iran

So, what was at Iran’s nuclear facility at Qom, anyway?
U.N. inspectors found “nothing to be worried about” in a first look at a previously secret uranium enrichment site in Iran last month, the International Atomic Energy chief said in remarks published Thursday.

“Political isolation is something the Iranians are very much concerned about,” said Thomas Pickering, who served as undersecretary of state in the Clinton administration, arguing that continued diplomacy gave the U.S. the leverage of presenting Iran with a united coalition.

I just got back from a panel on the Hill sponsored by the National Iranian-American Council, one of the premier organizations within the Iranian diaspora, about next steps in U.S.-Iranian nuclear negotiations. But as an organization that helped lead the drumbeat in the U.S. to support the Iranian dissident movement after the stolen June election, [...]

Already circulating through the Twitterverse, thanks to @TehranBureau: this video, in which Iranian dissidents clearly chant that they don’t want an atom bomb (after the jump).

It’s the 30th anniversary of the Iranian revolutionary capture of the U.S. embassy in Tehran. But instead of the typical anti-American protests, the Iranian dissidents are clashing with regime forces. The Wall Street Journal:
The scale of the opposition protests — and the government crackdown — was unclear early Wednesday, but wire services and state-controlled media [...]

Late last night — morning in Tehran; and the 30th anniversary of the revolutionary storming of the U.S. embassy there — President Obama issued a statement to Iran reminiscent of his Nowruz message to the Iranian people seeking a better relationship. After months of official rebuff; a massive domestic uprising in Iran that continues; and [...]

According to diplomats interviewed by The New York Times, Iran isn’t actually sending mixed messages on the deal reached in Vienna to process Iranian uranium outside the country and thereby put a year back on the clock counting down until Iran is likely to develop a nuclear bomb. It’s rejected the guts of the deal: [...]

As mentioned earlier this morning; now formally reported, per The Wall Street Journal:
Iran has formally asked for changes to an International Atomic Energy Agency proposal to ship nuclear fuel out of Iran for reprocessing abroad.
The response represents a setback in attempts by the international community to negotiate with Iran over its nuclear ambitions. Just last [...]

Whether it’s the one the United States, France, Russia and the International Atomic Energy Agency are offering is a different story. But the Iranian “president” has told state TV, in advance of a formal response expected to come Friday, that the basis for cooperation on the nuclear question is in place. The New York Times:
“Fortunately, [...]

This seems almost too weird to be true, but Wired reports that on Oct. 1, federal agents seized the computers, manuscripts and pickaxes of an anarchist social worker in Queens, N.Y., claiming he violating anti-rioting laws on Twitter.