According to Amnesty International, human rights violations in Iran are the worst in 20 years, the Jerusalem Post reports.
Amnesty’s report describes patterns of abuse before, during and after the June election and includes various testimonies and case studies. The report also urges Iranian leadership to allow two key UN human rights experts to visit Iran and help the investigation.
“The Iranian leadership must ensure that the many allegations of torture, including rape, unlawful killings and other …

Dozens of Iranian Government agents on motorbikes have surrounded the Tehran office of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi and the country’s chief prosecutor is threatening to arrest him, The Times reports.
The moves come just one day after tens of thousands of students across the country staged the latest in a long series of demonstrations against the Government the so-called “Green” movement regards as illegitimate.
Mousavi is the former Prime Minister who was defeated by President Mahmoud …

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced today that Iran will start enriching uranium to a level of 20 per cent, defying a UN call to halt the process due to fears over the country’s nuclear program.
Addressing a crowd in Iran’s central province of Isfahan, Ahmadinejad said the West has been making efforts to get in the way of Iran’s nuclear progress, Iranian Press TV reports.
“We asked for 20 per cent enriched uranium fuel which according …

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called on the US to choose between Israel and Iran yesterday, the Jerusalem Post reports.
Ahmadinejad said that for a real change in relations to take place, a choice must be made. ”The support of both Israel and Iran can’t go hand in hand,” he said. “No change is made unless great choices are made.”
“We would welcome the changes, and wait for big and correct decisions to be made… We will clasp any …

Iran told the United Nations nuclear watchdog yesterday that it would not accept a plan its negotiators agreed to last week to send its stockpile of uranium out of the country, the New York Times reports.
In public, neither the Iranians nor the watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), revealed the details of Iran’s objections, which came only hours after Iran’s President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, insisted that “we are ready to cooperate” with the West.
But the …

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Friday the Holocaust was a “lie” and a “pretext” to create a Jewish state that Iranians had a religious duty to confront, Reuters reports.
“The pretext (Holocaust) for the creation of the Zionist regime (Israel) is false … It is a lie based on an unprovable and mythical claim,” he told worshippers at Tehran University at the end of an annual anti-Israel “Quds (Jerusalem) Day” rally. “Confronting the Zionist regime (Israel) …

Protesters have shouted slogans in support of a key opponent of the Iranian president during a mass rally in Tehran, the BBC reports.
Witnesses reported chanting in support of Mir Hossein Mousavi, who was defeated by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June’s disputed presidential election.
Police were deployed in the city for the annual Quds Day rally, and warned against anti-government protests. Thousands of people are taking part, including government supporters.
Iranian authorities had warned the opposition not to stage …

Venezuela’s dictator Hugo Chavez has unveiled a plans by his country to import nuclear know-how from Iran.
Chavez said that his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was an ally and a friend, and that they had agreed to transfer nuclear technology to Venezuela during his visit to Tehran last week, Iran’s Press TV reports.
“I thank him for the technology transfers from Iran to Venezuela. We signed a new agreement last week in Tehran,” he said.
Chavez also said …

The United States has confirmed long-time Israeli intelligence reports that Iran is close to achieving the ability to produce a nuclear bomb, Arutz 7 reports. Less than a year ago, American intelligence officials dismissed Israeli claims as inaccurate.
“Iran is now either very near or already in possession of sufficient low-enriched uranium to produce one nuclear weapon, if the decision were made to further enrich it to weapons grade,” Glyn Davies, the US envoy to United Nations …

Iran is preparing to give a new set of proposals to the global powers involved in talks over its nuclear programme, the BBC reports.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said that the package had been updated in the light of recent developments in the world. He added that a new round of talks could be possible as a result.
Iran is facing pressure to halt nuclear enrichment, a move which it has repeatedly rejected to date.
Mottaki said the …

According to Iranian television, the Islamic Republic has prepared an updated nuclear proposal and is ready to hold negotiations with world powers, Reuters reports.
“Iran has prepared an updated nuclear proposal and is ready to resume negotiations with world powers,” chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili was quoted as saying by al-Alam, Iran’s Arabic-language satellite television channel.
Press TV, Iran’s English-language state television, said in a scrolling headline, without giving further detail, “Iran ready to offer new nuclear …

A new report commissioned by the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says that Iran’s nuclear energy program may contain military dimensions, Ha’aretz reports.
In other words, the IAEA report states that Iran may be working towards acquiring a nuclear weapons capability. The report was issued just prior to the annual meeting of IAEA member states which is scheduled to convene next month in Vienna.
A senior Iranian envoy angrily denounced the assessment as “fabrication”, insisting his …

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called today for the leaders of the opposition to be prosecuted over Iran’s postelection turmoil, stepping up pressure against the pro-reform movement that says he won the election by fraud, FoxNews reports.
It was the first time Ahmadinejad has made such a call, publicly siding with hard-line politicians and clerics and commanders of the powerful Revolutionary Guard who have demanded in recent weeks that opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi and his top …

An Iranian official wanted by Interpol in connection with the bombing of an Argentine Jewish center has been nominated for promotion to defence minister in President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s cabinet, Bloomberg reports.
Ahmad Vahidi, currently deputy defence minister, is accused by Argentina of a role in the 1994 bombing of the center in Buenos Aires, the worst attack on a Jewish target outside Israel since World War II. The blast left 85 people dead and injured more …

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been sworn in for a second term as Iran’s president, after weeks of post-election unrest, the BBC reports.
In an address after the ceremony, he criticised foreign powers who have cast doubt on the validity of the election, saying Iran would resist them.
Opposition supporters protesting outside parliament were met by hundreds of riot police.
Germany, France, Britain and the US all said they would not be sending letters of congratulation to Ahmadinejad.
Taking his oath …

The first trial of protesters has begun in Tehran, with more than 100 people including senior opposition figures accused of rioting, vandalism and “acting against national security”, the Daily Telegraph reports.
The accused could face long prison sentences or even the death penalty if found guilty of being “an enemy of God”.
Those on trial included prominent reformers such as former vice-president Mohammad Ali Abtahi, former deputy foreign minister Mohsen Aminzadeh, former government spokesman Abdollah Ramazanzadeh, former …