There are reports of a rift between Ahmadinejad and Ayatollah Khamenei, the spiritual patriarch of the Islamic Republic of Iran. But then there are two theories doing the rounds. One takes the signs of discord on face value and the other sees it as a hemmy pretense to fool the world.
Anyway, keeping theories aside for a moment, Khamenei implicitly lambasted Ahmadinejad by ordering him to implement a gas-sector law, which Ahmadinejad had repelled. The particular law had become a bone of contention between Ahmadinejad and the Iranian parliament.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei publicly intervened on Monday to end a dispute between Mr Ahmadinejad and parliament by ordering the president to implement a gas-sector law. [source]
Some other analysts believe that the NIE report has led to a domestic dip in Ahmadinejad’s stock. Because many Iranians might have been led to believe that the very nuclear program Ahmadinejad boasts of, as it were a national treasure, is in cold-storage. He certainly has lost the support of the Iranian intellectuals and economists, who have often spelt their dislike for his disastrous economic policies.
Now it is hard to digest that Khamenei has all of a sudden lost faith in Ahmadinejad, a man he has backed to the hilt. Ahmadinejad might have fallen out with the moderate clerics and the economists. As for the NIE report, forget it. The NIE report can’t possibly have an impact on the Iranian masses, not until it pervades the Iranian propaganda wall.
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The cold war was fraught with accounts and tales of possibly catastrophic standoffs between the U.S and the Soviet Union - mostly serendipitious fighter jet encounters. The cold war might be over but a tense situation arose in the Strait of Hormuz this weekend when three U.S warships and five Iranian speedboats found themselves in uneasy proximity. What followed was an attemp to set contact and repulse any confrontation.
A video released by the Pentagon shows that these speedboats came within 2 miles of the U.S warships and were lurking in the area at high speeds. A navy personnel can be heard asking the boats to reveal their identity or change course during the radio communication. He asked for their purpose. After numerous such requests, a heavily accented voice can be heard. The voice from the other side intelligibly warns that the U.S warships were going to be blown in a bit. The encounter happened in international waters.
This belligerence could have led the U.S warships to retort with force, as a defensive manoeuvre. So if the radio-guy on the speed boat found his warning signals funny then that speaks volumes about the fools that run Iran. This could have led to a military confronation, if President Bush’s remarks are to be believed. He stated that had the speed boats attacked then it could have led to a dangerous incident.The U.S has lodged a diplomatic complaint against the Iranians.
”We have in fact now prepared and given to the Swiss a diplomatic note formally protesting this incident,” State Department Deputy Spokesman Tom Casey told reporters. [source]
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The state of New Jersey has joined California and Florida in the list of state which bar any investments in international companies that ply their trade in Iran, or directly or indirectly have business links with Iran. The law specifically prohibits any investment from the state pension fund, which is worth $80 billion, in businesses having a trade-nexus with Iran. The bill was ratified on Friday.
The commercial isolation of Iran will only be complete when other nations take similar measures. It is important to suffocate the Mullah regime and this can be accomplished when all nations cohesively and comprehensively boycott it.
New Jersey announced Friday it will prohibit state pension money from being invested in companies that do business in Iran. [source]
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