Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

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In this Sunday, March 10, 2013 photo, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, left, holds hands with chief of staff and preferred presidential candidate Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, during a press conference in Tehran, Iran. A poster with the portrait of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is seen at right. (AP Photo/Fars News Agency, Mohammad Hassanzadeh)

Opinion: Tehran Nervous as Election Process Starts

by Amir Taheri | May 10, 2013 | Opinion

On Tuesday, Iran’s presidential election was kick started, with would-be candidates beginning to register at the start of a 40-day sprint to polling day. By all accounts, the Tehran leadership is nervous about the whole exercise. On the eve of registration, Supreme...

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Iranian air force commanders saluting Khamenei during a meeting in Tehran on February 7, 2013. Source: AFP Photo/HO/Iranian Supreme Leaders Website

Opinion: The “Cursed Three” and the “Supreme Leader”

by Amir Taheri | Apr 19, 2013 | Opinion

During pre-television times, Iranians, especially in smaller towns, owed much of their entertainment to bands of clowns roaming the countryside. Any spot could be used as a stage: a village square, a bazaar shop-front or the courtyard of a “holy” shrine. Sometimes,...

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Iraqi Hezbollah Chief Wathiq al-Battat. Source: Asharq Al-Awsat Photo

Wathiq al-Battat: Khamenei’s Militiaman?

by Hamza Mustafa | Mar 2, 2013 | Profiles

BAGHDAD, Ahsharq Al-Awsat—Wathiq al-Battat, secretary-general of Hezbollah in Iraq, seems to be paying little attention to the arrest warrant issued against him by the Iraqi interior ministry after he formed the militia dubbed jaysh al-mukhtar, or the Mukhtar Army....

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Arab Syria an Iranian Province

by Tariq Al-Hashemi | Feb 27, 2013 | Opinion

The statement issued by Iranian scholar Mehdi Taeb, a prominent political figure in charge of overseeing the soft war that has been launched by Iran, did not contain anything new, nor did its issuance come out of the blue. However this statement could be viewed as the...