May 14, 2009: Iran has become quite close to China. In South America, both countries have cooperated in expanding their influence there. Both countries have long been trading partners. China needs Iranian oil, and Iran needs Chinese weapons and technology. The Chinese are the only major power willing to flaunt UN sanctions against Iran (at least if there's a big enough payday involved.)
In the last few years, Iran has spent over $100 million developing a Cyber War capability. There are 2,400 military and civilian personnel working on this, along with 1,200 part timers in a "Cyber War reserve force." So far, these Cyber War activities have mainly been used to help Islamic terrorist groups that Iran supports.
The Islamic Solidarity Games, held every four years to celebrate the athletic prowess of Islamic countries, are in disarray and cancelled because Arab states insist on renaming the Persian Gulf as the Arabian Gulf. The Arab states believe their trillions of dollars of oil income over the last seventy years has changed the balance of power in the region, and should be expressed in an official name change of the Persian Gulf (which the waterway has been called for thousands of years by the dominant power in the region, the Iranians, and anyone who did not want to offend the Iranians). Uppity Arabs, who don't know their place in the scheme of things, are a long time annoyance to Iranians, and yet another reason to develop nuclear weapons.
Despite his poor economic performance (and the high unemployment and inflation rates), president Ahmadinejad still has the support of 58 percent of the voters (heading into the June 12th presidential elections). The senior clerics have not been entirely pleased with Ahmadinejad's performance, and have allowed reform minded candidates to run against him. But none of these opponents have the support of more than a quarter of the electorate. Moreover, Ahmadinejad controls many radical military and police units, which he will use to coerce, persuade or intimidate voters.
Iranian anti-ship and anti-aircraft missile units have deployed to the Straits of Hormuz. This is believed to be temporary, and part of Iranian preparations for a possible Israeli attack against Iranian nuclear weapons facilities. Iran has threatened to shut down oil tanker traffic through he Straits if the Israelis attack.
May 2, 2009: Iranians were unnerved by a recent opinion poll that showed 66 percent of Israelis backed an attack on Iranian nuclear facilities, while only 15 percent opposed it. Most Iranians don't go along with their governments anti-Semitic "Israel must be destroyed" rhetoric, but are not willing to risk their lives to remove the religious dictatorship they live under.
May 1, 2009: Iran celebrated May Day (an international leftist holiday) by striving to prevent labor unions (especially illegal, and thus un-Islamic one) from holding celebrations.
April 30, 2009: For the second year in a row, the U.S. State Department has named Iran the “most active state sponsor of terrorism.” This is based on the activities of the Iranian Al Quds force, whose job is to foster Islamic terrorism (especially when it supports Iran).
April 29, 2009: Three Iranian helicopters crossed the border and attacked buildings where Kurdish separatists were thought to be hiding. The Kurdish controlled government in northern Iraq sent troops to the area, to confront any Iranian soldiers who may have crossed the border.
April 28, 2009: Another Iranian ship was reported to have been attacked off the Sudan coast, while trying to land weapons for Hamas in Gaza. Israel has increased its undercover operations against Iranian terrorist support. Israel says nothing, but more and more Iranian terrorism operatives are dying, or having their operations interfered with.
April 27, 2009: Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan have agreed to have diplomats meet monthly to discuss matters related to unrest in Afghanistan.
April 26, 2009: On the northern Iraqi border, police fought Kurdish separatists, killing at least eight of them. Eighteen policemen were killed as well.
