0525 GMT: With Nowruz in Iran bringing a pause in news of substance, noise and propaganda take its place.
Press TV's top six Iran stories are all on the lines that Sanctions Are Bad, War Would Be Really Bad, and We Are Continuing Our Nuclear Programme Whatever Happens. The Venezuelan Ambassador is brought in to announce that sanctions threaten the stability of the oil market, while former International Atomic Energy Agency director Mohamed El Baradei --- who, in previous times, has been called a puppet of the West by Iranian media --- is the guarantor that a military attack on Tehran will not stop nuclear development.
State news agency IRNA is more useful in its signal of imminent nuclear talks, citing a Chinese spokesman that Beijing "urgently" wants the West to begin discussions. Meanwhile, the reassurance is given that the Bushehr nuclear power plant --- which was supposedly launched to provide energy 18 months ago --- is "on the prescribed schedule".
The huffing and puffing is not just from the Iranians. The New York Police Department's director of intelligence, Mitchell Silber, told the US Congress on Wednesday that "Iranian spies" have conducted "hostile reconnaissance" of New York City landmarks and infrastructure on at least six occasions since 2002. The evidence for this was that "at least 13 individuals associated with the government of Iran" had taken video footage or photographed locations such as "the subway tracks in Grand Central Station", the Brooklyn Bridge, and the Wall Street Heliport.
Silber said New York City's international significance and large Jewish presence makes it "the most likely venue for global tensions with Iran to spill over onto American soil".
And other groups add their white noise. Amidst bickering between Fatah and Hamas over who leads the Palestinian movement, Fatah spokesman Ahmed Assaf said Iran paid Hamas to block a deal for reconciliation.
Assaf claimed, “We have information that Iran paid tens of millions of dollars to Zahar and Haniyeh in their visits,” referring to Hamas leaders Mahmoud al-Zahar, who visited Tehran last week, and Ismail Haniyeh, who was there in February.
Assaf, responding to a comment by Zahar that Palestinian political reconciliation “is in the freezer now”, alleged, “Reconciliation is in the freezer because Zahar was the one who put it there and he got the price from Iran. Zahar, Haniyeh and Hamas’s Gaza leadership were paid by Iran to freeze reconciliation.”
Posted via email from lissping
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