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Iran: The Green Movement
/ 256 Pages

Iran’s parliamentary elections on Friday are shaping up as a contest by proxy between President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who seeks public endorsement of his efforts to wield broad authority, and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has struggled to keep his populist president in check.

Iran is crushing dissent leading up to its March 2 parliamentary elections and has launched a “cyber army” to block Internet and social media communication, according to Amnesty International .

No opposition Green Movement candidate will participate. A number of sources tell RFE/RL’s Radio Farda that Iran’s Basij paramilitary units are behind an unorthodox get-out-the-vote campaign ahead of Iran’s March 2 national elections.

Hamas has distanced itself from the Iranian government increasingly siding against Al Assads regime.

Iran’s parliamentary elections scheduled for March 2, 2012, will be grossly unfair because of arbitrary disqualifications and other restrictions,Human Rights Watch said today.

An Islamic bank in the United Arab Emirates said on Wednesday that it “took pre-emptive action” to end business relationships with some Iranian banks.

Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Fereidoon Abbasi rejected on Wednesday the claims that Iran carries out nuclear activities at the country ‘s Parchin military site.

The international dispute with Iran over its nuclear program is entering a new phase, with Iran both calling cooperation and also refusing to allow U.N. inspectors into a key facility.

The leader of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard told supporters that Iran has the upper hand over the US and that the US would suffer the heaviest damage if it dares to launch an attack on the regime.

As differences and dissatisfaction among members of Iran’s armed services have been growing, particularly after such events as the disputed tenth presidential elections in 2009, new international sanctions and serious military threats, the head of Iran’s military justice organization expressed his concerns on this and issued a warning. -Bahram Rafiei, Rooz Online.

Sanctions-hit Iran has announced it will take payment from trading partners in gold instead of dollars. The sanctions have made it harder for Iran to be paid for its main export, oil, and to purchase imports.

(Reuters) – The U.N. nuclear watchdog believes unspecified “activities” may be taking place at an Iranian military site which make its request to visit the Parchin facility.

(Reuters) – Iranian firm AHT exports millions of dollars worth of nuts and dried fruit from Iran each month but Western financial sanctions mean it gets little money in return. Instead it is relying on barters.

Iranian technicians work at the satellite data receiving site of the Alborz station, in Mahdasht 40 miles (70 kilometers) west of the capital Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, Feb. 29, 2012.

Sitting in his fabrics shop in Tehrans main Bazaar, Ali Mohebi was more worried about earning a living than by Irans parliamentary elections on Friday.

Mohammad Hossein Dajmar, the managing director of the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines has dismissed as baseless claims by the US and Europe against his company, reiterating IRISL’s activities fully comply with international rules and regulations, Fars news has reported.

Iran’s government is goading citizens to vote and warned them not to protest the results of parliamentary elections on Friday.

The Iranian regime continued its persistent campaign against press freedom days ahead of its parliamentary elections on March 2 by sentencing two journalists to prison and periodically blocking millions of users from accessing the Internet, according to news reports.

Iranian nation will demonstrate its firm will to fight enemies by massive participation in the upcoming parliamentary elections, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said, IRNA reported.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says that cooperation by the exiled Iranian opposition Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) during the closure of its Iraqi base at Camp Ashraf will be “a key factor in any decision” on whether to change the organization’s terrorist designation.

Irans leaders urge people to vote in farce elections 2/28

U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said Wednesday that Syria has not approved her repeated requests to visit the country. Syria has not set a time to allow the UN’s top humanitarian official Valerie Amos into the country thus far, but has not refused her entry either, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said.

Amateur footage from Syria is purported to show tanks heading in the direction of Homs. The Syrian regime showed a new determination Wednesday to crush its opponents, vowing to “cleanse” a rebel-held district in the besieged central city of Homs.

Heavy fighting raged in the Syrian city of Homs today as elite government troops attacked the rebel-held bastion for a 25th day.

With India having switched its stance on Syria to being more critical of the Bashar al-Assad regime, New Delhi is ready to lend its considerable diplomatic clout to support the Arab League reported India Times. Meanwhile China’s foreign ministry calls on world powers to send aid to Syria as the violence and bloodshed showed no sign of easing.

Saudi Arabia’s Board of Grievances (BOG) upheld on Tuesday the recommendation of the Ministry of Information to impose a jail sentence on a Saudi businessman trading in pirated goods said Arab News.

Syria condemns Qatari and Saudi Arabian calls for arming terrorist groups fighting against the government of President Bashar al-Assad as a hostile bid aimed at fueling unrest in the country.Syrian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Jihad Maqdisi said on Wednesday.

The Obama administration on Wednesday offered an Iranian opposition group a path to get off of a U.S. terrorism blacklist, a move that would end years of high-profile campaigning from the Mujahadin-e-Khalq and infuriate Iran.

Forbes announced the richest 100 Turks on Tuesday. According to the list by Forbes, Husnu Ozyegin, chairman of executive board of Fiba Holding, became the richest person of Turkey with his asset of 3 billion U.S. dollars.

A senior commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) underlined that Iran has the upper-hand and the initiative in the Persian Gulf, and warned the US that it will sustain the heaviest damage.

Saudi Arabia said yesterday it would honor a pledge of $3.75 billion in aid to Egypt after complaints by the Egyptian premier that donor countries were failing to respect their commitments.

Egypt on Wednesday lifted a travel ban on seven Americans employed by pro-democracy U.S. groups, signaling an end to the worst crisis in relations between Egypt and the U.S. in 30 years.

Egypt has set May 23-24 for the first presidential election since Hosni Mubarak’s ouster last year, an official said Wednesday, and the nation’s new president is to be named June 21.

The US government has forced Dubai-based Noor Islamic Bank to stop channelling billions of dollars from Iranian oil sales through its accounts.

Azerbaijan’s ambassador was summoned to Iran’s foreign ministry on Tuesday to explain the weapons and to receive a warning that Israel must not be permitted to use Azerbaijan to stage acts against Iran.

Riyadh appears to be ramping up production as sanctions by the European Union and the US disrupt Iran’s crude exports reporteds FT.

A previously unknown jihadist group has claimed responsibility for suicide bombings in the Syrian capital and the second city Aleppo that killed dozens earlier this year, in a video seen by AFP Wednesday. The group calls itself Al-Nusra Front to Protect the Levant.

Kuwaiti MPs overwhelmingly approved a resolution on Wednesday calling on the government to recognize the opposition Syrian National Council as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people.

Kuwaiti MPs recognize Syrian opposition, Saudis ramp up crude production 2/28

A Shiite extremist group handed over a simple wooden casket containing the remains of the last U.S. soldier missing in Iraq, a prominent Iraqi lawmaker said Monday, drawing a close to a case that has anguished the American’s family since his 2006 disappearance.

Egypt’s ruling military council pushed ahead Sunday with plans to begin drafting a new constitution before transferring power to civilian rule, announcing that parliament will meet this week to select the panel tasked with writing the document.

European ministers stepped up sanctions against Syria and warned of more to come as they implored president Bashar al-Assad to stop killing his own people.

Iran has put off the execution of Christian Pastor Yousof Nadarkhani — probably in response to massive international pressure — but it is not clear for how long.

A Tunisian presidential spokesman has reiterated Tunisia’s opposition to “any form of military intervention as advocated by the Arab League” in the Syrian crisis, the state-run TAP press agency reported on Monday.

About 200 pro-Syrian demonstrators tried to storm the hotel where a conference is being held by Arab and Western officials over the crisis in Syria. The protest forced U.S. Secretary of States Hillary Rodham Clinton to be diverted to her
hotel.

Al-Qaeda is claiming responsibility for a suicide-bombing Saturday in the southern Yemeni port city of Mukalla, which left at least 26 people dead and at least 20 others wounded. The bombing came just hours after a speech by Yemen’s new President Abd-Rabbu.

The European Union has tightened its belt and prepared to cut its consumption of Iranian oil, with sanctions affecting others as well.

(UPI) – Ruling military authorities in Egypt announced a committee planned for this week would vet members of a council tasked with drafting a new constitution.

The Arab Spring has inspired Russians to stand up to Vladimir Putin and sweeping political change is possible if voters reject him at the ballot box in next weekend’s presidential elections, says jailed opponent Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

Arab Spring inspires Russian opposition 2/26

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad escaped an assassination attempt Wednesday when a blast hit one of the vehicles of his cavalcade, a media report said. Iran’s Press TV, however, denied the report

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast rejected on Saturday reports saying that Iran has sent weapons to Syria, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported. The Islamic republic of Iran rejects any military intervention in Syria.

Oil prices surged on Friday as the UN’s nuclear watchdog said Iran had significantly increased its production of higher-grade uranium over the past six months and had failed to dispel concerns that it was pursuing atomic weapons.

The UN nuclear watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said Iran must address “serious concerns” about “possible military dimensions” to its nuclear program after significantly escalating its ability to enrich uranium.

A group of Canadian activists hopes to put pressure on the Iranian government to commute the death sentence of a Canadian resident, who is being held in Iran’s notorious Evin prison, by staging a protest in Ottawa on Sunday.

Under pressure from the United States and the European Union, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), based in Belgium, is expected to ban Iran’s forty banks and institutions from using SWIFT to process its financial.

Iranian officials at UN headquarters in Bangkok denied any involvement in the February 14 bombings in Bangkok.

The world’s biggest electronic banking system is ready to block Iran’s central bank from using its network to transfer funds, a U.S. congressional aide said on Friday after a briefing from the Belgium-based group earlier.

Dariush Jalali, a student at Iran’s Yasuj University who had sewn his lips together to protest the pressure he had been facing over his activism, has reportedly been arrested. -Golnaz Esfandiari, RFE

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps’ center dealing with organized crimes issued a statement on Saturday releasing details about the BBC’s ill-intentioned activities inside Iran.

The threat of a possible layoff hangs over the heads of 1,300 workers at Tabriz match factories due to rising energy costs and an increase in the smuggling of substandard matches.

The United States is condemning reports that an Iranian court has upheld the death sentence for an Iranian Christian pastor convicted of apostasy, or abandoning the Muslim faith.

The Pentagon has notified U.S. lawmakers of plans to boost U.S. strength in the Persian Gulf in response to Iranian threats to close the Straits of Hormuz.

Ahmadinejad escapes assassination attack 2/25 and other Iran news

Saudi Arabia has said that arming the Syrian rebels is “an excellent idea,” following remarks by US President Barack Obama vowing to use every tool available against Damascus.”I think it’s an excellent idea.

Tunisian police wielding batons beat back several dozen protesters trying to enter the venue of an international meeting on the Syria crisis on Friday, an AFP reporter said.

Hamas’s Gaza premier Ismail Haniya hailed on Friday the “heroic” Syrian struggle for democracy during a rally at Cairo’s Al-Azhar mosque, in a departure from the Islamists’ refusal to criticise Damascus.

Tunis conference considers supplying military equipment while strengthening international recognition of the Syrian National Council.

Western and other countries are turning a blind eye to weapons purchases by Syrian exiles who are already smuggling light arms, communications equipment and night vision goggles to rebels inside Syria, a Syrian opposition source said on Friday as Russia called for an urgent ceasefire in the Syrian.

Twelve people were killed on Friday in the bloodiest day yet in protests that have raged across Afghanistan over the desecration of copies of the Muslim holy book at a NATO military base with riot police and soldiers on high alert braced for more violence.

The Syrian government kept up its onslaught on Homs and other towns, with at least 100 killed according to human rights campaigners, as the country prepared to hold a referendum on Sunday on a new constitution.

Syria is all set to hold a referendum on a new constitution on Sunday, even as the raging violence in the central city of Homs enters its fourth week.

A senior U.S. official says the Obama administration is in “intense discussions” with Egypt to resolve the legal case against 16 American democracy advocates that has badly damaged ties between the countries.

(AFP) – NATO on Saturday pulled all its staff out of Afghan government ministries after two United States military advisors were shot dead in the interior ministry, as anti-US protests raged for a fifth day.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged Saturday that Washington would help Tunisia rebuild its economy and cement democracy, as the cradle of the Arab Spring struggles with reforms.

Hillary Clinton met Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki as she continued a tour that will also take her to Algeria and Morocco following a global meeting on Syria in Tunis that ratcheted up pressure on the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

Mali’s main Tuareg rebellion denied accusations of links with al-Qaeda’s North African branch in an interview published by an Algeria paper Friday. “Comparing us to AQIM (Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb) is preposterous,” Mossa Ag Atter, a spokesman for the Azawad Nation.

Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi vowed to press the fight against Al Qaida in Yemen as he took the oath today as the first new President here since 1978 after a year of turmoil and bloodshed.

Yemens new President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi took the constitutional oath before the Parliament on Saturday in presence of members of unity government and chiefs of diplomatic missions in Yemen.

As crude oil prices reached a nine-month high on concerns about Iran’s nuclear program, Saudi Arabia has increased its crude exports, and the U.S. is pondering releasing oil from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve, according to media reports Saturday. Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, has increased production in the past week and offered additional output to its largest client states.

Syria lashed out at Saudi Arabia on Saturday, a day after the kingdom’s foreign minister backed the idea of arming the rebels fighting President Bashar Assad’s regime, accusing Riyadh of becoming “a partner” in the bloodshed in Syria.

The Speaker of the Shoura Council, Dr. Abdullah Bin Mohammed Aal Al-Sheikh, chaired here Saturday the meeting between parliament speakers of G20 states.During the first session, titled “The Global Dialogue of Followers of Religions, Civilizations”.

A first meeting of the Friends of Syria group has highlighted divisions inside the coalition and among Syrian opposition leaders. Officials and ministers from over 60 African, Arab, Asian nations.

Tourism chiefs in Bahrain said the F1 was ‘the best news ever’ for the industry and were anticipating a $250 million (BD94.5 million) windfall from this year’s Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix. Thousands of people are expected to benefit from the three-day event.

Bahrains main opposition formation Al-Wefaq said on Saturday that a woman had died from tear gas inhalation, noting that “violations” by the authorities have increased over the past several months.

Arab-Israelis back Assad: Hundreds of Israeli Arabs and Golan Heights Druze took part Saturday in a conference of solidarity with the Syrian government held in a Haifa theater. Participants in the event claimed that the state of affairs expressed support for Al Assad.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt warned that military intervention in Syria would sow anarchy in that country and neighboring Lebanon. In remarks published Saturday in the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram.

Iran’s defense minister warned that an Israeli attack on the Islamic Republic will lead to the collapse of the Jewish state, state television reported Saturday, in one of the strongest statements from Iran.

Mustafa Abdel Jalil, the head of the Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC), told Al Arabiya TV that there are infiltrators in his close circle who are receiving orders from Saadi Qaddafi from Tunisia. Abdel Jalil said that the Libyan intelligence has “phone calls” as proof.

Syria lashed out at Saudi Arabia on Saturday, a day after the kingdom’s foreign minister backed the idea of arming the rebels fighting President Bashar Assad’s regime, accusing Riyadh of becoming “a partner” in the bloodshed in Syria.

Anti-US Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr attacked Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki as a “dictator” hungry for acclaim, a statement and officials from his movement said on Saturday.

Dozens of Iraqis in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square rallied on Saturday to demand reforms, on the first anniversary of demonstrations in which 16 people were killed in clashes with security forces.

Pakistan’s army engineers on Saturday began demolishing the former home of Osama bin Laden, after authorities decided to end prospects of the location “becoming a monument” to the world’s most hunted terrorist.

A few thousand people gathered Sunday in Morocco/ cities to mark the one year anniversary of the North African kingdom’s local version of the Arab Spring uprisings. Moroccan activist and rapper Mouad Belghouat.

Saudis call for arming Syrian rebels, small protest in Morocco and Osamas house demolished 2/25

Hackers calling themselves the ‘Iranian Cyber Army’ have attacked the website of mainly Muslim neighbour Azerbaijan’s state television station, the communications ministry said on Thursday.

(Reuters) – Turkey is ready to host an international meeting on Syria to follow up one being held in Tunis on Friday to raise pressure on Damascus to end a violent crackdown, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Thursday.

Turkey has that most scarce, yet highly sought-after, attribute among European economies: growth. With this rising tide, is now the time for investors to be contemplating Turkey’s growing Internet economy? Certainly the statistics look good.

Yemen’s outgoing president has left the U.S. after more than three weeks of medical treatment. U.S. officials say Ali Abdullah Saleh departed Boston late Wednesday for Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Yemen’s new transitional government is facing an emboldened al-Qaida presence, and the United States and others have pledged to help fight them.

Yemen’s single-candidate election turned into an unexpected expression of choice as the country’s voters widened their options beyond a vote for Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi to include a creative assortment of write-in ballots or to opt out altogether.

A prominent Egyptian Islamist and presidential hopeful is in hospital after a carjacking attack overnight on a highway to Cairo.

‘LA Times’ reports highly classified US intelligence assessment indicates that Iran is conducting research that could eventually enable it to develop a nuclear weapon, but that it has not sought to do so.

A fruitless visit to Iran by United Nations (UN) nuclear inspectors heightened tensions as Russia warned of ‘catastrophic’ consequences if it leads to a military attack on its Middle East ally.

President refutes ‘Haaretz’ story saying he would tell Obama he doesn’t “believe Israel should attack Iran” in near future.

Algeria’s elderly first president Ahmed Ben Bella left the hospital in good health Thursday after undergoing medical tests, his daughter said after some reports that the former independence fighter had died.

The outlook for the underequipped members of the Syrian opposition appeared to have grown less bleak Thursday on the eve of a Friends of Syria meeting in Tunis, the cradle of the Arab Spring movement.

The latest events that swept through some Arab nations known, as “ The Arab spring” were at the center of the discussions during the fifth session of the supreme Council of the Arab Woman Organization held here in Algiers.

Somalia should be enjoying an Arab Spring of its own but its Al-Shabab insurgents are fomenting jihad both in and out of the country.

A Lebanese man with links to Hezbollah is being charged by the U.S. military of helping kill American troops in Iraq, the New York Times reported Thursday.

After months of reassuring secularist critics, Islamist politicians in Tunisia and Egypt have begun to lay down markers about how Muslim their states should be — and first signs show they want more religion than previously admitted. Reported by Arab News.

Police in a Tunisian town used tear gas on Thursday to break up a crowd of about 200 hardline Islamists, armed with sticks, swords and petrol bombs, who set fire to a police station, witnesses told Reuters. “The security forces are chasing about 200 Salafists armed with swords and sticks.

(UPI) – The Muslim Brotherhood’s political wing in Egypt isn’t endorsing a presidential candidate until after the registration period closes in April, an official said.

The Somali Islamist group Al-Shabab has said that they have taken over areas seized by the government forces in Bay Region, southwestern Somalia, reported the privately-owned Radio Shabeelle on 23 February.

(UPI) – A Western-Arab meeting will pressure Syria’s Assad regime to let humanitarian aid into hardest-hit areas, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.

The head of the main opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) sought on Friday to reassure Syrian Kurds they would have a place in a post-Bashar al-Assad country, promising decentralised government.

Western and other countries are turning a blind eye to weapons purchases by Syrian exiles who are already smuggling light arms, communications equipment and night vision goggles to rebels inside Syria, a Syrian opposition source said Friday.

The U.S. and allies from the “Friends of Syria,” meeting today in Tunisia, will ratchet up pressure on President Bashar al-Assad by announcing plans to deploy United Nations peacekeepers after his ouster.

The main opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) outlined on Friday its vision for a post-Bashar al-Assad Syria, proposing an interim presidential council of national leaders and a truth and reconciliation committee.

SNC outlines post Assad Syria and other news 2/22 & 23

Iran said on Tuesday that a team of United Nations nuclear officials visiting the country for the second time in three weeks would not inspect nuclear sites.

Two Iranian warships that docked in a Syrian port on Monday were reported on Tuesday to have left, with their cargo and mission still unclear.

Russia, China and Iran showed support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday, days before an international meeting likely to pile more pressure on him to step down.

Russia on Tuesday said it will not attend an international conference in Tunis this week aimed at seeking political change in Syria because the meeting only supported the opposition’s cause for regime change.

Rebel-held areas of the central Syrian city of Homs are coming under intense bombardment from the Syrian army reported BBC.

The Arab League chief said on Monday there were signs that China and Russia could be shifting their stance on Syria after the two permanent members of the U.N. Security Council vetoed a Western-backed Arab peace plan aimed at ending violence there as the European Union said it will likely adopt.

The head of Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court says that nominations for presidential candidates will open March 10 and last four weeks.

The royal palace says Jordan’s King Abdullah II has called on lawmakers to speed up reform legislation designed to increase the public’s role in the government process.

Iraq will quickly approve the nomination of a non-resident Saudi ambassador, meaning the kingdom will have an ambassador to Iraq for the first time since 1990, the Iraqi premier’s spokesman said Tuesday.

Yemenis are voting to rubber-stamp their U.S.-backed vice president as the new head of state tasked with steering the country out of a crisis that followed the year-old anti-government uprising.

Residents of the battle-scarred town of Misrata voted on Monday to elect their local council, in Libya’s first poll in more than 40 years and held four months after the killing of Gaddafi.

Iraq’s Sunni vice president on Monday asked for popular support to fight government charges that he commandeered death squads and said he would continue to defy arrest with the help of the nation’s powerful Kurds.

(ANI) – Access to the Internet in Iran was disrupted once again on Monday, sparking worries that the country is stepping up censorship ahead of up-coming national elections.

(AP) – Russia’s top search engine Yandex said Tuesday it has teamed up with Twitter to allow the Russian firm to show the full feed of all public Twitter posts.

China on Tuesday refused to commit to attend an international conference in Tunis this week after Russia said it would boycott the meeting aimed at seeking political change in Syria.

(Reuters) – Iran would take pre-emptive action against its enemies if it felt its national interests were endangered, the deputy head of the Islamic Republic’s armed forces was quoted by a semi-official news agency as saying on Tuesday.

(Reuters) – The third-largest party in Tunisia’s constituent assembly, charged with writing a new constitution, proposed on Monday a draft document based on Islamic law which will likely alarm the country’s secularists.

The Arab League (AL) envoy to Russia, Giuma al-Ferjani, has rejected plans for foreign military intervention in Syria, saying that neither opposition groups in Damascus nor international powers support the idea.

Russia says the United Nations should send a special envoy to Syria to help coordinate security issues and the delivery of humanitarian assistance.

Yemen & Libya vote, Russia wont attend Syrian opposition in Tunis. 2/20

British Foreign Secretary William Hague has warned that an Israeli attack on Iran over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear activities would have “enormous downsides.”

(AP) – U.N. nuclear inspectors arrived in Iran on Monday in the latest push to hold key talks with Iranian officials about how far the country’s controversial nuclear program has come.

Quicker than a succession of slow-acting economic sanctions, expelling Iran from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (Swift) banking hub could put a sudden choke hold on its oil-dependent economy. The move was made under strong support of US and Europe.

US National Security Advisor Tom Donilon will travel to Israel for talks with senior Israeli officials on a range of issues, including Iran and Syria, the White House announced.

Iran is being warned that it faces a new ‘cold war’ over its nuclear ambitions. Foreign Secretary William Hague warned that Iran’s recent revelation that it can home-produce enriched uranium, along with fears that the country is developing weapons.

Pointing to the tripartite summit of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan, which wrapped up in the Pakistani he added that all three countries had a nearly uniform view about regional concerns.

Supporters of Saeed Malekpour, a Canadian on death row in Iran, are calling for international assistance to save him from imminent death.

Egypt said Sunday it would not send its ambassador to Syria back to Damascus amid continuing battles between rebels and government forces.

(Reuters) – Iran ordered a halt to its oil sales to Britain and France on Sunday in a move seen as retaliation against tightening EU sanctions, as a team of U.N. inspectors flew to Tehran.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard says it has begun a two-day land military exercise to upgrade its capabilities to defend the country against possible external threats.

China courageously defied the West when it opposed a U.N. resolution that condemns human rights violations in Syria, a ruling party newspaper said.

Somalia’s al-Qaeda-partnered Islamist insurgents vowed to launch a “series of suicide bombings” to coincide with David Cameron’s London conference on the war-torn country this week.

UN inspectors in Iran, Egypt rejects Al Assad 2/18

The U.S. and Britain leaned on Israel to hold off on attacking Iran as the White House’s national security adviser arrived in Jerusalem amid growing international fears of a new war.

Gunmen in Syria staged a guerrilla-style ambush that killed a senior state prosecutor and a judge Sunday in an attack that suggested armed factions are growing bolder and more coordinated in their uprising against President Bashar Assad’s regime.

Iran has halted oil shipments to Britain and France, the Oil Ministry said Sunday, in an apparent pre-emptive blow against the European Union after the bloc imposed sanctions on Iran’s crucial fuel exports.

Iran may be preparing to expand its nuclear program at an underground plant near the city of Qom, a diplomat has told the BBC, just days ahead of a visit by United Nations nuclear inspectors.

Lawyer of former Tunisian President Zein al-Abedine Ben Ali, Akram Azouri, said the charges against his client are baseless and stressed that the verdict issued against him will be appealed.

Sudan’s Islamist opposition leader Hassan al-Turabi, who is seeking a “popular revolution” in the country, on Sunday accused government intelligence agents of bugging his offices via Alarabiya.net.

Western countries are stirring up a civil war in Syria with their wholehearted support for the opposition, a top Chinese newspaper said on Monday, slamming calls for the country’s leader to hand over power as an incitement to further violence.

Hundreds of demonstrators Sunday marked the first anniversary of a reform movement, born of last year’s Arab Spring, amid calls for more democracy in the Moroccan kingdom. In Casablanca, the country’s second largest city, some 2,000 people gathered.

A suicide bomber killed at least 19 police officers and cadets when a car detonated outside a police academy in Baghdad on Sunday, leaving a further 26 wounded.

Yemen’s sole presidential candidate who will be voted in this week is committed to “destroying” Al-Qaeda, U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor John Brennan said on Sunday in Sanaa.

(Reuters) – After a year of protests, diplomatic wrangling and an assassination attempt, Yemenis will draw a line under Ali Abdullah Saleh’s three-decade rule on Tuesday by voting in an uncontested election to install his deputy as president.

Iran may be preparing to expand its nuclear program at an underground plant near the city of Qom, a diplomat has told the BBC, just days ahead of a visit by United Nations nuclear inspectors.

Security forces shot dead a mourner at a huge funeral on Saturday for demonstrators killed in rare protests in the Syrian capital, as a senior Chinese envoy issued a plea for the bloodshed to end.

Two Iranian naval ships have docked at the Syrian port of Tartous, Iran’s state-run Press TV reported on Monday, in a development likely to raise concern in the West.

A leading Chinese newspaper accused Western countries on Monday of stirring civil war in Syria.

Algerian security forces have found a large cache of weapons, including shoulder-fired missiles, which they believe were smuggled in from neighboring Libya.

(Reuters) – Iran is becoming more active in Yemen and could pose a deeper threat to its stability and security, the U.S. envoy to Yemen said on Monday.

The 11-month uprising against Mr Assad has claimed thousands of lives One of Syria’s leading businessmen says its economy is being crippled by foreign sanctions and that the government is slowly disintegrating.

Syrian activists have called for a “Day of Defiance” after security services fired on mourners in Damascus, killing at least one person, during a funeral that turned into a mass demonstration against President Bashar al-Assad.

At least two police officers have been wounded in the Somali capital Mogadishu after a car bomb exploded next to a police department building, in an attack claimed by the radical al-Shabab group.

Zhai Jun, China’s vice foreign minister, has called on all sides in Syria to stop the violence and for elections to go aheadpeacefully after talks with President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, Syria’s state media has said.

Iranian warships dock in Syria, Algeria halts Libyan weapons cache 2/19

Thai police is seeking a fifth suspect and New Delhi is scrutinizing the telephone calls made to the Middle East around the time of the attacks.

At least 26 civilians were killed in Syria on Friday as tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets to demand President Bashar al-Assad’s ouster, a watchdog said.”The toll of martyrs from Popular Resistance Friday has reached 26 civilians,”

In an article he wrote before his death on Thursday, Mr. Shadid examined how a party shaped by repression hopes to act as a regional model after being voted into power in Tunisia as reported by NYTimes.com

(UPI) – Egyptian political activists said they have formed a “revolutionary council” focused on achieving and realizing the 2011 revolution’s goals and aspirations.

An international human-rights organization said Saudi Arabia has reversed its decision to allow women to participate in the London 2012 Olympics.

Iran’s nuclear ambitions could plunge the world into “a new Cold War” with the Middle East, Foreign Secretary William Hague has warned. He predicted a nuclear arms race among rival Middle Eastern states that would carry the dangers without the safety.

SWIFT to ban Iran after pressure from United States on Belgium-based international financial transactions firm to block Iranian banks from network; SWIFT waiting for “clarity” on EU legislation.

Two Iranian warships sailed from the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean the first such trip in at least three decades, eliciting Israeli charges that Tehran is seeking to dominate the Middle East.

Israel has reached a $1 billion preliminary deal to buy 30 Italian military training jets, Israeli defense said.

Syrian troops intensively shelled rebel-held neighborhoods in the restive central city of Homs Friday and killed at least five people, activists said.

An international banking clearinghouse crucial to Iran’s oil sales said Friday that it is preparing to discontinue services to Iranian financial institutions, an unprecedented and potentially devastating blow to Tehran as the West ramps up a campaign to stop its nuclear program.

An American antiwar activist and another Westerner who were leading a women’s protest were detained by the police in the capital, Manama, on Friday.

After winning elections, members of Tunisia’s Ennahda Party have a chance to apply their belief that faith and democracy are compatible, a concept shaped by decades of struggle, theoretical debates and exile.

The Obama administration is trying to shrink market for Iranian oil to deprive Tehran of funds for its nuclear program.

Saudi Arabia mosques called for an end to the bloodbath in Syria, where innocent people are being killed mercilessly.

A senior Israeli official accused Iran’s shadowy Quds Force on Friday of masterminding a string of attacks on Israeli diplomats abroad this week, fleshing out allegations denied by Tehran.

Turkey’s Parliament voted late to stop prosecutors questioning spies without the prime minister’s permission, after a row which analysts said revealed divisions inside the state on ending the war with Kurdish militants.

Upheaval in Egypt hit Jordan’s trade deficit last year, helping it widen by 21 percent to 7.3 billion dinars ($10.3 billion) by cutting off cheap gas supplies, official data showed.

Iran’s top oil buyers in Europe are making substantial cuts in supply months in advance of European Union sanctions, reducing flows to the continent in March by more than a third — or more than 300,000 barrels daily, industry sources said.

European Union lawmakers approved a new trade deal with Morocco that will significantly extend duty-free sales of agricultural, food and fisheries products between the North African kingdom and the 27-nation bloc.

A sharp rise in trading turnover shows money is pouring back into Middle Eastern stock markets, after a year in which the global financial crisis and political turmoil in the Arab world kept most markets depressed.

After years of attacking the West, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood is now courting Western businesses to help revive the country’s sick economy.

Bahrain announced the deportation of four foreign activists for “taking part in illegal demonstrations,” bringing to 12 the number expelled over the past week.

US National Security Advisor Tom Donilon will travel to Israel on Saturday for talks with senior Israeli officials on a range of issues, including Iran and Syria, the White House announced.

Brotherhood courts the West, SWIFT hits Iran 2/17

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Friday said all problems in the region were the result of foreign interference, following a two-day summit with his Afghan and Pakistani counterparts.

(UPI) – Libyan oil and natural gas exports through the Greenstream pipeline should return to normal during the second half of the year, Italian energy company Eni said. Much of Libya’s energy sector shut down last year when NATO forces imposed a no-fly zone to respond to Moammar Gaddafis crackdown on an uprising against his regime.

The government of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez is emerging as a rare supplier of diesel to Syria, potentially undermining Western sanctions and helping the Syrian government fuel its military in the middle of a bloody crackdown on civilian protests

Police in Thailand are hunting for another Iranian suspected in a failed bomb plot targeting Israeli diplomats in Bangkok.

When German reporter Marcus Hellwig was thrown into an Iranian prison on spying allegations, it struck him as odd that the chair in the interrogation cell had no backrest.

Three Iranians detained for allegedly plotting bomb attacks in Bangkok on Israeli diplomats previously cavorted with prostitutes at a beach resort, Thai police said Friday.

Faiza Aboul Naga, a holdover from the regime of Hosni Mubarak, is emerging as the driving force behind Egypt’s efforts to clamp down on U.S.-funded pro-democracy groups. The female cabinet minister says U.S. aid has been used to shape post-revolution Egyptian politics, stoking widespread xenophobia.

(Reuters) – Hosni Mubarak’s last prime minister said he was running for Egypt’s presidency because he had the experience to keep good ties with the generals and ensure a smooth handover to civilian rule.

(AP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paid a historic visit to Cyprus on Thursday, aiming to strengthen what he declared to be a “natural relationship” between the two countries in a volatile and quickly changing region.

General Assembly votes 137 to 12 for non-binding resolution calling on Bashar Assad to step down; Russia and China oppose Arab League-backed resolution.

Jordan’s Crown Prince Hassan has urged talks with the Syrian opposition – but he told the BBC they could only take place after a halt in the violence.

Formula One boss not interested in cancelling Bahrain GP despite trouble on first anniversary of uprising.

A prosecutor’s investigation of Turkey’s top spy has exposed a deep rift between police and the intelligence agency which could scupper efforts to end a Kurdish separatist insurgency and damage the government’s democratization efforts.

Residents in Homs were “waiting to die of hunger or bombardment,” as government forces carried out their heaviest pounding of the central protest city in the past 14 days, an activist reached by telephone told Al Arabiya on Friday.

New York Times correspondent Anthony Shadid, who won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of Iraq and was detained in Libya for almost a week last year, died on Thursday in eastern Syria while on a reporting assignment.

Libya began celebrating on Friday the first anniversary of the uprising against, with fireworks and slogans, even as its new leader vowed to act firmly against further instability.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki moon has called on all parties in Bahrain to exercise maximum restraint and urged the authorities to act in accordance with their international human rights obligations.

Syrian security forces today arrested blogger Razan Ghazzawi, an icon of the 11-month uprising in Syria, along with rights activist Mazen Darwish and 12 others.

Syrian government forces began shelling the southern city of Daraa, the city where the first protests broke out.

Hundreds of Somalis fled their homes Thursday fearing clashes after African Union troops attacked holdout Islamist al-Shabaab militia positions on the outskirts of the war-wracked capital Mogadishu.

Iran on Thursday expressed hopes of reviving moribund talks with world powers, a day after the Islamic republic unveiled what it described as major progress in its controversial nuclear program

The United Nations on Friday urged Iran to convince the international community that its nuclear ambitions are peaceful after the nation offered to resume talks on the issue.

Amnesty International reports armed militias threaten the security of Libya with at least 12 detainees tortured to death since September Rebels armed with anti-aircraft guns at their base near Beni Walid.

Opposition activists reported dozens more people were killed in Syria on Thursday as the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly condemned the Syrian government’s “systematic violations of human rights” and backed a plan calling for President Bashar Assad to relinquish power.

An angry Afghan President Hamid Karzai confronted the Pakistani leadership Thursday, demanding that it produce Taliban officials for peace talks and underscoring the distrust between Kabul and Islamabad, which stands in the way of a deal to end the decade-long Afghan conflict.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Friday said all problems in the region were the result of foreign interference, following a two-day summit with his Afghan and Pakistani counterparts.

General Assembly calls for Al Assad to step down and other news 2/16

There is an antipathy towards the US that transcends the merely political and has in fact “become visceral”, said a Pakistani daily.

(Reuters) – U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Iraq on Wednesday to speed up the transfer of Iranian dissidents at a camp near Baghdad to a temporary facility which the dissident group has compared to a prison.

There have been clashes on the outskirts of Bahrain’s capital, Manama, as the opposition marks the first anniversary of pro-democracy protests.

Britain has continued to sell arms to Bahrain despite continuing political unrest in the Gulf state, new official figures disclose.

There’s ‘no credible or specific’ evidence of an Iranian terror plot targeting the U.S., but officials are closely tracking the threat, the country’s top homeland security official said Wednesday.

Thai police say that two Iranian suspects arrested in Bangkok were likely planning to attack individuals but did not have the capacity to target large crowds or buildings.

(Reuters) – Thai investigators are examining a possible link in a bizarre series of explosions in Bangkok and botched attacks targeting Israeli embassy staff in India and Georgia, a senior security official said on Wednesday.

BEIJING—Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and other senior leaders defended Beijing’s handling of the crisis in Syria amid growing international criticism that threatens to cast a shadow over a visit to the U.S. by Vice President Xi Jinping.

Iran halted crude exports to France and the Netherlands and threatened to stop shipments to four other European countries, state-run Mehr news agency reported, citing an unidentified official at the National Iranian Oil Co.

The U.N. General Assembly scheduled a Thursday vote on an Arab-sponsored resolution strongly condemning human rights violations by the Syrian regime and backing an Arab League plan aimed at ending the 11-month conflict.

The United Nations has called on Manama to respect its human rights obligations and end the continuous crackdown against protests and activists.

The General Assembly denounces the Syrian government’s “systematic violations of human rights.” Opposition activists report the deaths of dozens more people.

The US has expressed its concern over the presence of terrorist leaders, including LeT founder Hafeez Saeed who have been slapped sanctions by the United Nations, at a public rally in Pakistan early this week

A senior al Qaeda leader in Yemen was killed in a family feud Thursday, and an ensuing gunbattle between his followers and opponents left 16 other militants dead, a security official and tribal elders said.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said his group was not involved in bomb attacks on Israeli diplomats in Thailand, India and Georgia this month.

Antipathy towards US in Pakistan, Hezbollah denies involvement in bombing 2/15