[Beirut Daily Star: Region] Iran's leading reformist presidential candidate attacked hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's handling of the economy, accusing him of mismanagement and driving a once rich Iran into poverty. Mir Hossein Mousavi and the two other candidates seeking to unseat the president in the June 12 election have hit Ahmadinejad hard on the economy, one of his most vulnerable points with voters hurting from rising unemployment and 25 percent inflation. "Iran is a rich country. Poverty is not our destiny. Its government's mismanagement that has taken us here," Mousavi told tens of thousands of cheering supporters Monday in his hometown of Tabriz, in northwestern Iran.
While Ahmadinejad's hard-line rhetoric and his defiant pursuit of the country's nuclear program draws international attention, Iran's 70 million people are focused on the economy.
Iran, under Ahmadinejad, took in record oil revenues when prices soared in the middle of last year, but Iranians complain that they are worse off.
The president's reformist opponents, who seek an easing of social and political restrictions at home and better ties with the West, accuse him of spending too much time slamming the US and Israel and not enough time trying to fix the economy.
His populist policies - including handouts to millions of citizens - have also been blamed for driving up prices, and candidates have accused him of using such payments to buy votes.
"Gross national product has fallen in the past four years. This means people have become poorer. This must change," Mousavi said.
Mousavi, who is remembered for his leadership as Iran's prime minister during the country's 1980-88 war with Iraq, said no justice can be achieved in a country while inflation stands at 25 percent. "A 25 percent inflation rate means making life hard for the people, it means poverty, a lack of security," he said.
On Saturday, President Ahmadinejad said the inflation had nothing to do with his government's policies.
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05/27/2009 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] As Iranian presidential candidates battle out on the campaign trail, former prime minister Mir-Hossein Moussavi has the lead in 10 major Iranian cities, a recent poll says.
According to a report by the Ayandeh News, the poll conducted in Iran's ten big cities found out that Moussavi is leading the incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad by 4 percent. Nearly 38 percent expressed their support for Moussavi while 34 percent went for Ahmadinejad's bid for a second-term in office.
An opinion poll conducted by the IRIB last week, meanwhile, found that Moussavi also had the lead in the capital Tehran with 47 percent of the votes. Forty three percent of the correspondents to the poll in Tehran supported President Ahmadinejad.
On June 12, Iran will hold the 10th presidential elections since the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
Moussavi, President Ahmadinejad, former Majlis speaker Mehdi Karroubi and former IRGC chief Mohsen Rezaei will be competing in a four-way race.
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Posted by: Fred ||
05/27/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Anybody know which ones the turbans will allow to take office, if elected?
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/27/2009 5:59 Comments ||
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So does this mean that Iran-Syrian New World Order thingy's on hold?
[Al Arabiya Latest] Beautiful women, secret trips abroad and a hurried escape across a mine-infested border are all aspects of so-called Israeli spy networks unraveling in Lebanon, which arrested one of its army colonels, security sources said on Tuesday, in a government campaign to crack down on espionage.
The sources said the colonel, who was not named, was arrested last week and was being questioned about links to spy agencies follwing the arrest of up to 30 suspected spies in recent months as part of a long-running probe by Lebanese intelligence into Israeli sleeper cells. More arrests are expected, security officials say.
Suspected spies include a math teacher, housewife, butcher, a mobile phone salesman and a retired general, who were all found with sophisticated communications equipment and other gadgets in their homes or offices.
Senior Lebanese security officials say the arrests have dealt a major blow to Israel's spying networks in Lebanon, which considers itself in a state of war with the Jewish state.
Last week Beirut filed a complaint to the United Nations that Israel was violating its sovereingnty by creating spy networks in Lebanon and at least 21 suspects have already been charged, some in absentia, and several have confessed.
Growing espionage
Lebanon says at least two spies have fled over the heavily fortified border to Israel last week and demanded Tel Aviv hand them back.
Israel has not commented on the arrests in Lebanon but warned its citizens that "Arab groups" were using social networking sites like Facebook to recruit and hire spies.
Israeli intelligence services claim an Israeli Facbook user was contacted by someone claiming to be a Lebanese agent and was offered money for information on Israel.
Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Shiite resistance group Hezbollah, last week called for the death penalty for all suspects convicted of spying for Israel.
Officials say many of the suspects played key roles in identifying Hezbollah targets that were bombed during a 34-day war between Israel and the Shiite group in 2006.
Other suspects have been charged with monitoring senior Hezbollah officials and at least one is alleged to have played a role in the 2004 assassination of a commander of the group.
In April a Lebanese prosecutor charged a former army general and three other people with spying for Israel and referred them to the military court.
Adeeb al-Alam, a retired brigadier general of the prominent General Security directorate, his wife and nephew were arrested on suspicion of espionage. A fourth person linked to the cell was still at large.
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#1
"He's a Zionist spy!", "How do you know?", "He never beats his wife!!!".
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
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Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
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Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Beautiful women, secret trips abroad and a hurried escape across a mine-infested border are all aspects of so-called Israeli spy networks unraveling in Lebanon, which arrested one of its army colonels, security sources said on Tuesday, in a government campaign to crack down on espionage. 
