Iran’s supreme leader has threatened a "lightning response" to any Israeli attack, defeating hopes of Western officials for a conciliatory tone.
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/ 12 February 2012
Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei has warned Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas against any "compromise" in its fight against Israel.
Conservatives won a majority in Iran’s parliamentary vote, state television said on Sunday, but the new assembly may still give President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a tougher time ahead of next year’s presidential election. Western powers embroiled in a deepening stand-off with Tehran over its disputed nuclear plans condemned Friday’s election as unfair.
Iran began counting votes on Saturday that are likely to keep conservatives in control of Parliament after many opponents of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were blocked from standing in the election. The United States, at loggerheads with Iran over its nuclear programme, said any result was ”cooked”.
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/ 8 December 2007
There are few obvious parallels between Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the religiously devout Iranian President, and Jim Morrison, the famously hedonistic lead singer of The Doors. But now the fact that the pair are to share a cinematic bond in the form of biopics directed by Oliver Stone is generating stern disapproval in Tehran.
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/ 27 November 2007
President George Bush launched a United States drive to create a Palestinian state on Monday, with Israelis and Palestinians nearing an agreement to address the toughest issues of their decades-old conflict. His legacy dominated by war in Iraq, Bush began three days of Middle East diplomacy in separate Oval Office meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
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/ 26 November 2007
Israeli and Palestinian negotiators neared an agreement on Monday on a peace agenda ahead of a new drive by United States President George Bush to restart long-dormant talks to create a Palestinian state. Expectations were low for three days of meetings in Washington and nearby Annapolis, Maryland.
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/ 13 November 2007
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s President, raised domestic tensions over the country’s nuclear policy to higher levels on Monday by labelling his opponents ”traitors” who are working for the West and threatened to expose them in a political witch-hunt.
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/ 12 November 2007
The United States could unleash vastly superior firepower if it attacked Iran but Tehran could strike back against its forces in Iraq and threaten oil supplies crucial to the world economy. Speculation is growing that President George Bush could launch military action before he leaves office in January 2009 even though Washington says it is committed to resolving the crisis.
Iran’s president accused Israel on Friday of using the Holocaust as a pretext for ”genocide” against Palestinians. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who outraged the West in 2005 by calling Israel a ”tumour” to be wiped off the map, said the truth should be told about World War II and the Holocaust.
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/ 25 September 2007
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad clashed with an United States university president who called him a ”petty and cruel dictator” at a forum on Monday where Ahmadinejad criticised Israel and the US and said Iran was a peaceful nation. Ahmadinejad also said in an appearance at Columbia University that Iran’s nuclear programme was purely peaceful.
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/ 5 September 2007
One of Iran’s most illustrious politicians, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, dramatically increased his influence on Tuesday by winning control of a powerful clerical body in a development that could change the course of the country’s leadership. Rafsanjani was elected head of the experts’ assembly after overcoming a determined right-wing effort to block him.