Stop Fundamentalism – Heavy presence of Iranian police and security agencies in the streets of Tehran to confront illegal and uncontrolled sales of foreign currency, did not help stabilize the value of Rial today. Dollar was sold in streets of Tehran for 17000 to 17300 Rials today which is relatively higher that its price last week.
The Iranian Central Bank has stopped providing foreign currency to foreign exchanges altogether.
Stop Fundamentalism – Iran executed 12 prisoners in the central city of Shiraz Sunday 15 January, report Iranian news agencies.
Five of the prisoners were hanged in public in various locations in the city and the reset were hanged in Adelabab prison in a group execution.
SF News – Iranian movie maker Ashrar Farhadi was in Hollywood last night to receive the Golden Globe prize for his movie ‘Nader and Simin, A Separation’ as the best foreign language film.
‘A Separation’ had received the Golden Bear Film Awards earlier in Berlin, Germany. Two of the casts also received the Silver Bear at this festival.
Stop Fundamentalism – An Iranian website affiliated with ruling sectors of the Iranian regime threatened western countries of retaliations for the loss of its nuclear scientists.
A deputy director of Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment plant was killed Wednesday when a magnetic bomb exploded in his car. The bombing took place at the anniversary of another nuclear scientist who was killed last year on the same day. Iran blames U.S. and Israel for the killing.
“Iran enters a new phase for special intelligence operations against its enemies, a task that it uniquely specializes in,” wrote the website ‘Tabnak’ yesterday adding, “The response region would be beyond our borders and regional.”
Stop Fundamentalism – The Iranian Resistance in a press release Thursday night denounced Nouri al-Maliki’s call for the arrest of 126 residents of Camp Ashraf on charges of terrorism. The Iranian exile group says Maliki is acting on the behest of the Iranian regime to crackdown on its main opposition movement which has been based in Camp Ashraf in Iraq for the past 25 years.
The measure seems to be yet another attempt by the government of Iraq to press the group to leave Iraq. That is in spite of the fact that all members of group, known as Mojahedin-e Khalq or MEK, have filed to request for asylum from the United Nations refugee agency, the UNHCR.
Stop Fundamentalism – Al-Jazeera news network announced Tuesday that its programming signal through Arabsat is being jammed from two locations in Iran.
The Qatar-based network says it has been experiencing continuing disruptions for months on its news program and just recently found that Iran is the source for the interference.
Stop Fundamentalism – Iran’s head of parliament, Ali Larijani, announced in Turkey last night that Iran is ready to start a new round of discussion with p5+1 if they are serious. He responded positively to Turkey’s suggestion last week that the discussions be held in neighboring Turkey.
High Representative Catherine Ashton’s office in Europe who heads the negotiation on behalf of western powers told AFP that it is yet to receive an official response to an October letter she wrote to the Islamic Republic.
Stop Fundamentalism – Baghdad Television reported about an argument between Nouri al-Maliki and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan over the phone about Iraq’s political crisis today.
A source told Baghdad TV today that a phone conversation between the two country’s prime ministers went soure when Erdogan tried to talk to Maliki about Tareq al-Hashimi’s terror allegations and the way he treats his Deputy Prime Minister, Saleh Al-Mutlaq, both Sunni Muslims from Iraqi bloc.
Stop Fundamentalism – UNAMI invited Iraqi political parties to use dialogue as the means to resolve the current political crisis in the country. Meeting with Iraq’s parliament speaker, Osama Al-Nojaifi, Martin Kobler, called on all sides to “find common ground in the spirit of partnership” based on Iraq’s constitution.
In a statement released following the meeting on Monday by United Nations Assistant Mission in Iraq, the Head of the mission, Martin Kobler, who also serves as the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy to Iraq, supported the idea of a national conference to resolve the situation.
Stop Fundamentalism – A spokesman for the Iraqi bloc told Asharq Alawsat that while Nouri al-Maliki is still the Prime Minister, no national agreement can be reached.
“Any congress meeting to achieve a national unity will not be realized while Maliki is still the Prime Minister,” said Haidar Al-mulla, Iraqi bloc spokesman, in a phone interview with Asharq Alawsat Tuesday.
