October 4th, 2010 Ali Gharib

10/03/2009

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-10-02/real-progress-with-iran/?cid=hp:beastoriginalsC4

If you have any doubt that the Geneva meetings with Iran were surprisingly productive, just go back and look at the commentary the day before they began. Even allowing for the fact that the United States and its negotiating partners (the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany â€" the P5+1 â€" plus European Union negotiator Javier Solana) were trying to lower expectations to the political equivalent of absolute zero, it was still difficult to find anyone who anticipated anything like real progress. Yet that is what happened.  read more »

September 23, 2009

American Iranian Friendship Council (AIFC) position

on Iranian elections

and US-Iran negotiations.

Introduction

Presidential elections were held in Iran on June 12, 2009, following a campaign in which the three candidates Mir Houssain Moussavi, Mehdi Karrubi, and Mohsen Rezayi challenged  President Ahmadinejad and were able to mobilize large crowds.  While international observers were not allowed and domestic independent observers were very limited, the voter turnout was at a record high with above 80% participation by eligible citizens.  Despite irregularities during the day of elections the Interior Ministry announced in the early hours of June 13 that current President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had won his re-election with well over 60% of the votes.  Neither one of the reformist candidates Moussavi and Karoubi nor the other conservative candidate Rezayi accepted the official election results.  Studies such as one conducted by professors at Chatham House and the Institute of Iranian Studies at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland found major discrepancies in the results of the elections, forcing the government in Iran to acknowledge that voter participation was above 100 % in some areas.  There was no breakdown of the vote by province and the voting patterns were identical everywhere all the time, which is statistically impossible.  The days following the elections saw the largest protests in Iran since the 1979 revolution.  In some cases millions of people marched in the streets of Tehran in silence.   read more »