Amid a fresh wave of violent crackdown on revolution in Libya, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has urged Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi to meet public demand.

President Ahmadinejad addressed leaders of countries who replied the popular revolutions “with a bullet” and said, “I highly recommend leaders of these countries to let their people express their words and that they should follow public views,” IRNA reported Wednesday. 

He expressed the world's outrage at “bad behavior of the Libyan government towards the people” and added, “All should yield to demands of their own nation. Otherwise, the outcome is already clear.”

The Iranian chief executive warned that resistance against demands of a nation would result in no achievement, stressing world leaders to “hear the voice of their people.”

President Ahmadinejad pointed out that world leaders should be along with people, behave and live like them and make efforts for their progress and development. 

Members of Iran's Parliament (Majlis) have condemned the recent violent crackdown on pro-democracy protesters by the governments of Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, and Morocco.

In a statement issued by 191 Iranian lawmakers, the recent brutal onslaught by rulers of the four Arab countries were censured, Mehr News Agency reports. 

“The regretful events in Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, and Morocco and the ruthless slaughter of unarmed people of these countries by the authoritarian rulers is reminiscent of crimes that all dictators throughout history have committed in order to stay in power,” read the statement.

“Their [the dictators'] fate, from Pharaoh to [former Iraqi dictator] Saddam [Hussein], [ousted Egyptian dictator Hosni] Mubarak and [deposed Tunisian ruler Zine El Abidine] Ben Ali has been a humiliating collapse,” it said. 

Western military alliance NATO says it is keeping a close watch over Iranian naval presence in the Mediterranean, although Tehran has described the naval mission as peaceful and cordial.

Two Iranian warships sailed through the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean for the first time since the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, after receiving authorization from Egypt. The vessels, Khark and Alvand, have docked at the Syrian coast for training. 

On Wednesday, AFP quoted NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu as saying, "We follow events in the region and we follow these two Iranian warships.” 

"We are monitoring events,” Lungescu added. 

Iran's Navy has made clear that the mission is aimed at strengthening friendly relations with other countries and conveying Tehran's message of peace and security in international waters. 

Turkish President Abdullah Gul says Turkey supports Iran's nuclear rights and will play a constructive role in Iran's nuclear program in the future.

The visiting Turkish president made the remarks in an exclusive interview with Press TV in Tehran on Tuesday. 

“We want to see this dispute solved in a peaceful way… through diplomacy and dialogue,” he said.

Commenting on Turkey's military cooperation with the United States in NATO, he said that the US cannot use bases on Turkish soil for military purposes, such as for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, unless Ankara gives official approval.

He stated that every military facility in Turkey is under the control of Turkish commanders, noting that “without our knowledge, nothing can happen there.”

Iran is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and thus has the right to enrich uranium to produce fuel.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says the era of puppet regimes has passed, and that revolutions in the Middle East are against the US-supported dictators in the region.

Addressing people in Iran's southwestern city of Bushehr during his 86th provincial trip, the Iranian chief executive said there is massive pent-up energy against satanic forces in the region. 

“We have always said, and we say it again, freedom of speech, and the right to determine the destiny, and the right to ask for justice and spirituality is the right of all nations,” President Ahmadinejad said. 

He further pointed out that the recent revolutions in the Middle East have all been against dictators who had abandoned their nations, referring to the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia. 

"The dictator move away from their nations, and thereby become hated by their nations. And the more they do so, the more they become dependent on the arrogant powers," he said. 

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says the sanctions that the UN has imposed on the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program have had no effect on the country's economy.

In a live television address on Tuesday night, President Ahmadinejad downplayed the sanctions and stated that Iran's economy is flourishing. 

The Iranian president said that in the modern world, where economies are so competitive, such punitive measures are pointless. 

He went on to say that the sanctions imposed on the country may have caused prices to increase in a few cases, but they will decrease in the near future. 

Ahmadinejad noted that these sanctions will eventually benefit the national economy, since Iran has attained self-sufficiency in many areas. 

In June 2010, the UN Security Council imposed a fourth round of US-engineered sanctions on Iran's financial and military sectors. 

A top Iranian military official says the United States has failed to establish an American-style Middle East, as an Islamic wave is sweeping over the region.

“The US has failed to create a Great Middle East and now the Islamic Revolution has got a chance to develop its Islamic, spiritual model in the region,” ISNA quoted Brigadier General Yahya Rahim-Safavi, senior military adviser to the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, as saying on Friday. 

“What we are witnessing after the defeat of the Zionist regime (Israel) in the 33-day and 22-day wars as well as the developments in Egypt and other Islamic Arabic countries show that … an Islamic Middle East has been formed,” he added. 

Senior Iranian lawmaker Mohammad Hassan Aboutorabi-Fard says the 1979 Islamic Revolution helped Iran find its real place in the region and Asia.

Senior Iranian lawmaker Mohammad Hassan Aboutorabi-Fard says the 1979 Islamic Revolution helped Iran find its real place in the region and Asia.

“Before the victory of the revolution, the US and Western states believed that they dominated political and security issues of other countries,” the vice speaker of the Iranian Parliament (Majlis) said on Thursday.

Aboutorabi-Fard added that before the 1979 revolution, the West controlled the destiny of other countries, and “promoted [military] assault on Muslim nations,” Mehr News Agency reported.

Iran could make nuclear weapon in 1-2 years: IISS

LONDON: Iran may be able to make a nuclear weapon in as little as one or two years if it chose to do so, an influential think-tank said on Thursday.
The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) said in a report that evidence showed “beyond reasonable doubt” that Iran was seeking the capability to produce nuclear weapons should its leaders decide to go down that route.
However, allegations that Iran had carried out prohibited chemical or biological weapons activities “cannot be determined from the available public information and may have been exaggerated,” the IISS said in a 128-page report on “Iran’s nuclear, chemical and biological capabilities”.
Iran is locked in a standoff with the United States and other powers over its nuclear programme, which Tehran says is peaceful but the West suspect’s aims to develop a nuclear bomb.
The United Nations Security Council has imposed four rounds of sanctions on Iran over the programme. Estimates of when Iran might be able to produce a nuclear bomb are important because of speculation that Israel or the United States might launch military strikes to prevent it from doing so.
The London-based IISS said Iran’s current stockpile of low-enriched uranium (LEU) would, if further enriched, be enough for one or two nuclear weapons.
If the 4,000 centrifuges that appeared to be working well at Iran’s Natanz enrichment plant were used for weapons purposes, and they continued to perform at their maximum output to date, “a little over a year and seven months would be required for the first bomb’s worth of HEU (highly enriched uranium),” it said.
Quicker Method
Producing HEU for subsequent bombs would be quicker than the first one – taking a minimum of 32 weeks each, the report said.
In theory, a quicker method, called a batch enrichment process, could be used, allowing the first weapon’s worth of HEU to be produced in six months and sufficient quantities to make subsequent bombs in four months.
However, this method had never been used in practice and it seemed unlikely Iran would choose it, the report said.
Whichever method was used, at least six more months would be required to convert the HEU from gas form into metal and fashion it into a weapon, the report said.
“The minimum timeline then for the first weapon is over two years under the Pakistan method and one year for the batch method,” the report said. Developing a means to deliver a nuclear weapon — a missile — added to the timeline, it said.
The report chimes with comments made this week by British Defence Secretary Liam Fox who said Western powers should work on the assumption that Iran could have a nuclear weapon by next year.
The IISS said that for Iran to have a credible nuclear deterrent, one bomb would not be enough.
“Given the need for a replacement in case of bomb failure, as well as the presumed requirement for a second-strike capability and possibly for a test, it would seem foolhardy for a nation to go for broke, with the international reaction this would entail, before it could manufacture at least a handful of weapons,” the report said.
That would multiply the amount of weapons-grade uranium and time that would be needed, it said.

http://www.dawn.com/2011/02/03/iran-could-make-nuclear-weapon-in-1-2-years-iiss.html

'UK's anti-Iran bids rooted in history'

In response to British envoy's recent remarks against Iran, an Iranian lawmaker insists that Britain has a long history of publicizing allegations of human rights abuses against the Islamic Republic.

After the Islamic Revolution, which put enemies' interests in jeopardy, Iran's foes have been hatching plots and waging psychological warfare against the Islamic Republic, Kazem Farahmand told IRNA on Tuesday. 

Farahmand went on to say that the British envoy's recent anti-Iran remarks, which challenged human rights standards and freedom of thought in the country, provide clear evidence of the nature of London's policy towards Tehran. 

On December 9, British Ambassador Simon Gass posted questionable remarks on the British Embassy's website regarding human rights in Iran. 

“Such lies and untrue statements by our enemies are normal, and our nation and government will not give in to these issues,” Farahmand stressed. 

The Iranian lawmaker recommended Gass to think about change and “reforms in his own country” rather than Iran, saying the Islamic Republic and its officials are committed to human rights and the rights of all individuals are definitely observed in the country. 

The British diplomat's remarks sparked massive criticism among Iranian authorities, who regarded the move as 'blatant interference' in Iran's internal affairs. 

Gass' anti-Iran statements coincide with the brutal suppression and arrest of British students by the country's police forces. The students, who are simply expressing their objection to tuition fee hikes, have been severely assaulted and arrested by the British police.Source