Iran: Where Are We Now?

(This entry was composed primarily in the early part of this week - June 29th and 30th. I have been away for several days since then, but I intend to bring my coverage of Iran up to date over the next few days.)

Ya, sure. We believe you. Ahmadinejad votes up after partial re-count

So why do we need this, hmmm?

Terry Glavin's three part column in The Tyee exposes the bankruptcy of the Canadian left, made clear by its response to the Iranian freedom movement.

Also from The Tyee,

'We Are Iran' : Blogging, where the act can be a 'cyber crime'

"In September 2001, Hossein Derakhshan, a young Iranian journalist who had recently moved to Canada, set up one of the very first weblogs in Farsi, his native language....In response to a request from a reader, Hossein created a simple how-to-blog guide in Farsi. With the modest aim of giving other Iranians a voice, he set free an entire community.

Today, Farsi is the fourth-most frequently used language for keeping online journals. There are more Iranian blogs than there are Spanish, German, Italian, Chinese or Russian."

EU threatens mass pullout of ambassadors from Iran

"European Union members are threatening the collective withdrawal of their ambassadors from Iran to secure the release of the British embassy employees being held by the authorities."

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"Yesterday, EU foreign ministers warned Iran that any "harassment or intimidation" of embassy staff would be met with a "strong and collective" response. Most of the 27 EU member states have their own ambassadors in Tehran.

Silvio Berlusconi, who will next week host a meeting of the G8 rich nations said today that they would discuss sanctions against Iran. Asked about sanctions, he replied that Iran "will be the first issue we will deal with".