Ahmad Vahidi, nominated Thursday by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to serve as Iran's defense minister, is a suspected international terrorist sought by Interpol in connection with a deadly 1994 attack on a Jewish community center in Argentina.
Mr. Vahidi, a former commander of the elite unit of the Revolutionary Guard known as the Quds Force, was one of 15 men and three women named to Cabinet posts by Mr. Ahmadinejad as he begins his second term in office. The choice is likely to further chill relations between Iran and the international community, especially Israel.
Interpol, the international police agency based in Lyon, France, placed Mr. Vahidi and four other Iranian officials on its most-wanted list in 2007 at the request of Argentine prosecutors, who say the men played a role in planning the July 1994 attack on the seven-story community center in Buenos Aires.
The bombing, which killed 85 people, is thought to have been carried out by members of Hezbollah, a Lebanese militia and political party with close links to Iran.
Kenneth Katzman, a senior analyst on Iraq and Iran at the Congressional Research Service, said that Mr. Vahidi is also suspected of having played a role in a 1996 attack on the U.S. Air Force barracks in Saudi Arabia known as Khobar Towers.
Mr. Vahidi is not the first prominent Iranian to be wanted in connection with terrorist attacks. Presidential candidate Mohsen Rezai, a former revolutionary guard commander, was among the five Iranians identified by Interpol in 2007, as was former President Hashemi Rafsanjani.
But Mr. Vahidi's ascension to the high-profile post of defense minister suggests that Mr. Ahmadinejad will continue his policy of defiance toward the West.
"This sends a signal that the Iranians are unconcerned with anybody's sensibilities about the regime's prior record of terrorism," said Kenneth Piernick, a former chief of the FBI's Iran-Hezbollah unit.
"His reputed intimate involvement in various acts of terrorism, particularly against Argentina and the United States, makes his selection especially flagrant. This does not look like an unclenched fist."
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Iran has lifted a yearlong ban and allowed U.N. inspectors to visit a nearly completed nuclear reactor as well as granting greater monitoring rights at another atomic site, a diplomat said Thursday. Iran has allowed inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect the nuclear reactor at Arak for the first time in a year, the diplomat said.
"The inspectors were able to visit Arak last week," the diplomat told AFP. "It was the first time that they had been authorized to do so for a year."
IAEA spokesman Ayhan Evrensel refused to comment on the matter.
Tehran had also allowed the U.N. nuclear weapons watchdog to step up surveillance of another key site at Natanz, said the diplomat. "The containment and surveillance measures were updated as the agency wanted," said the source.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has unveiled a cabinet boasting 11 new faces, including three women, in a line-up on Thursday slammed as inexperienced by leading lawmakers.
The president was due to address the nation to present the new cabinet including a relative novice as oil minister, but is expected to face a tough battle to win parliament's approval.
The outcome will be another test of how secure the hardliner's grip is on power in the major oil exporter after his disputed re-election in a June poll that led to street protests and political turmoil.
Iranian media reported that Ahmadinejad had submitted a list of 18 ministers to the assembly the previous evening, meeting a midnight deadline, but there was no immediate confirmation of this from parliament.
The nominated ministers included current Commerce Minister Massoud Mirkazemi as the new oil minister, a key position since crude sales account for most state revenue. He is seen as an Ahmadinejad ally but has little known oil industry experience.
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki would retain his job and three women would become ministers for health, social welfare and education respectively. It would be the first time a woman becomes minister in the conservative Islamic Republic.
[Iran Press TV Latest] The Iranian Ambassador to Kabul says Iran is ready to hold talks with the US and other countries on Afghanistan if the Obama administration adopts a "unified and single" approach toward Tehran.
Welcoming President Barack Obama's overtures toward the Islamic Republic after his election, Fada Hossein Maleki criticized US approach regarding post-election developments in Iran.
"Unfortunately after the victory of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad we saw inconsiderate interferences by the Americans (in Iran's domestic affairs)," Maleki told Press TV as the Afghans went to polling stations to elect a new president on Thursday.
The envoy said the White House had not adopted a single and unified approach toward Iran yet.
"It is natural that if a unified and single approach is adopted, our officials would review it and there are many issues in Afghanistan that we can cooperate with other countries on," he said.
Maleki said Iran had "favorable relations with the Karzai government" and would promote its good interaction with the new Afghan administration.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Western officials pronounced the country's election a success, after voting passed off largely peacefully.
Maleki believes Iran's close ties with Afghanistan would lead to stability in the war-torn country, saying the Afghans share a long history with the Iranians.
Commenting on claims that some countries are trying to influence the election in Afghanistan, the envoy said that some Afghan officials were concerned with the possible interferences that also have been reflected in certain media outlets.
Maleki said that some media outlets had created "a scenario" about the Afghan election over the past few days to assert the interests of their countries in Afghanistan, adding that Afghan leaders had, however, realized the threat and taken measures to deal with the issue.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Iran is ready to hold talks with the US and other countries on Afghanistan if the Obama administration adopts a "unified and single" approach toward Tehran
Correct me if I'm wrong, but this sounds like linkage by the red team. They will let up a bit in Afghanistan if we ease up more than a bit all over.
In a move aimed at further enhancing Iran's shipbuilding industry, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says he will ban the purchase of foreign ships by Iranian organizations.
"In the first cabinet meeting, I will declare that the manager of any public organization who 'goes after' foreign ships will be relieved from his duties and dismissed from the state-run bodies," Ahmadinejad warned on Thursday.
He was speaking in a ceremony held in the southern province of Hormozgan to launch Iran's first indigenous ocean-going container ship, dubbed "Iran-Arak."
"Iran's shipbuilding experts are committed to meet all public organizations' needs for any kind of ships in the shortest time," Fars news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.
Iran Shipbuilding and Offshore Industries Complex Co. (ISOICO) has manufactured the 7,500-ton container ship, which can accelerate to 32 knots (59.3 Km/h) and is able to sail 25 days non-stop.
Iran has spent USD 50 million on the construction of the new vessel, which is 185 meters (607ft) long, 30 meters (98.4ft) wide, and has 10 meters (32.8 ft) of draft.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2009 00:00 ||
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Iranian juche. Super.
Let us know how that works out.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
08/21/2009 9:22 Comments ||
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When in the navy My ship could travel from Norfolk to Rota Spain without stopping to refuel,
Big deal, she was built in 1942 (Older than Me)
It was a refrigerated freighter.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/21/2009 12:08 Comments ||
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An Iranian court has temporarily suspended a controversial presidential aide from work, over a case of financial misconduct, a report says.
The Supreme Audit Court of Iran has convicted Esfandyar Rahim-Mashaei of a series of financial charges, sentencing him to two months suspension from his government post, the Jomhuriye Eslami daily reported on Thursday.
The paper did not give further detail on the nature of the charges, but said they were in connection with the period that Rahim-Mashaei served as the head of Iran's Cultural Heritage, Handcrafts and Tourism Organization.
Jomhuriye Eslami also said that the administration of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was trying to reverse the ruling. The daily said efforts were underway to change the verdict, although the deadline for overturning it has passed.
Rahim-Mashaei turned into a controversial figure last year over a series of comments about friendship between the Iranian people and Israelis.
Controversy was raised again in July this year when Ahmadinejad named him as Iran's new vice president.
However, Rahim-Mashaei was forced to resign following an official decree by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and a wave of criticism from several political groups and parties.
He currently serves as an advisor to the president.
Iran's defeated presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi has taken the first steps toward setting up a satellite TV network, called Saba, a report says.
Karroubi had plans to launch the Saba satellite network since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took office four years ago, the Etemad daily reported on Thursday.
The Reformist Political figure had plans to set up Saba with the help of the renowned Iranian film director Behrouz Afkhami, who was considered for managerial position at the station.
Etemad said that several other Iranian film directors have also announced that they are ready to work with Karroubi on his new project.
The network's offices are expected to open somewhere in the Middle East.
News of Karroubi's efforts to set up a satellite TV network outside of Iran come just days after Iranian authorities closed down the Etemad-e-Melli daily -- the official newspaper of the former candidate's political party.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2009 00:00 ||
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I watched his election debate with Ahmadinejad. He rambled for 10 minutes about the tyrant's claim of an angelic presence at a UN speech. He didn't have much to say about mass suffering at the hands of Iran's parasitic elites.
A senior Lebanese security official says army commandos have recaptured fugitive from an al-Qaeda-inspired group a day after he escaped from prison. The official says Taha al-Hajj Suleiman of the Fatah Islam group was captured Wednesday in the woods north of the Roumieh prison east of Beirut.
Someone left a pick and a file in his birthday Koran?
A day earlier, eight Fatah Islam staged a dramatic prison break but only Suleiman was able to escape. Police and army forces launched a search campaign in areas around the prison until Suleiman was captured.
Fatah Islam fought a three-month battle against the army inside the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr el-Bared in northern Lebanon in 2007.
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says the world has realized that "Western theories" have failed and this has provided Iran and Syria with new opportunities. "Today, the world countries have realized that Western theories are at the end of the road and this is why they need cooperation and support from Iran and Syria," Ahmadinejad said in a meeting with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad in Tehran on Wednesday. The Syrian president arrived in Tehran on Wednesday for a two-day visit to discuss the latest regional developments. "All that 'cause and effect' stuff, that's just piffle..."
"The West is struggling to stop the resistance in the [Middle East] region but thanks to God's support, the resistance of the regional nations has won and they [Western countries] have suffered a heavy defeat," Ahmadinejad said. "Scientific method is nothing against a man with a Koran in one hand and a cheap, mass-produced Soviet-era weapon in the other!"
The new situation in the world "has created new opportunities and we should use them to serve the interests of the regional countries," Fars news agency quoted the Iranian President as saying. "I say to youse, Brethren and Sistern, the past is mankind's future!"
Assad, for his part, congratulated Ahmadinejad on his re-election, adding that "what happened in Iran taught the enemies a big lesson and this is why they are desperately unhappy." "The fact that the misery of millions makes them unhappy reveals them as effete and weak!"
The Syrian President also condemned foreign meddling in Iran's internal affairs. "The main reason behind the enemies' meddling is that they do not want to witness the repeated victories of Iran and Syria over the next four years again," Assad said.
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Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2009 00:00 ||
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[11134 views]
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ION IRAN PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > THE STRIKING SIMILARITIES BETWEEN CHINESE, PAKISTANI, AND IRANIAN SOLID FUEL ROCKETS.
HMMMMM but of coursez mes amis - 'tis purely simply co-incidental???
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
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
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
dominated Mexico for six years.
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.
