Zoorkhaneh

Amir Hossein Mahmoudi has shared some very interesting photographs from a zoorkhaneh---a traditional Persian gymnasium that mixes culture, music and poetry with ancient sportsmanship.

Brzezinski before The Senate Foreign Relations Committee

Prof Abbas Edalat of CASMII Speaks

Tehran News Conference by Iran President (April 2007)

UN News Conference by Iran President (September 2006)

Iran To Reconsider Cooperation with IAEA

IRNA reports:

Iran-IAEA--Nuclear-Review /POL/
Government spokesman Gholamhossein Elham announced here Sunday that the government had decided to reconsider cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Calling Saturday's UN Security Council Resolution (1747) against Iran ''illegal'', Elham noted, ''The Council of Ministers met Sunday evening under chairmanship of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to discuss a recent law passed by the Majlis (27.12.06) obliging the government to review its cooperation with IAEA. The cabinet meeting decided that Iran Atomic Energy Organization should halt part of its cooperation with IAEA until Iran's case returns to IAEA from the Security Council and the situation gets back to normal.''
He added that IAEO had agreed in line with safeguards agreement with IAEA to increase cooperation with the agency ''but this cooperation will stop until Iran's case returns to IAEA from the Security Council and the situation gets back to normal.''
The safeguards agreement, he added, obliged Iran to inform the IAEA of all details of any plans and decision-making for creation of any facilities and execution of programs related to its nuclear issue. This is while, according to NPT, the member states are duty bound to inform the IAEA of their nuclear programs just six months before commissioning.

Shiraz 2003 - Madrasey-y Khan (Khan Seminary)

Testing Through Tehran

In the past, with the absence of competition from heavy-hitting global corporations, market entrants have found Tehran to be convenient grounds for testing consumer products.

Paintings Biennial

While looking for a photo of yalda celebrations this year, I ran into this interesting photo from the scene of The Fourth
International Painting Biennial of The Islamic World in Tehran, Iran.

Click on it and you'll see a larger image at Flickr.

I believe the biennial started in the last week of November, and it looks like it ended on
December, 21, 2006.

Here are some other pictures I found.

It would be good to see more photographs of this
exhibition. (As another example, check out this work.) There does not seem to be a website for the biennial or one that actually displays all the paintings.

I believe my friend, and ex-Berkeley-ite, Bobak Etminani,
also has several paintings on display in the biennial.

Myths, Politics and Skiing

Payvand, a Silicon Valley Persian community web site, has published a summary of "Answering the Charges Against Iran: Dispelling the Demonising Myths" report by U.K.'s Campaign Iran. You will need to scroll down through Payvand's introduction to see the list of charges and the summary debunks.

Another article on a roughly similar topic has been written by Edward Herman and David Peterson for Z Magazine. The latter article contains some misunderstandings regarding the social make-up of Iran although it does expose some of the other demonizing myths propagated by the mainstream media here. In their article, Herman and Peterson have included a scholarly exposé, complete with references, of the realities hiding behind the rhetoric against Iran including those of the Democratic party leaders.

Less tersely, you can partake of a youthful skier's visit to Iran on YouTube. (It was the first video listed under Iran on YouTube.) You need to be patient through the introduction but I think recreational skier Jasin Nazim has done a much better job of reporting than many other professional journalists who have visited the country. I certainly learned quite a lot from the video and it motivates me to ski the same mountains!

 

FT Interview with Khatami

For partial transcript of the Financial Times interview with Mohammad Khatami, see here.