Iran

Iran's Supreme Leader Warns Of Energy Disruption

Ayatollah Khamenei (file photo) (CTK) June 4, 2006 -- Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, today threatened that Iran could disrupt energy shipments from the Persian Gulf region if the United States makes a wrong move.
Speaking at a ceremony marking the 17th anniversary of the death of revolutionary founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Khamenei said the United States and its allies would not be able to provide security for all the oil shipments that cross the strategic Hormuz Strait -- within close range of Iran.


Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad said earlier that Tehran will carefully consider the latest proposals put together by Western countries aimed at ending a standoff over Iran's nuclear program.


(Reuters, AP, AFP)

The Iranian Revolution

The Iranian Revolution
Iranians demonstrate in Tehran on February 10, 1979, shortly after the return to Iran of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (epa)




THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC: Iran's 1979 revolution ended 2,500 years of monarchy and established the world's first modern theocracy. In February 2004, on the 25th anniversary of that event, RFE/RL produced a special report on how the ensuing years have measured up to the expectations of those times.

"I had been freed from jail in those days, and I hoped that the [revolutionary] forces would bring democracy and progress for the country, despite the religious leadership that caused some doubts, I hoped that the press would be free, the books would be published without censorship, [political] parties, associations and civil society organizations would be formed, and I hoped that I would be able to write freely. In fact, in these 25 years, I have not seen anything but the death and silencing of those beautiful hopes and dreams," Faraj Sarkouhi, an exiled writer and journalist, told RFE/RL....(more)


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RFE/RL's reporting on Iran.

A tank bearing a portrait of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini takes up a position in Tehran on February 12, 1979 (epa)