffer zone" in Syria, and over a transitional government.

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The Latest from Iran (30 August): The Big Names Arrive at the Non-Aligned Summit

Former Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, and Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi at the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement this morning

See also Iran Document: The Supreme Leader's Speech to the Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement
The Latest from Iran (29 August): Side-Stepping Syria at the Summit

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1630 GMT: Summit Watch. We have already noted that Iranian media have censored Egyptian President Morsi's remarks on Syria (see 1520 GMT). Now it appears that outlets are re-writing the speech....

Khabar Online claims that Morsi issued a warning of "sedition" against the Syrian people and said all should hope that the "popular" regime remains in power.

There is also scepticism over the headline of Fars that Morsi, soon after his provocative statement at the Non-Aligned Movement's summit criticising "bloodshed" in Syria and supporting the opposition to the "oppressive" regime, "Egypt Thinks of Iran as a Strategic Partner".

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Iran Document: The Supreme Leader's Speech to the Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement

The UN Security Council has an illogical, unjust and completely undemocratic structure and mechanism. This is a flagrant form of dictatorship, which is antiquated and obsolete and whose expiry date has passed. It is through abusing this improper mechanism that America and its accomplices have managed to disguise their bullying as noble concepts and impose it on the world. They protect the interests of the West in the name of “human rights”. They interfere militarily in other countries in the name of “democracy”. They target defenseless people in villages and cities with their bombs and weapons in the name of “combating terrorism”. From their perspective, humanity is divided into first-, second- and third-class citizens. Human life is considered cheap in Asia, Africa and Latin America, and expensive in America and Western Europe. The security of America and Europe is considered important, while the security of the rest of humanity is considered unimportant. Torture and assassination are permissible and completely ignored if they are carried out by America, the Zionists and their puppets. It does not trouble their conscience that they have secret prisons in various places on different continents, in which defenseless prisoners who have no legal representation and have not been tried in a court of law are treated in the most hideous and detestable way. Good and evil are defined in a completely one-sided and selective way. They impose their interests on the nations of the world in the name of “international law”. They impose their domineering and illegal demands in the name of “international community”. Using their exclusive and organized media network, they disguise their lies as the truth, their falsehood as true, and their oppression as efforts to promote justice. In contrast, they brand as lies every true statement that exposes their deceit and label every legitimate demand as roguish.

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The Latest from Iran (28 August): The Propaganda Display at the Summit

The car in which an Iranian nuclear scientist was killed is displayed atop a platform at the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting Conference Center (Photo: Barbara Slavin)

See also The Latest from Iran (27 August): Meanwhile, Away from the Non-Aligned Summit....

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2035 GMT: Sedition Watch. Yadollah Javani, the head of the Political Bureau of the Revolutionary Guards, has declared that former President Mohammad Khatami was the head of the 2009 "sedition" and pronounced that the system will not allow him 2 run for office again.

1900 GMT: Tough Talk of the Day. General Massoud Jazayeri, the deputy head of armed forces, has said the Islamic Republic will hit back at the blocking of Iran's assets by the US:

If it takes 50 years, we will take back the frozen assets in the US even if by force.

The blocking of the assets of the Islamic Republic of Iran is economic terrorism and financial theft in which, unfortunately, the US is adroit like in other forms of terrorism and physical elimination of human beings.

They should be sure that we will seize back our assets from the Great Satan. It will not take long before the tables are turned to Iran's interests and the evil regime of the US will have to give many times more than Iran's frozen assets back [to the Islamic Republic] and the American people should take note of this issue.

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The Latest from Iran (27 August): Meanwhile, Away from the Non-Aligned Summit....

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi addressed the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement on Sunday

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1941 GMT: Foreign Affairs Watch (Saudi Front). There had been signs this month of an Iranian-Saudi accommodation, with President Ahmadinejad going to Riyadh for the extraordinary meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and a Saudi delegation coming to Tehran for the Non-Aligned Movement's summit.

This, however, does not appear to be part of the rapprochement --- former Minister of Culture Mohammad-Hossein Saffar-Harandi has reportedly said the Saudi king drinks wine, hates Shiites, and propagates filthy Wahhabism.

1915 GMT: Economy Watch. Fakhrollah Molaei, Deputy Minister of Industry, has stated that the Iranian economy is suffering a serious lack of liquidity, with 68% of Iran's production units lacking the required capital to operate effectively. A weak domestic market, disagreements between trading partners, and shortages of raw resources or machinery were secondary problems identified by Molaei as being significant.

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