Last month, Iran was shaken by a suicide attack in its province, Sistan Baluchestan.  The attack killed more than 42 people, including 15 members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.  Here is an Al Jazeera report that examines the root causes of discontent in this province:

The report reveals that lack of security and poverty are the two main problems facing this province. Moreover, drug smuggling has also become an issue.

In the Muslim world, Turkey and Iran are usually perceived as standing on opposite sides.  Turkey stands for secularism, while the Shia clerics dominate the Iranian politics.  Turkey is a “friend of the West”, and is also a Muslim country that has normal relations with Israel. While Iran, if it is not in the news for its controversial nuclear program, is in the news for its leadership’s polemics against the West and Israel. In Turkey, you can be renounced for wearing a hijab, while in Iran, you are required to wear it by the law.  Due to their antipodal attitude towards religion and politics, it is hard to imagine the two countries having a cordial relationship. Yet this is the case.

An analysis by Yigal Schleifer in the Kuwait Times details the relationship between the two countries:

Trade between the two countries, for example, hit $10 billion in 2008, compared to a level of $1 billion in 2000. Iran also supplies close to a third of Turkey’s gas supply. Turkish officials, meanwhile, were among the first and only to congratulate Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad after his recent controversial reelection. Turkey and Iran share a 499-km border, and both Turkish and Iranian diplomats like to point out that the two Muslim neighbours have been at peace for centuries.

Iran and Turkey also share one common threat: their receptive Kurdish separatist movement.  Growing collaboration between PKK (Kurdish rebels fighting against Turkey) and PJAK (Kurdish rebels fighting against Iran) has led Iranian and Turkish military to cooperate to attack the rebel group’s bases in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Recently, their relationship made headlines when Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan supported Iran’s right to a nuclear program.  Erdogen was quoted as saying that Iran’s nuclear program ” is an energy project with peaceful, humanitarian purposes”. He said talks between Tehran and world powers in Geneva on October 1 showed that it “can work with” the United States and Russia on uranium enrichment.  As Al Jazeera reported his latest remarks came after an interview in Britain’s The Guardian newspaper in which he accused Western powers of treating Iran unfairly and referred to Ahmadinejad as a “friend”.

Al Jazeera also has a great program discussing the Iranian-Turkish relationship:

Though Yigal Schleifer, in the Kuwait Times’ analysis, points out that Turkey’s interests in the region also dictate that Iran does not acquire a nuclear weapon:

But Turkish analysts say that the peace that Ankara and Tehran have maintained for so long is based on a delicate balance of military power between the two countries, one that would be fundamentally disturbed if Iran were to acquire nuclear weapons. “The bottom line is that Turkey can’t accept an Iran with nuclear weapons. A nuclear weapons-capable Iran or a nuclear-armed Iran is not in the interest of Turkey,” says Kibaroglu (Mustafa Kibaroglu is an expert on nuclear non-proliferation issues at Bilkent University in Ankara).

It feels like the last couple of days, each morning bought a new story about the Iranian nuclear program. Is Iran cooperating or not? How did their meeting with the IAEA go? What are the Iranian leaders saying about the ElBradei deal? How is the United States responding to Iran’s equivocation?

Here is a quick recap of Iranian nuclear program saga starting from October 26, 2009:

October 26, 2009, Monday:

Officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency inspected the newly discovered Iranian uranium enrichment site near Qom on Sunday.  Iran’s Mehr news agency said the UN team is expected to make “several visits” to the plant during their three-day stay.

But the big headline was that Iranian leaders failed to respond in time to meet the deadline for the deal on Friday. Iranian disquiet stems from their fear that the United States is cheating it out of nuclear fuel. Though Iran is not the only country with concerns.  As the New York Times reported the U.S. administration is worried that Iran is trying to prolong the administration’s offer of engagement to buy time for a secret nuclear weapons program.

October 27, 2009, Tuesday:

Iranian nuclear program received a boost when the Turkish Prime Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s prime minister, stated that Iran’s nuclear program “is an energy project with peaceful, humanitarian purposes.” Al Jazeera reported that Erdogan, who arrived in Tehran for bilateral talks on Tuesday, accused Western nations of hypocrisy in criticizing Iran’s uranium enrichment program while remaining silent on Israel, which is believed to have an undeclared nuclear arsenal.

October 28, 2009, Wednesday:

Wednesday bought some good news from the Obama administration’s point-of-view. Reports emerged that Iran’s foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, has stated that Iran could endorse a United Nations deal for it to send uranium abroad for processing for peaceful uses, the first official indication that Tehran could respond positively to the agreement. The Reuters quoted Mottaki as saying “In order to obtain this fuel, we might spend money as in the past or we might present part of the fuel that we have right now, and currently do not need, for further processing.” He said Iran would announce its decision “in the next few days.”

October 29, 2009, Thursday:

Thursday bought some mixed news for President Obama. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced his intention to cooperate with world powers on its nuclear program: “We welcome cooperation on nuclear fuel, power plants and technology and we are ready to cooperate.”

But he did vow that the Iranian government will not retreat retreat “one iota” from Iran’s nuclear rights. He also expressed concerns about the deal: “Iran needs to receive guarantees that the nuclear fuel for Tehran’s research reactor will in fact be supplied. Iran as the buyer of the nuclear fuel should determine how much fuel it requires to purchase.”

Meanwhile, international inspectors visiting Iran’s nuclear facility near the city of Qom returned to Vienna today.

October 30, 2009, Friday:

By Friday though the debate about Iranian Nuclear Program headed back to stalemate.  Iran announced that they are rejecting a key element of the draft atom deal.  United Iranian Ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh presented a case for Iran to ship itsuranium out in batches and swap it for new material continuously, rather than shipping it in one batch by the end of the year, as proposed by Obama administration.  This suggestion will be rejected by the United States and its allies as the new plan will not significantly reduce Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium.

The United States and its allies are urging Iran to adopt the ElBaradei’s plan, under which Iran would transfer about 75 percent of its known 1.5 tons of LEU in one shipment to Russia by the end of this year for further enrichment. The material would then go to France to be converted into fuel plates. These would be returned to Tehran to power the U.S.-built reactor, which produces radio-isotopes for cancer treatment.

Iran has also refused to commit to another meeting to discuss its nuclear program

October 31, 2009, Saturday:

On Saturday, Iranian rhetoric was again impugning the nuclear deal. The Reuters reported that senior Iranian lawmakers have voiced opposition to a U.N.-drafted nuclear fuel deal- casting further doubt on a proposal aimed at easing international tension over Tehran’s atomic activities.

“We are completely opposed to the proposal on delivering uranium with 3.5 percent enrichment in exchange for uranium with 20 percent enrichment. There is no guarantee they would give us fuel with 20 percent enrichment in exchange for our delivered LEU,” said Alaeddin Boroujerdi, the head of parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee.

November 1, 2009, Sunday:

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reminded Iran that the United States and its allies had limited patience: “We are willing to work toward creative outcomes, like shipping out the low-enriched uranium to be reprocessed outside of Iran, but we are not going to wait forever. Patience does have finally its limits and it is time for Iran to fulfill its obligations and responsibilities to the international community and accepting this deal would be a good beginning.”

November 2, 2009, Monday:

By Monday, Iran was once again sending positive signals. Iranian officials stated that it has not rejected a U.N.-backed plan aimed at limiting the country’s ability to make nuclear weapons. Earlier last week, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had said his government will persist with its nuclear program despite international concerns. Asked if this meant Tehran has rejected the deal, Iranian foreign minister Mottaki simply said, “No.”

However, Iranian officials did ask for a technical review of the plan designed to restrain its potential for making a nuclear bomb.

November 3, 2009, Tuesday:

On Tuesday,  headlines were once again dominated by Hillary Clinton. She urged the Iranian leadership to fully accept the deal which had already been agreed to in principle, saying “we are not altering it”. Al Jazeera quoted Clinton as saying “This is a pivotal moment for Iran. Acceptance fully of this proposal … would be a good indication that Iran does not wish to be isolated and does wish to co-operate with the international community.”

And the saga continues….

It sounds like a travesty when you hear that the Obama Administration has cut down funding to Iranian human rights groups, until you take a deeper look at the facts.

Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, Freedom House and International Republican Institute (IRI) will be among the groups that will be denied State Department funding this year.  Moreover, the State Department’s Iran Democracy Fund will be shut down.  A Wall Street Journal’s Op-ed by David Feith and Bari Weiss provides more detail on funding received by these groups:

• The Connecticut-based Iran Human Rights Documentation is a nonpartisan group that documents Iran’s human-rights abuses. The group had previously received $3 million over the past five years.  It will shut down in May, said Executive Director Renee Redman, unless private donors save it.
• Freedom House is a nonpartisan watchdog group founded in 1941 that applied in April for significant funds to support initiatives including Gozaar, its Farsi-English online journal of democracy and human rights, and was turned down in July.  Since 2006, Freedom House had received over $2 million from the U.S. and European governments for Iran-related efforts.  “We might have to close Gozaar if we run out of money,” deputy executive director Thomas O. Melia stated.
• The International Republican Institute (IRI) had received State Department support to train Iranian reformers and connect them to like-minded activists in Europe and elsewhere.  IRI’s recent application for funds was denied, an IRI official told us last week.
• The Bush administration had requested $65 million for the State Department’s Iran Democracy Fund in fiscal year 2009.  But Congress and the Obama administration have replaced it with a Near East Regional Democracy Fund, whose mission is not specified in law and therefore, can be used in any Near Eastern country.

The Op-ed goes on to impugn Obama administration’s decision to cut off the funding.  But before we jump to the conclusion that Obama does not care about Iranians, lets examine the facts more carefully.  There is a reason why many prominent Iranians, Iranian-Americans, and non-Iranians who support the reformists, are happy with the Obama administration’s decision to cut down the funding.

The Iranian democracy fund was initiated by the Bush administration in an effort to topple the clerical regime in Tehran by financing Iranian NGOs. But the fund only hindered the actions of Iranian NGOs as they were now accused of working to overthrow the government with the help of the United States. A BBC’s article had an example of how the U.S. funding placed additional risks on Iranian activists:

Human rights defenders in Iran, however, point to the Iranian Human Rights Documentation Center’s activities as an example of exactly why the fund should be cut.

In 2005, the centre organised a seminar in Dubai. Though it was advertised as a human rights seminar, participants tell the BBC that they soon realised that the aim was to train Iranian human rights defenders on how to overthrow the Iranian regime through non-violent means.

Several of the participants were subsequently arrested and jailed in Iran.

Today, they bitterly complain that the Human Rights Documentation Center knowingly put them under immense risk by luring them to Dubai - a hub for Iranian intelligence services - under false pretences.

The episode is believed to have focused the attention of the Iranian regime on NGOs and political activists. The authorities began to regard them a as a potential national security threat, prompting a severe crackdown on Iranian civil society.

In the Daily Beast, Reza Aslan, a prominent Iranian-American writer, apprises the readers on the people supporting Obama’s decision:

• Ianian Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi is among those who have praised the move.  Her spoke-person told BBC reporters: “These U.S. funds are going to people who have very little to do with the real struggle for democracy in Iran and our civil society activists never received such funds. The end to this program will have no impact on our activities whatsoever.”

• Similarly, Akbar Ganji, Iran’s most famous political dissident, has stated that the Iran Democracy Fund is “severely counterproductive,” and “none of the human-rights activists and members of the opposition in Iran had any interest in using such funds.” Ganji pointed out that the funds were counterproductive as even though Iran’s homegrown democracy activists refuse to go anywhere near the money-because the U.S. government will not release information about who actually receives the funds-the Iranian government simply assumes that any nongovernmental organization working for human rights in Iran must be in league with the U.S. government. This greatly damaged the democracy movement in Iran.

Reza Aslan also defends Obama’s decision to cut off the funding and argues that Obama’s current approach of engaging Iran is much more effective than the funding previously received under the Bush administration:

The fact remains that there is simply no way for the United States to promote democracy in Iran except through dialogue and diplomacy with its reviled regime-not through more meaningless and thus far totally ineffective sanctions, not through empty threats of military actions, and certainly not through sexy music videos.

It is quite simple, really. The only way to punish a country for its bad behavior is first to have some kind of relationship with it. That is precisely what Obama is trying to do. By working toward the normalization of relations between the U.S. and Iran, Obama is laying the groundwork for real, meaningful, and lasting reform in Iran.

So on behalf of most, not all, young Iranians struggling for change in Iran, I say, keep your measly $85 million, America (chump change as far as covert propaganda operations go).

During the Iranian presidential elections, Mehdi Karroubi was the long-shot candidate.  He was not as well known as his opponents, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Mir-Hossein Mousavi.  His reformist credentials were strong, but with Mousavi in the race, reformists already had a leader.  His speeches about stronger women’s rights and more individual liberty resonated with many Iranians, but he still lacked a strong base.  Like many losing politicians, Mehdi Karroubi was destined to be just a side-note in the newspaper articles.

But the post-election turmoil has changed all that.  The protests against Ahmadinejad’s election victory have been labeled as the “green movement” after Mousavi’s campaign color, but the leader, who has been instrumental in keeping the protest movement alive and highlighting the egregious treatment of protesters arrested, is not Mousavi, but Karroubi.  Karroubi has emerged as the voice of Iranians protesting against the current government’s fraudulent election victory.  He is the one who accused the government of torturing prisoners arrested in the post-election turmoil.  He is the one who denounced the security forces for raping and sodomizing prisoners. And now he is the one who is in threat of being prosecuted for his vocal opposition.

The Tehran Bureau has an article detailing the life of this dauntless cleric, who is worth knowing.

Photo taken from the Tehran Bureau.

Iranians have once again taken to the streets in Tehran.  But this time, instead of hearing slogans fulminating against the government, you hear people mourning the deaths of their loved ones in Sunday’s suicide attack in southeastern Sistan-Baluchistan.  Here is an Al-Jazeera report on how Iranians are coping with the suicide attack that killed at least 42 people, including 15 members of the country’s elite Revolutionary Guards:

Three Iranians have been arrested in connection to Sunday’s suicide bombing.  Al Jazeera quoted a leading Iranian prosecutor as saying that the police have detained the three on suspicion of involvement in the blast that struck the heart of the country’s security forces in Sistan-Baluchestan. Mohammad Marziah, the prosecutor in Zahedan, the provincial capital, told reporters that “Due to security reasons, I am not giving the details of their names, but these terrorists are Iranians.”  A Sunni group, Jundollah, has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Iranian authorities have been accusing Pakistan of having links to the bombers.  Manouchehr Mottaki, Iran’s foreign minister, said members of the group accused of mounting the attack regularly criss-cross the frontier with Pakistan. “Members of this terrorist group regularly violate the border and launch attacks inside Iran,” he said, without naming the group. “They cross into Iran illegally. They are based in Pakistan.”  While Brigadier-General Mohammad Pakpour, the head of the Revolutionary Guards ground forces, stated that “So far Pakistan has not co-operated with us and today the main counter-revolutionary sanctuary is Pakistan. The terrorists are being trained in that country and Pakistani officials should have the ability to confront the elements on their own soil.” Al Jazeera reported that Major-General Muhammad Ali Jafari, the head of the Revolutionary Guards, named the prime suspect behind the bombing as Abd ul-Malik Rigi - who is believed to be based in Pakistan. Jafari said Tehran would send a delegation to Islamabad to deliver “proof to them so they know that the Islamic Republic is aware of Pakistan’s support”.

Pakistan has denied any connection to the terrorist attack.

In the annual Press Freedom Index by the Reporters Without Border, it is no surprise that Iran ranked as one of the worst countries for journalists.  Iran, who was ranked 166^th in 2008, has fallen to 172^nd this year.  The only countries to fare worst than Iran are Turkmenistan (173^rd), North Korea (174^th) and Eritrea (175^th).  As the Reporters Without Border pointed out:

Journalists have suffered more than ever this year in Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s Iran. The president’s disputed reelection plunged the country into a major crisis and fostered regime paranoia about journalists and bloggers.

Automatic prior censorship, state surveillance of journalists, mistreatment, journalists forced to flee the country, illegal arrests and imprisonment - such is the state of press freedom this year in Iran.

For more information on the lack of freedom of press found in Iran, here are my previous blogs on journalists arrested during the post-election turmoil:

-       And the Ignominious Trials Continue

-       A Sorry Spectacle

-       Going Beyond the Numbers

Here is also a list of some of the journalists arrested by the Iranian government in the post-election turmoil.  The list is taken from the Daily Beast:

1. Ahmad Zeidabadi: Journalist with Tehran-based daily Hamshahri, BBC Persian, and thePersian/English news site Rooz.
   Arrested June 14
2. Shiva Nazarahari: Blogger and human-rights activist
   Arrested June 14.
3. Maziar Bahari: Correspondent for Newsweek magazine.
   Arrested June 21
4. Bahman Ahmadi Amooyi and Zhila Bani Yaghoub: Husband and wife journalists who write about women’s rights issues in Iran.
   Arrested together June 20
5. Mohammad Ghouchani: Editor of the daily Etemad Meli.
   Arrested June 18
6. Mahsa Amrabadi: Journalist and blogger.
   Arrested June 14
7. Keyvan Samimi Behbahani: Editor of Nameh magazine.
   Arrested June 14
8. Saeed Laylaz: Business reporter for Sarmayeh.
   Arrested June 17
9. Mohammad Reza Yazdanpanah: Journalist and blogger with pro-reform newspapers Shargh, Kargozaran, Hammihan, and Farhikhtegan.
   Arrested July 7
10. Issa Saharkhiz: Journalist and former editor of Aftab and Eghtesah.
    Arrested July 4
11. Mohammad Ali Abtahi: “The Blogging Mullah”.
    Arrested June 16

Newsweek journalist Maziar Bahari was released recently on humanitarian grounds.

The terrorist attacked that killed more than 42 people, including 11 commanders of Iran’s elite Islamic Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, is being blamed on Pakistan.  Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has accused Pakistan of having links to the bombers who carried out a suicide attack.  President Ahmadinejad is quoted as saying that he knew ”some security agents in Pakistan are co-operating with the main elements of this terrorist incident” in Sistan-Baluchestan province.  “We regard it as our right to demand these criminals from them”, he said, without giving further details.

Though Pakistan is not the only country to be blamed for these terrorist attacks.  The Iranian officials have accused both United States and the United Kingdom for these horrendous attacks.  As the Wall Street Journal reported, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Major-General Muhammad Ali Jafari has accused the U.S., the U.K. and Pakistan of having links with the Sunni militants responsible for the suicide bombing.  “New evidence has been obtained proving the link between yesterday’s terrorist attack and the U.S., British and Pakistani intelligence services,” state TV quoted Gen. Jafari as saying.  “Evidence shows that U.S., British and Pakistani intelligence supported the group.”  He said the attack was “undoubtedly” planned and ordered by the three nation’s intelligence services and that a delegation would soon travel to Pakistan to present evidence.

The main suspect for the bombing is the Sunni rebel group, known as Jundallah, or Soldiers of God.

Here is an Al-Jazeera report  detailing the suicide attack in Sistan-Baluchestan province:

This Al-Jazeera video examines the strong trade relationship that exist between China and Iran.  As the report shows, oil exports, which account for nearly half of Iran’s revenues , are being cut off from the West, they are being increasingly exported to Asian countries – and a big percentage of that to China.  In return China is investing billions in Iran’s gas and oil fields.

The strong trade relations are the most likely reason why Wen Jiabao, the Chinese premier, has made it clear he does not agree with Western demands for sanctions over Tehran’s disputed nuclear program, and has insisted he will maintain “close co-operation” with Iran.

Last week as the world buzzed with discussions about whether President Obama deserved the Nobel Peace Price or not, a grave human rights injustice was taking place in Iran.  Three protesters arrested for demonstrating against the disputed June reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have been given the death penalty.

The Amnesty International has a press release detailing the plight of one of these protesters:

Mohammad-Reza Ali-Zamani, the first person to be sentenced to death in connection with protests following disputed presidential elections.

Zamani, 37, was sentenced to death by a Tehran Revolutionary Court on Thursday after he was convicted of “enmity against God for membership of and activities to further the aims of the terrorist grouplet Anjoman-e Padeshahi-e Iran (API)”.

The API is an exiled opposition group which advocates the ending of the Islamic Republic and the establishment of an Iranian monarchy.

He was also convicted of “propaganda against the system”, “insulting the holy sanctities”, “gathering and colluding with intent to harm national internal security ” as well as of leaving the country illegally to visit Iraq where he was alleged to have met US military officials.

Zamani is one of more than 100 people currently standing trial before a Tehran Revolutionary Court for fomenting protests against the disputed official result of Iran’s 12 June presidential election. Amnesty International has condemned such “show trials” as a “mockery of justice”

Amnesty International also expressed fears that Zamani’s death sentence will pave the way for more death sentences against those being tried on similar offences.

Here is a list from the New York Times of some of the people still in the Iranian custody:

Among those who remain in detention are Maziar Bahari, a filmmaker and reporter for Newsweek, and Shapur Kazemi, the brother-in-law of Mir Hussein Moussavi, who the opposition claims won the election. Mr. Kazemi, 62, is a respected telecommunications engineer and is known for his activities in technical and economic fields rather than for political activism.

Others who are still being held include the former vice president, Mohammad Ali Abtahi; Muhammad Atrianfar, a publisher and confidant of the former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani; Mostafa Tajzadeh, a deputy interior minister in the reformist government of the former president Mohammad Khatami; Saeed Leylaz, an economist and former government official; and the journalist Isa Saharkhiz, who according to Iranian news reports suffered broken ribs during interrogation.

Student activists being held include Abdullah Momeni, a former spokesman for the student group Iran Alumni Association, who confessed in court. Mr. Momeni’s wife says he had been badly tortured, according to Iranian news reports.

Iranian authorities have also launched a special investigation into prominent cleric Mehdi Karroubi — a revered figure from Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution and a reformist candidate in the disputed 2009 election– over his accusations that security forces raped and tortured protesters.

As Iran continues to make a mockery out of its judicial system, here is a cartoon from the Watch Me Confess Blog highlighting the ridiculousness of these trials:

Facebook Appears in Iranian Trials to Confess

After multiple mentions by Iranian officials of Facebook as being one of the criminal elements behind the post-election unrest, Facebook personally appeared in the latest round of trials today to confess. Iranian bloggers who took a picture of Facebook confessing uploaded the picture online:

The caption reads:

Parts of Facebook’s confessions in today’s trials:

I killed Neda Agha Soltan. Social sciences are really bad too! Mousavi is an American, he has written things in me that are anti-revolutionary, same with Karroubi, I’ll give you the names of all the greens that are my members, and right now an enormous spiritual transformation has occurred in me. I have a gentle interrogator that continuously increases my bandwidth!