According to the Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran radio, Nov. 4, the supreme Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamene'i appeared to distance himself from the statement of hardline Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinezhad that Israel should be "wiped off the map." Khamenei said: "neither throwing Jews into the sea nor setting the Palestinian territory on fire is in accordance with our Islamic principles."

On Oct. 8, Maryam Namazie of the Organization of Women's Liberation in Iran (OWLI) , was awarded the National Secular Society's first Irwin Prize for "Secularist of the Year" in London . The £5,000 annual prize, sponsored by NSS member Dr. Michael Irwin, was presented by Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee at a lunch at London's Montcalm Hotel. The event also featured cabaret from stand-up comedian Stewart Lee, who is co-author of the controversial "Jerry Springer — the Opera," considered blasphemous by fundamentalist Christians.

This profile of Maryam Rajavi, leader of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, in the Sept. 24 New York Times (online at Iran Focus) is a skillful piece of subtle obfuscation. It notes (largely in the past tense) the ties between the National Council of Resistance and the Mujahedeen Khalq (MEK) without stating explicitly that the latter is the armed wing of the former. It also states that Mujahedeen Khalq "has been labeled a terrorist organization" by "the West" without stating explicitly that it is on the US State Department's list of "foreign terrorist organizations." It notes that Mujahedeen Khalq received shelter in Iraq under Saddam Hussein, but says nothing about its current status in Iraq under the US occupation. The group has played into the US strategy of portraying the Iranian regime as bent on procuring nuclear weapons, but its past suggests it would serve as an unreliable client for Washington at best...

Gary Milhollin, director of the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control and publisher of IranWatch.org, has the lead op-ed in the Aug. 23 New York Times, "Don't Underestimate the Mullahs," warning that Iran could be much closer to having The Bomb than is commonly assumed:

Violent clashes between Kurds and police erupted in the north Syrian town of Ein al-Arab Aug. 16, according to the Arab Organisation for Human Rights in Syria (AOHRS). The organization said the violence flared after police halted a march in support of a banned separatist group, Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Cars were burned, and stones hurled at police who responded by firing tear gas and making a number of arrests.

President Bush refuses to rule out military action in response to Iran's renewed nuclear operations. "As I say, all options are on the table. The use of force is the last option for any president and you know, we've used force in the recent past to secure our country," he told Israel's Channel One TV from his ranch in Crawford, TX, Aug. 13. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder immediately responded at an election rally in Hanover that same day that the threat of force was not acceptable. "Let's take the military option off the table," Schroeder said. "We have seen it doesn't work." (Reuters, Aug. 13, via TruthOut)

It has gone largely unnoticed in all the coverage of Iran's resumed nuclear fuel enrichment operations, but an official statement issued by the Islamic republic at the emergency meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna Aug. 9 noted that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has issued a fatwa forbidding the production, stockpiling and use of nuclear weapons.

Iran has resumed operations at its Isfahan plant to enrich uranium ore for reactor fuel. The plant will convert yellowcake, or uranium ore, into uranium hexafluoride gas to be fed into centrifuges for uranium enrichment in the still-closed neighboring Natanz plant. Iran claims the program is purely for civilian purposes and is in compliance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty and International Atomic Energy Agency regulations. Gholam-Reza Aqazadeh, head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organizaiton (IAO), said that "the West must once and for all accept an atomic Iran." (DPA, Aug. 10) The move comes despite an effort by the European Union to offer Iran aid and other incentives not to resume the enrichment program. (FT, Aug. 9) It should be noted that Iran is still a long way from being able to produce a nuclear weapon. Several kilograms of uranium-235 are needed to reach the critical mass for a nuclear explosion, which would have to be processed from several tons of uranium hexafluoride using equipment the country doesn't currently have. (Nature.com, Aug. 8)