Iran: Russia and China Are Bought and Paid For

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February 28, 2006: Production of nuclear material has started, the UN knows about it, and Iran doesn't care. Iran says it will promise not to develop nuclear weapons if the United States and the rest of the word got rid of theirs. Iran appears pretty confident that China and Russia will provide diplomatic support of the UN tries to stop Iranian nuclear weapons developments via sanctions.

Iran would also like to get rid of all the foreign spies. Increasingly, Iranian intelligence is getting reports of more foreigners offering money for information. This is a common intelligence gathering technique in the Middle East, where information is just another item to be bought, sold or bartered. In Iran, where smuggling has been big business for a long time, information is one of the items carried into, and out of, the country. Foreigners want to know about resistance to the government and attitudes towards Iran's nuclear weapons program.

February 27, 2006: In the southwest, where most of Iran's oil, and Arabs, are found, two bombs went off in government offices. There were four injuries. These bombings have been going on since last Summer. The government blames foreign instigators. That may be true, but not the British foreigners the government names, but Iraqi Shia Arabs who feel the connection with their fellow Shia Arabs across the border in Iran. Like the Iraqi Shia Arabs, the Iranian Shia Arabs have not gotten much from all the oil produced around them. The ethnic Iranians (an Indo-European people) control the oil, and the money it brings in. The 1980 war between Iran and Iraq was started when Saddam Hussein tried to "liberate" his fellow Arabs just across the border in Iran, along with the oil they were sitting on. Saddam already had a reputation for treating Shias badly, and Iran's Arabs remained loyal in resisting Saddam's army. But now, the situation is different. Shia Arabs are basically running Iraq. This bothers the non-Arab Iranians, and encourages the Arab Iranians.

February 26, 2006: Trade between Iran and Russia reached $2 billion in 2005, and may double this year.

February 25, 2006: German police and charged them with buying and smuggling weapons and weapons technology for Iran. One of the men was German, the other from the Middle East. An investigation revealed that Iran was looking for a long list of forbidden technologies, including those related to ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons.

Russia will launch an Iranian communications satellite (called Zohre, or Venus) next year. This joint satellite development project was started last year.

 

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