Story Archives of 'Iran'

A panel of Iranian-born Granite Staters joins us to talk about the country’s disputed elections…and the street protests, strikes, and violence we’re seeing now. We’ll ask our local Iranians how they view the election and the conflict that’s followed – also what they’re hearing from relatives…and – their own hopes for how this crisis will play out.

Guests

• Reza Jalili , associate professor of business at New England College
• Massood Samii , Chairman of the International Business Department and Director of Institute for International Business, at Southern New Hampshire University. He also served at the OPEC Secretariat in Vienna Austria as a senior economist and the head of the finance section
• Ali, a 30-year old phD candidate from a New England university. His parents live in Tehran, and he’s been following the events of the last several days very closely

Violent post-election protests surged over the weekend in Iran. Police in riot gear used batons and tear gas against thousands of protestors who complained that president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stole the presidential election from opposition leader Mir Hussein Mousavvi.

The demonstrators are mostly young, educated and wired Iranians who hoped for more freedom, a better economy and an improved image of Iran throughout the world. Moussavi’s campaign emulated some of President Obama’s tactics by using Facebook, text messages, YouTube and Twitter as organizational tools, despite frequent government shutdowns. Now, watchers the world over are following the riots moment-by-moment using Twitter, in spite of jammed phone lines and restricted servers.

To talk about this, we’re joined by Babak Rahimi. He is assistant professor of Iranian and Islamic Studies at the University of California, San Diego. He’s been in Iran since March, keeping an eye on how Facebook and micro-blogging have influenced the election and he joins us from Tehran.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Facebook brings big changes to Iran politics

Huffington Post: Iran Updates (VIDEO): Live-Blogging The Uprising

openDemocracy: The politics of Facebook in Iran

(Photo by John McNab via Flickr/Creative Commons)

President Obama meets today with religious leaders in Turkey during his landmark two day trip to the country. Yesterday he stressed that the US “is not at war with Islam.” It’s part of a wider effort to extend a hand to the Muslim world. Here’s part of a message he delivered celebrating the start of Iran’s traditional new year holiday:

“The United States wants the Islamic Republic of Iran to take its rightful place in the community of nations. You have that right, but it comes with real responsibilities. And that place cannot be reaches through terror or arms, but rather through peaceful actions that demonstrate the true greatness of the Iranian people and civilization.”

For more on how Iranians are responding to Obama’s gestures of goodwill and other international news, we turn to Deborah Dilley. She’s a writer and editor for Global Voices Online, which tracks conversations taking place on blogs across the world.

Stories Discussed in Today's Roundup:
Iran: The New Year Starts With a Message From Obama

Global Job Losses and Returning Migrant Workers

Colombia: National Police Force has YouTube Channel

Indian Elections 2009: The Impact of Socially Conscious Corporate Campaigns

(Photo by Chuck Kennedy/White House Photo)

A leading scholar says it’s high time the U.S. engaged Iran in diplomatic discussions over its nuclear program. Cato Institute Analyst Christopher Preble spoke in New Hampshire this week. He says he has weighed all the policy choices, and remains convinced negotiations are the “first best option” and that the U.S. will have to bring something to the table.

Guest

• Christopher Preble, Director of Foreign Policy Studies at the Cato Institute. Preble was a commissioned officer in the U.S. Navy and is a veteran of the Gulf War, having served onboard USS Ticonderoga from 1990 to 1993. He is the author of "Exiting Iraq: Why the U.S. Must End the Military Occupation and Renew the War against Al Qaeda" and "John F. Kennedy and the Missile Gap"

Iran's nuclear ambitions have been the subject of much discussion here in the United States and were part of the discussion at an international security conference last week in Munich, Germany where European Union diplomats talked with Iran's National Security Chief. Meanwhile, President Bush has been pushing for tougher European action on Iran to stand down on its nuclear ambitions. The tension between Iran and the U.S. has escalated in recent weeks with President Bush targeting Iran as a supplier of weapons and training for the insurgency in Iraq and the response from Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that he would target American interests around the world if Iran was attacked. We'll look at where things stand with Iran in terms of both the United States and Europe. Laura's guest is Dr. Jackson Janes, Executive Director of the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies at Johns Hopkins University and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations; and Massood Samii, Professor of Economics and Chair of the International Business Dept at SNHU. He was also the former Chief Economist for OPEC in Vienna.