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

A Nobel winner who went wrong on rights

In accepting his Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo on Thursday, President Obama talked about the quiet dignity of human rights reformers such as Burma’s Aung San Suu Kyi

Iranian president pledges support to Hamas leader

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has reiterated his support for Hamas during a visit by Khaled Mashaal the Palestinian militant group’s Syrian-based leader, according to Iran’s official news agency.
“The government and the people of Iran will always stand by the Palestinian resistance and the Palestinian people,” Ahmadinejad said during the meeting. “Today Palestine is symbol of the global front of freedom-seekers and militants.”

Rafsanjani accused Iran’s rulers of being intolerant

Former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani accused Iran’s rulers on Sunday of being intolerant, saying they have closed the door on constructive criticism.
Rafsanjani, one of the main figures in Iran’s opposition movement, also called on protesters opposing the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to express their views “within the framework of law.”
“The situation in the country is such that constructive criticism is not accepted,” Rafsanjani told a gathering of students in the northern city of Mashhad, according to ILNA news agency.

Iran blocks Internet & Mousavi threw support behind student protests

On the eve of student demonstrations planned for today, Iran choked off Internet access and warned journalists working for foreign news media to stick to their offices for the next three days.
Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi threw his support behind the student demonstrations and declared on his website that his movement is alive. “A great nation would not stay silent when some confiscate its vote,” said Mousavi, who claims President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stole victory from him by fraud in the presidential election June 12. Source: AP

End infighting, supporters of Iran’s system urge their leaders

With authorities threatening a harsh response to new anti-government demonstrations planned for Monday, prominent supporters of Iran’s system of religious rule are urging leaders to soften their approach to protesters and end high-level infighting that they say is paralyzing the country.
“When you attack moderates, you breed radicals,” said Amir Mohebbian, a former politician who shares Ahmadinejad’s ideology but is critical of his policies. “Our leaders should say to the core of the protesters: ‘We are not against you.’ Otherwise, our system might be in danger.” Source: Washington Post