Washington Post

Iran has followed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's recent letter to President Bush with explicit requests for direct talks on its nuclear program, according to U.S. officials, Iranian analysts and foreign diplomats.

The eagerness for talks demonstrates a profound change in Iran's political orthodoxy, emphatically erasing a taboo against contact with Washington that has both defined and confined Tehran's public foreign policy for more than a quarter-century, they said.

Though the Tehran government in the past has routinely jailed its citizens on charges of contact with the country it calls the "Great Satan," Ahmadinejad's May 8 letter was implicitly endorsed by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and lavished with praise by perhaps the most conservative ayatollah in the theocratic government.

"You know, two months ago nobody would believe that Mr. Khamenei and Mr. Ahmadinejad together would be trying to get George W. Bush to begin negotiations," said Saeed Laylaz, a former government official and prominent analyst in Tehran. "This is a sign of changing strategy. They realize the situation is dangerous and they should not waste time, that they should reach out."

Parsing message of Iran leader's letter to Bush Mideast experts say it's savvy PR -- and starting point for talks

In the two weeks since an unexpected letter from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived at the White House, experts in and out of the government have been struggling to decode just what the hard-line leader was trying to say.

That debate continues, but there is broad agreement on two points. One is that Ahmadinejad's words, whatever their intent, resonate differently to different audiences in important ways. The other is that the war of rhetoric, particularly Ahmadinejad's letter to Bush, has opened a window of opportunity that should be pursued.

"Whatever you think of this letter, it is the first sentence in a conversation," said Vali Nasr, professor of Middle East and South Asia Politics at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey. "After 29 years of not wanting to touch the U.S. ... they have begun the conversation."

Progressive Ayatollahs Express Concerns About Apocalyptic Views, Nuclear Hopes

In a dusty brown village outside this Shiite holy city, a once-humble yellow-brick mosque is undergoing a furious expansion. Cranes hover over two soaring concrete minarets and the pointed arches of a vast new enclosure. Buses pour into a freshly asphalted parking lot to deliver waves of pilgrims.

The expansion is driven by an apocalyptic vision: that Shiite Islam's long-hidden 12th imam, or Mahdi, will soon emerge -- possibly at the mosque of Jamkaran -- to inaugurate the end of the world. The man who provided $20 million to prepare the shrine for that moment, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has reportedly told his Cabinet that he expects the Mahdi to arrive within the next two years. Mehdi Karrubi, a rival cleric, has reported that Ahmadinejad ordered that his government's platform be deposited in a well at Jamkaran where the faithful leave messages for the hidden imam.

Infowars

A Final Step Toward US Dollar Collapse & Preemptive Nuclear Strike

The impending opening of the Iranian International Oil Bourse (IOB), set to commence trading next week on the island nation of Kish, strongly increases the chances of an imminent nuclear American-Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear and financial facilities. The electronic oil bourse, much discussed by terrorism expert Webster Tarpley, appears ready to launch in the coming weeks or even days. Because it will offer oil in euros, it may trigger the rapid collapse of the U.S. dollar.

Over the past four days, the Western media has finally ended their blackout and acknowledged the possibility of an imminent dollar collapse, as gold reaches nearly $700 an ounce.

On Friday, May 5, the Associated Press covered the oil bourse with their article Iran wants oil market in Euros. The article warns of a rapid decline in the dollar while feebly attempting to minimize the importance of the oil bourse.

The Herald

The US is updating contingency plans for a non-nuclear strike to cripple Iran's atomic weapon programme if international diplomacy fails, Pentagon sources have confirmed.

Strategists are understood to have presented two options for pinpoint strikes using B2 bombers flying directly from bases in Missouri, Guam in the Pacific and Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.

RAF Fairford in Gloucester also has facilities for B2s but this has been ruled out because of the UK's opposition to military action against Tehran.

The main plan calls for a rolling, five-day bombing campaign against 400 key targets in Iran, including 24 nuclear-related sites, 14 military airfields and radar installations, and Revolutionary Guard headquarters.

Information Clearing House

With his recent letter to President Bush, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has become part of a long tradition of Third-World leaders who, under imminent military or political threat from the United States, communicated with Washington officials in the hope of removing that threat. Let us hope that Ahmadinejad's effort doesn't result in the equally traditional outright US rejection.

Under the apparently hopeful belief that it was all a misunderstanding, that the United States was not really intent upon crushing them and their movements for social change, the Guatemalan foreign minister in 1954, President Cheddi Jagan of British Guiana in 1961, and Maurice Bishop, leader of Grenada, in 1983 all made their appeals to be left in peace, Jagan doing so at the White House in a talk with President John F. Kennedy.(1) All were crushed anyhow. In 1961, Che Guevara offered a Kennedy aide several important Cuban concessions if Washington would call off the dogs of war. To no avail.(2)

The Associated Press

The European Union will support an Iranian nuclear program that cannot be put to military use and will boost political and economic cooperation if Tehran accepts international oversight, a top official said Monday.

EU foreign ministers meeting Monday considered a package of enhanced incentives to induce Tehran to stop uranium enrichment, which many experts see as a first step toward producing nuclear weapons.

"We are prepared to work on a cooperation package and support Iran's development of a proliferation-proof civilian nuclear program," Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, said after the meeting.

She said the EU's new plan would contain three elements - economic assistance, political cooperation, and support for the civilian nuclear program.

Information Clearing House

An analysis of media rhetoric on its way to war against Iran - Commenting on the alleged statements of Iran's President Ahmadinejad .

"But now that I'm on Iran, the threat to Iran, of course -- (applause) -- the threat from Iran is, of course, their stated objective to destroy our strong ally Israel. That's a threat, a serious threat. It's a threat to world peace; it's a threat, in essence, to a strong alliance. I made it clear, I'll make it clear again, that we will use military might to protect our ally, Israel, and -- (applause.)" George W. Bush, US-President, 2006-03-20 in Cleveland (Ohio) in an off-the-cuff speech (source: www.whitehouse.gov) But why does Bush speak of Iran's objective to destroy Israel?

Truthout.org

On May 9th, 200 American Middle East experts sent a letter to the White House warning President Bush against threatening US military action against Iran.

"We started the letter out of a sense of frustration that the experts in the field were not being consulted as the US develops policy toward Iran," explained Professor Ahmad Sadri, the coordinator of the project. "This is the same mistake the US government made before going to Iraq. We're saying don't do that again."

This group of scholars, academics, commentators, and former US government officials called on the Bush administration to enter into face-to-face negotiations with the government in Tehran.

"As the International Atomic Energy Agency has found no evidence of research or diversion of materials toward atomic weapons in Iran, concerns about future dual use of nuclear technology ought to be addressed in face to face negotiations," said the letter.

Time Magazine

A nuclear weaponized Iran destabilizes the region, prompts a regional arms race, and wastes the scarce resources in the region.

And taking account of U.S. nuclear arsenal and its policy of ensuring a strategic edge for Israel, an Iranian bomb will accord Iran no security dividends. There are also some Islamic and developmental reasons why Iran as an Islamic and developing state must not develop and use weapons of mass destruction.

Three years of robust inspection of Iranian nuclear and non-nuclear facilities by the IAEA inspectors led Dr. El-Baradi to conclude and certify that to date there are no indications of any diversion of nuclear material and activities toward making a bomb. At the same time, El-Baradi has pointed out that the IAEA cannot certify that Iran's program is exclusively peaceful. But the fact is that few among many states with a nuclear program have received such a clean bill of health from the IAEA. Such certification by the IAEA does and should take time and effort. Iran is prepared and willing to invest the time and effort necessary to receive the IAEA clean bill of health. The IAEA is also ready to pursue its investigation of Iran's nuclear activities. So should the states that have concern about it.