UANI

The Chicago Tribune reported that "In a presidential campaign most analysts predicted would hinge on domestic bread-and-butter issues, foreign policy has emerged as a major battleground -- and a potential Achilles' heel -- for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. With campaigns in full swing ahead of the June 12 vote, challengers have publicly criticized Ahmadinejad on topics long considered off-limits for debate in Iran, such as his stance on the country's nuclear program and his vitriol about Israel. Reformist challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi accused the president of so sullying the nation that Iranian passports are now on par with those of Somalia, a hub of poverty, piracy and terrorism." (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-iran-electionjun01,0,...)

The Washington Post reported that "Iran's urban middle class is increasingly disenchanted with the current government and may turn out in larger numbers than four years ago to oppose President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, voters said in interviews here. In 2005, many of Tehran's 12 million residents boycotted the presidential election to protest a system they thought did not represent them. But many say they are going to vote against Ahmadinejad on June 12." (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/29/AR200905...)

AP reported that "Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad threatened Sunday to release internal documents on government affairs going back to the early 1980s in a direct counterattack against challengers who claim his policies have sent Iran into an economic tailspin and undermined the nation's standing in the world." (http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ixeFBxfLzaSjs8Mb8cuFmt...)

AFP reported that "Iranian security officials defused a bomb planted on a domestic passenger plane, officials said on Sunday, the latest incident of violence ahead of next month's presidential election." (http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h1SBbtRytUkBwTwUr-suK...)

AP reported that "A moderate think tank led by Iran's former top nuclear negotiator accused President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of distorting facts about the country's nuclear program to depict himself as a hero and improve his chances in the upcoming election." (http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jG7bnyWWJfgaYD-JwcqmIm...)

Time reported that "The rights and concerns of Iran's ethnic minorities are enjoying a prominence in this year's race far greater than during any previous election in the Islamic Republic. Both Moussavi and the other reformist candidate, Mehdi Karroubi, have traveled far and wide in Iran to court Lors, Kurds, Arabs, Turkomans, Azeris, Baluchis and other non-Persian minorities who together make up almost half of the population. Under Ahmadinejad's government, there has been greater repression of political and media activity among the minorities, a fact the state justifies by citing U.S. government efforts to undermine the Islamic Republic by funding opposition activities among minorities in the border regions. Despite the country's patchwork of intertwined ethnicities, religions and languages, Iranians from all backgrounds harbor a strong sense of national identity. Still, the central government has historically been wary of the minorities who mostly inhabit Iran's peripheral provinces." (http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1901667,00.html?xid=rss-to...)

Reuters reported that "Iran has arrested a number of people it accuses of sowing sectarian discord in a southeastern city where the bombing of a Shi'ite mosque killed 25 people last week, a senior commander was quoted as saying on Monday." (http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSDAH123602)

The NY Times reported that "Over just two days, about 80 Iranian pilgrims were killed in April in suicide bombings in Iraq. But even though the pilgrims are clearly a favored target for Sunni extremists in Iraq, and though the threat continues, it seems nothing will keep the Iranians from coming here. On a recent afternoon, a group of pilgrims from the Iranian city of Isfahan — many in tears and in a trancelike state — inched toward the shimmering golden-domed shrine ahead chanting “Hussein beloved” in Persian. Inside, Iranians jostled other pilgrims to grip the ornate gold and silver cagelike structure bearing the tomb of Prophet Muhammad’s grandson Imam Hussein, shrouded in green fabric embroidered with precious stones. It is religious devotion that compels them to come. But Iran’s government is part of the equation, too, encouraging a greater Iranian presence in Iraq by supporting companies that control a lucrative segment of the pilgrimage business and renovating and maintaining Shiite shrines in Iraq." (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/31/world/middleeast/31karbala.html?_r=1&r...)

Sen Lieberman wrote in the Wall Street Journal that "Iran's illicit nuclear activities represent a uniquely dangerous and transformational threat to the United States and the rest of the world -- a threat that demands a response of open-eyed realism. A realistic response requires that we first recognize that the danger posed by the Islamic Republic's nuclear activities cannot be divorced from its broader foreign policy ambitions and patterns of behavior -- in particular, its longstanding use of terrorist proxies to destabilize and weaken its Arab neighbors and Israel, to carve out spheres of Iranian influence in the Mideast, and to tilt the region toward extremism." (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124364004855967853.html)

David Ignatius wrote in the Washington Post that "Mousavi is mounting a strong challenge illustrates the political ferment in Iran. Westerners often imagine that country as an Islamic boot camp with everyone marching in lock step, but there's a surprisingly open debate in the Iranian media. Mousavi's supporters have loudly criticized Ahmadinejad for Iran's rising unemployment and inflation and for its growing international isolation." (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/29/AR200905...)

Graham Allison wrote in the Washington Post that "The Iranian nuclear challenge was transformed on President George W. Bush's watch. Events in Iran have advanced faster than the policy community's thinking about the problem. The brute fact is that Iran has crossed a threshold that is painful to acknowledge but impossible to ignore: It has lost its nuclear virginity." (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/31/AR200905...)