Iran Declared A Space and Nuclear Power

TEHRAN, March 13 (RIA Novosti) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Friday that pressure from Western powers trying to keep Iran in economic isolation have in fact spurred the country to become a space and nuclear power.

"Had you not been bad-tempered and blocked the way, the Iranian nation would not have been present in space, and would not have become a nuclear power," Fars news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying at the inauguration ceremony of a natural gas deposit in the Bushehr province.

Iran put its first communications satellite, Omid (Hope), into a near-Earth orbit on February 2. The research satellite was carried into orbit by a home-made launch vehicle, Safir (Messenger). Iranian Communications Minister Mohammad Soleimani earlier said that the country's scientists were working on the creation of four new satellites to be placed into near-Earth orbit. - Rian.ru

Not to sympathize with him, but it is America's hegemony that has contributed to Iran's (and many other nation's) build up.

Iran Purchases Wheat From U.S

Iran this summer resumed buying U.S. wheat after a 27-year hiatus, a sign of
the limited options for importers seeking large quantities of high-quality
grain.

So far, Iran has bought more than one-million tons of hard red winter wheat
directly from the U.S., which is "a very large amount," said Bill Nelson,
analyst for Wachovia Securities.

The purchases mean at least 3% to 4% of U.S. wheat exports for the 2008-09
marketing year, which began June 1, will go to a country the U.S. hasn't done
business with for more than a generation. U.S. sanctions against Iran don't
prohibit agricultural trade. - Wall Street Journal

Iran is too busy paying Hezbollah and Hamas to care about irrigation.

More Good News In Iraq

...Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr plans to announce Friday that he will disarm his Mahdi Army, which was raining mortars on Baghdad's Green Zone as recently as April. Coupled with the near-total defeat of al Qaeda in Iraq, this means the U.S. no longer faces any significant organized military foe in the country. It also marks a major setback for Iran, which had used the Mahdi Army as one of its primary vehicles for extending its influence in Iraq.

The story, broken yesterday by the Journal's Gina Chon, marks the latest of serial defeats for Mr. Sadr, beginning in February 2007 when he was forced underground (reportedly to Iran) in anticipation of the surge of U.S. troops. More recently, the Mahdi Army was defeated and evicted from Basra and other southern strongholds by an Iraqi-led military offensive. The Mahdi Army capitulated without a fight from its Baghdad enclave of Sadr City. Now the young cleric will focus his group's efforts on politics and social work, perhaps while he pursues theological studies in Iran. He wouldn't be the first grad student in history with a tendency toward rabble-rousing. - Wall Street Journal

More good news = time to pull the unnecessary military out.

U.S Might Open Up Office In Iran

WASHINGTON - With President Bush trying to burnish his diplomatic credentials on a series of fronts, the State Department is pushing the envelope by suggesting it may be time to open a permanent American presence in – of all places – Tehran.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has recently floated the idea of opening a US interests-section office in the capital of Iran – the last member of Mr. Bush's 2002 "axis of evil." An interests-section office, which is basically an embassy without an ambassador, allows for a US presence in a country with which the United States has no formal diplomatic relations.

The US maintains an interests section in Cuba – in a seafront high-rise in Havana. It is larger than the diplomatic missions of many countries with full diplomatic relations with the Cuban regime. - Christian Science Monitor

The U.S has had a storied history of dealings with Iran.

White House Dismisses Iran Attack

The White House on Tuesday flatly denied an Army Radio report that claimed US President George W. Bush intends to attack Iran before the end of his term. It said that while the military option had not been taken off the table, the administration preferred to resolve concerns about Iran's push for a nuclear weapon "through peaceful diplomatic means."

Army Radio had quoted a top official in Jerusalem claiming that a senior member in the entourage of President Bush, who visited Israel last week, had said in a closed meeting here that Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney were of the opinion that military action against Iran was called for.

The official reportedly went on to say that, for the time being, "the hesitancy of Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice" was preventing the administration from deciding to launch such an attack on the Islamic Republic.

The Army Radio report, which was quoted by The Jerusalem Post and resonated widely, stated that according to assessments in Israel, the recent turmoil in Lebanon, where Hizbullah has established de facto control of the country, was advancing an American attack.

Bush, the official reportedly said, considered Hizbullah's show of strength evidence of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's growing influence. In Bush's view, the official said, "the disease must be treated - not its symptoms."

However, the White House on Tuesday afternoon dismissed the story. In a statement, it said that "[the US] remain[s] opposed to Iran's ambitions to obtain a nuclear weapon. To that end, we are working to bring tough diplomatic and economic pressure on the Iranians to get them to change their behavior and to halt their uranium enrichment program." - Jerusalem Post

I wouldn't doubt that they are strongly considering this, but in all likelihood it will not happen.

Bush Lays The Smack Down On Iran

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates - President Bush yesterday called Iran "the world's leading state sponsor of terror" and sought to shore up opposition to the government in Tehran throughout the Middle East.

But even as he criticized Iranian leaders, saying they were seeking to repress their citizens and cow neighboring countries, Bush appealed to US allies in the region to open up their political and economic systems to greater democracy.

Iran agrees to discuss nuclear work, agency says.

Spotlighting a swath of the globe where US diplomacy is built around seeking help for the administration's antiterrorism effort, the president criticized only Iran by name. He avoided mentioning Egypt, his final stop on a six- nation Middle East trip, despite the country's long record of human rights abuses, limited political rights, and economic disparity. He also did not cite other nations across the region with similarly troubled histories.

Speaking 150 miles across the Persian Gulf from Iran, Bush said the Islamic Republic "sends hundreds of millions of dollars to extremists around the world, while its own people face repression and economic hardship at home." He said Iran was seeking "to intimidate its neighbors with ballistic missiles and bellicose rhetoric." - The Boston Globe

Let's bomb Iran...right Mogni?