AT LONG LAST, A GREEN CHARTER
Just over a year after it first materialized, Iran's Green Movement may finally have a unifying charter to rally around. Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, the titular head of the Greens, has issued a charter calling for drastic reforms in the Iranian government while emphasizing nonviolence and respect for the Islamic Republic’s constitution. The document additionally identifies the Movement’s main goals as the return of “power to people through free elections,” and includes a demand for “equality for women, minorities, and other ethnic groups." The charter was published a day after Mostafa Tajzadeh, a former top Interior Ministry official who is now one of the heads of the banned Islamic Iran Participation Front, published his own controversial letter from prison calling for government reform and a reconsideration of the role of religion in the state.
The Green Movement's politics remain fractuous, however. Public responses to the two documents have been mixed, including criticism of the continued support of both Mousavi and Tajzadeh for the Iranian constitution. Nevertheless, the dueling communiqués represent the first concerted attempt to unify the Green Movement into a cohesive organization since it emerged following Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's fraudulent reelection last summer. (Washington Post, June 16, 2010)
THE SHIPPING SHELL GAME
The international community may be tightening the financial noose around Iran, but the Islamic Republic continues to find new ways around U.S. sanctions. The regime's most recent efforts involve corporate camouflage by IRISL, the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines, in order to avoid U.S. sanctions aimed at preventing Iranian acquisition of military-use technology. Since 2008, when the U.S. banned all American banks and companies from transactions with IRISL and its fleet, ships have been disappearing, sold off to other companies, only to resume operations under a new name and ownership months later. Investigations reveal that, despite the new owners, the vessels are frequently still operated — directly or indirectly — by IRISL or its subsidiaries. This use of shell companies has placed 73 of IRISL's 123 ships in the ownership of companies not blacklisted by the United States, though at least 63 of those ships can be traced back to IRISL. U.S. watch groups cannot keep pace with the shell companies, which have spread across Europe and Asia, even as IRISL continues to deny any role in “improperly aiding Iran’s military and nuclear programs.” (New York Times, June 7, 2010)
RELIGIOUS SANCTION FOR "SPECIAL WEAPONS"
Ever since details of its previously-clandestine nuclear program became public in the fall of 2003, international debate has raged over the nature and intent of Iran's atomic drive. For years, Iranian officials have steadfastly insisted that their nuclear development is strictly for civilian purposes. At least one high-level Iranian cleric, however, is singing a different tune. In a new book recently obtained by Western media outlets, hardline Qom cleric Ayatollah Mohammed Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi insists that the Iranian regime needs "special weapons" in its struggle against the West. "The most advanced weapons must be produced inside our country even if our enemies don't like it," writes Mesbah-Yazdi in his 2005 book, entitled The Islamic Revolution, a Surge in Political Changes in History. "There is no reason that they have the right to produce a special type of weapons, while other countries are deprived of it... Under Islamic teachings, all common tools and materialistic instruments must be employed against the enemy and prevent enemy's military superiority." (Associated Press, June 14, 2010)
[Editor's Note: Particularly notable in this regard is the fact that Mesbah-Yazdi is widely known to be the spiritual mentor and guide of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, under who's guidance Iran's nuclear program has flourished over the past half-decade.]
ANOTHER INCURSION INTO IRAQ
Iran is once again testing the limits of its western neighbor's sovereignty. According to regional officials in Iraq's Kurdistan Province, Iranian forces recently advanced some three kilometers onto Iraqi soil, where they have set up military positions and built new roads. Iraq's central government, however, remains mum about Iran's encroachment. "The federal government has not taken one single decision or made one single move to protect us from this Iranian invasion as it did nothing when the Iranians bombed areas inside the Kurdistan Province in the past," says Mehsen al-Saadoun, a leader in the Kurdish Alliance political faction. (London Al-Hayat, June 7, 2010)