Word: iran
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...execution of 13 men in Iran on July 14 highlights a central theme of the regime's response to the protests that followed the disputed result of the June 12 election. Those executed were not street protesters, but instead were accused by authorities in the southeastern Iranian province of Sistan-Baluchestan of being members of Jundallah - a Sunni Muslim terrorist group, which may have links to al-Qaeda and the Taliban. The group, composed mainly of Iranians of ethnic Baluchi origin and based in the Baluchistan province of neighboring Pakistan, has been charged with a string of attacks across Iran...
Iranian authorities claim that those executed were responsible for killing civilians and policemen in several different attacks, and made no specific link between their crimes and the current postelection political crisis. But because Iran sees Jundallah as having U.S. backing, the timing of the execution reinforces Tehran's narrative that foreigners are to blame for the postelection unrest. The executions are also a message to Iran's restive minority groups to stay out of the confrontation between President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his opponents. (See pictures of violence to intimidate Iranians...
Although Persians are Iran's largest ethnic group, almost half of the population comprises Azeris, Kurds, Lors, Arabs, Turkomans, Baluchis and other minorities with longstanding grievances against the central government. During Ahmadinejad's first term, there has been an unusual upsurge of rioting, protests and bombings by minority groups targeting government officials and institutions, including an ambush on the President himself by Baluchis. While the minority groups blame government repression for the unrest, the government blames foreign agitators...
...shops lining Tehran's famed shopping boulevard, Vali Asr Street, are evidence of a hunger for Western consumer goods. Among the stores are Banana Republic, Tommy Hilfiger and Polo Ralph Lauren, proof of an appetite for American cultural imports. Apple computer products, though banned for export to Iran under U.S. sanctions, can be found in the backrooms of some computer boutiques here. A merchant at the city's historic Grand Bazaar travels to New York several times a year to sell antique Persian rugs, often to auction houses like Sotheby's. He says he wishes relations would improve so that...
...TIME's Iran covers...