Archivo etiqueta «Irán»
By Avi Jorisch, a former Treasury Department official and the author of Tainted Money: Are We Losing the War on Money Laundering and Terrorism Finance? (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 02/08/11):
Last week, the Treasury Department accused the Iranian government of aiding Al Qaeda and blacklisted six Qaeda operatives for funneling money through Iran. Although Treasury’s announcement, coupled with existing sanctions, has put some pressure on Tehran, much more can be done. Indeed, the White House should take action in its own backyard.
In February, the Obama administration embarked on a real estate project that directly impacts Iran’s interests … Seguir leyendo
By Reza Kahlili, a pseudonym for an ex-CIA spy who requires anonymity for safety reasons. He is the author of A Time to Betray, about his double life as a CIA agent in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (THE WASHINGTON TIMES, 29/07/11):
While America focuses on its internal problems and its involvement in three wars and the world focuses on the global economy, Iran is progressing on three dangerous fronts: nuclear weapons, armed missiles and naval capability.
Despite four sets of United Nations sanctions and pressure by the United States and Europe, Iran has chosen not only to continue its … Seguir leyendo
By Laura Fattal and Cindy Hickey, who lives in Pennsylvania and Minnesota respectively (LOS ANGELES TIMES, 29/07/11):
Two years ago, our families received an unexpected telephone call from the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. We were told that our sons, Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer, and Shane’s fiancee, Sarah Shourd, had been arrested by Iranian soldiers on the unmarked border with Kurdistan, a safe and semiautonomous area of Iraq where they had been hiking during a vacation. We thought the misunderstanding would amount at most to 24 hours of detention, not 24 months of heartbreak, anguish and fear for the … Seguir leyendo
By Mark D. Wallace, president of United Against Nuclear Iran. He served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, representative for U.N. management and reform (LOS ANGELES TIMES, 06/07/11):
Why not Iran?
Egypt and Tunisia have overthrown repressive regimes. Citizens in Syria, Yemen and other Middle East countries are demanding change. Yet in Iran, where a wave of 2009 demonstrations helped spark the movements we are now witnessing elsewhere in the Middle East, the populace is strangely silent.
What accounts for the relative quiet in Iran? The answer, at least in part, is that one of the great human … Seguir leyendo
By Suzanne Maloney, a senior fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution and Ray Takeyh, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 16/06/11):
The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is being sidelined by religious fundamentalists, and it’s bad news for American officials seeking to halt Iran’s nuclear program.
The same Iranian leader who dabbled in Holocaust denial and messianic fantasies was, paradoxically, also the theocracy’s most ardent advocate of direct nuclear negotiations with Washington. As Mr. Ahmadinejad falls out of favor with Iran’s hard-line religious leaders, the … Seguir leyendo
LOS ANGELES TIMES, 09/06/11:
This piece was written by six former ambassadors to Iran from European countries: Richard Dalton (United Kingdom), Steen Hohwü-Christensen (Sweden), Paul von Maltzahn (Germany), Guillaume Metten (Belgium), François Nicoullaud (France) and Roberto Toscano (Italy)
As ambassadors to Iran during the last decade, we have all followed closely the development of the nuclear crisis between Iran and the international community. It is unacceptable that the talks have been deadlocked for such a long time.
The Arab world and the Middle East are entering a new epoch in which no country is immune from change. … Seguir leyendo
By Richard Dalton, a former British ambassador to Iran and an associate fellow at Chatham House (THE GUARDIAN, 09/06/11):
It has been exactly a year since the last UN security council resolution imposed extra sanctions on Iran. International debate is resuming on the country’s continued failure to heed UN decisions, and a new report by the International Atomic Energy Agency rightly draws attention to the questions Iran has not answered about experiments it has made on nuclear bomb technology.
As ambassadors to Iran during the past decade, we have all followed closely the development of this crisis. It … Seguir leyendo
Por Mehdi Khalaji, investigador senior del Washington Institute. Traducido del inglés por David Meléndez (Project Syndicate, 01/06/11):
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ha caído en el error que cometen todos los presidentes de Irán: ha desafiado la autoridad del líder supremo del país, el ayatolá Ali Jamenei. Está condenado al fracaso.
El desafío de Ahmadinejad es una parte predecible de la política iraní que ha llegado a ser conocida como “el síntoma del presidente”, que surge de la convicción de un presidente de que, como líder elegido por el pueblo, no debe verse limitado por la supervisión del líder supremo. Sin embargo, … Seguir leyendo
By Benjamin Weinthal, a fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and Mark Dubowitz, executive director and head of the Iran Human Rights Project (LOS ANGELES TIMES, 28/05/11):
On May 28, 1961, British lawyer Peter Benenson penned a passionate article in the London Observer, drawing attention to the plight of two Portuguese students who had delivered a toast calling for democratic reform in their country and were promptly carted off to prison for defying dictator Antonio de Oliveira Salazar. Benenson wrote in that article: “Open your newspaper any day of the week, and you will find a … Seguir leyendo
Par Melody Moezzi (LE TEMPS, 23/05/11):
Le «chef spirituel» officiellement reconnu de l’Iran aujourd’hui est peut-être l’ayatollah Ali Khamenei, mais pendant les centaines d’années qui ont précédé l’institution actuelle des mollahs et des ayatollahs, les Iraniens, toutes confréries confondues, s’étaient tournés vers un autre chef spirituel: Jalal ad-Din Rumi. Si ce poète soufi persan du XIIIe siècle est connu dans beaucoup de pays occidentaux sous le nom de «Rumi», il est désigné plus affectueusement en Iran sous le titre de Mowlaana ou Maître. Pour les Iraniens, c’est un guide spirituel et un gourou dont le verbe est … Seguir leyendo
By S. Rob Sobhani, the author of The Pragmatic Entente: Israeli-Iranian Relations 1948-1978 (THE WASHINGTON TIMES, 20/05/11):
When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses members of Congress on Tuesday, he will get a rousing reception and – no doubt – a standing ovation if he suggests a military strike on Iran to destroy that country’s nuclear weapons facilities. Mr. Netanyahu rightly will point out that Iran is the No. 1 state sponsor of terrorism, a supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah and a threat to the Jewish state.
Members of Congress would be well-advised to take stock of the history … Seguir leyendo
By Kenneth R. Timmerman, president of the Foundation for Democracy in Iran (iran.org) and the author of Countdown to Crisis: The Coming Nuclear Showdown With Iran (THE WASHINGTON TIMES, 06/05/11):
With the Middle East coming apart at the seams and no coherent policy or set of principles to guide policy, the Obama administration should support the people of Iran, the one country where the population remains resolutely pro-American and firmly opposed to the dictators who have been waging war on America for the past 31 years.
President Obama appeared to be contemplating such an approach in March when he … Seguir leyendo
By Retired Navy Adm. James A. Lyons, commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet and senior U.S. military representative to the United Nations (THE WASHINGTON TIMES, 11/04/11):
With the outcome of the various uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East unknown at this time, there are some troubling developments. The intellectuals and liberal media are promoting the thesis that these revolts appear to be primarily secular in nature – but are they? It has been grudgingly acknowledged that al Qaeda and other Islamic extremists, including the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), are involved in the uprisings. Now Cairo appears … Seguir leyendo
By Antonio Stango, president of the Italian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights (THE WASHINGTON TIMES, 11/04/11):
As popular protests in the Greater Middle East crack the decades-old walls of suppression, the prospect of change in the region seems no longer to be a distant dream but an inescapable eventuality. No one knows this better than the dictators in Iran, who are frantically trying to prevent the wildfire from consuming their own fragile theocracy.
Tehran has failed to tame prolonged popular protests, and it is weakened by intractable schisms at the helm of power. Now, after the experiences of Egypt, … Seguir leyendo
Por Ramin Jahanbegloo, filósofo iraní y catedrático de Ciencias Políticas en la Universidad de Toronto. Traducción del inglés de Juan Ramón Azaola (EL PAÍS, 01/04/11):
Las manifestaciones y protestas que han tenido lugar en Irán han demostrado que el Movimiento Verde no ha muerto, a pesar de haber sido duramente represaliado desde las disputadas elecciones presidenciales de 2009.
Al parecer, los levantamientos en Túnez y Egipto han revitalizado a la sociedad civil iraní, ayudándola a hacerse más firme y más franca en sus demandas a favor de la democratización de Irán. Después de 20 meses de detenciones, tortura, ejecuciones y … Seguir leyendo