Gaza Rockets, Israel’s Response: Five rockets in 48 hours have been launched from the Gaza Strip into Israel, one of them taking the life of a Thai worker. In response, Israeli Air Forces carried out two air strikes on two tunnels which wounded 14 Palestinians, two seriously.
Latest on Israel-Palestine Negotiations: On Friday, the Quartet (Russia, the United States, the UN and the European Union) called on Israel and the Palestinians to renew peace negotiations to achieve a two-state solution within 24 months. The statement said:
2120 GMT: Mahmoud Goes to the Country? OK, it’s not just Internet chatter. EA readers bring me up to speed: in a televised statement on Friday night, President Ahmadinejad set out the possibility of a referendum on his proposal to control $40 billion from subsidy reductions (the Parliament only gave him $20 billion).
And Ahmadinejad wasn’t pulling punches: he said that his “conservative” opponents in Parliament were verging on “treason” with exaggerated statements of the inflationary potential of his plan. Fortunately, he reassured, their economic estimates were not correct.
2110 GMT: Containing the Poet. Another story to pick up — National Public Radio has a profile of 82-year-old Simin Behbahani, the poet who is so dangerous that Iranian authorities seized her passport as she was about to board a flight for an awards ceremony in Paris.
2225 GMT: Rafsanjani Watch. This could be interesting — Hossein Marashi, cousin of Hashemi Rafsanjani’s wife and a Vice Secretary-General of the Kargozaran Party. has been arrested.
2220 GMT: Edward Yeranian of the Voice of America offers an analysis, “Iranian Government Releases Prisoners for Persian New Year”, with contributions from EA staff.
2215 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Women’s rights activist Somaiyeh Farid was arrested on Wednesday. Farid was at Evin Prison enquiring about her husband, Hojat (Siavash) Montazeri, who was arrested on 5 March.
For me, Barbara Slavin’s article in The Washington Note confirms my view of the uranium enrichment negotiations since June between Tehran, Washington, and other countries: 1) they were genuine, motivated by Iran’s crisis of a shortage of 20-percent enriched uranium for its medical research reactor; 2) the primary obstacle to a deal was internal divisions in Washington Tehran.
But now the questions for March 2010: 1) Is there still a crisis in Tehran over uranium stock? (Yes) 2) Does this mean the regime wants to re-open discussions for a deal? (Probably, but there are still internal manoeuvres to be made) 3) Will the US still be receptive? (Likely) 4) Does this mean “engagement” is back on? (Unknown):
A senior U.S. official Wednesday confirmed that the United States offered the first civilian nuclear cooperation with Iran in three decades under the terms of a deal that Iran walked away from last fall.
2305 GMT: Back on the Road Again. Off for flight to UK and work in Liverpool so will be quiet for a while. Thanks to everyone for backing up EA on an eventful day.
2300 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Reports that student activist and weblog writer Fouad Shams has been released from prison after 96 days. Saeed Nourmohammadi, a member of the youth branch of the Islamic Iran Participation Front has been freed after 4 1/2 months in detention.
2255 GMT: Maintaining Control. Radio Zamaneh headlines, “Iran’s Supreme Leader May Approve Changes to Electoral Policies”, but the more you read, the more this is an assertion of Khamenei’s authority rather than reform.
Meeting members of the Assembly of Experts, the Supreme Leader said that he will approve the changes in “general policies of the elections” under discussion in the Expediency Council, headed by Hashemi Rafsanjani.
However, Khamenei added that the opinion of the Expediency Council regarding election policies is “debatable”, and once he is informed of their decision, he will enforce what he deems necessary. Hardly a ringing endorsement of the Council’s moves for change…..
On Wednesday Russia, fulfilling an agreement in principle reached four weeks ago, announced that it plans to buy four Mistral-class warships from France.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said that, with the first deal between a NATO member and a former Soviet state, he wanted to turn the page on the Cold War; Russia must be a partner, not a threat. Sarkozy added that the deal will build trust at a time when West is seeking Russian support on issues such as Iran’s nuclear programme:
GALLO: Is Iran really trying to build a nuclear weapon?
CIRINCIONE: There is no doubt that the Iranian regime is moving to acquire the technologies that would allow it to build a nuclear weapon. We do not know if the regime has reached a decision to actually build a weapon, however.
Netanyahu’s Iran Speech: Speaking to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on Tuesday depicted Iran as a runaway train and the international community as a rail car waiting on the edge. “There is a technological clock and a diplomatic clock. The technological clock is like a runaway train and the international community like a car that is about to decouple.”
On the diplomatic clock, Netanyahu mentioned the Israeli delegation in China and described a “wide range of mutual interests” between Beijing and Israel. Netanyahu stated that he was not successful in obtaining Moscow’s consent to tougher sanctions on Tehran but said he witnessed “more understanding there regarding the dangers the Iranian nuclear program poses to us, to regional peace and world stability”.
Obama Administration’s Next Message to be in Israel: U.S. Vice President Joe Biden is due in Israel on March 8, for a three-day visit that will also include the Palestinian Authority. An Israeli political source has told Haaretz that Biden would like “to make a speech that is important and significant for Israeli-American relations”. The aims of this high-level visit to Israel are to ensure that Israel’s response will be restricted with the diplomatic track and to give a strong “alliance” message to Israelis as President Obama gave in Turkey and Egypt last year.
Gaza Rockets, Israel’s Response: Five rockets in 48 hours have been launched from the Gaza Strip into Israel, one of them taking the life of a Thai worker. In response, Israeli Air Forces carried out two air strikes on two tunnels which wounded 14 Palestinians, two seriously.
Entries (RSS)