Tehran's new uranium enrichment plant will be operational soon, and "will blind the eyes of the enemies," Iran's semi-official news agency Fars reported Saturday, quoting a senior Iranian official. Also Saturday, the head of Iran's atomic energy program said U.N. nuclear experts would be allowed to inspect the plant, according to a report from Iran-funded Press TV. Ali Akbar Salehi, the atomic energy chief, said a date would be arranged for such an inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency, ...

The father of a detainee beaten to death in an Iranian prison says he's satisfied with the way the Islamic government has handled the case -- even as it serves as proof imprisoned protesters were abused. A coroner's report showed Mohsen Rouhol-Amini, arrested for protesting the June 12 election, died of "repeated blows and severe physical injuries" at Tehran's Kahrizak prison, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported Monday, citing an informed source. Officials initially had said Rouhol-Amini had died from ...

Iran's supreme leader has ordered the closing of a prison over reported mistreatment of detainees who protested the presidential vote last month, according to government-backed media. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued the order to shut down the Kahrizak detention facility amid reports it did not meet required standards, said the head of Iran's National Security Council, Saeed Jalili, according to a Press TV. "In the course of recent events, the Leader has ordered officials (to take measures), so that no one, ...

The fate of Iran's Islamic revolution now rests in the hands of an enigmatic cleric who is little understood at home, let alone by the outside world. For the past 20 years, pictures of Ayatullah Ali Khamenei, with his oversize glasses, black turban and untrimmed white beard, have adorned shops, government offices and living-room walls throughout Iran. His modest childhood home in Mashhad has become a virtual shrine, his edicts are binding and his powers absolute. Yet protesters forced ...

Despite his threats of "consequences" and the subsequent beatings and shooting deaths by government agents, the open protests on Iran's streets by hundreds of thousands of people have dented the shield of invincibility of Iran's Supreme religious Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, say sources in Iran. Chants of "Death to Khamenei" broke a state-imposed, and a self-imposed absolute prohibition on criticizing a leader believed to be wielding the wisdom and authority of God himself. But right now, the massive ...

"The most treacherous government is Britain," Ayatullah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, intoned at Friday prayers on June 19, and I had to laugh. The Supreme Leader, in the midst of announcing a crackdown on the Green Revolution demonstrators, was sounding like the lead character in the most famous contemporary Iranian novel, My Uncle Napoleon, a huge hit as a television series in the 1970s. Uncle Napoleon is a beloved paranoid curmudgeon, the ...

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, urged parliamentarians Wednesday to tolerate the voices of the opposition, government-run Press TV reported. Khamenei made the remarks to a group of lawmakers in Tehran, Press TV said. The report came hours after witnesses said police had broken up a planned demonstration outside the parliament building in opposition to the outcome of the June 12 presidential elections. But Khamenei added that the Islamic establishment and people "will never give in to coercive demands with ...

Iran's political crisis would end pretty quickly if the opposition went toe-to-toe with the security forces — and no matter how courageous and determined the demonstrators, the likelihood of them toppling the regime on the streets right now is pretty remote. Although at least 30 and perhaps ...

To the triumvirate Iranians blame for the disputed election result and ensuing violence — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Supreme Leader Ali Khameni and their henchmen, the Basij militia — Iranians have added an unlikely candidate: state media. The wrath of many Iranians toward the state's all-powerful organ of propaganda, the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting , known in Iran as seda va sima, has been mounting over the past two weeks. It reached a fever pitch this weekend, as state television ...

Iran's supreme leader passionately defended last week's presidential election process Friday, praising President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's election as a "definitive victory" and sloughing off charges of vote-rigging. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei addressed a crowd at Tehran University in a sermon during Friday prayers. His speech was greatly anticipated amid massive protests from supporters of opposition leaders such as Mir Hossein Moussavi, who disputed the government's assertion that Ahmadinejad won in a landslide. While Khamenei called on those who don't believe the ...