By Robert Windrem and Courtney Kube
Iran's supreme leader (click here) said Monday that Iran will not relent to U.S. pressures on its nuclear program, ordering Iranian scientists to get ready to increase uranium enrichment capabilities if necessary and vowing that Iran won't give up its missile program.
In a speech and series of tweets marking the 29th anniversary of the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said "the Iranian nation and government will not stand being under both sanctions and nuclear restrictions. … The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran must immediately make the preparations for achieving [increased enrichment.)"
But Khamenei, speaking at Khomenei's tomb in South Tehran, was careful to note the proposed increase in enrichment capabilities would still fall within the limits specified in the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, and that Iran plans to stay in the deal.
Via Twitter, Khamenei called for the atomic energy organization to begin preparations "tomorrow."..
Peaceful use of nuclear power is allowed under the Non-Proliferation Treaty. But, Iran wasn't interested in even that much of a wrinkle to the agreement. Iran wanted to be a good partner.
Donald Trump returned Iran to nuclear enrichment.
DON'T FORGET IT!
According to AirFleets website, Dena Airways operates only one aircraft, an Airbus A340-300.
The United States has imposed new sanctions (click here) against an airline company, which routinely transports Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.
In a statement on Thursday, the US Department of the Treasury said Dena Airways is being designated for sanctions based on a 2001 presidential order designed "to impede terrorist funding".
Dena Airways handles flights for the government of Iran. In November 2017, a previously US-sanctioned airline, Meraj Air, transferred its "VIP flight operations" to Dena Airways, the US statement said.
According to Trita Parsi, executive director of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), Dena Airways operates only one aircraft, which is being used by President Rouhani.
"So what's Trump's aim? Humiliate Iran's moderates and strengthen its hardliners," Parsi wrote on social media....
My answer to that would be, "Yes." It is easier to find fault to enter war with hardliners rather than moderate peace makers. The sanctions go back on and this is what happens. Ahmadinejad is a Holocaust denier.
Is the picture becoming more clear?
Iran needs to work with the P4+1 and not play into the hands of hardliners and war mongers from the USA and Israel. Iran must avoid the temptation to move backwards rather than forward. President Rouhani is Iran's future, not Ahmadinejad.
June 1, 2018
Iran’s former hardline President Mahmud Ahmadinejad (click here) says it was his “agile foreign policy” that led the Obama administration to begin negotiating with Iran over its nuclear program.
Speaking in Tabriz in Eastern Azarbaijan province on Thursday, May 31, Ahmadinejad repeated a recent remark, saying that he had warned Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that “it was not the right time for negotiations,” reported a Telegram channel Dolat-e Bahar, close to Ahmadinejad.
Ahmadinejad delivered his speech despite warnings from the vigilante group Ansar-e Hezbollah not to go to Tabriz; and state officials told him that he cannot deliver a speech as he did not apply to the Interior Ministry to get a permit for the gathering.
Nevertheless, Ahmadinejad spoke to a few hundred of his supporters at a hotel in Tabriz.
In a shift from his tactics during the past year when his harsh criticism mainly targeted Khamenei, in this speech Ahmadinejad pointed his criticism at President Hassan Rouhani, although he did not spare his usual political rivals Majles Speaker Ali Larijani and Judiciary Chief Sadeq Amoli Larijani....
