With the Iranian Presidential election and Syria dominating the news, there has been little space in the news cycle lately for a good, old-fashioned Iran nuclear scare story.
Yet, lest readers despair, Reuters' Dan Williams and --- of course --- Fredrik Dahl "man up", stepping up to the plate with this gem: Iran's Arak reactor looms into Israeli, Western view.
What news of Arak, Iran's heavy-water research reactor that has yet to become operational?
Protesters on the Bosphorus Bridge en route to Istanbul's Taksim Square
4. SO CAN THE PROTESTS SUCCEED?
This weekend's events should be seen not just as an immediate rising which will succeed or fail, but as the start of a series of events that will change the Turkish political landscape.
In other words, the contest --- which will take in not only social issues like Gezi Park and the Bosphorus Bridge, but the Government's economic approach and perceived favoritism and the broad political issues like the Constitution and Erdogan's power --- is one for the longer-term.
Rouhani At Saturday's Tehran Campaign Rally (Credit: Xinhua)
"This year, 2013, will not be the same as 2009," moderate Presidential candidate Hassan Rouhani told crowds in Tehran on Saturday, as his supporters chanted political slogans and called for the release of Mir-Hossein Mousavi.
The 2013 Presidential campaign --- fairly anodyne so far --- changed at Saturday at a campaign rally at Tehran's Jamaran Mosque, during which police arrested several people at the rally, Saedollah Badashti, the head of Rouhani's youth campaign. Radio Farda, quoting the Reformist website Kaleme, also named Mohammad Parsi, Shirin Mirkarami and Mohsen Rahmani among those arrested.
A video published by the Rouhani campaign showed supporters calling for Iran's detained political prisoners to be released, including Mousavi. Rouhani demanded that the country's "securitized atmosphere" be stopped.
"Our people deserve more peace, more freedom, more prosperity, more honor and more security. This is only possible with your presence. Don't let them discourage you. If people don't show up to vote on election day, they have effectively left the field open to your opponents," Rouhani said.
As the crowd called for a coalition between Presidential candidate Mohammad-Reza Aref and Rouhani, Rouhani said that the first step was to "ensure that we have many people lining up to vote.
"I will say this in a vague way --- this year, that is 2013, will not be the same as 2009," Rouhani said.
During his speech at the Jamaran Mosque, Rouhani also told the crowd that: "With your support, we will open all the locks which have been fastened upon people's lives during the past eight years. You - dear students and hero youth - are the ones who have come to restore the national economy and improve the people's living standards. We will bring back our country to the dignity of the past."
Headlines tonight are of the thousands who gathered in Istanbul's Taksim Square as police pulled back and allowed demonstrations; however, there have been large rallies in other Turkish cities. This is Bursa, Turkey's fourth-largest city, in the northwest of the country:
Clashes between protesters and police continue tonight after Turkish security forces, using water cannon and tear gas, tried to disperse peaceful demonstrators in Istanbul's Takism Square.
At least 60 people were detained on Friday after police moved on a rally of several thousand people which began over the demolition of a park, but which turned into a broader protest against what the Erdogan Government.
More than 100 people were injured, some left lying on the ground unconscious and at least two hospitalised with injuries to the head.
Lebanon's Parliament has voted to extend its mandate and delay elections scheduled for June after failing to adopt a new electoral law.
The motion for a 17-month extension was passed unanimously by the 98 members of the 128-seat house who attended on Friday. It said the delay was due to "the security situation in several Lebanese regions that gives rise to political escalation and division which often take on confessional forms".
Fuad Siniora, the opposition head in parliament, said: "We were forced to vote on this bad project to avoid a vacuum and after unrest in several regions and the serious negative development" of Hezbollah's involvement in the Syria conflict.
Amid the months-long delay over a new electoral law, Prime Minister Tamman Salam, who was named on 6 April, has been unable to form a new Government because of divisions over Syria.
Ramped-up foreign intervention is likely to tip the military balance against the Assad regime. But it faces a political question: is the aim merely to pressure and contain the President or to topple him?
And that question in turn leads to others: is there an effective political group, given the tensions and fragementing within the opposition, that can replace Assad? Will the "extremists", rather than the "moderates", win? Will the fall of the regime send destabilising ripples across the Middle East?
Assad is betting that all these questions can be turned into doubts to block further intervention for the opposition. Last night's declarations were his chips to support that bet.
Sunday, June 2, 2013 at 11:08
