[Al Arabiya Latest] Britain ordered financial firms on Monday to halt all business relations with two Iranian companies because of concerns that they were involved in helping to develop nuclear weapons.
I am shocked. They must be really annoyed.
The order applies to Iran's Bank Mellat and Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines.
A statement issued by the Treasury said it welcomed recent talks between six world powers and Iran on the nuclear issue but that action was needed now on the two businesses. "... Iran continues to pursue its proliferation sensitive nuclear and ballistic missile activities in defiance of five U.N. Security Council Resolutions," the Treasury said. "On the particular entities in question, vessels of the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) have transported goods for both Iran's ballistic missile and nuclear programs."
"Similarly, Bank Mellat has provided banking services to a U.N. listed organization connected to Iran's proliferation sensitive activities, and been involved in transactions related to financing Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile program," it added.
In a statement to the House of Commons, Treasury minister Sarah McCarthy-Fry said the measure was taken because Bank Mellat had provided services to an organisation "connected to Iran's proliferation-sensitive activities." The shipping firm had "transported goods for both Iran's ballistic missile and nuclear programmes," she added.
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Posted by: Fred ||
10/13/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11138 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
When faced with big decisions why not just go with the decision that is the most fun? Like toy with them for awhile..its not like its important or anything.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Iranian opposition leaders have demanded they be given time to speak on state television to show proof of their allegations that the June election was rigged, a reformist daily reported on Monday.
Former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi and cleric Mehdi Karroubi met at the weekend and decided they want to go on television to challenge the authorities who say they have no evidence to back claims the poll was fraudulent, the newspaper said.
The reformist Sarmayeh newspaper also quoted Mousavi as saying that Iranian officials were giving "wrong" data to the people about the post-vote unrest which rocked the country.
"Look how many times the number of the killed has been changed. They say that fraud in the election is a lie. Some gathered to say that there was no fraud... okay, then if you are so sure then why are you afraid of us appearing on television?" Mousavi said during his meeting with Karroubi, the report said.
"Why do you not open the ballot boxes on a live television show, so people can see how many ballot papers without serial numbers are in the boxes?"
Mousavi was the main challenger to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the June 12 poll, which returned the hardline president to office for a second term.
The opposition leader has continued to claim that the election result was massively rigged in Ahmadinejad's favor.
Karroubi too voiced similar concerns during the meeting, Sarmayeh said.
"Some talk about the election as if nothing has happened, nothing occurred," he said.
"You think people do not know what has happened to them? Then why these protests? They are saying I had only 300,000 votes and I did not have a single vote in 10,000 ballot boxes, which means I did not have a single supporter," said the reformist cleric, whose official tally plunged from more than 17 percent in the 2005 presidential election to less than one percent this year.
"If you are telling the truth, then instead of denying the fraud in the state media (television) and putting pressure on innocent prisoners for confessions, they should allow us to come on television and give to the people our evidence" supporting the claims.
The health of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei ...has turned critical as was reported to our Central location at 11:30 last night (near midnight) by one of our influential supporters. It stated that the overall health of the Supreme Ruler Seyed Ali (Khamenei) ...has become critical.
At around 8 p.m. when his health failed, three of his treating physicians...were summoned to his bedside. On their arrival into his private room, everyone including his family were told to leave the room. After the three physicians examined Khamenei for about 45 minutes and emerged, they instructed that only immediate family members (wife and children) were to enter his room and not even his staff to provide him with reports.
As has been reported in various newsletters and publications, some three days ago Khamenei issued his last will and testament in which he asked people to pray for him and to ask Allah to forgive him his sins, including those which he may have inadvertently committed and does not remember.
Something about ordering attacks on the protesters and acquiescing to their vile treatment upon imprisonment? Yes, he'll want forgiveness for those.
#4
Wait and see. These guys tend to die six or seven times. I think Qadaffy had terminal cancer and six months to live in 2002.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/13/2009 8:32 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Apparently, Khamenei has outlived expectations because of his longstanding colon cancer.
This also points out the nagging fact that because of a peculiarity of Shiite Islam, homosexuality is seen as meaning oral sex, not anal sex, and between the clerical predilection to sodomy, and the widespread use of intravenous drugs in Iranian society as a whole, the country has a terribly high rate of HIV and AIDS.
And once AIDS sets in, it opens the door to a whole raft of other diseases, from TB to, you guessed it, colon cancer.
Let's see.... There is Ali Sistani - already very influencial in Iran, Rafsanjani, Sharoudi?
I do not know where or even if Ahmadinejad falls into bloodline, and he is already ranked by rafsanjani. I doubt Mousavi qualifies either.
In either case, the IRGC (revolutionary Guard) will be pulling some rank, and have influence over the position.
One of the things discussed during the election - and this kind of came from Sistani was to eliminate the position totally to give the counsel more power. (http://en.rian.ru/world/20090622/155318054.html)
It shall be another interesting time in Iran.
Count on Sistani to be lead weather in that position or not.
#7
"Precisely because there are no obvious successors to Khamenei, the prospect of the
supreme leadership being replaced by a shura (consultative) council is discussed with
increased frequency. The idea is not new and was considered after Khomeinis death, since
many believed the supreme leadership was a robe designed only for Khomeini. As president,
Khamenei himself once told a Western reporter that no one individual could ever replace
Khomeini as Supreme Leader, predicting instead a council of three or five religious leaders
would have to rule.
Who would be selected to compose the shura council is the key question. Constitutionally
the selection process falls under the jurisdiction of the Assembly of Experts, an 86-cleric karim sadjadpour body headed by Rafsanjani and composed largely of septuagenarian, conservative clerics.
Reformists talk about a triumvirate composed of Rafsanjani, Khatami, and Mehdi Karroubi,
a moderate cleric who served as speaker of the parliament and narrowly lost to Ahmadinejad
in the first round of the June 2005 elections. This would be unacceptable to hardliners, who
would prefer conservatives like AyatollahsMesbah Yazdi, Shahroudi, and Jannati, a member
of the Guardian Council, who are equally unacceptable to moderates.
Aside from the difficulties of reaching a consensus regarding the makeup of the shura
council, the replacement of the Supreme Leader with a shura council is currently impeded
by the Islamic Republics constitution, which states specifically that the Leader be an individual.
But political expediency trumps the constitution in the Islamic Republic; a constitutional
amendment adjusting the requirements for Supreme Leader is precisely what enabled
Khamenei to become Leader.
While the fight for succession is highly unpredictable and could get fierce, in some ways
Khameneis weakness has ironically been the Islamic Republics strength; if his reign has
proven one thing, its that the Islamic Republics stability is not contingent upon having a popular,
charismatic Leader. The predictions frequently made during the Khomeini erathat
the Leaders death would bring about the regimes demiseare no longer made with regards
to Khamenei."
#8
no one individual could ever replace
Khomeini as Supreme Leader, predicting instead a council of three or five religious leaders
would have to rule.
It seems to me the Romans tried that after the murder of Julius Caesar. As I recall, one died quietly, Mark Antony retired briefly to Egypt as a guest of his friend, Queen Cleopatra, and the future Augustus Caesar swept the board. Only, lots of people were killed to accomplish that, some of them innocent bystanders.
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The health of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei ...has turned critical as was reported to our Central location at 11:30 last night (near midnight) by one of our influential supporters. It stated that the overall health of the Supreme Ruler Seyed Ali (Khamenei) ...has become critical.
