No governmental control of Azad University

With about one and a half million students, Azad University in Tehran is the biggest institution of education in Iran. During the last weeks it has seen incidents without comparison as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has tried to bring the University which name Azad means "Free" under state control.

At first it looked like Ahmadinejad's plan to reshuffle the University's board of trustees would succeed. The Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution as well as the government's High Council for Education had passed decisions to change the ordinance of the University according to Ahmadinejad's will, who is by the way head of the Supreme Council of the Culural Revolution. But supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei has now used his power to nullify these decisions. Therefore Azad University remains free of governmental control.

You can easily see that the incidents regarding the Azad University are highly political. The university was founded by former president Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani in 1983 and its board of trustees includes Mir Hossein Mousavi, who was Ahmadinejad's opponent during his last presidential campaign, as well as several moderate conservatives.

A week of sanctions

Just ten days ago the UN Security Council has agreed on new sanctions against Iran. In the meantime the USA as well as the European Union have relaesed their own lists of sanctions.

The USA will expand their penalties on more than thirty companies and persons that are believed to help Iran with its nuclear program. It's a new effort on trying to isolate Iran commercially but even if the new list includes top Iranian banks as well as commanders of the Revolutionary Guard, the effect is not clear yet. When Treasury secretary Timothy F. Geithner announced the new measures on wednesday he told the press that Iran would always try to find ways to evade the sanctions and continued to say:

"So our effort must be ongoing and unrelenting. And we will keep working on ways to intensify financial pressure on Iran"

Adding to the UN and US sanctions fhe foreign ministers of the EU have agreed on new measures against Iran. The EU sanctions are targeting Iran's commerce and include a new provision that could hit its heart: European companies are no longer allowed to invest in the Iranian oil and gas industry.

New sanctions on Iran more than likely

The UN Security Council is expected to introduce new sanctions on Iran as the Islamic Republic holds on to its nuclear programme. Just one week ago the Security Council published a new report, which says Iran possesses enough nuclear fuel now to build two atomic weapons if it is further enriched. The decision over new sanctions will probably be announced within the next few days and when you take a look on the latest criticism passed on by the international community on Iran, it is as good as certain that there will be new sanctions.

When Angela Merkel met Dmitrij Medwedew for a German-Russian summit this weekend they both agreed that the UN Security Council should introduce new sanctions on Iran, if the government of Ahmadinejad is not willing to give in on the nuclear issue.

Today on the 35-nation board meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukiya Amano the head of the agency called Iran a "special case" because it's constraining the work of the IAEA:

"Iran has not provided the necessary cooperation to permit the agency to confirm that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities."

The Sunday Telegraph has published a story yesterday in which it is claimed that the regime in Tehran uses the Gulf port of Dubai to smuggle sophisticated technology for its uranium enrichement programme. The smuggled electronic and computer equipment, which is banned under UN sanctions, was produced by "one of Germany's leading electronics manufacturers" but the Telegraph states that this company didn't know the control systems were designated for Iran. It appears the German company has been scammed by its trading partner in Dubai that used false end-user certificates for companies in Asia.

McChrystal: Iran supports Taliban

Stanley McChrystal, highest ranked US-General as well as leader of the Nato forces in Afghanistan, told reporters in Kabul on Sunday, that Iran supports the Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.

He said Taliban fighters would be trained in Iran and also be supplied with weapons by their western neighbour. McChrystal spoke of "clear evidence" for this accusation but didn't show any of this evidence to the public. When one month ago McChrystal had talked about Iranian support for Taliban forces he sounded less certain:

Last month, McChrystal said there were indications that Taliban militants were training in Iran, but not very many. He did not, however, suggest any links to Iranian government policy.

- Washington Post, May 31

Iran's government denied the accusation. Although Iran is opposed to the presence of US troops in Afghanistan it has always supported the Northern Alliance in its fight against the Taliban and has good relationships with the government of Hamid Karzai.

Iran signs deal for uranium exchange with Turkey

After 18 hours of negotiations between the leaders of Iran, Brazil and Turkey in Tehran today, the three nations signed an agreement for a nuclear fuel swap. According to Iran's foreign embassy, the Islamic Republic is going to send 1200 Kg of its low-enriched uranium, which should be in fact a large part of Iran's nuclear stockpile, to Turkey in return for 120 kg of uranium, which is enriched highly enough for medical research programms but not for building atomic bombs.
Until today Tehran has declined an older but very similar proposal given by the UN. Since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad signed the deal only together with the Turkish prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and the Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, he avoided to be seen as caving in to US pressure.
While the Iranian president immediately adressed the international community to accept the deal and restart negotiations with Tehran, the reactions of Western states are still cautious, as you can read on washingtonpost.com:

"U.S. officials did not react immediately to the announcement. But Germany, said the swap deal, which still needs the approval of the U.S., Russia and France, does not free Iran from U.N. Security Council demands that it immediately stop enriching uranium."

Protests at Tehran University during visit of Ahmadinejad

When Ahmadinejad surprisingly visited the campus of the Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran on monday, a protest among the students broke out. Like one year ago at the mass protests in Tehran, this incident was uncovered by citizen journalists, filming videos and taking pictures with their cellphones. Although there was no big media echo The Lede Blog, written by Robert Mackey for the New York Times posted three videos that apparently showed yesterdays protests. In these videos you can see at least several hundred students protesting and chanting phrases like "Freedom" or “Today is a day of mourning. Ahmadinejad, the liar, is our guest today” (Both quotes translated). There is no evidence wether the protests had any link to the execution of five prisoners the day before, but as these executions were seen controversial, it is very likely that they had at least some influence on the protesters.

Assault on Pakistani Ambassador

Today Mohammad Bakhsh Abbasi, Pakistani ambassador to Iran, got assaulted by an Afghan in northern Tehran. Abbasi just got slightly wounded on his head and his hands but already seems to be in a good condition again. Official sources say the aggressor got caught by Iranian police shortly after the incident had happened. So far the motive of the assault remains unclear. The Associated Press wrote that the Afghan attacked the ambassador after both had argued with each other. But it is still unclear wether they were arguing about politics or something else.

Delegates walk out of UN general assembly during speech of Ahmadinejad

The UN nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review conference, which is taking place at the UN right now, hosts delegations from 189 countries, but only a single head of state found his way there today: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Even though Iran's nuclear program is among the hottest topics in international affairs at the moment, Ahmadinejad used his speech at the UN to criticize states which already have nuclear weapons, mainly the USA. When demanding the suspension of members of the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Ahmadinejad asked:

"How can the United States be a member of the board of governors when it used nuclear weapons against Japan"

He also accused Israel, which he referred to as the "zionist regime", of secretely building up an arsenal of nuclear weapons.
His speech caused delegates from the US, Britain, Germany and France to walk out of the assembly. The walkout is no surprise as it had even been announced before the assembly took place.
Hillary Clinton is going to speak in front of the assembly later this day. Last week Clinton expressed her hope that the talks with Iran over its nuclear program will be successful:

"If President Ahmadinejad wants to come and announce that Iran will abide by their non-proliferation requirements under the NPT, that would be very good news indeed"

No mass protests on Labour's Day

As protests on May 1st were expected, Iranian opposition leaders, Mir Hussein Moussavi and Mehdi Karroubi, had called for workers and teachers to join the reformists in a broad-based coalition. But although there have been some protests in Iranian cities during Labour's Day, there haven't been big masses of people on the streets of Teheran. The reason for that is very probably the massive police presence on the streets of Iran's capital, as you can see by quotes of witnesses in The New York Times:

Across Tehran on Saturday, major intersections that had been filled with protesters last summer were filled instead with police officers in riot gear

On last week's wednesday Spiegel Online published an interview with Mehdi Karroubi. The clergyman, who is known as a reformer and is under permanent surveillance by Iranian forces, said he calls on the people for a peaceful assembly on June 15, exactly one year after about three million people had protested on the streets of Teheran. Karroubi told Spiegel that it may be quiet on the streets of Iran right now, but people would just be waiting for a spark to go out again.

Ahmadinejad's trip to Africa causes controversy

As Iranian president Mahmud Ahmadinejad has spent the last days in Africa looking for allies who could keep him from international isolation, his visit has caused controversy within the African political community.

Controversy in Zimbabwe's government

Before heading towards Uganda, Ahmadinejad has spent two days in Zimbabwe where he opened a trade fair.

While Robert Mugabe welcomed Ahmadinejad with open arms, emphasizing their friendship as well as their common backgrounds in a press conference, the reaction of Mugabes coalition partner, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), was very different. In fact the MDC issued a statement that denounced Mugabe and his party ZANU-PF for inviting Ahmadinejad. The statement called the decision "not only a colossal political scandal, but an insult to the peace-loving people of Zimbabwe and Iran." The MDC principally criticized Ahmadinejad for not respecting human rights in his own country:

"While Ahmadinejad will be wining and dining in our country next week, nine opposition activists in Iran will be facing death sentences for merely contesting the outcome of last year’s presidential results. As a party, we feel that a country is defined by its friends. We want to place it on record that judging by his record, Ahmadinejad is coming not as a friend of Zimbabwe, but an ally of those that unilaterally invited him."

Canvassing Africa's Security Council members

At the moment two African states are members of the UN Security Council: Uganda and Nigeria. Therefore it doesn't seem like a coincidence, that the US Undersecretary of state for political affairs William Burns met with Nigerias president Goodluck Jonathan on saturday, when Ahmadinejad himself was in Uganda.

It is no surprise either that the nuclear issue was a topic at both of the state visits. After having met Nigerias president the US official told Nigerian state radio: “The United States and Nigeria are determined to live up to our responsibility on nuclear issues”.

Although Uganda could still use its seat in the Security Council to vote for sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, this option seems very unlikely since Ugandas Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Kutesa already told the Associated Press before Ahmadinejad's visit that they would "strongly believe that every country has a right to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes."

Let's get started

I like to welcome you to my new blog "Two eyes on Iran"!

The reason for most people to find this page within the next few weeks should be pretty simple. They will either be my friends and colleagues who I told to take a look at it or they will just land here by chance.

My goal however is to create a blog, which all readers interested in Iran can enjoy and use as a reliable source of information about recent developments. In order to reach this goal I'm going to update the blog frequently and try to only use information I'm considering as interesting.

Therefore I'm hoping to reach a bigger audience sooner or later. Let me put it this way: From now on I will keep two eyes on the situation in Iran and if you're reading my posts the both of us will already have four eyes on it. If you're following international news and you know about the situation in Iran, I guess you are going to agree, that there simply can't be enough people paying attention to the developments in this islamic republic. I'm curious how many eyes there will be at the end.

Well this is the first post I've ever written as a blogger, but it surely won't be the last one. So if you got interested stay tuned, there's a lot more to come.