"Yousef Hamadani Cohen, 98; former chief rabbi in Iran" Associated Press April 03, 2014
TEHRAN — Yousef Hamadani Cohen, Iran’s former chief rabbi and one of the cornerstones of its tiny Jewish community, has died. He was 98.
There are Jews in Iran?
Representing the Iranian Jews in Parliament, Siamak Moreh Sedgh said Rabbi Cohen died Friday and was buried Sunday.
Jews have representation in parliament?
Rabbi Cohen was the spiritual leader of Iran’s Jews from 1993 until 2007. He remained a senior rabbi after he retired and Rabbi Mashallah Golestani took over.
Iran’s Jews number about 25,000 people, a tiny minority in a population of about 76 million, but are still the Middle East’s largest Jewish community outside Israel.
And from what I understand, they feel they are under no threat and live quiet well.
Before the Islamic Revolution, the community had closer to 100,000 Jews.
It is also one of the oldest Jewish communities, with roots reaching back 2,700 years.
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Gee, that so contradicts the ballyhoo from Nutanyahoo regarded the next holocaust and Iran.
Speaking of which:
"Iran cuts strength of some uranium" by George Jahn | Associated Press April 18, 2014
VIENNA — Iran has converted three-quarters of a nuclear stockpile that it could have turned quickly into weapons-grade uranium into less volatile forms and is well on the way toward transforming the rest, the UN atomic agency reported Thursday.
The development — agreed to by Iran under a nuclear deal it struck late last year with six world powers — leaves Tehran with substantially less of the 20-percent enriched uranium that it would need for a nuclear warhead. Iran denies any interest in atomic arms. But it agreed to some concessions in exchange for a partial lifting of sanctions crippling its economy under the deal.
Uranium at 20 percent is only a technical step away from weapons-grade material. By the time the agreement was reached last year, Iran had amassed nearly 440 pounds. With further enrichment, that would have yielded almost enough for one atomic weapon — a threshold that Israel had vowed to prevent Iran from reaching.
Oh, they don't even have enough for a bomb yet? And here I've been warned about the Iranian nuclear bomb for three decades now!
Never mind the pile the West is sitting on, or the fact that the U.S. is the only nation to ever use them in a war (the two greatest single war criminal acts of all time) -- or that Iran isn't building one. Couldn't hide it from satellites and the world, folks, and there is zero evidence they are building a bomb.
That doesn't preclude an USraeli false flag with blame assigned to Iran. Fortunately, the world is wiser than it was 13 years ago.
Iran agreed to stop enriching to grades beyond 5 percent, used to power reactors.
But they need to 20% to treat cancers, so some are being sacrificed for this deal.
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UPDATE:
"Reactor’s output to be cut sharply
TEHRAN — Iran will redesign its Arak heavy water reactor to greatly limit the amount of plutonium it can make, Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi said Saturday, marking a major concession in talks with world powers over Iran’s nuclear program. Salehi said the redesigned Arak would produce one-fifth of the plutonium initially planned, eliminating concerns the material could be used to make a bomb. (AP)."
Doing everything they can to avoid war.
And I'm sure this spat is a nothing more than a big distraction to please Izrael:
"White House denies visa for Iran’s UN envoy" by Julie Pace | Associated Press April 12, 2014
WASHINGTON — In a rare diplomatic rebuke, the United States will not grant a visa to Tehran’s controversial pick for envoy to the United Nations, the Obama administration said Friday.
‘‘We’ve communicated with the Iranians at a number of levels and made clear our position on this — and that includes our position that the selection was not viable,’’ White House spokesman Jay Carney said. ‘‘Our position is that we will not be issuing him a visa.’’
Denying visas to UN ambassadorial nominees or to foreign heads of state who want to attend United Nations events in the United States is unusual, if not unprecedented. The move comes amid a possible thaw in the decades-long diplomatic freeze between the United States and Iran, as the two countries negotiate a deal to curb Tehran’s disputed nuclear program.
Nothing like putting the brakes on the deal after Iran has been cooperating. Gotta rekindle the war propaganda.
The Obama administration had previously said only that it opposed the nomination of Hamid Aboutalebi, who was a member of the group responsible for the 1979 takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran. US officials had hoped the issue could be resolved by Tehran simply withdrawing the nomination.
Aboutalebi is alleged to have participated in a Muslim student group that held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days during the takeover.
Nothing about the 1953 coup called Operation Ajax that overthrew a democratically-elected government because they were nationalizing oil interests to the detriment of BP and AmeriKan oil companies, and that lead to those events in 1979 (as AmeriKa propped up the corrupt and repressive regime of the Shah). Iranians never forgot, I never forgot, but the black memory hole of the AmeriKan ma$$ media has.
His nomination has outraged members of Congress, who passed a bill barring entry to the United States to an individual found to be engaged in espionage, terrorism, or a threat to national security.
The sad thing is Congre$$ is under Zionist thumb even more than the executive.
Carney would not say whether President Obama would sign the bill but said the president shares its sentiments.
United Nations officials had no immediate comment.
Iran has called US rejection of Aboutalebi ‘‘not acceptable,’’ with Iranian state television quoting Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham as saying Aboutalebi is one of the country’s best diplomats and arguing that he previously received a US visa.
Then something else is at work here.
Aboutalebi has insisted his involvement in the group involved in the embassy takeover, Muslim Students Following the Imam’s Line, was limited to translation and negotiation.
The guy was a negotiator and translator?
Iranian officials said they had submitted a visa application for Aboutalebi, but it was unclear whether the United States actually denied the request or decided not to act on it.
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"Iran rejects naming new UN envoy after US refusal" by Ali Akbar Dareini | Associated Press April 13, 2014
TEHRAN — Iran rejected naming a new diplomat Saturday to represent it at the United Nations, with one lawmaker urging the Islamic Republic to stand up to ‘‘bullying’’ from the United States, which has rejected granting Iran’s choice a visa.
We are the best!
The standoff over Hamid Aboutalebi, a member of the group responsible for the 1979 takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran, comes as world powers negotiate with Iran over its contested nuclear program. It also threatens to stir fresh animosity between countries that recently have seen their relations thaw.
The war makers are drooling.
The Obama administration said Friday that the United States had informed Iran it would not grant a visa to Aboutalebi, suggesting that behind-the-scenes discussions to get them to withdraw him from consideration failed.
On Saturday, Iranian state television anchors discussed the US rejection, with a crawl at the bottom of the screen reading: ‘‘The Foreign Ministry says Aboutalebi is Iran’s only choice as its UN envoy.’’
Prominent lawmaker Alaeddin Boroujerdi said the United States had no right to intervene in Iran’s UN envoy pick.
Why not? We let Israel intervene in ours.
Boroujerdi, who heads the Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, urged Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to write to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to fight the US decision.
Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was quoted by Iran’s semiofficial Mehr news agency as saying officials would pursue the issue ‘‘through anticipated legal channels at the UN.’’
Aboutalebi is alleged to have participated in a Muslim student group that held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days during the embassy takeover. He has said his involvement in the group Muslim Students Following the Imam’s Line was limited to translation and negotiation.
Iran says he is one of the country’s best diplomats, and that he previously received a US visa. He already served at Iranian diplomatic missions in Australia, Belgium, and Italy.
As host country for the United Nations, the United States must allow persons invited to the New York headquarters to enter the country. However, exceptions can be made when a visa applicant is found to have engaged in spying against the United States or poses a threat.
Like the omnipresent, NSA-collection effort and U.S. data mining apparatus can complain?
Denying visas to UN ambassadorial nominees or to foreign heads of state who want to attend United Nations events in the United States is rare, though there appears to be precedent.
It was unusual if not unprecedented above, but that can change in a day or two!
I love imprecise propaganda and garbage, don't you?
According to a paper published by Yale Law School, the United States in the 1980s rejected several Iranians appointed to the UN who had played roles in acts against American citizens.
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"Iran protests UN ambassador ban to United Nations" Associated Press April 16, 2014
UNITED NATIONS — Iran has formally protested Washington’s refusal to grant a visa to its new UN ambassador, saying the move damages international diplomacy and sets a ‘‘dangerous’’ precedent.
The US State Department and the White House have said that Iran’s selection of Hamid Aboutalebi to be its United Nations envoy is not acceptable. Aboutalebi was a member of the group responsible for the 1979 takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran that held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. Aboutalebi has insisted his involvement in the group was limited to translation and negotiation.
Iran’s UN Mission sent a delegation to meet with the UN’s office of legal affairs Tuesday about the issue, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
The Iranian Mission filed a letter with the UN’s Committee on Relations with the Host Country.
The 19-nation Host Country committee can hold a hearing on the issue but cannot change the US decision. The United States is one of the members of the committee, which is to meet on April 22.
Iran’s letter said the United States was breaching its obligations under the US-UN Host Country Agreement, which is a treaty and US law that generally requires the host country to allow access to diplomats and UN guest speakers.
Oh, we do that all the time. Maybe the U.N. should MOVE SOMEWHERE ELSE!
The United States has said there are loopholes that allow it to refuse a visa to people considered a danger to the United States.
So what happens when people start refusing our diplomats? They gonna get the military hammer?
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"Iran protests UN ambassador ban to United Nations" Associated Press April 16, 2014
UNITED NATIONS — Iran has formally protested Washington’s refusal to grant a visa to its new UN ambassador, saying the move damages international diplomacy and sets a ‘‘dangerous’’ precedent.
The US State Department and the White House have said that Iran’s selection of Hamid Aboutalebi to be its United Nations envoy is not acceptable. Aboutalebi was a member of the group responsible for the 1979 takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran that held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. Aboutalebi has insisted his involvement in the group was limited to translation and negotiation.
Iran’s UN Mission sent a delegation to meet with the UN’s office of legal affairs Tuesday about the issue, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
The Iranian Mission filed a letter with the UN’s Committee on Relations with the Host Country.
The 19-nation Host Country committee can hold a hearing on the issue but cannot change the US decision. The United States is one of the members of the committee, which is to meet on April 22.
Iran’s letter said the United States was breaching its obligations under the US-UN Host Country Agreement, which is a treaty and US law that generally requires the host country to allow access to diplomats and UN guest speakers.
Oh, we do that all the time. Maybe the U.N. should MOVE SOMEWHERE ELSE!
The United States has said there are loopholes that allow it to refuse a visa to people considered a danger to the United States.
So what happens when people start refusing our diplomats? They gonna get the military hammer?
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Related: Clerics, conservatives in Iran object to US scholar’s wish to be buried there
U.S. government fryed him, so to speak, by rejecting the envoy's visa.
"American’s death sentence tossed
TEHRAN, IRAN — An Iranian news agency reported that an appeals court overturned the death sentence of an American convicted of working for the CIA, instead sentencing him to 10 years in prison. The semiofficial ISNA news agency reported that a Revolutionary Court issued the verdict for former US Marine Amir Hekmati, 31. He was charged with receiving special training and serving at US military bases before heading to Iran for his alleged mission. Born in Arizona, he is a dual US-Iranian citizen (AP)."
I see a spy, don't you?
I don't think that is winning Iran any points though.
