POLITICS-IRAN: Defiant but Weighing the Cost of UN Sanctions

While the world awaits a response to resolution 1737 passed by the U.N. Security Council, Iranian officials are defiantly calling for a review of Iran's subscription to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), if the country is ‘threatened'.

CHALLENGES 2006-2007: Iranians See Tougher Times Ahead

As 2006 closed Iranians witnessed two events that will impinge on their lives in the new year. The hardline government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came a cropper in two key elections and the United Nations Security Council unanimously voted to put the country under sanctions for its defiant nuclear enrichment programme.

POLITICS: Five U.N. Powers Reach Compromise to Penalise Iran

Tensions between Iran and Western powers rose to new heights Saturday as the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution imposing sanctions on the Islamic Republic for its nuclear activities.

IRAN: Ahmadinejad, Hardliners Lose Ground in Key Polls

In two key elections, one for the influential Assembly of Experts and the other for city and village councils nationwide, Iranians have voted for moderation and reforms, delivering a shock to the hardline administration of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

POLITICS-US: Holy Warriors Set Sights on Iran

Over the past 20 years, the U.S. Christian right has evolved into one of the most powerful grassroots organising forces within the Republican Party, and a host of Christian Zionists have taken a well-earned seat at the foreign policy table.

POLITICS: Holocaust Meet Taunts West, Worries Iran&#39s Jews

By hosting an international conference on the Holocaust this week, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad succeeded in doing what he does best- outraging the West and taunting the Israeli state. But he has also got the small community of Iranian Jews worried.

IRAN: Local Body Polls – Chance for Reformists

When Iranians vote Friday to elect more than 110,000 members to city and village councils across the country and also choose the 86 members of the powerful Experts Assembly, they may well be deciding the future course of this country.

POLITICS-US: Rice&#39s Iran Strategy Fizzles, Cheney Waits in Wings

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's months-long diplomatic effort to get five other powers to agree to a tough United Nations Security Council resolution on sanctions against Iran now seems certain to fail, because of Russian and Chinese resistance.

RIGHTS-IRAN: Stoning for Adultery – More a Women&#39s Issue

Currently, in Iran, there are nine women sentenced to death by stoning on charges of adultery, compared to two men for the same offence - highlighting the fact that this barbaric mode of execution is primarily a women's issue.

IRAN: Is the World Getting Ahmadinejadised?

"The world is becoming rapidly Ahmadinejadised, if I'm allowed to make a joke," Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told journalists last week. Given his habit of grabbing world headlines, such as with his "letter to the American people" released at the United Nations on Wednesday, that may not be an empty boast.

ARGENTINA: &#39Irrefutable Evidence&#39 Against Iran in AMIA Case

Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman says he has irrefutable evidence that backs the international arrest warrants issued at his request for a former Iranian president and eight other former government officials, who are wanted in connection with the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires.

MEDIA-IRAN: Policing of Internet Will Continue

Iranian officials have scorned the labelling of this country by a journalists' rights watchdog as one of the world's 13 Internet ‘black holes' and said they will continue to protect what they claim are the morals of society.

POLITICS: Argentine Report Casts Doubt on Iran Role in &#3994 Bomb

The report by Argentine prosecutors in support of the arrest warrants just issued for seven former Iranian officials for the 1994 terror bombing of a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires reveals that Argentina was continuing to provide Iran with low-grade enriched uranium and the two countries were in serious negotiations on broader nuclear cooperation when the bombing occurred.

POLITICS: Dialogue or Sanctions – U.S. Dilemma Over Iran

The United States, which is making little headway in its attempts to impose mandatory U.N. sanctions on Iran, is facing a political dilemma as it comes under increasing pressure to initiate a dialogue with the very country it is trying to punish for its defiant nuclear programme.

IRAN: Killing the Golden Goose of Private Banking

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's populist economic policies and his government's interference with Parsian Bank, Iran's largest private and its second largest bank, may well end up unsettling the future of private banking in this country.

RIGHTS-IRAN: Predicted Rollback Hasn’t Yet Happened, Say Women Activists

Some women's rights activists in Iran say they are not optimistic that women's rights will make much progress under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. But they also say they have not seen the deterioration of women's status they expected when the conservative politician took office last August.

AFGHANISTAN: Refugees Nudged Back From Iran, Pakistan

For nearly three decades, Afghans poured into neighbouring Pakistan and Iran, fleeing the unending war in their country. Now, Pakistani officials and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Iran are encouraging them to go home.

POLITICS: Friends Help Iran Win Nuclear Match

The fact that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), meeting in Vienna, has steered clear of referring Iran to the United Nations Security Council, is being seen here as a sign of wide support for the country’s right to enrich uranium.

POLITICS: Iran May Get Off Nuclear Issue Hook

As the fraught question of Iran’s nuclear activities comes up before the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Thursday, there are indications of a softening up of the stands of a number of countries on the issue.

IRAN: Hardliners Reinvent Themselves

Promising a better life to the society's downtrodden, the son of a blacksmith and mayor of Tehran, Mahmoud Ahmadinedjad, has stunned Iran by beating an establishment figure to become the nation's new president.

POLITICS-IRAN: Reformers Struggle to Beat Back Hardliner

Iran's defeated reform candidates and their backers are warning of "fascist footsteps approaching" after a hard-line choice beat them out for a place in this week's run-off presidential election.