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The LA Times reported that "Los Angeles County transportation officials Thursday delayed for two months a decision on whether to extend the contract options of AnsaldoBreda, an Italian rail-car maker that has pledged to build a plant in downtown Los Angeles if it gets the $300-million deal. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority's chief executive, Art Leahy, said agency staff and the firm had made significant progress this week in hammering out an agreement for 100 additional light-rail cars that includes up to $300 million in guarantees. But in the lengthy discussion preceding the vote, several board members drilled the firm's attorney, Jeffrey M. Capaccio, with tough questions about the company's performance under its current contract, its financial promises and its business connections in Iran -- with one director sharply critical of the company's tactics and intensive lobbying...At Thursday's meeting, Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, a board member, charged AnsaldoBreda's lobbyists with organizing the campaign against Siemens while misleading public officials about the Iranian projects of its own sister company, Ansaldo Energia. The two companies are both owned by Finmeccanica." (http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-breda24-2009jul24,0,6210849.story)

AFP reported that "A leading Iranian hardline cleric on Friday urged President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to sack his controversial first vice president, saying this was the wish of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The appointment by Ahmadinejad last week of Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie as his first deputy has sparked a chorus of opposition from conservatives in Iran, who were outraged when he made pro-Israel comments last year. 'We support the president...but we never said that he has no flaws,' Ahmad Khatami told worshippers in his Friday prayer sermon which was broadcast live on state radio. 'We wish it had never gone this far so that the leader (Khamenei) comments on it. We conscientiously told you (before) to revise the appointment of first vice president,' he added. 'Now that the leader has expressed his opinion, there is no room to hesitate,' Khatami said, indicating that the supreme leader wants Rahim Mashaie to be dismissed. Khatami urged Ahmadinejad to 'obey (the leader) in the quickest time.' Iran's main political arbitration body, the Expediency Council, too joined the groundswell of opinion against Rahim Mashaie, calling on Ahmadinejad Friday not to cause discord in his administration by persisting with his appointment." (http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hXKkbbQGR_GIc5iL-bZD6...)

The LA Times reported that "A majority of the Assembly of Experts, a powerful committee which oversees the office of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, issued a statement today declaring support for him and Ahmadinejad's presidency, a blow for moderate cleric Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who is a supporter of the opposition camp and hoped to rally clerical support against hardliners. At weekly Friday prayers in Tehran, hardline cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami warned opposition figures not to question Ahmadinejad or Khamenei's authority. 'Ignorant and biased individuals inside the country are fanning the flames of this fire ignited by foreign-based groups,' he told worshipers. 'These people try not to submit to the orders of the supreme leader and attribute him to a specific political faction. They are nothing in the face of a big population ready to sacrifice their lives for the supreme leader.' Meanwhile reformist Ayatollah Assadollah Bayat Zanjani issued a statement warning of the Islamic Republic's collapse if it does not adhere to the will of the people and condemned the use of force against ordinary people. 'Dominance and authority do not grant any legitimacy which depends on public confidence,' he said in the statement. 'When people recognize a government, it will become legitimate, otherwise, the government will automatically lose its legitimacy and it will collapse...I warn the authorities to be afraid of divine vengeance and take lessons from the fate of the former Soviet Union.'" (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fgw-iran-death24-2009ju...)

The Wall Street Journal reported that "Israeli and U.S. military officials this week aborted a test of a missile-defense shield under development by the two countries, raising questions about the reliability of Israel's defenses against a potential Iranian attack. The news, which military officials were careful not to characterize as a failure of the Israeli missile-defense program, comes amid heightened tensions in the Middle East over the strengthening of Iranian hawks loyal to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Mr. Ahmadinejad's recent electoral victory has fueled renewed debate in Washington and European capitals about whether to rely on continued diplomacy to curb what the U.S. and Israel see as Iran's intention to build nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. The Obama administration has said it is keeping open all options, including a military strike, to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons...Wednesday's aborted Arrow II missile test raises questions about what kind of defensive strategies could effectively contain or counter an Iranian attack." (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124839126653577459.html)

The LA Times reported that "There's no sneaking a warship through the Suez Canal, so it's best to sail through and remain coy. Israel has done just that. At least two of its missile-class Saar 5 warships and a Dolphin submarine have sailed through the canal in recent weeks, prompting conjecture about Israel's intentions. Possible scenarios include the sending of a message to Iran about Israeli military might and giving the impression that Israel and Egypt, which controls the Suez, are closely cooperating against regional security threats. The Israeli government has said little about why the vessels were on missions that took them through the Suez, but they come as Israel has grown insistent on stopping Iran's nuclear program. That fits in with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's attempts to link the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with agreements from Arab states to help Israel counter Iran. The two warships -- the Eilat and the Hanit -- sailed through the Suez toward the Red Sea this month, reportedly to participate in maneuvers with U.S. forces and to prevent smuggled arms from reaching the Gaza Strip. The submarine, believed capable of carrying nuclear warheads, went through the canal in late June to take part in a naval drill. Israeli analysts drew broader implications and suggested that Israel could use the canal to quickly reach the Persian Gulf and Iranian waters." (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-suez-warships24-2009...)

The Washington Post reported that "U.S. officials engaged in negotiations with Iraqi insurgent groups in two meetings this spring that culminated in an agreement to organize talks intended to bring the groups into Iraqi political life, an insurgent leader and Turkish and American officials said Thursday. The negotiations involved at least three insurgent leaders and at least three State Department officials, who met in Turkey in March and May, said Sheik Ali al-Jubouri, an insurgent representative. A third meeting was supposed to take place in June, but it never happened, Jubouri said in an interview by telephone from Qatar...At the negotiating table, Jubouri said, the groups had four main demands: an official apology to the Iraqi people for the 2003 invasion and the occupation that followed; the release of all their prisoners; a pledge to rebuild Iraq; and U.S. support for reforms that would bring the groups into the political mainstream. 'Our demands were not impossible,' Jubouri said. 'But we think that the Americans lost their influence and power inside Iraq to countries like Iran.'" (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/23/AR200907...)

The Wall Street Journal reported that "This month, amid record profligacy on Capitol Hill, Sens. Sam Brownback (R., Kan.) and Arlen Specter (D., Pa.) pushed for spending that all Americans can celebrate: $30 million of the Senate's State Department appropriations bill will go to support digital tools for undermining Internet censorship. If the initiative is properly implemented, the politically repressed from Havana to Rangoon will have cause for celebration. Authoritarian regimes spend fortunes censoring the Internet because they fear the subversive potential of digital communications. China and Iran are world leaders in this regard-models for other rogues such as Syria and Saudi Arabia. In countering the Green Revolution this summer, Iran unveiled a new high-tech apparatus for blocking some Internet communications outright, while monitoring others in order to intimidate dissenters...Arguably the most important of these groups is the Global Internet Freedom Consortium (GIF), whose software has been critical in Iran. During the protests of June 20 alone, more than one million Iranians used GIF tools to visit 390 million pages on the uncensored Internet. GIF has an impressive history of aiding anti-authoritarian movements in real time...World demand approaches 10 million unique users per day, but GIF has capacity for only about 1.2 million. So when Iranians flooded its servers last month, GIF had to block usage temporarily to preserve capacity. Iranians sent the group thousands of messages pleading for restoration. Without GIF's tools, one user wrote, 'we have no contact with true data and true news.' Were $30 million added to its volunteer-driven operation, GIF would reportedly be able to accommodate more than 50 million unique users per day." (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405297020394690457430064191172337...)

AFP reported that "The United States doubts Iran can respond to its offer of engagement due to current turmoil after disputed elections, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Thursday. But she warned that a 'nuclear clock is ticking,' saying there was only a limited time for Tehran to respond to discuss concerns over its nuclear ambitions. In an interview with the BBC, she said the Islamic Republic has not responded so far to Washington's diplomatic overtures, which she reiterated after the July 12 presidential ballots. 'We've certainly reached out and made it clear that's what we'd be willing to do, even now, despite our absolute condemnation of what they've done in the election and since,' said Clinton, visiting Thailand this week. 'But I don't think they have any capacity to make that kind of decision right now,' she said. 'The internal debates going on in Iran make it difficult, if not impossible, for them to pursue any diplomatic engagement.' She warned, however, that there was not 'an unlimited window of opportunity here -- the nuclear clock is ticking, and we know we've got to press Iran to begin a serious discussion about its intentions concerning nuclear power.'" (http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gQES1YGH7-4suqp50yxG1...)

USA Today reported that "From Tokyo to Bogota, people in more than 90 cities plan to gather for rallies, concerts and marches Saturday to show solidarity with the people of Iran, whose government has grappled with unrest since its presidential election June 12. Events in the USA include rallies in at least three dozen cities, including Boston; Helena, Mont.; and Fresno, Calif. 'This is about people expressing support for people,' says Hadi Ghaemi, director of the New York-based International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, which is coordinating the events. Ghaemi says the global protest will show the Iranian government that 'their actions don't have legitimacy in the eyes of the people of the world, and to pressure them to stop the violence and the human rights violations.' After President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the victor by a landslide, tens of thousands of Iranians, including supporters of the main opposition candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi, poured into the streets, alleging vote fraud." (http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2009-07-23-iranprotest_N.htm)

The New York Times reported that "The wife of the Iranian opposition leader Mir Hussein Moussavi spoke out forcefully on Thursday against the recent publication of accusations against her imprisoned brother, saying the accusations were false and amounted to a new effort by Iran's hard-line leadership to discredit the opposition movement. Mr. Moussavi's wife, Zahra Rahnavard, is a well-known figure in Iran who played an important role in his campaign before the disputed June 12 election. She made her statement on Thursday after a hard-line lawmaker accused her brother in print of helping orchestrate the post-election rallies and riots. The brother, Shahpour Kazemi, was arrested a month ago, and the Iranian authorities are reported to be preparing to broadcast videotaped confessions by some people detained in the unrest. 'I am announcing that if they force a confession out of Mr. Kazemi or publish a hundred pages of accusations against him, neither I nor the people of Iran will believe it,' Ms. Rahnavard said, in comments published on Mr. Moussavi's Web site." (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/24/world/middleeast/24iran.html?scp=5&sq=...)

The LA Times reported that "The father of a young man shot dead in recent weeks of unrest in Iran has been arrested by security forces, reformist news media reported today. On Thursday afternoon, a group of plainclothes young men believed to be members of the pro-government Basiji militia, accompanied by uniformed security forces, went to the home of Massoud Hashemzadeh (left), a 27-year-old man killed a bullet to the heart June 20 during a day of rioting in Tehran in which the famous Neda Agha-Soltan was also slain. The man was buried in his birth village in the north of Iran, but the family was barred from holding any commemorative ceremonies. Still well-wishers insisted on going to the home of the bereaved family to offer their condolences. The Basiji militiamen detained Hashemzadeh's father after ripping down photographs of his son and messages of condolences hanging on the walls outside the family home, according to a report by Norooz News, a Persian-language news website that is an online reincarnation of a popular and well-regarded reformist newspaper shuttered by authorities years ago. Hashemzadeh's two brothers refused to allow their father to be taken away by himself, and insisted on being detained as well." (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2009/07/iran-father-of-sho...)

The New York Times reported that "In a group exhibition with 56 participants of different ages working in all kinds of mediums, coherence isn't the first thing to look for, and you don't find it in 'Iran Inside Out.' What you do find is a high ratio of vigorous work by contemporary Iranian artists who live in their homeland or elsewhere. You get a sense of the cultural forces that have shaped those lives and continue to in this 30th-anniversary year of the Iranian revolution. The Chelsea Art Museum's managing director, Till Fellrath, observes in the catalog that work by Iranian émigré artists tends to look more self-consciously 'Iranian' than what's produced inside the country. And this seems to be true of pieces by the Iranian-Americans Negar Ahkami, Shiva Ahmadi and Ala Ebtekar that incorporate overt references to Persian miniatures and 'coffeehouse' painting." (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/24/arts/design/24galleries.html?_r=1&scp=...)

UANI Advisory Board Member Irwin Cotler wrote in yesterday's National Post that "Before the election, there were those - such as New York Times columnist Roger Cohen - who praised Iran for its 'old itch for representative government' and predicted the election would be 'a genuine contest by the region's admittedly low standards.' After witnessing first-hand the brutal repression wrought by the Iranian government after June's elections, Cohen was forced to acknowledge: 'I erred in underestimating the brutality and cynicism of a regime that understands the uses of ruthlessness.' The lesson is that those who seek to immunize the Iranian regime against critics, and who consistently play down the human-rights abuses that occur within its borders, are not helping Iranians. They are enabling their oppressors. The Iran Accountability Act - a private member's bill that I introduced this past parliamentary session in the House of Commons - affirms Canada as a true friend of the freedom-loving Iranian people...The rest of the world has allowed the Iranian leadership to play this game for too long. There are those who may say that the proof of Iran's nuclear weapons program is not yet clear; that the evidence to date remains circumstantial; and that Iran has the same right to nuclear energy that every other state does. But if the case with respect to nuclear Iran is not yet conclusive - though the preponderance of expert evidence would contend that it is - there are other Iranian violations that cannot be denied, even if one ignores Iran's defiance of UN Security Council resolutions regarding its nuclear program. Nobody can deny the domestic repression in Iran...The act would also specifically target a particular vulnerability of the Iranian regime - its dependence on imported gasoline - in order to provide a strong, visible and meaningful incentive for the regime to alter its destructive course. U.S. President Barack Obama has himself expressed his support for such measures, and there currently exist two bills - one in the House of Representatives and one in the Senate - that would implement such a strategy in the United States. These American initiatives enjoy broad bipartisan support. Canada has the moral standing in the international community to take a leadership role in advancing these principled policies. We can and should be sending a message from Ottawa similar to the one emerging from Washington: that inaction in the face of Iran's crimes is acquiescence. The Iran Accountability Act is the right place to start." (http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2009/07/23/...)

Joshua Gleis wrote in today's Christian Science Monitor that "As hopes run high that Iran's political upheaval will ultimately lead to positive changes in the regime, a word of caution for the West: When Middle Eastern powers feel trapped, they tend to swing blindly at outside states. The Arab world has been focusing much attention on Israel and its conflict with the Palestinians in an effort to redirect their domestic populations' collective attention away from their own trouble. The Iranian government seems to be following this tactic. Even as President Obama goes to lengths to indicate that the US is not behind Iran's upheaval, the Iranian regime has cautioned Americans to stay out of its affairs. This has increased the tension, and further muted the chances of successful nuclear negotiations with the US and Europe. If internal pressure remains, and Iran's current leadership led by Ayatollah Khamenei feels further threatened, it has the power to make things turn ugly fast...These actions could take the form of a major terrorist attack, like the one it carried out in 1994 at the Buenos Aires Jewish community center. It could also take the form of renewed attempts at hostilities on Israel's northern border, now that Hezbollah did not win a majority in recent elections and has reaffirmed its support for Khamenei's leadership. Another measure could come in the form of its nuclear program. Iran is seeking nuclear technology, and the Israelis have expressed concern that Iran is speeding up its missile development. If negotiations over Iran's nuclear program continue to stall, Israel or the US may feel compelled to reply with force. These are worst-case scenarios, but considering how Iran's domestic upheaval caught everyone off guard, Western states should be prepared for any scenario. Washington must increase its use of coercive diplomacy and public diplomacy, as past administrations did successfully in the Balkans and Haiti. It must let the Iranians know it is aware of what it might attempt to do, and that it will not tolerate such moves." (http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0723/p09s02-coop.html)

Mahjoob Zweiri wrote in today's Jordan Times that "Mohammad Khatami, the reformist former president of Iran, on Sunday called for a referendum on the legitimacy of the Iranian government in the wake of the disputed June 12 presidential elections. Clearly aligning himself with the opposition movement, Khatami stated that the Iranians have "lost their faith" in the ruling political system following these elections, which the opposition charges were rigged in favour of incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad. It is too early to say whether the authorities will pay heed to Khatami's call for a referendum, but it constitutes a significant challenge to the iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who endorsed last month's election results as "definitive and absolute". Amidst speculations about the impact of this appeal, one must bear in mind that referendums are not an essentially new phenomenon in the history of the Iran: on April 1, 1979, its people voted by national referendum overwhelmingly in favour of forming an Islamic republic with a new constitution reflecting Khomeini's ideals of Islamic government. This idea is crucial to understanding why Khatami speaks out now. The unity of clerical elite has been severely tarnished by the episodes following the presidential elections. The crisis within institution of the clergy is clear...As time has passed, more people have questioned the legitimacy of the elections than have endorsed the results. However, the influence of the Revolutionary Guards far eclipses that of the clerics or the citizenry. Consequently, so long as the regime continues to enjoy the support of both Revolutionary Guards and clerics, Khatami's call for a referendum is unlikely to ruffle the regime." (http://jordantimes.com/?news=18638)

Ben Gilbert wrote in today's Real Clear World that "Seems that after three years of cold-shoulder treatment from regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia, the air in Damascus just got a whole lot warmer...With the assassination, the U.S., France and Saudi Arabia implemented a policy of diplomatic isolation. The U.S. recalled its ambassador, accusing Syria of not only assassinating Hariri but of funding and helping insurgents in Iraq fight U.S. troops there. U.S. officials also derided Syria for helping Iran arm Hezbollah in Lebanon...'We are reminding [the Syrians] of the natural links that we share,' a Saudi royal adviser told the Wall Street Journal. 'We have presented a way for them to get out of the hole that they have dug for themselves,' alluding to Saudi Arabia's with alliance with Iran...But Salem says that doesn't mean that Syria is going to get break its relationship with Iran anytime soon, or with Hezbollah or Hamas. Nor is the U.S. going to loosen or end sanctions. 'Breaking Syria away from Iran is not the point,' he said. 'But alongside the Syrian and Iranian relationship you have recreated a very important set of new or renewed relationships in and around Syria which are very valuable to Syria and will definitely influence their decision making.'" (http://www.realclearworld.com/articles/2009/07/24/syria-saudi_ties_impro...)