Word: akbar
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...facility outside the holy city of Qum. News of the plant, the second of its kind in Iran, drew sharp criticism from Western leaders, including President Obama, who condemned Tehran for "breaking rules" and demanded that the country "cooperate fully and comprehensively" with International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors. Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, insisted that plans for the plant were never secret and reiterated that Iran's nuclear program is peaceful and focused on civilian energy needs rather than on developing weapons...
Formed in 1979 as Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini's personal militia, the IRGC acquired a reputation for suicidal human-wave attacks in the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-88. After Khomeini's death in 1989, the government of then President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani sought to channel the guards' fervor into reconstruction projects, allowing them to dip into the coffers of massive religious and charitable foundations known as bonyads; in time, the guards came to control the foundations themselves...
...refused to say what he had done during the national trauma of the Iran-Iraq war, whether he had seen combat or lost friends. When I asked his opinion of former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani's famous 2001 Quds Day speech, in which he called for an "Islamic bomb" to counter Israel's nuclear arsenal, Ahmadinejad denied that Rafsanjani had ever made such a speech. I said that I'd been there, using an official Iranian translator, and that the speech had made headlines worldwide. "None of the Iranians here around the table recall such a statement," he said...
...regime's response on Sunday was to flex its military muscle. To shouts of "Allahu akbar," the Revolutionary Guards test-fired short-range missiles to demonstrate that Iran has the necessary arsenal to defend itself. "We are going to respond to any military action in a crushing manner, and it doesn't make any difference which country or regime has launched the aggression," said General Hossein Salami, head of the Revolutionary Guard Air Force, according to Iran's state media. The tests were successful, with the short-range missiles hitting their targets, he said. (Read "Iran Standoff: Is a Nuclear...
...opportunities for Iranian politicians from across the ideological spectrum to speak their minds, were either shut down or scaled back. Former President Mohammed Khatami was scheduled to speak alongside Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini's grandson at Khomeini's shrine two weeks ago, but the occasion was canceled. Former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who has delivered a Qods Day speech for decades, was replaced by a more hard-line Ayatullah who gave remarks in addition to an introduction by Ahmadinejad. And regime representatives including Supreme Leader Ayatullah Ali Khamenei had warned the Green Movement opposition against using Qods...