Iran: With 22 Bahman just three days away we are watching the situation in Iran even more closely than usual. The Iranian regime’s rhetoric on its nuclear programme has continued throughout the day, but the Western media, which had chased the story to the exclusion of all other topics, has now re-discovered Iran’s internal development.

The White House,on behalf of the US Government and the European Union, has issued a statement condemning the human rights violations in Iran since the June elections. All the latest news in our live weblog, which also contains links to other stories.

Former President Khatami set out his thoughts for Thursday’s anniversary of the 1979 Revolution.

There have been new protests at Sharif University today, and we have the video.

We have a list of the 57 journalists currently detained in Iran’s prisons.

Arabian/Persian Gulfs: Sean Foley has written an EA special analysis of the Gulf States and Iran in the wake of recent news about the deployment of  US soldiers and advanced weapons to Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Israel/Syria: Do we have  peace, or commitments to work towards peace from Israel and Syria? Follow the statements from the main players over the weekend.

Palestine: Mahmoud Abbas, Leader of the Palestinian Authority, has expressed his disappointment with the Obama administration and says he will  “not back down” from his demands.

Sean Foley writes for Enduring America:

The news in recent weeks about the deployment of US soldiers and advanced weapons to Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) reminds us of the central position of the Arab oil-producing monarchies in the Persian Gulf to international efforts to contain the Iranian nuclear program. Few states in the Middle East have closer links to the two chief actors in the dispute, Iran and the United States, or few would be more negatively affected if Washington attacked Tehran.

Yemen: A Beginner’s Guide to (The Perils Of) Intervention

The six Arab oil-producing monarchies in the Persian Gulf region — Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE — are known as the Gulf Cooperation Council (or GCC) and have the largest oil and gas deposits in the world. GCC nationals and governments own significant portions of US and European corporations, while Europeans and Americans have invested heavily in the Council’s states. The US Fifth Fleet is based in Bahrain, and the US military maintains a large presence in Qatar and Jebel Ali (UAE), the only port deep enough to berth an aircraft carrier in the Gulf. Finally, GCC states have bought billions of dollars worth of US and European advanced weapons and technology, including French nuclear reactors.

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Yemen, the state on the Arabian Peninsula which has recently exploded into the headlines as a country of concern, is little-known to most Americans. It does have a track record, however, of embroiling outside powers who decided to intervene. Sean Foley, a professor at Middle Tennessee State University  and author of the forthcoming The Arab Gulf States Beyond Oil and Islam, writes for EA:

In October 1927 Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Turkish Republic, delivered an historic speech in which he explained why Turks had to abandon the Ottoman Empire and embrace his new state. Ataturk in particular focused on Yemen and the fact that the Empire’s leaders had sent millions of Turks to die in South Arabia in the name of a universal Muslim state: “Do you know,” he asked, “how many sons of Anatolia have perished in the scorching sands of Yemen?”  In the future, Ataturk promised, Turks would not die in wars in Yemen—a state that had become synonymous with the plight of the Ottoman soldier in Turkish folklore.

Saturday Special: Helping Yemen?

Forty years later, Yemen made a similar entrance into Egyptian national consciousness. When Israel defeated Egypt in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, much of Egypt’s army was fighting a protracted and bloody guerilla war in Yemen.

The experience of Turkey and Egypt should give U.S. officials pause, as they contemplate intervening in Yemen and along its 1,800-kilometer border with Saudi Arabia.

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