Shargh Daily, Farsi1 TV Raided; More Video, Details of Student Protests

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THE LEAD

Islamic Republic Shuts Down Another Newspaper

Radio Zamaneh | Dec 7

Islamic Republic security forces raided the reformist daily Shargh today and arrested its director, editor-in-chief and two editors.

Zamaneh has learned that at first only the three editors were arrested but later the officers returned to the office to arrest Shargh daily's director as well.

While the cause of the arrest has not been announced yet, Rejanews website, a state-backed site, reported that the arrests were linked to "security matters."

Shargh newspaper has been banned three times in the past seven years for reasons ranging from publishing items "against public morality" to offending religious sensibilities through its caricatures.

The last time Shargh resumed its journalistic activities was in December of 2009.

[Shargh published a special issue on 16 Azar that prompted the crackdown. It states that repression at present is far worse than in 1953, and compares then University of Tehran Chancellor Dr. Ali Akbar Siasi with the current officeholder, Farhad Daneshjoo (though he is not explicitly named). See the online version of Shargh's special 16 Azar edition (in Farsi).]

Iran Shuts News Corp Office, Arrests 5 -- Agency

Reuters | Dec 7

Iran has closed the Tehran office of a television channel partly owned by News Corp and arrested five employees for "helping the anti-revolutionary movement," the semi-official Mehr news agency said on Tuesday.

The satellite entertainment channel Farsi1 broadcasts soaps and sitcoms dubbed into Persian. It is operated by Dubai-based Broadcast Middle East, a 50-50 joint venture between News Corp and Afghanistan's MOBY Group.

Tehran Prosecutor General Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi said the Farsi1 office in central Tehran had dubbed television series into Farsi "with the aim of helping the anti-revolutionary movement," Mehr news agency said.

"This office was shut down and five people were arrested in this regard. There were advanced machines and equipment in this office and we wonder how this equipment was imported and installed there," he said.

Iranian Students Stage Protests

Wall Street Journal | Dec 7

Iranian students staged antigovernment protests nationwide Tuesday, turning an annual commemoration of student political activism into an opportunity to voice opposition to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the regime that backs him.

Videos posted online showed students marching across campus grounds with green banners -- the color of the opposition -- holding pictures of jailed students, and chanting "death to the dictator" and "free student prisoners."

Security forces responded with a heavy security deployment, and at least eight arrests, according to the student website Daneshjoo. Official media didn't cover the protests or report any arrests.

Riot police and security forces surrounded Tehran University, the epicenter of student activism, according to witnesses and online videos. Iranian law prohibits security forces from entering the campus, but students said as many as 400 plainclothes militia members had entered to intimidate students.

Security forces built scaffolding around the entire campus and covered it with tents, in an apparent attempt to cut off communication between student protestors inside and passersby outside, according to videos and witness accounts.

"The university is practically under siege, no one can get in and no one can get out safely. It shows the government is still very scared of us," said a student from Tehran University.

Scattered Protests on National Student Day in Iran

Radio Zamaneh | Dec 7

Daneshjoo news also reports that "over a thousand people" gathered in Qalam Square of the city of Qazvin despite widespread deployment of security forces all across the city.

According to the report, the police filmed the protesters but the protesters continued chanting slogans.

Jaras website reports that the Open University of Arak was shut down without prior notice to the students.

On the other hand, Kaleme website reports that an attempt to hold a pro-government rally in Esfahan University failed as the students turned down the rally call by the Student Basij.

State media on the other hand reported official ceremonies held for the occasion with the widespread participation of students.

Khatami's Message for the National Student Day

Payvand | Dec 7

In a message to the students' gathering at Tehran University that was held on December 6 on the eve of National Student Day and was called "Hope, the loudest of protests", Seyyed Mohammad Khatami told students: "We should be hopeful. We should try and not be afraid of paying the prices [for our goals] and of course the method that has always been advocated and our students and our reforms are committed to it, is following civic methods and avoiding and rejecting violence committed by anyone; whether by those at power or by those who may have objections and issues. Our path is the peaceful path of civic movement and abiding to the criteria and bases that our nation has had and has expressed in its great revolution." Khatami also referred to the suffocating atmosphere that the government has imposed on the people, especially the academia and students, and added that the oppression that has been imposed on professors and students is not acceptable for the universities of the Islamic Republic.

Karroubi to Students: Don't Lose Your Hope

Mehdi Karroubi in a meeting with a group of student activists and the families of imprisoned students for the anniversary of the National Student Day while strongly condemning the pressure and restrictions imposed on the academia, urged the students not to lose their hope as these days will pass and the victory is near. Karroubi stressed that victory or defeat is not limited to one level and various events took place during the time until the Islamic Revolution was achieved in 1978.

Students of Tehran University: Science Does Not Go with Dictatorship

The statement of the Islamic Association of Students of Tehran University and Medical Sciences [...] in part reads: "Seducers are those who step on the constitution. Seducers are those who obliterate justice. Seducers are those who destroy people's basic rights. Seducers are those who don't want the parliament to be on top of affairs. Seducers are those who have made telling lies their method of achieving their goals and have sacrificed ethics for gaining power. Seducers are those who consider attacking the residences of Grand Ayatollahs, such as Sanei, Bayat Zanjani, Dastgheib Shirazi, Taheri Esfahani, and Montazeri, acceptable despite all the traditional, religious and moral teachings."

OTHER NEWS

Iran Nuclear Talks End on a Vague Note

Guardian | Dec 7

Iran and six world powers today ended talks on Iran's nuclear programme agreeing to meet again in Istanbul next month, but nothing else was agreed, and the gulf between the two sides was as wide as ever.

Even the wording of the agreement to meet in Istanbul was disputed within two hours of the end of the Geneva meeting, underlining the fragility of the dialogue.

A senior US administration official said: "The expectations for this set of talks were low, and I can't say they were exceeded."

Catherine Ashton, the EU foreign policy chief, speaking on behalf of the six-country group, said the Istanbul talks next month would "discuss practical ideas and ways of co-operating towards the resolution of our full concerns about the nuclear issue".

Saeed Jalili, Iran's chief negotiator, however, said this had not been agreed, suggesting something much vaguer.

"The only official agreement that came out of talks was that we are going to meet in Istanbul for co-operation to find common ground," an irritated Jalili said. "I didn't say these words. Lady Ashton did. She turned to the other representatives at the meeting and they all agreed. Anything besides this should be considered disrespectful to the meeting."

He added: "In just the few minutes it took to get from the meeting to this hotel [where he talked to the press] it would be regrettable if the wording of the agreement had been changed."

Ahmadinejad: Lift Sanctions to Boost Iran Nuclear Talks

Christian Science Monitor | Dec 7

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday that lifting the array of UN, American, EU and other sanctions against Iran would boost future talks, though no P5+1 diplomat has even hinted that would be possible.

"If you come to the negotiations by canceling all the nasty things and wrong decisions that you have adopted...lift resolutions, sanctions and some restrictions that you have created...then the talks will definitely be fruitful," Mr. Ahmadinejad said in a speech in Arak, a city in central Iran.

Mr. Jalili made clear that Iran's uranium enrichment would "absolutely not" be up for discussion in Istanbul. Four UN Security Council (UNSC) resolutions have imposed sanctions and demanded that Iran stop the process - which is used to make reactor fuel, or if refined to much higher levels can be used in a weapon - until it proves its work is peaceful.

Instead, in a press conference after the meeting, Jalili stuck to longstanding talking points about the need to reshape global politics.

Jalili questioned the scale of other nuclear arsenals and said it was "disgraceful" that the listing of nuclear scientists for sanctions by the UNSC had, he claimed, led to the assassination of one scientist and the wounding of another in two Tehran bomb attacks last week. Beside Jalili at the podium was a portrait of Majid Shahriari, the dead scientist, with a strip of black cloth in the upper left corner.

"We didn't get anywhere on substance," one official of the P5+1 told the Associated Press. "It was an exchange of views."

North Korea and Iran Cooperated on Nuclear Weapon Development: Defector

Christian Science Monitor | Dec 7

A former Iranian diplomat who defected to the West this year said Tuesday he saw North Korean technicians repeatedly travel to Iran, which Western officials fear is trying to develop nuclear weapons.

Mohammad Reza Heydari, who resigned in January from his post as Iranian consul in Norway, said he's "certain" the cooperation is continuing between his home country and North Korea.

The comments at a Paris think tank conference come amid rising international concerns that North Korea, which has already staged atomic tests, is cooperating with Iran on its nuclear program.

Heydari said that from 2002 to 2007, when he headed the Iranian Foreign Ministry's office for airports, he saw many technicians from North Korea travel to Iran.

"I witnessed repeated roundtrips of North Korean specialists and technicians -- given that I was right there at the border -- who came to collaborate on the Iranian nuclear program," he said through a translator.

Heydari said their visits were handled "in a very discreet way, so they could come through unnoticed."

Heydari said he also had contacts then with officials from Iran's Revolutionary Guards, and "it was clearly said that Iran was concentrating on two objectives...the first was to build the range of surface-to-surface missiles, the second was to get a nuclear weapon with North Korea's help."

GCC Summit Wraps Up with Calls on Iran for Sovereignty Respect

Xinhua | Dec 7

Leaders of the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) on Tuesday wrapped up their two-day summit in the United Arab Emirates capital of Abu Dhabi with a call on Iran for respecting their sovereignty.

The GCC leaders called on Iran to "commit itself to the basic principles of promoting good neighborly ties, mutual respect, non-interference in the internal affairs, settlement of disputes through peaceful means and refrain form using or threatening to use force in this regard," the Abu Dhabi Declaration issued after the summit said.

The leaders also called on Iran to response to repeated calls by the international community to address its nuclear file peacefully.

Expressing great concern over the developments of the Iranian nuclear file, the GCC leaders reiterated their call of clearing the Middle East, including the Gulf region, from weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and nuclear arms.

However, they expressed support for right of countries in the region to use nuclear energy for peaceful means in line with the regulations of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The six leaders also reiterated support to UAE's claims to three disputed islands that have been under Iran's control since early 1970.

Unemployment in Iran to Be Eradicated in 2 Years

Tehran Times | Dec 8

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed here Tuesday that unemployment in the country will be eradicated in the next 2 years.

The Mehr News Agency quoted him as saying that the government will implement the first stage of the Subsides Reform Law by the end of the Iranian calendar year (March 2011).

He said that the administration presented a bill to the Majlis (parliament) in April calling for 20 percent of the oil income to be allocated to the National Development Fund in accordance with the Fifth Development Plan (2010-2015) for creating jobs for the youth of the country.

Ahmadinejad noted that $9 billion has been saved in this fund since in the start of the current Iranian calendar year (March 2010) and it will increase to $16 billion by the end of the year.

He explained that this sum will added to the investment budget of the country, adding that, the sum alone is enough to create 1 million jobs annually.

Iran's Divorce Rate Stirs Fears of Society in Crisis

New York Times | Dec 6

The wedding nearly 1,400 years ago of Imam Ali, Shiite Islam's most revered figure, and Fatemeh al-Zahra, the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad, is commemorated in Iran's packed political calendar as a day to celebrate family values.

In October 2008 in Tehran, an Iranian man was taken away for not paying a mehrieh, a payment made in the event of a divorce.

But in a sign of the Iranian authorities' increasing concern about Iran's shifting social landscape, Marriage Day, as it is usually known in Iran, this year was renamed No Divorce Day. Iran's justice minister decreed that no divorce permits would be issued.

Whether the switch was effective or not, the officials' concerns are understandable. Divorce is skyrocketing in Iran. Over a decade, the number each year has roughly tripled to a little more than 150,000 in 2010 from around 50,000 in 2000, according to official figures. Nationwide, there is one divorce for every seven marriages; in Tehran, the ratio is 1 divorce for every 3.76 marriages, the government has reported.

While the change in divorce rates is remarkable, even more surprising is the major force behind it: the increasing willingness of Iranian women to manipulate the Iranian legal system to escape unwanted marriages.

The numbers are still modest compared with the United States, which typically records about a million divorces a year in a population about four times as large. But for Iran, with a conservative Islamic culture that strongly discourages divorce, the trend is striking, and shows few signs of slowing. In the last Iranian calendar year, ending in March, divorces were up 16 percent from the year before, compared with a 1 percent increase in marriages.

OPINION & ANALYSIS

The Limits of Iran's Power in Iraq

Joel Wing (Musings on Iraq) | Dec 7

Included in the recent Wikileaks release of thousands of United States diplomatic cables was one by the former American Ambassador to Iraq Christopher Hill. Hill's report was entitled "Iran's Efforts In Iraqi Electoral Politics," and was dated November 13, 2009. In it, he claimed that Iran's main concern at that time was ensuring continued Shiite rule in Iraq after the 2010 elections. They were especially concerned about Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's nationalist tendencies, which would lesson sectarian politics and divide the Shiite vote. Hill's memo pointed out the leading role that Iran plays within Iraq, but the events surrounding the recent vote there shows the limits of its influence as well.

In order to achieve its goals, Tehran was using its ties to Iraq's political leaders and cash. Ambassador Hill wrote that Iran's point man on Iraq, Iranian Revolutionary Guards Qods Force commander General Qassim Suleimani had relationships with Iraq's Shiite, Kurdish, and even some Sunni parties. Individually, he had contacts with Prime Minister Maliki, President Jalal Talabani of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, Vice President Adel Abdul Mahdi of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, former Premier Ibrahim al-Jaafari of the Reform List, and ex-speaker of parliament Iyad Samarraie of the Iraqi Accordance Front. Hill also claimed that Iran was providing $100-$200 million a year to its political allies. The Supreme Council and its militia the Badr Brigade seemed to be the largest recipient with $70 million annually. There were other reports that Moqtada al-Sadr's party was getting $8 million per month to campaign in the 2010 election.

Iran undoubtedly played a leading role in Iraq's recent elections, but they did not always get what they wanted. Before the balloting Tehran was able to get the Supreme Council, Sadrists, and other smaller Shiite parties to create the Iraqi National Alliance. At the same time, they did not convince Maliki to join as he went with his nationalist State of Law just as Iran had feared. With this split in the Shiite vote, Iyad Allawi's Iraqi National Movement was able to win the most seats. That helped convince Maliki to rejoin with his Shiite brethren in the new Iraqi National Coalition in May with a healthy nudge from Iran. However both Sadr and the Supreme Council objected to Maliki returning as premier, which made the new group a coalition in name only. The Supreme Council even nominated Vice President Mahdi in September as their candidate for prime minister. Then suddenly the Sadrists reversed course in October and backed Maliki. The general consensus was that this was done at the behest of Iran, and that they had ultimately come out victorious amongst the regional powers and the United States who were all attempting to influence the outcome of the 2010 elections. However, the fact that it took nearly seven months for Sadr to change his mind, points to internal factors within the Sadr Trend playing a large role, not just Iran's influence. The Supreme Council still hasn't come out in favor of Maliki even though it is the biggest recipient of Tehran's largesse.

Leaks Suggest Iran Is Now Winning in the Middle East

Juan Cole (TruthDig) | Dec 7

Iran is winning and Israel is losing. That is the startling conclusion we reach if we consider how things have changed in the Middle East in the two years since most of the WikiLeaks State Department cables about Iran's regional difficulties were written. Lebanon's Sunni prime minister, once a virulent critic, quietly made his pilgrimage to the Iranian capital last week. Israeli hopes of separating Syria from Iran have been dashed. Turkey, once a strong ally of Israel, is now seeking better relations with Iran and with Lebanon's Shiites.

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri's visit to Iran was in part an attempt to reach out to a major foreign patron of his country's Shiite Hezbollah Party. Hariri's father, Rafiq, was mysteriously blown to kingdom come in 2005, and a United Nations tribunal is now rumored to be leaning toward implicating Hezbollah. Many Lebanese are terrified that the tribunal's findings might set Kalashnikovs clattering again in Beirut, given that the Hariris are Sunni Muslims linked to Saudi Arabia, and their followers could attack Lebanese Shiites in reprisal. Lebanon, a small country of 4 million, is more than a third Shiite, but Christians and Sunni Muslims have formed the political elite for two centuries.

Hariri's consultations with the ayatollahs in Tehran were an attempt to seek Iranian help in keeping Hezbollah militiamen in check (many Lebanese Shiites look to Iran as their external patron, just as many Sunnis look to Saudi Arabia and Christians to France and the U.S.). The talks also aimed at reconfirming Iranian pledges of economic aid to Beirut. In return, according to one anonymous Iranian source who spoke to Agence France-Presse, Hariri would throw his support behind Iran's "development of nuclear capabilities for civilian and peaceful purposes."

If true, it is a 180 degree turn. According to The New York Times, an August 2006 cable reports that Saad Hariri had said that "Iraq was unnecessary" but "Iran is necessary," and that the U.S. "must be willing to go all the way if need be" to halt Iran's nuclear enrichment program, should negotiations prove fruitless.

In Talks with Iran, Chance for Reconciliation?

Jason Rezaian (Global Post) | Dec 7

When the six-party talks with Iran began Monday, observers were looking to see if either side was actually serious this time around.

Many believe that both Iran and the United States are simply buying time. Iran is attempting to advance its nuclear program, while the United States is seeking definitive proof of a weapons program. With its announcement that it can now produce yellow cake uranium, Iran appears to be raising the stakes, while the United States hopes that its war of attrition -- sanctions -- will ultimately destabilize the Iranian regime.

It is quite possible that both sides are correct in their calculations. But without taking a much closer look at the domestic climate in Iran, important opportunities to cooperate on Iraq and Afghanistan in the short-term, and long-term trade development may be missed.

Iran is now mired in a series of internal crises -- political, environmental and economic in nature -- that make it difficult for its leaders to look beyond its own borders. Improved relations with the rest of the world would help alleviate some of that strain, even if it only came in the form of removing sanctions.

Dennis Ross, a top adviser on Iran for U.S. President Barack Obama, said the possibility of better relations is real.

"Iran has a chance now to benefit tremendously when it comes to technology, to science, to economics, financial areas, politically, in all these ways Iran can benefit," Ross said. "And I hope it takes the chance to do so, because if not, it will be squeezed further."