Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Ahmadinejad: poison spider



The Iran Countdown -Michael Crowley

White House officials are all but resigned to the futility of direct diplomacy with Iran.

Former State Department official Nicholas Burns predicts that "even if negotiations are held this autumn, they will fail." And if that happens, administration officials say, Obama will have little choice but to start to clench his own fist. That means turning the screws on Tehran.
(New York Magazine)


The West Struggles with Iran's Game -Roula Khalaf

What we may be witnessing is a fresh Iranian effort to buy time on the nuclear front while its leaders try to put their house in order.

For years Iran has cleverly played the nuclear game, failing to heed international demands but providing just enough hints of co-operation to persuade Russia and China to block crippling measures at the UN Security Council.
(Financial Times-UK)


Iran Puts More Senior Reformers on Trial -Reza Derakhshi & Fredrik Dahl

Iran put several leading reformers in the dock in its fourth mass trial of people accused of fomenting unrest after June's disputed presidential election.
(Reuters)


"Iraq Will Be a Colony of Iran" -David Ignatius

Gen. Mohammed Shahwani, the head of Iraqi intelligence since 2004, resigned this month because of what he viewed as Iraqi Prime Minister Nouria al-Maliki's attempts to undermine the U.S.-trained Iraqi National Intelligence Service (INIS) and allow Iranian spies to operate freely. Without the backstop of U.S. support, Iraqi authorities are now desperately vulnerable to pressure, especially from neighboring Iran.

A top Iraqi intelligence source, pressed about what his country would look like in five years without American help, answered bluntly: "Iraq will be a colony of Iran."
(Washington Post)
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