Ahmadinejad calls Russian president: Mouthpiece of Iran’s enemies

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, has denounced Dimitry Medvedev, his Russian counterpart, as a “mouthpiece” of Iran’s enemies, highlighting rising tensions between the two countries.

Ahmadinejad made the comments after Russia joined the US and the EU in accusing Iran of having a hidden agenda for its controversial nuclear program. (more…)

Iran opposition calls for holding a free election

The political party of Iranian opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi called on Sunday for the holding of a free election and permission to stage demonstrations, its website said.
The Etemad Melli party also insisted the reformist cleric, who charges that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election in June last year was the result of fraud, had the evidence to back up his accusations.
“Hold a free election or allow a free gathering by providing security to supporters of Karroubi or (Mir Hossein) Mousavi which will show how people can wake you up” to realities, Sahamnews.org website said, referring to the two main opposition leaders.
“It is necessary for you to know that Mr. Karroubi is standing firm and tall and has evidence for all his comments,” it added in an address to the country’s regime. AFP

Iran’s president slams Saudi role in Yemen

Iran’s president lashed out at Saudi Arabia on Wednesday over its role in Yemen’s conflict with Shi’ite rebels, saying Riyadh should try to foster peace rather than use weapons against fellow Muslims.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s comments were the strongest criticism yet by predominantly Shi’ite Muslim Iran of mainly Sunni Saudi Arabia over its involvement in the Yemen conflict.
Saudi Arabia has been fighting Yemen rebels since the insurgents carried out a cross-border raid last November.
“We were expecting that Saudi Arabian officials act like a mentor and make peace between brothers, not that they themselves enter the war and use bombs … and machine guns against Muslims,” Ahmadinejad said in a televised speech.
According to observers Iran has been arming and funding the Houthi Shiite rebels in Yemen. Reuters

Ahmadinejad wants to create with Syria a new world order

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the visiting Syrian speaker of Parliament Mahmoud al-Abrash that the two countries would join forces to redefine geopolitics in the region.
“Iran and Syria have a joint mission to create a new world order on the basis of justice, humanity and belief in God,” he said.
Earlier today Abrash met Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (R) meets Syria’s Parliamentary Speaker Mahmoud al-Abrash (L) in Tehran January 7, 2010. Source: REUTERS

Montazeri’s son calls on Iranian president to resign

Iran’s rulers must compromise with opposition figures to avoid a worsening of the political turmoil, the son of the late dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri said in comments released on Saturday.
In an interview with Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine, Said Montazeri said he hoped Iran’s rulers would come to their senses and called on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to resign.
“Things can’t go on for long like this,” Montazeri was quoted as saying in an interview conducted by mobile phone from his home in Qom. It was unclear when the interview took place.
“I think the future structure of our society is not so important. It could be an Islamic Republic, a secular republic, or as far as I am concerned, even a monarchy. The main thing is that people can live in freedom and in prosperity,” he said. Anti-government protests have flared repeatedly since a disputed presidential election last June, throwing Iran into its most serious internal crisis in the Islamic Republic’s 30-year history. Reuters

Iran dismisses year-end deadline over Nuclear fuel

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday dismissed the West’s year-end deadline for Iran to accept an enrichment fuel deal aimed at calming international fears about its nuclear program.
“Who are they to set us a deadline?” Ahmadinejad said in a televised speech in the southern city of Shiraz.
“We set them a deadline that if they do not correct their attitude and behavior and literature we will demand from them the Iranian nation’s historic rights,” the president told the crowd, without elaborating.
Earlier the White House issued a statement in which it said that Iran should take the deadline very seriously or face more sanctions

US warns Iran to take seriously the deadline over nuclear fuel

The White House is warning Iran’s leader to take seriously a year-end deadline over its nuclear program, responding sternly to defiant language by the Iranian president.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday dismissed a looming deadline from the Obama administration and its allies for Tehran to accept a U.N.-drafted deal to swap enriched uranium for nuclear fuel. President Barack Obama wants Iran to respond to an offer of dialogue and show it will allay fears of weapons development.
Otherwise, Washington and its allies are warning of new, tougher sanctions on Iran.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Ahmadinejad may not recognize the deadline but “it is a very real deadline for the international community.” AP

US Senator McCain on Iran: Time is running out!

During an interview on Iran with George Stephanopoulos anchor of ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. told him that time is running out and that the Obama administration needs to stand up for the Iranian people on the streets who are opposed to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government.
“We’ve been through nearly a year delay while the Iranians have steadily progressed, and we have announced deadline after deadline that we would act,” Sen. McCain told ABC. “But if we stand up for the Iranian people who are chanting in the streets, ‘Obama Obama are you with us or are you with him,’ if we stand up for their human rights and stand up for their rights to freedom, I think you’ll see continued big divisions within the Iranian ruling click and I think over time that they will be overthrown by the Iranian people.”
Stephanopoulos asked Sen. McCain if the military option is inevitable.
“I don’t know,” Sen. McCain said. “Time is running out. We’ve wasted just about a year but I really believe that sanctions have to be tried before we explore the last option, and the worst option is a military action.

Iran mourns the death of Ayatollah Hoseyn Ali Montazeri

Crowds of mourners are gathering in the Iranian city of Qom following the death of leading reformist cleric Grand Ayatollah Hoseyn Ali Montazeri at 87.
Some pro-reform websites say thousands of people are traveling to the city ahead of Monday’s funeral.
Other unverified reports say opposition supporters are also gathering in some squares in Tehran, fueling government concern of increased political tension.
Iran faced serious unrest after its disputed presidential election in June.
Grand Ayatollah Montazeri, one of Shia Islam’s most respected figures and once tapped to become Iran’s undisputed number one was a leading critic of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who said last August that the turmoil following the election “could lead to the fall of the regime”. Source: BBC

Iran blames US for Climate Change in Copenhagen

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad lashed the United States on Thursday at the UN climate talks in Copenhagen as an oil-addicted warmonger and insisted every nation have access to “clean and renewable energy sources”, including nuclear.

“All countries must gain access to new technologies to diversify their energy sources and be able to use clean and renewable energy such as wind, solar, sea tide, geothermal and nuclear energies,” Ahmadinejad said.

He added that oil has constituted the basic and strategic components of US security foreign policy, adding that oil-rich regions of the world became the theatres of wars and military adventurism that led to foreign domination on their energy resources.

The US, he said, gobbled up a quarter of the world’s oil and energy supplies yet had only five percent of the world’s population.

The attack was centerpiece of an argument, whereby Ahmadinejad declared that climate change was caused by capitalism and the rush to exploit cheap and plentiful fossil fuels.

Among solutions, he said “all countries” should be able to gain access to nuclear power to help ease the greenhouse-gas emissions that stoke global warming.

Source: Now Lebanon