Khamenei in tough sermon defends presidential election, warns protesters
June 19, 2009, 3:26 PM (GMT+02:00)
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in stern, uncompromising mode
In his first public appearance since the disputed presidential election of June 12, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Iran's enemies sought to shake the people's confidence and trust in the Islamic regime. They suffered an earthquake and the Islamic regime won a celebration. Revolutionary Guards commander Mohsein Rezai was the only one of the three losing presidential candidates to be present at the mass-attended Friday sermon at the main mosque in Tehran.
The street rallies, Khamenei charged, were used as the cover for Western "armed terrorist groups" who attacked Bassij militiamen and Tehran University of Tehran students. He said the "street riots" are the wrong way and must stop, or else their leader would be held responsible for the consequences.
The audience shouted: "Death to the UK, Israel and the US!"
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Protesters in funereal black march silently in tense Iran
DEBKAfile Special Report
June 18, 2009, 8:55 PM (GMT+02:00)
Opposition marchers in Tehran Thursday
The tensely awaited opposition rally scheduled for Thursday, June 18, took place with hardly any incident. DEBKAfile's Iranian sources suggest that the rival camps contesting the presidential election results – and in essence the future of the Iranian regime – appear to have agreed on a temporary truce on the sixth day of their violent confrontation.
They made no attempt to provoke the security forces, who stood by and watched.
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Thousands of Iranian Revolutionary Guardsmen deployed for crackdown on opposition
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report
June 17, 2009, 8:56 PM (GMT+02:00)
Iran's Special Police Forces on the ready
Wednesday afternoon, June 17, armored convoys of Revolutionary Guard forces began rolling into Tehran from three directions to prevent supporters of the opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi assembling on the fifth day after the disputed presidential election, DEBKAfile's Iranian sources report.
The confrontation between the regime and Iran's protest movement is closer than ever to a bloody climax. Thursday, June 18, may be critical.
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Ex-US president Carter's escapes assassination by al Qaeda-linked Palestinians
DEBKAfile Special Report
June 17, 2009, 1:02 PM (GMT+02:00)
Carter commiserates with Gazans
DEBKAfile's military sources confirm that the Army of Islam, the Palestinian al Qaeda cell in Gaza tried to assassinate former US president Jimmy Carter by planting a 200-kilo bomb in the path of his exit through the Erez crossing after he held sympathetic talks with its Hamas rulers.
Nevertheless, some reports say Carter promises to urge President Barack Obama to remove the Palestinian extremist organization from the US list of designated terrorists.
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Netanyahu's speech – more political than statesmanlike
DEBKAfile Special Analysis
June 14, 2009, 1:44 PM (GMT+02:00)
Israel's prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu's speech at the Bar-Ilan University's Begin-Sadat Hall Sunday, June 14, failed to offer a new diplomatic beginning for approaching the intractable conflict with the Palestinians, according to DEBKAfile's analysts. He finally accepted the two-state solution promoted by US president Barak Obama but tagged on some tough consensual conditions which none of his predecessors had the courage to put squarely on the table.
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Nuclear watchdog chief: Iran wants nuclear weapon for recognition as major power
DEBKAfile Special Report
June 17, 2009, 2:08 PM (GMT+02:00)
IAEA head Mohammed ElBaradei
Dr. Mohammed ElBaradei said Wednesday, June 17: "it is my gut feeling that Iran would like to have the technology to enable it to have nuclear weapons – both as a message to their neighbors and the world, don't mess with us" and as the road to the prestige of being recognized as a major Middle East power.
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Iran pulls back and teeters again on brink of civil war
DEBKA-Net-Weekly
June 17, 2009, 7:57 PM (GMT+02:00)
Street protests turn into mass dissent
The Khamenei-Ahmadinejad duo's grip on the regime is still challenged by four powerful faction leaders of the Islamic Revolution.
DEBKA-Net-Weekly's experts explore this fissure in its coming edition after Issue 400 revealed exclusively ahead of the June 12 election that one of the four, Hashemi Rafsanjani, had warned of street violence if Ahmadinejad was not restrained.
Don't miss DEBKA-Net-Weekly's continuing insights and predictions in the coming issue out Friday.
To subscribe to DEBKA-Net-Weekly click HERE .
Enraged Palestinians weigh return to terror for Netanyahu speech
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report
June 15, 2009, 9:10 AM (GMT+02:00)
Palestinian "special forces"
Senior Palestinian officials in Ramallah, enraged by the Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu's conditional offer of a Palestinian state Sunday, June 14 - and even more by what they see as US president Barack Obama's perfidious welcome - are weighing extreme options for reprisal, DEBKAfile's military sources report.
Some advise reverting to Yasser Arafat's two-stage tactics of synchronized terror and diplomacy and resuscitating the Fatah's al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and Tanzim terrorist organizations.
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