My following essay is published in Sydney Ideas Quarterly magazine: John Mearsheimer, a leading US scholar on international relations, has strong views on political issues from the Middle East to Iraq but until now, the establishment has been slow to listen. He spoke to Antony Loewenstein During this year’s Iranian uprising, which followed the disputed…
Showing all posts tagged Iran
Ahmadinejad will remain on notice
Iran’s political situation is currently in turmoil. This, though, could be a welcome development: The Iranian opposition leader Mir Hussein Moussavi announced the formation of a new social and political movement on his Web site on Saturday, following through on a promise made last month and defying a renewed government campaign of intimidation aimed at…
Bombing Iran will bring freedom and liberty
Oh joy: Israel can delay Iran’s nuclear program significantly with a military strike — with or without U.S. approval — an Israeli security official said.
Ahmadinejad the Jew
An intriguing new report by Global Voices writer Hamid Tehrani on the myriad ways in which anti-Jewish sentiment is alive and well in the Islamic Republic: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a Holocaust denier who, for many, is the living symbol of anti-Semitism, has recently become the target of an anti-Semitic attack. Mehdi Khazali, the son of…
Israel close to bombing Iran?
A story to be placed in the “what the hell?” file: Israel last month asked the United State for permission to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, Kuwaiti newspaper al-Jarida reported on Friday. The paper quoted a “US diplomatic source located in Jerusalem”, but the report’s credibility was not confirmed. According to the sources, after the opposition…
The basis of Iran’s sham trials
A welcome admission by the Islamic Republic: A top judiciary official acknowledged Saturday that some detainees arrested after post-election protests had been tortured in Iranian prisons, the first such acknowledgment by a senior Iranian official. If only we weren’t so unsurprised.
We condemn Iran’s legal sham
The following statement was released by The Middle East Research and Information Project on 7 August: The Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP) denounces in the strongest terms the “trial” of 100 Iranian politicians, activists, journalists, scholars, students and ordinary citizens on bogus charges of subversion. The court proceedings commenced on August 1 and…
Keeping friendly pressure against Iran
The current show-trials in Iran against reformists are a farce. But they signify a clear split in the Islamic Republic’s hierarchy. The Financial Times has a good summary: The televised “confessions” of Sayyed Mohammad Ali Abtahi, vice-president under Mr Khatami, and Mohammad Atrianfar, a newspaper editor close to former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, purporting…
Who said Israel wasn’t full of contradictions?
Yossi Sarid in Haaretz: I recently read in the papers about an officer who was promoted to deputy battalion commander in his reserve unit, an exemplary man by all accounts, yet whose subordinates complained: No way will a homosexual be in charge of us, it does not befit men’s men like us. I also recently…
An Islamic Republic that nobody recognises
In my book The Blogging Revolution I explained my time with Iran’s former Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi, a popular blogger. He is currently on trial in Tehran as a supposed ring-leader of the post-election chaos. It is a sham, a show trial. His “confession” – “I say to all my friends and all friends…