The Dominion - Iran

Canada’s Conservatives to Push for Iran Sanctions

dru — Sat, 29 May 2010 05:00:31 +0000

Israeli nukes not a concern

MONTREAL—In the lead-up to the G8 summit in Canada, Conservative politicians in Ottawa are pushing publicly for increased sanctions on Iran.

Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon has indicated he will lobby for severe sanctions at the elite summit, to take place June 25-27, 2010.

“Canada will continue to use its G8 presidency to focus international attention and action on Iran,” a representative of the office of Minister Cannon told The Dominion. “We believe that further sanctions authorized by the United Nations Security Council are needed.”

China’s reluctance to back US attempts to introduce strict sanctions on Iran has set the stage for the upcoming G8 summit to serve as gathering where the US and Canada will unite in favour of a more hard-line position on Iran. China holds a permanent seat at the UN Security Council, but it is not a member country of the G8.

The Conservative government’s plan to utilize the upcoming G8 summit as a platform to apply pressure on Iran is central to its intervention strategy in contemporary Middle Eastern politics. Often left out of the global political drama surrounding the Iranian government’s relationship to nuclear power is the region’s only current nuclear power: the Israeli government in Tel Aviv.

At the recent US Nuclear Security Summit, President Barack Obama pushed for world leaders to scale back major nuclear development, and build an increasing global consensus in support of sanctions on Iran.

What sanctions...accomplish is, hopefully, to change the calculus of a country like Iran, so that they see that there are more costs and fewer benefits to pursuing a nuclear-weapons program,” Obama said at the summit.

Also absent from serious scrutiny at the summit was the massive US nuclear stockpile or any criticism of the Israeli nuclear program. “As far as Israel goes, I’m not going to comment on their program,” said Obama. The Canadian government has issued no criticism of the existing Israeli nuclear arsenal, even though they have pushed for Iran to end its nuclear program. The fact that Israel is left out of the discussion is not an accident, according to Shourideh Molavi, a Toronto-based Iranian writer.

“Canada is moving toward a second phase of a major foreign policy project they have already started, which is to develop deeper ties with Israel, in regards to security and military policy,” said Molavi. “So when it comes to Iran they want to use the G8 as a platform to push for sanctions within this framework.”

Canada’s intense support for the Israeli government has shaped a new era of Canada-Israel relations. Ottawa has arguably emerged as the staunchest pro-Israel capital in the world.

“Canada is so friendly that there was no need to convince or explain anything to anyone,” said right wing Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, after a recent meeting in Ottawa with Canadian Foreign Minister Cannon. “We had amiable talks in a supportive atmosphere...we need allies like this in the international arena,” he said.

Beyond talk of sanctions, Iran is currently experiencing major turmoil. Massive protests swept across the country last summer after an election widely seen as tainted led to the victory of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Social movements globally expressed solidarity with the protest movement in Iran. Political leaders in Europe, the US and Canada also backed the protest movement.

“With Iran in the picture, Ottawa is using any avenue they can to build support for sanctions on Iran, including manipulative positions towards the protest movement in Iran,” Molavi told The Dominion. “Canada is claiming that they support the people in Iran, while pushing for sanctions that will impact the poorest people in the country first.”

Canada’s attempts to lock in sanctions on Iran contradict the demands of leading dissidents in Iran, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi.
“We oppose military attack on Iran or economic sanctions because that’s to the detriment of the people,” Ebadi said in March 2010.

Canada’s appeal for “further sanctions” on Iran will be in the media spotlight during the Toronto G8 summit.

It will be critical for grassroots movements organizing in opposition to the G8 summit in Canada to identify the major gaps between the push by G8 leaders for sanctions and the anti-sanctions positions of Iran’s most vocal opposition leaders.

Stefan Christoff is a regular contributor to The Dominion and is at
http://www.twitter.com/spirodon.

This story was published in The Dominion's special issue on the G8 and G20 summits in Ontario. We will continue to publish independent, investigative news about the G8 and G20 throughout the month of June.

For up-to-the-minute G8/G20 news from the streets of Toronto, visit the Toronto Media Co-op.

Lawrence Cannon at CTBTO

Enriched Hypocrisy

Moira Peters — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 05:40:37 +0000

Before criticizing Iran's nuke program, Canada should look within

PETERBOROUGH—Eight of the world’s most powerful leaders are meeting in Huntsville, Ontario, this June to discuss Iran’s nuclear power industry. Concerned over Tehran’s enrichment of uranium, Prime Minister Stephen Harper intends to use Canada’s leadership of the Group of Eight (G8) to push for sanctions against the Middle Eastern country. Anti-nuclear activists, citing the prominence and recent growth of Canada's own nuclear industry, are pointing out contradictions between domestic policy and Harper's intentions at the G8.

Reacting to Tehran’s February 9 announcement that Iran had successfully enriched uranium at its Natanz nuclear facility south of Tehran, Harper announced in a February press release his intentions to push the G8 to adopt harsher policies against Iran. “Canada will continue to work with our allies to find strong and viable solutions, including sanctions, to hold Iran to account.”

Harper said he aimed to reach an agreement amongst the G8 countries prior to the G20 meetings, as “the sting of a co-ordinated approach is always felt more strongly.”

Canada hopes China, also a nuclear supplier and one of Iran’s leading trading partners, won’t want to risk isolation from the other major industrialized economies and will therefore be pressured into supporting sanctions. (A similar strong-arm tactic was used against Russia in 1997 to gain support for the G7-led invasion of Serbia.)

Two days after Tehran's February 9 announcement, General Electric (GE) was awarded permission to enrich uranium in Peterborough, Ontario—an activity in which the provincial government had invested $15 million last November.

Peterborough’s GE plant, located in the heart of the city, already produces nuclear materials in partnership with the Japanese company Hitachi. GE-Hitachi submitted an environmental assessment proposal in 2007 to produce "low enriched uranium fuel bundles." This would require an upgrade of the plant’s status to “nuclear installation,” in turn requiring higher insurance costs.

Residents are concerned. The facility is immediately adjacent to residential areas and the Prince of Wales Elementary School, where 120 parents showed up to the only public meeting on the issue. Notice was given to parents just two days before the meeting, while residents were not informed at all.

The Environmental Assessment Report (EAR) submitted by GE stated the facility is located among “the most vulnerable catchments in the city for floods.” (The facility had in fact flooded during a city-wide flood in 2002.) The EAR also noted that in two years out of ten, water contamination from radiation reached a level 20 per cent above Health Canada’s 2006 safety levels. At the January hearing on the EAR, it was also noted that radiation contamination levels in the air at the plant had been steadily increasing over the past few years.

None of the parents, nor any other residents interviewed for this article, had been aware of this. All expressed the assumption that governmental regulations would keep them safe.

At the public hearing on GE's submission (which was scheduled for the afternoon of a weekday in Ottawa), the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC—the federal nuclear regulating agency) ruled in favour of GE-Hitachi’s proposal, in spite of a number of written submissions from Peterborough residents to the CNSC, opposing the the proposal.

According to The Arthur, Trent University’s student newspaper, Canadian government approval of a nuclear plant is a “slap in the face” to the residents of the City of Peterborough, given the success of a recent mass mobilization against uranium mining. In 2008, local organizing succeeded in having the city council pass a motion calling for a moratorium on the mining of uranium in Sharbot Lake, 150km to the east. The Arthur wrote that some Peterborough residents felt the Sharbot Lake ruling should have been an indictment of the entire nuclear industry.

According to Roy Brady, an activist with anti-nuclear group Safe and Green Energy (SAGE), if Canada is serious about nuclear non-proliferation, all aspects of the uranium cycle must be examined, including our own domestic uses.

This was not the case for GE, Brady said in an interview, given the proposed plant’s environmental assessment states that GE lacks a decommissioning plan.

In his recent book, Atomic Accomplice, Paul McKay, founding editor of the now-defunct (and Peterborough-published) Nuclear Free Press, said Canadian-built CANDU reactors were designed as part of the infamous Manhattan Project in the development of the nuclear bomb. The CANDU reactors produce more plutonium, the main reactive material in the nuclear bomb, than any other reactor type. The uranium bundles to be produced in Peterborough are destined for such CANDU reactors.

Craig Severence, who recently authored Business Risks and Costs of Nuclear Power, in lambasting the economics of the nuclear industry, pointed out the only “legitimate” reason to enrich uranium is for use in a nuclear power plant.

“The continued promotion and sale worldwide of civilian nuclear reactors gives nations the excuse to operate uranium enrichment programs,” Severence wrote in his report, pointing to Iran as an example.

According to McKay, Iran's nuclear ambitions can even be linked to Canada's export of nuclear technology to India, one of Iran's regional rivals. Canada provided India with nuclear material despite knowledge that the country was attempting to build an atomic bomb—which India certainly did, conducting the first successful test in 1974.

Critics of Canadian foreign policy point out that despite commonly-held beliefs, Canada's non-proliferation record is questionable. Yves Engler noted one example of this in his book, Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy, stating that Canadian military jets stationed in Europe were armed with nuclear warheads during the Cold War—even after all American nuclear silos were removed from the country. As McKay said, “Canada’s nuclear record is far from innocent.”

Leading up to the G8 summit in Huntsville this summer, Canadians might wonder if the G8 would be worrying about nuclear non-proliferation issues now had countries like Canada kept a distance from nuclear trade with the Middle East in the first place.

The hope among nuclear critics is for G8 and G20 countries that have strong nuclear industries to realize how closely their nuclear programs play into Iran's.

Matthew Davidson is a student of history and international development at Trent University. He is actively engaged with both anti-nuclear and G8 resistance organizing in Peterborough.

Nuclear Bud

Nuclear Kids

Exposing Canada's Role in US "Black-Ops" in Iran

dawn — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 00:04:54 +0000

Picture 10.png

I'm probably not the only Dominion reader who has spent the past couple of days wondering how Canada is involved in US-led "Black Ops" in Iran.

Today I found a clue when I happened across Psiphon Inc., which was recently spun off from Citizen Lab, itself a branch of the Munk Centre for International Studies at the U of T.

"Canada's Psiphon Inc. on the Frontlines of Iranian Netwar," reads a June 19 press release by Ontario based Psiphon Inc.

"The company is employing dedicated 'psi-operators' - staff whose job it is to propagate Psiphon nodes and engage with the Iranian community both inside and outside Iran - working 24 hours a day, seven days a week."

"The psi-operators are using social networking platforms like Twitter and Facebook, as well as emails [sic] lists and forums, to propagate connection information to Psiphon's 'Right2know' nodes, which contain customized content sourced from BBC BBC Persian, Radio Farda, YouTube and other websites and services banned by Iranian authorities," continues the release (which I transcribed here).

According to the Globe and Mail, which picked up on Psiphon's news release:

September in Review

dru — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 23:34:05 +0000

GM on strike, uranium mining, 1.2 million dead in Iraq

73,000 employees of General Motors (GM) went on strike, shutting down 82 facilities, to oppose cuts to wages, jobs and health care. After two days on the picket line, which cost GM an estimated $100 million per day, United Auto Workers announced a tentative deal with GM management. The strike also affected plants in Canada, which supply roughly 50 per cent of the parts used by GM. Initial details of the contract sparked anger among some workers, who say the agreement benefits union bureaucracy, but continues to roll back wages and jobs. "I’ve read the Wall Street Journal and they’re gloating over the agreement," said one auto worker. "The company wanted to outsource a lot of these jobs, but instead... they can keep them in-house and pay the same rate as they would to someone on the outside. The only difference is the union keeps these workers as dues-paying members. The UAW doesn’t lose, but the workers do." Before it is adopted, workers must vote to ratify the contract.

Algonquin demonstrators from the Ardoch and Shabot Obaadjiwan Algonquin First Nations paddled canoes to Ottawa to protest a planned uranium mine near Sharbot Lake, Ontario. The canoers seeked to demonstrate that radioactive waste from the mine would potentially flow into the Ottawa River and subsequently Lake Ontario. Algonquin demonstrators have been occupying the mine site, which they say is Algonquin territory.

A proposed uranium mine near the Inuit community of Makkovik, in northern Labrador, has stoked debate. While the prospect of jobs appeals to many, a radioactive mine is not as appealing to others. Douglas Jacques, whose family has hunted and trapped near the mine site for three generations, told the CBC that he anticipates mining companies will "go off with millions and millions, and we won't get a thing out of it."

Nine protesters from Six Nations were arrested at a Caledonia subdivision construction site. The Six Nations demonstrators say the developer of Stirling Creek Estates does not have the right to build on the property, as it is Kanienkehaka (Mohawk) territory. The arrests occured after one of the developers was reportedly injured in an altercation with several Six Nations youth.

The UN General Assembly passed the Universal Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The only countries to vote against the declaration were Canada, USA, Australia and New Zealand.

The government of New Brunswick announced a $237 million budget surplus, more than ten times what was expected. The extra revenues are thought to stem from increased prices for metals mined in the province, such as zinc.

The government of Ecuador ordered Canadian mining company Ascendant Copper to suspend all activities at its controversial Junín project. Carlos Zorilla of DECOIN, a grassroots environmental group that has been fighting Ascendant, said, "It's a fine political balancing act... I see it as an attempt to close down Ascendant's operations in [the area] while at the same time trying hard not to provoke... the international financing institutional world, not to mention the wrath of the Canadian government." Ascendant has been accused of using bribes and paramilitary thugs to suppress local opposition to the Junín mining project, which Conservation International has called one of the most ecologically diverse areas in the world.

The levels of Arctic sea ice reached a record low on September 16, breaking the previous record, set in 2005, by 1.19 million square kilometres--roughly the size of Manitoba and Saskatchewan combined. Some scientists say that Arctic ice has reached a "tipping point," which will be followed by accelerated melting. "All models seem to underestimate the speed at which the ice is melting," one climate scientist told Reuters. The change is likely to result in increased exploration of oil, gas and other natural resources in the region.

Carpenters, roofers, pipefitters, plumbers and other tradespeople staged wildcat strikes in Alberta, demanding changes to the Alberta Labour Code. The contested legislation denies the right to strike after 75 per cent of the province's trade unions have agreed to a contract. Hundreds marched in Edmonton to protest the legislation, which dates back two decades.

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers went on the offensive against a new report calling for Alberta to receive a larger share of revenues from tar sands mining, calling it "faulty" and "flawed." The Globe and Mail reported that the tar sands were facing a "capacity squeeze" due to insufficient pipeline space to carry increased production of oil.

A coalition led by the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty held a "day of action" calling for the provincial government to "increase social assistance, raise the minimum wage and build affordable/social housing." "Welfare and disability rates have lost 40% of their real value, the minimum wage is still at sub poverty levels and the lack of decent housing in this City is a shame and a disgrace," the group said in a release.

The Halifax Coalition Against Poverty (HCAP) began a series of clinics aimed at educating welfare recipients on how to obtain a little-known "special needs" allowance of $150. The coalition is working with doctors and health care professionals to provide letters for people seeking the special needs allowance. The campaign "provides the possibility for people to win money they need from the government and to have that be a way to build the confidence and dignity needed to be part of broader political struggle," said HCAP organizer Cole Webber.

Hotel workers in Vancouver threatened to strike over wages and working conditions, diversion of tips, working conditions, medical benefits, workloads and other issues. They reached a tenative agreement on September 22.

Some Canadian postal workers refused to deliver addressed advertising mail to addresses that they knew no longer belonged to the addressee. Canada Post has ordered the delivery of mail, which postal workers say takes discretion away from workers, reduces professionalism, and could violate privacy rights, if the mail disclosed religious affiliation or other personal information.

Afghan protesters near Kandahar chanted "death to Canada" and called for foreign troops to leave after two men were killed in a military raid on a local house. Canadian officials denied involvement, and dismissed requests for compensation. "We don't want to be in a situation where we're seen as just bribing people who have a grudge against us because that puts us up against insurgents who can likewise bribe," said a military spokesperson.

About 200 protesters accused NATO of war crimes, and called for the withdrawal of Canadian troops from Afghanistan in Victoria, where NATO generals were meeting to discuss military strategy.

Maxime Bernier's first speech in Quebec as Foreign Minister was repeatedly disrupted by protesters calling for an end to Canada's occupation of Afghanistan.

Protesters picketed outlets of Indigo books in Vancouver, Victoria, Winnipeg, Toronto and Montreal on the 25th anniversary of the Sabra and Shatila massacre in Lebanon. The picketers called for Indigo majority shareholders Heather Reisman and Gerry Schwartz to end support for groups recruiting soldiers for the Israeli army.

According to a new study, an estimated 1.2 million Iraqis have died since the US invasion and occupation of Iraq. The study, published by Opinion Research Business, was almost entirely absent from North American media outlets.

The UK's Telegraph reported that the US was preparing to attack Iran. "Pentagon planners have developed a list of up to 2,000 bombing targets in Iran," the report said. "Pentagon and CIA officers say they believe that the White House has begun a carefully calibrated programme of escalation that could lead to a military showdown with Iran." Many US and Canadian media outlets appeared to be engaged in a campaign to demonize the government of Iran and its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The government of Israel declared the 1.4 million residents of the Gaza Strip to be an "enemy entity." The move gives Israel the power to cut off power, water and other vital supplies to the impoverished, densely populated area.

Israel also carried out an unprovoked air raid into Iran. The government refused to comment on the operation, but some commentators have called it a test of Israel's capacity to attack Iran.

Sharbot Lake

Greenpeace

Ahmadinejad's speech

dru — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 19:14:49 +0000

ahma2.jpg

You can see videos of Ahmadinejad's speech and Colombia University President Lee Bollinger's opening remarks. Without any apparent sense of irony, Bollinger calls on the Iranian President to allow an American who is being held without trial in Iran to be allowed to leave, just to cite one example of the bizarre double standard that is, well, standard in the US right now. It's probably standard everywhere, but in any case, it's embarrassing to watch intelligent people talk like this.

Ahmadinejad should be criticized, but let it be about things he has actually said

dru — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 06:35:01 +0000

ahmed.jpg

Ahmadinejad was in New York today, as some of you may have noticed. I'm sure many Iranians (as well as the entire US elite) will tell you that he is pure evil. But as of the last election, they are still in the minority. This may have something to do with his blend of appealing to Islamic "values voters" and the poor ("putting the petroleum income on people's tables" was apparently one of his campaign slogans).

He's a religious nut, but not much more so than George W, as far as I can tell. There's plenty to dislike about the Islamic Revolution--violence, suppression of rights, theocracy, and so on. (That said, the revolution was a reaction to the Shah, who killed his way to power with US help, replacing a democratic, secular government that wanted control over their own oil.) To an extent, Ahmadinejad can be said to represent the results of this theocracy.

That said, let's be serious.

Maybe, just maybe we can put to rest the references to "Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who denies the Holocaust ever happened and seems quite happy at the thought of unleashing nukes against the Jews" (as Margaret Wente put it in her absurdly high-profile Globe column on Saturday).

Hopefully the fact that Ahmadinejad repudiated claims that he said these things (not that there was a lack of evidence before) will put this line of thinking to rest.

For a little taste of how Iran is seen...

dru — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 19:58:49 +0000

...by the right wing of America's young elite, visit this link.

Prisoners

dru — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 06:31:44 +0000

I haven't weighed in about the Iranian hostage crisis, but it's about time that I did. I'm shocked, shocked, to say the least, that a country would dare to unilaterally detain citizens of another sovereign country without trial, and subject them to questioning. Why, I'm sure it's only the massive media attention that kept them from dressing them up in orange jumpsuits, keeping them in humiliating conditions, and torturing them.

Iran has released them, but we cannot soon forgive this unpardonable violation of sovereignty and rights. Especially given that the British may have been in Iraqi waters. No foreign country has any right to enter those waters without Iraq's permission.

Arms makers see opportunity in Gulf tension

hillarybain — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 20:01:37 +0000

You can always count on the business section of the Globe to give you the real news, without the spin.

Google News: Iran

hillarybain — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 00:06:46 +0000

I did a Google News search for "Iran." The results are pretty telling regarding what Bush -- and the media -- are building towards.

"Democracy Promotion"

dru — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 09:06:28 +0000

For those keeping track of the millions in funding for "pro-western" journalists and political activists flowing from the US State Department, CIDA, and others, this article is worth reading. It seems that in the case of Iran, US funding has resulted in fewer freedoms, because the regime of the day feels threatened by the use of media for US foreign policy ends.

Many observers and activists say the crackdown on intellectuals and government critics has worsened since the U.S. State Department declared last February that it was creating a 75-million-dollar fund to "reach out to the people of Iran".

From Iran

dru — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 00:57:24 +0000

Poya, a member of No One Is Illegal Montreal, is in Iran, and recently sent back a rather interesting report about life there and the country's political situation.

Stick vs. Carrot: US and EU Diverge on Iran's Nuclear Program

Mon, 22 Nov 2004 09:06:52 +0000

Washington is taking a hardline approach to last week's suggestion by outgoing US Secretary of State Colin Powell that Iran will soon be capable of a long-range weapons system that could deliver nuclear warheads. While the US has stated publicly that it wants to employ UN sanctions against Iran if it fails to prove that it is not pursuing nuclear weapons, the Pentagon is also reportedly discussing military options, including strikes in support of regime change.

While the EU is concerned that Iran's nuclear ambitions will pose a threat if left unchecked, European governments are proceeding with dialogue in an effort to provide incentives for Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions. In a pact reached last week, Iran agreed to suspend its uranium enrichment program while a deal is negotiated that would see non-military nuclear technology and increased trade from Europe exchanged for the suspension of all nuclear weapons programs.

Whereas international pressure to abandon nuclear weapons is growing, domestic opinion opposes dismantling the national nuclear weapons program. Interviews in Isfahan and Tehran indicate that the public supports both the development of nuclear energy and nuclear weapons as a means to gaining respect and assuring national security. Many Iranians point to the nuclear arsenals in Israel, Pakistan, and India and argue that it is within their rights to pursue their own program as a means of deterrence.

The Iranian government, notorious for its stalling tactics in recent years despite its claim to uphold non-proliferation agreements, is trying to deflect accusations that the country is pursuing nuclear missile technology. Currently under investigation by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iranian officials want to avoid a decision by the body, expcted later this week, that would declare Iran in breach of non-proliferation measures. Such a decision would increase the likelihood of UN sanctions and would provide hawks in the US with greater political ammunition for a military response.

While Washington is taking the line that a WMD crisis is looming in Iran, independent assessments of Iran's gas centrifuge program and its capacity to produce highly enriched uranium suggest that the country is at least several years from producing its first nuclear weapon. Observers point out that while preventing the further development of Iran's nuclear program is of the utmost importance, doing so will require a more unified diplomatic approach than the current diverging policies of the US and the EU.

Nathan Lepp

» The Observer: Pentagon turns heat up on Iran

» Kansas City Star: Many Iranians want nukes to ensure respect, security

» Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: Iran: Countdown to Showdown

Iranian Reformist MPs Resign en Masse

Fri, 28 May 2004 07:59:22 +0000

Reformist President Mohammed Reza Khatami at celebrations marking the 25th anniversary of the revolution that overthrew the Shah.

(Tehran) Nearly 120 members of the Iranian parliament have resigned in protest of the barring of reformist candidates from the national election, plunging the 25-year-old republic into political chaos. A statement read by the faction across national radio condemned the interference and accused hard-line politicians of seeking to impose a Taliban-style dictatorship in Iran, a particularly cutting remark given hard-line Shiite Iran's hate of the Sunni Afghan fundamentalist movement. "We cannot continue to be present in a parliament that is not capable of defending the rights of the people and which is unable to prevent elections in which the people cannot choose their representatives," their statement read.

Pro-reform Majlis speaker Mehdi Karubi appealed to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to assist in resolving the three-week old crisis. The Ayatollah has the final say on all matters of state and appoints the members of the Guardians Council, the group responsible for the disqualification of reformist candidates from the election. Ayatollah Khamenei has already intervened to order the Guardian Council to be less stringent in its vetting of candidates, bringing the number of disqualifications down from 3605 to 1160. Still, the Council has not reinstated some 80 sitting members nor any prominent supporters of reformist President Khatami.

The resignation of 40 percent of the Majlis denies it the two-thirds quorum necessary to pass legislation, indefinitely delaying approval of the national budget. Before this can happen, political procedure requires parliament to examine and vote on the resignations before their acceptance. The Guardian Council has denied the interior ministry's request to delay the election. Mohammad Reza Khatami, brother to the president and head of the reformist Islamic Iran Participation Front, warned "If the conservatives want to organize an election with the backing of the military, this would not be an election. It would be a coup d'etat."

» BBC: Iran MPs resign over election ban

» Guardian: Iranian MPs resign en masse