Struggle Against Dire Conditions for Iran Workers

Human Rights Watch - Thursday 23rd May, 2013

On April 29, just ahead of International Workers' Day, Iranian authorities summoned Behnam Ebrahimzadeh to discuss the terms of his temporary release from Tehran's notorious Evin prison. Ebrahimzadeh, a labor activist and blogger who is almost three years into a five-year prison sentence, was given leave from the prison after many pleas to care for his ailing son, who suffers from a ...

Irans Rafsanjani blasts clerics says report

San Diego Union-Tribune - Thursday 23rd May, 2013

In this picture taken on Saturday, May 11, 2013, former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani waves to media as he registers his candidacy for the upcoming presidential election, while his daughter Fatemeh, right, looks on, at the election headquarters of the interior ministry in Tehran, Iran. A hardline news website says Iran's election overseers have rejected a pair of powerful and ...

Glencore Iran deals don’t violate sanctions

IPO - Thursday 23rd May, 2013

United Nations - Swiss-based commodities giant Glencore Xstrata said on Thursday that it had done nothing wrong when it engaged in metal swaps with Iran, rejecting a suggestion by UN experts that such bartering could have been a way of evading sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear ...

Banned Rafsanjani Blasts Irans Leadership

RadioFreeEurope - Thursday 23rd May, 2013

Ex-President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (center, with white turban) arrived at Iran's Interior Ministry within minutes of the official close of registration for would-be candidates on May ...

Iran Refutes Statements of Bahrain Government

Prensa Latina - Thursday 23rd May, 2013

Tehran, May 23 (Prensa Latina) An Iranian official spokesman today refuted allegations by a Bahrain official claiming that a Persian drone violated the airspace of the kingdom of the Arabian peninsula. The Foreign Ministry of Iran advised the Bahraini government to respect the legitimate rights of its people instead of raising baseless arguments, stated the spokesman, according to IRNA. The ...

Iran denies its drone violated Bahrains airspace

The Star - Thursday 23rd May, 2013

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran denied on Thursday that one of its drones had violated the airspace of Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet, Iranian media reported. Bahrain's Information Minister Samira Rajab told Reuters on Thursday that an unmanned spy drone was found in the Gulf waters between Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. The incident could further inflame tensions between the two ...

Bahrain finds Iranian drone

The National - Thursday 23rd May, 2013

Bahrain said it has found an Iranian drone in the kingdom's north near Saudi Arabia and called for increased cooperation between regional security services to face "threats" from Tehran. The unmanned aircraft "was found in the sea in north Bahrain, mainly between Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, two weeks ago", government spokeswoman Samira Rajab said on Wednesday. "It ...

IAEA confirms Iran expanding uranium enrichment program

The Telegraph - Thursday 23rd May, 2013

The UN atomic agency has described "rapid" progress by Iran in developing its uranium enrichment facilities, just weeks after a report suggested the Stuxnet worm that first hit the country in 2009 had increased the country's nuclear ...

Iran - In Iran news coverage stifled amid election controversy

IFEX - Thursday 23rd May, 2013

Internet access has slowed, critical websites have been blocked, and several journalists have been summoned back to prison in Iran as the country's Guardian Council made a key decision today barring two leading candidates from the presidential election. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the broad efforts to deny Iranian citizens information in the run-up to the June ...

Iranian politics Who is pulling the strings

General Sources - Thursday 23rd May, 2013

Iran's powerful Guardian Council has disqualified Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, two of the biggest names in Iranian politics, from running in next month's presidential elections. It appears that the way is now seemingly clear for a candidate backed by the top clerics, as the race to succeed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reaches its final stages. The Guardian ...

Whats A Disqualified Iranian Candidate To Do

Radio Free Europe - Thursday 23rd May, 2013

When Iran’s powerful election watchdog, the Guardians Council, announced its official list of presidential candidates this week, it omitted two prominent hopefuls from the June 14 presidential race. The disqualification of former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, President Mahmud Ahmadinejad’s preferred successor, has sparked outcry from ...

U.S. Congress Moves Toward Full Trade Embargo on Iran

IPS - Thursday 23rd May, 2013

- The U.S. Congress moved closer here Wednesday to imposing a full trade embargo against Iran and pledged its support to Israel if it felt compelled to attack Tehran's nuclear programme in ...

The Challenges For Irans Next President

Forbes - Thursday 23rd May, 2013

Iran's Guardian Council, the powerful vetting and oversight committee of the Islamic republic, announced Tuesday its list of eight approved candidates for the June 14 Iranian presidential election. A total of 686 presidential hopefuls had submitted their names for approval, though in recent days dozens of politicians and clerics had withdrawn their candidacies in support of better-known ...

Rafsanjani critical of incompetent and ignorant leadership in Iran

albawaba - Thursday 23rd May, 2013

Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani registering as a candidate for the 2013 Iranian presidential elections(AFP) Former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has accused the current leadership of incompetence and ignorance, days after ...

Two of Irans Presidential Candidates Are Wanted for Murder

General Sources - Thursday 23rd May, 2013

Bulgarian Bus Bomber Had a Fake Michigan Driver's License Argentine officials have long blamed Iranian leaders for orchestrating the attack and directing Hezbollah militants for carrying it out, but Tehran has denied any involvement. (Iran has also been accused of bombing the Jewish embassy in Buenos Aires two years earlier.) Rezai was the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guard at the ...

Rafsanjani hits at Irans rulers

Independent.ie - Thursday 23rd May, 2013

Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has strongly criticised the policies of the country's ruling clerical establishment, days after a constitutional watchdog banned him from running in the June 14 ...

Iran keen to speed up nuclear programme

Arabian Business - Thursday 23rd May, 2013

Iran is trying to accelerate its uranium enrichment programme, a UN nuclear report showed, but experts said it was unclear when Tehran's new machines could start operating and how efficiently they would ...

U.N. report stokes concern over Irans nuclear programme - EU

The Star - Thursday 23rd May, 2013

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Iran's expansion of sensitive nuclear activity breaks United Nations resolutions and increases concerns about whether its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful, the European Union said on Thursday. A U.N. nuclear agency report released on Wednesday showed Iran was expanding nuclear activities, in clear violation of resolutions of both the U.N. Security Council and of ...

Iran seeks to speed up nuclear activity IAEA

Reuters - Thursday 23rd May, 2013

VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran is trying to accelerate its uranium enrichment program, a U.N. nuclear report showed, but experts said it was unclear when Tehran's new machines could start operating and how efficiently they would ...

Protestant pastor arrested in Iran

Catholic Culture - Thursday 23rd May, 2013

Amid intensified persecution of Protestant churches in recent years, authorities in the Iranian capital of Tehran have arrested Rev. Robert Asserian, pastor of the Central Assemblies of God Church. "The pressure has become unbearable; they constantly threaten the church leaders and their families with imprisonment, unexplained accidents, kidnapping and even with execution," said a ...

Report Following his election ban Irans Rafsanjani blasts rulers

Canada.com - Thursday 23rd May, 2013

TEHRAN, Iran - An Iranian pro-reform website is reporting that former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has strongly criticized the policies of the country's ruling clerical establishment, days after a constitutional watchdog disqualified him from running in the June 14 elections. "I think it is not possible to run the country worse than this," Jaheshnews.ir quoted him as saying ...

Netanyahu says peace is top priority

Middle East Times - Thursday 23rd May, 2013

Obama administration to jump-start peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. Netanyahu said discussions would also focus on Iran and Syria but another concern is resuming peace ...