By Joseph Klein

FrontPage Magazine - Iran has put itself forward as a candidate for a seat on the new United Nations Human Rights Council in its inaugural election of forty-seven members scheduled for May 9th. Insiders believe that Iran will be voted in by the General Assembly, because it is grouped with the Asian bloc of nations that are allotted thirteen seats on the forty-seven seat Council...

... When Iran’s megalomaniac President Ahmadinejad attended last fall’s UN General Assembly world Summit session in New York, a leader of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, Maryam Rajavi, was there to lead a large protest against his presence.  Appealing to the conscience of the world’s leaders, she posed a number of questions and pointed out examples of appeasement of the repressive theocracy that are worth quoting at length:

“I ask heads of state and world leaders who have come together at the UN,

    * How long more are you going to tolerate this inhuman regime which has trampled upon all international laws among the family of nations?
    * How long more are you going to accept this medieval regime whose presence as a member state of the UN is contrary to the UN Charter?
    * How long more are you going to allow the mullahs' regime to violate all provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, make a mockery of all international covenants, but continue to remain a member of the international community?

The Iranian people demand the immediate expulsion of the mullahs' regime from the United Nations. The International community must respect this demand.

Do we not see that the policy of appeasement which sought to moderate this regime through economic and political incentives has led to major catastrophes?

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Ministry spokesman Lars Knuchel confirmed the warrant after a newspaper published the document issued by an examining magistrate in the Swiss canton (region) of Vaud, where the activist Kazem Rajavi was assassinated in 1990.

The affair "is still in the order of business (between Berne and Tehran) since 1990", Mr Knuchel said.

The murdered man's son Stephane Rajavi earlier told the ATS news agency the document was signed by Vaud examining magistrate Jacques Antenen on March 20 and sent to the Swiss Federal Justice Office for "worldwide circulation".

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Washington Post - AP - LUXEMBOURG -- A top European Union official said Monday that the 25-nation bloc should consider sanctions against Iran, including a visa ban on nuclear officials, because Tehran refuses to cooperate with the United Nations on its nuclear program.

"We have to begin thinking about that possibility," EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana told reporters outside an EU foreign ministers meeting.

The ministers debated if the EU should get tougher with Iran over its nuclear plan, which the West fears is geared toward building nuclear weapons.

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NCRI – Hundreds of Iranians and supporters of the Iranian Resistance staged a rally in central Birmingham today to call for democratic change in Iran.

Demonstrators also condemned mullahs' ploy to execute political prisoners following the referral of their nuclear file to the UN Security Council as an act of revenge. It was the Iranian Resistance which unveiled the clerical regime's nuclear program back in 2002 turning its political prisoners as soft targets for criminal mullahs in Iran.

Valiollah Feiz-Mahdavi, member of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran, received his death warrant in March for a date set on May 16. He has been in jail for the past five years.

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Representatives of Iranian communities in the Netherlands also took part in the rally and called on international bodies and the government to intervene to stop executions in Iran and condemn the planned execution of Mr. Feiz-Mahdavi set for May 16.

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The following is a commentary by the US Alliance for Democratic Iran

Far from being a show of “force”, Iran’s recent week-long third-rate military maneuver in the Persian Gulf, and its laughable claim to “technological advancement”, were just a display of the clerical regime’s belligerence.

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Iraqi dailies, Azzaman and Al-Haghaegh, published the statement by the Iraqi jurists and lawyers in their Wednesday's issue.

The statement in part reads: "Following 3 years of occupation, our country is at a crucial juncture of its history. The present lack of security which is due to the new political circumstances has not yet allowed Iraqi citizens to participate in reconstruction of their country. Violence, killings, crimes and misdeeds overwhelm."

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Responding to a question about Iran's threats to block the Strait of Hormuz and endanger the flow of oil out of this vital area, Professor Tanter said: "If Iran tries to close the Strait of Hormuz, it has engaged in an aggressive military act. This is an international waterway and is very much difficult to close it and prevent ships from crossing this narrow waterway."

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Investor's Business Daily - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has vowed to "wipe Israel off the map," needs steady capital to maintain his ambitious nuclear program.

Yet Iran's economy is in serious trouble, in spite of its huge oil revenues. And the Iranian people, suffering from crushing unemployment and inflation, may soon grow weary of his regime sacrificing their butter for guns.

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By Saul Hudson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council could give Iran only two chances to curb its nuclear programs before imposing sanctions, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. said on Thursday, while acknowledging winning support for that strategy would be difficult.

The United States has labored to overcome resistance from two council veto holders, China and Russia, for action against Iran but it still hopes to increase pressure over what it believes is Tehran's pursuit of a nuclear bomb.

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By Anton La Guardia, Diplomatic Editor

The Daily Telegraph - The flurry of technological achievements, shown in grainy television footage, coincides with a large naval war-game in the Gulf codenamed "Great Prophet".

The exercises around the Straits of Hormuz, through which two fifths of the world's oil passes, are seen in the West as "sabre-rattling" as Teheran faces concerted international pressure to halt its widely suspected attempt to develop a nuclear arsenal.

Western officials say the Iranians are trying to tell the West - especially America and Israel - that they can strike back against any attempt to bomb their nuclear facilities.

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BOI – The Iranian New Year was marked by a celebration at the US Senate on March 30 organized by the Association of Americans for Democracy in the Middle East.

In their speeches and messages of solidarity, members of the Senate and the House of Representatives expressed their best wishes to the Iranian people and their resistance in the New Iranian Year.

In his opening remarks, Professor Daniel Zucker welcomed everybody on behalf of the American Association and hoped that Iranians would celebrate their freedom in the new year which had just started.
 
Congressman Bob Filner followed Prof. Zucker by expressing hope that the third option offered by Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, would be put to test this year as the most viable alternative to the policy of appeasement of the clerical dictatorship in Iran which will ultimately lead to war.

In his message to the festive event, Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota said that the Americans support Iranian people in their struggle to rid themselves from the evil of the present regime and stressed how proud they were to be on the side of those brave Iranians who were fighting for their rights.

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