Sean McCormack (U.S. State Department spokesman)
[After Suspicious Death of Iranian Student]
IranVNC |
•“The United States is deeply concerned about the tragic death under suspicious circumstances of Ebrahim Lotfallahi, an Iranian student of Kurdish descent detained by the Ministry of Intelligence on January 6th. We call on Iranian authorities to conduct a full investigation.
[Mr. McCormack says the U.S. is calling on the regime in Iran] “to release all individuals held without due process and a fair trial, including the three young Baha’i teachers being held in a Ministry of Intelligence detention center in Shiraz and the three Amir Kabir University students that prison authorities refuse to free despite an order issued by an Iranian judge in late December.”
Friday, February 29, 2008
Condoleezza Rice (Secretary of State)
[After Release of IAEA-Iran Report]
US State Department Photo |
•” Iran continues to enrich. It is, in fact, enhancing its enrichment activities. It is clearly making all kinds of statements that suggest it’s not going to deal with the will of the international community. It hasn’t answered questions about past activities in covert programs that they say they didn’t have, and it has not moved toward [implementing] the additional protocol [to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.”
• “whatever the Iranians may be doing to try to clean up some elements of the past, it is inadequate given their current activities, given questions about their past activities, and given what we all have to worry about, which is the future in which Iran could start to perfect technologies that could lead to a nuclear weapon.”
Monday, February 25, 2008
Ryan Crocker (US Ambassador to Iraq)
[Prior to Iranian president’s March State visit to Iraq]
IranVNC |
• “I’ve always believed that a stable, secure democratic Iraq is what Iran would want in the long-term. Not a destabilized society, with chronic security problems, which is what Iran’s actual acts on the ground now seem to be aiming at.”
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Rear Admiral Gregory Smith (Spokesman for the Multi-National Force in Iraq)
[Briefing in Baghdad]
IranVNC |
• “Iraqis go to Iran, receive the training and return back to Iraq and participate in both training other individuals in the conduct of those same skills, and also organizing to conduct operations. The special groups’ [extremist Shi’ite militias backed by Iran] activity has not declined in recent months. They continue to be probably the most violent of the extremist groups that we’re seeing from Shi’a sects. But the intent of Iran in supporting the training and financing of those activities we believe continues.”
• “We have been as transparent as we can [be] up here publicly with you regarding Iran’s malign influence in Iraq over the years. And I would suggest that we’ll be equally transparent in our discussions with Iran if and when those talks take place.”Sunday, February 17, 2008
Sean McCormack (State Department spokesman)
[In a written statement on Stoning]
Topic: Death Penalty-Stoning
• “individuals are being sentenced to death, including by stoning, for crimes that do not meet the standards outlined in the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights, which Iran has ratified.”
Friday, February 08, 2008
Michael McConnell (U.S. Director of National Intelligence)
[Testimony Before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence]
IranVNC |
• Iran “remains a threat to regional stability and to U.S. interests throughout the Middle East. This is because of its continued support for violent groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah and its efforts to undercut pro-Western actors such as those in Lebanon. Iran is pursuing a policy intending to raise the political, economic, and human costs of any arrangement that would allow the United States to maintain presence and influence in that region.”
• Iran’s nuclear program also remains a matter of grave concern: “There are three parts to an effective nuclear weapons capability. First is the production of fissile material; second, effective means for weapons delivery, such as ballistic missile systems, and thirdly, is the design and weaponization of the warhead itself. . . . Production of fissile material is the most difficult challenge in the nuclear weapons production cycle. ”Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Controversial Swiss-Iran gas deal
IAEA report on Iran’s nuclear program is out
Congressman Tom Lantos dies
