Diplomatic Briefing
Your exclusive news aggregator handpicked daily!Archive for Iran
Newsline: US Supreme Court rejects appeal from former embassy hostages who wanted to sue Iran
The Supreme Court has declined to revive a lawsuit against Iran filed by Americans held hostage at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran more than 30 years ago. The justices on Tuesday did not comment in letting stand lower court decisions dismissing the $6.6 billion class-action lawsuit. The lower courts found the agreement to release the hostages, known as the Algiers Accords, precluded lawsuits against Iran. The suit argued that legislation in 2008 gave the hostages the right to sue. Fifty-two American diplomats and military officials were held captive for more than a year by a group of Islamist students who supported the Iranian revolution. The hostages were released on Jan. 20, 1981.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/supreme-court-rejects-appeal-from-former-embassy-hostages-who-wanted-to-sue-iran/2012/05/29/gJQAtxLtyU_story.html
Newsline: U.S. Embassy officials among the targets of alleged Iran-linked assassination plots in Azerbaijan
In November, the tide of daily cable traffic to the U.S. Embassy in Azerbaijan brought a chilling message for Ambassador Matthew Bryza, then the top U.S. diplomat to the small Central Asian country. A plot to kill Americans had been uncovered, the message read, and embassy officials were on the target list. The details, scant at first, became clearer as intelligence agencies from both countries stepped up their probe. The plot had two strands, U.S. officials learned, one involving snipers with silencer-equipped rifles and the other a car bomb, apparently intended to kill embassy employees or members of their families. Both strands could be traced back to the same place, the officials were told: Azerbaijan’s southern neighbor, Iran. The threat, many details of which were never made public, appeared to recede after Azerbaijani authorities rounded up nearly two dozen people in waves of arrests early this year. Precisely who ordered the hits, and why, was never conclusively determined. But U.S. and Middle Eastern officials now see the attempts as part of a broader campaign by Iran-linked operatives to kill foreign diplomats in at least seven countries over a span of 13 months. The targets have included two Saudi officials, a half-dozen Israelis and — in the Azerbaijan case — several Americans, the officials say.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-officials-among-the-targets-of-iran-linked-assassination-plots/2012/05/27/gJQAHlAOvU_story.html
Newsline: Iranians protester outside German Embassy
Iran’s official news agency said protesters in front of the German Embassy in Tehran were seeking return of an Iranian-born singer who went into hiding after receiving death threats. Singer Shahin Najafi allegedly insulted a Shiite Muslim saint. The protesters also demanded that Germany apologize for hosting the singer, who has lived in Germany since 2005. They called the singer an apostate. Najafi first contacted German police about the threats May 8. A day later, an anonymous person posting on a Persian-language website put a $100,000 price on his head.
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/765578611/Iranian-protesters-seek-return-of-local-singer-hiding-in-Germany.html
Consular affairs: Iranian-Canadians cry foul at protest over visa rules
Immigration minister Jason Kenney has promised a town hall meeting in Richmond Hill this summer to discuss concerns among Iranian-Canadians over the closure of the embassy’s visa section in Tehran. Iranian-Canadians say the recent closure is hurting their families and not the intended target, the Iranian regime. Mr. Kenney was taking part in a Conservative party dinner with Richmond Hill MP Costas Menagakis while members of the Iranian community quietly demonstrated outside, waving flags and placards reading “Closure of the visa section is hurting 120,000 Iranian-Canadians” and “Punish the government, not the people of Iran”. The ex-pats are unhappy with the decision announced last month to close the visa section at Canada’s embassy in the Iranian capital and transfer services to the Canadian embassy in Ankara, Turkey. The move affects the processing of temporary resident applications. Permanent resident services were transferred to Ankara several months ago. Demonstrators said the decision, made without consulting the community, puts undue pressure on Canadian-Iranian families who look to Canada as a safe haven.
http://www.yorkregion.com/news/article/1362196–iranian-canadians-cry-foul-at-protest-over-visa-rules
Newsline: Iran recalls Azerbaijan ambassador over Eurovision ‘gay parade
The Islamic Republic said it had withdrawn its ambassador from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan that hosts the event on Saturday, “in connection with the insulting of religious saints”. Azerbaijan’s hosting of the Eurovision Song Contest – a flamboyant annual pageant of pop music from around Europe – has been condemned by some Iranian clerics and MPs who have referred to a “gay parade” – although no such event is planned. A senior Iranian cleric, Ayatollah Sobhani, issued a statement urging Muslims in the region to protest what he described as anti-Islamic behaviour by Azerbaijan’s government. “We heard that the government of Azerbaijan is hosting the international Eurovision Song Contest and that during this contest there will also be a gay parade,” the semi-official Fars news agency quoted the cleric as saying. Iran was angered by subsequent anti-Iranian protests in the Azerbaijan capital Baku, where demonstrators carried pictures of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and banners that read “Azerbaijan does not need clerics – homosexuals!”
http://www.iranian.com/main/news/2012/05/22/iran-recalls-azerbaijan-ambassador-over-eurovision-gay-parade
Newsline: Iran sacks diplomat for child molestation
Iran’s foreign ministry said on Monday it has sacked one of its diplomats who allegedly fondled underaged girls in a swimming pool in Brazil, where he was stationed before being recalled. “After an investigation into the violations by the Iranian employee of the Iranian embassy in Brazil, it was found his behaviour was contrary to administrative regulations and Islamic conduct … thus he was dismissed,” the ministry said in a statement. Brazilian media identified the diplomat as Hekmatollah Ghorbani, 51, and reported that he groped at least four Brazilian girls aged between nine and 15 in a Brasilia pool last month, making them cry and attracting the fury of their parents.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-1-109813-Iran-sacks-diplomat
Newsline: Iran recalls its envoy in Baku due to ‘insulting of Ayatollah Khamenei’
Official Tehran has recalled its ambassador in Azerbaijan Mohammad Bagher Bahrami. The statement came from Salamnews citing diplomatic sources. As a reason of the withdrawal, the Iranian party says that the participants of the recent protest outside the Iranian embassy in Baku insulted the spiritual leader of the country Ayatollah Khamenei. The ambassador has supposedly been called to Tehran for consultations. A number of protests against the anti-Azerbaijani policy of Tehran and violation of the rights of millions of Azerbaijanis in this country were held outside the Iranian embassy in Baku last week. The photos of the president and the spiritual leader of Iran with critical comments were used during the protest.
http://www.news.az/articles/politics/60736
Newsline: Ambassador says US prepared to attack Iran
The U.S. ambassador to Israel revealed this week that the United States is prepared to attack Iran to stop the Islamist regime from developing a nuclear weapon. Ambassador Daniel B. Shapiro told Israel’s Army Radio on Thursday that the Pentagon has developed plans for the “use of military force” against Iran. The ambassador’s remarks to Army Radio are the first public comments by a U.S. official confirming that the United States is prepared for military acton. In the past, U.S. officials have said an attack was only an “option.” “It would be preferable to resolve this diplomatically and through the use of pressure than to use military force,” Mr. Shapiro said in the radio interview.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/may/17/embassy-row-iran-attack-ready/
Newsline: Afghan foreign ministry summons Iranian envoy
The first counselor of the Islamic Republic of Iran embassy in capital Kabul was summoned by the Afghan foreign affairs ministry. According to a statement released by the Afghan foreign affairs ministry the first counselor of the Iranian embassy in Kabul was summoned to brief the Afghan officials regarding the recent remarks of the Iranian ambassador regarding the long term strategic cooperation agreement between Afghanistan and Washington. The source further added Afghan foreign affairs ministry officials told Mohammad Kazim Naeemi the first counselor of the Iranian embassy in Kabul that the Afghan government being an independent nation has the right to sign agreement with any other nation. This comes as the Iranian ambassador in Kabul following his meeting with the head of the Afghan senate house warned to force Afghan refugees leave Iran if the Afghan senate approves strategic pact document between Kabul and Washington.
http://www.khaama.com/afghan-foreign-ministry-summon-iran-embassy-counselor-905
Newsline: Iran plot to kill Saudi envoy in Cairo foiled
Egyptian security services foiled an Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Cairo several months ago, the legal advisor of the kingdom’s embassy said in local dailies. Egypt “arrested three Iranians planning to assassinate the ambassador, Ahmed Qattan,” Al-Hayat quoted Sami Jamal as saying. “Egyptian authorities informed concerned parties at the Saudi foreign ministry of the details of the plot, but the Saudi side opted to keep silent on the matter,” Jamal said. The arrests were made three months ago. Questioned about the reports, a spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry, Ramin Mehmanparast, told reporters in Tehran that the allegation was “absolutely incorrect.” “Manufacturing such issues can only help divisions among Muslim countries and benefit the Zionist regime (Israel),” he said. Riyadh on Saturday recalled its ambassador from Cairo after angry protests outside the Saudi embassy in Cairo over the arrest of an Egyptian human rights lawyer in the Gulf kingdom. Saudi state news agency SPA said the Cairo embassy as well as the kingdom’s consulates in the Mediterranean cities of Alexandria and Suez were closed. In October, the United States accused Iran of plotting to kill the Saudi ambassador to Washington. Iran has fiercely denied any involvement in the alleged plot.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4223427,00.html
