 RFE/RL Iran Report 7/1/2010 5:17:22 PM A review of RFE/RL reporting and analysis about Iran. For more stories on Iran, please visit and bookmark our Iran page . |
 A Batcave Of Censorship-Breaking Technology With 120 bloggers and citizen journalists locked up around the world, the media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has decided to fight back by opening an "anticensorship shelter." More  The 'Mystery' Behind Iran's Economic Numbers A prominent Iranian economist based in Paris says Iran's economic growth rate is a veritable "mystery." More  'Basij Thugs' Harass Iran Opposition Leader Karrubi At Memorial Service Iranian opposition leader and reformist cleric Mehdi Karrubi has again been harassed by a group of apparent hard-liners who verbally assailed him at the Sharif University mosque on June 29. Karrubi was reportedly shouted down upon entering the mosque to attend a mourning ceremony for the father of former reformist official Mohammad Reza Aref. More  Obama, Saudi King Agree On Iran U.S. President Barack Obama and Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah have voiced "strong support" for international efforts to curb Iran's nuclear program, which the West says masks a secret drive to develop an atomic bomb-making capability. More  Missing Iranian Scientist And A Fourth Mysterious Video Just as we posted an item about his third video -- in which he says he might get killed for refusing to betray his country -- a fourth video emerged on YouTube in which a man identifying himself as Amiri says he will soon return home. More  Missing Iranian Scientist Appears In Another Mysterious Video A new video has surfaced in which a man who identifies himself as Shahram Amiri, an Iranian nuclear scientist who went missing about a year ago during a trip to Saudi Arabia, says he is being held in the United States against his will. More Some 50 houses owned by members of Iran's Baha'i religious minority have been demolished in a village northeast of Tehran, according to an eyewitness report to Radio Farda. More  Armenia Seeks Chinese Funding For Rail Link To Iran An Armenian government minister says Yerevan is seeking as much as $1 billion in loans from China to finance a railway link to neighboring Iran, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reports. More  Rafsanjani Criticizes Iranian Politics Former Iranian President Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, a top Iranian cleric who has supported the opposition, has severely criticized the country's political situation. More  UN Chief Urges Renewed Nuclear Talks UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said that he favors a negotiated settlement on the Iran nuclear nonproliferation issue even after the UN Security Council voted earlier this month for a fresh round of sanctions on Iran. More  France's Total Halts Iran Shipments French oil company Total today said that it has halted oil shipments to Iran, just days after the U.S. passed new sanctions on Tehran. More  Iran's Intelligence Ministry Urges Moving Away From Russia Iran's Intelligence Ministry has called for a "decrease" in ties with Russia, according to Hossein Ebrahimi, a parliament deputy and a member of the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee. More  Iran 'Fines' West By Delaying Nuke Talks Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad says his country will continue to hold talks with the West over its suspect nuclear program but will delay them until August in retaliation for a recent round of UN sanctions. More This video of a press conference by Iran's Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki is several weeks old, but it's becoming very popular among Iranians. More  Iran To Boost Gasoline Production Iranian Deputy Oil Minister Ali-Reza Zeighami says emergency plans will help boost the country's gasoline output sharply by early 2012. More  Battle Over Azad University Deepens Iran's Divisions Iran's largest private university has become a battleground in a power struggle between factions of the Islamic establishment. More  Watchdog Blasts Iranian 'Blogfather' Trial The trial of Hossein Derakhshan, known as the "Blogfather" for helping to popularize blogging in Iran, began on June 23. More  Iran's Musavi Tiptoes Across The Rubicon -- Maybe Supporters of Iran opposition leader Mir Hossein Musavi greeted his latest statement -- labeled as a "charter" for the Green Movement -- as a radical departure from his previous caution. Finally, they believe, Musavi has broken with his loyalty to the Islamic republic and declared his desire for a secular state and a changed constitution. But has he? Other observers insist that, far from being radical, the statement is hedged and heavily qualified - and that Musavi's aims remains fundamentally distinct from those of many of his followers in the Green Movement. More Wife Of Missing Scientist Calls For International Help To Bring Him Home Iran’s state television has aired a report that includes an interview with a woman who is introduced as the wife of an Iranian nuclear scientist who Iran says has been kidnapped by the United States. More  Kurdish Affairs Expert Offers Regional Perspective On Growing Violence In Turkey With violence linked to Kurdish militants increasing in Turkey in recent weeks, the likelihood appears to be growing for a cross-border ground assault into northern Iraq by Turkish military forces. RFE/RL correspondent Ron Synovitz spoke with Michael Gunter -- an authority on Kurdish affairs in Turkey, northern Iraq, Syria, and Iran -- for a regional perspective on what is happening. Gunter, a political science professor at Tennessee Tech University and the International University in Vienna, has written nine books about the Kurdish people of the region -- including some of the first analyses in English of Kurdish unrest in the Middle East. More  Iran Warns On U.S. Role In Karabakh An Iranian diplomat says Tehran is strongly opposed to U.S. involvement in a multinational peacekeeping force that would be deployed around the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh in the event of an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace accord. More An Iranian doctoral student at Oxford who campaigned in Iran last year for opposition leader Mir Hussein Musavi is being held in solitary confinement by Iranian authorities, according to his wife. More  Trial Of Iran’s 'Blogfather’ Begins, 20 Months After His Arrest Iran’s hard-line Fars news agency reports that the trial of controversial blogger Hossein Derakhshan, known as Iran’s “Blogfather" for helping to popularize blogging in the Islamic republic, began in Tehran on June 23. More |
