Inside the Ring (Washington Times)
By Bill Gertz
An Iranian opposition group has identified a senior member of the Iranian government as linked to a 1989 assassination in Austria.

Brig. Gen. Mohammed Jafari, deputy head of the Iranian National Security Council and a senior member of the Qods Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, was part of the formal Iranian government delegation that took part in the recent conference on Iraq in Sharm el Sheik, Egypt.

By: Ghossan Sharbell -- Al-Hayat Newspaper
May 20, 2007
Translated by Mousa Afshar

How would the Iranian ambassador feel when he meets the American ambassador in Baghdad to discuss Iraq's security matters and its future? How would the American ambassador feel? Undoubtedly the Bush administration would have preferred not to have this meeting at this location. And unquestionably Ayatollah Khomeini's country would have preferred to discuss all the open issues.

By: TOM RAUM,  Associated Press Writer
CAIRO - The prospect of direct U.S.-Iranian talks on Iraq represents an important shift in relations between the two adversaries.

The development comes during Vice President Dick Cheney's visit to the region, where he is trying to convince moderate Arab states that the U.S. will stand firm against Tehran's encroachment. He also is seeking to build support for the delicate Iraqi government.

Analysis
Kuwait Times - Hossein Mousavian, a former nuclear negotiator for the Iranian regime, was arrested on Wednesday at his home and taken to Tehran's Evin prison on national security-related charges, specifically "communication and exchange of information with foreign agents," Persian-language Fars News Agency reported. This carefully timed arrest appears to be yet another move in the covert intelligence war between Iran and the United States.

Bradenton Herald - Only united front will deter rogue like Iran

Once again, it appears Iran has thumbed its nose at the West - and will get away with it.

Iran's seizure March 23 of 15 British sailors for allegedly trespassing into Iranian waters was a calculated act of retribution for the Western opposition to its nuclear technology development efforts - a defiant quid pro quo for the economic sanctions imposed as punishment for its nuclear development program. It is similar in method if not scale to the seizure of 52 employees of the American Embassy in Tehran in 1979 as a protest against the United States providing the deposed Shah of Iran a home in exile while receiving medical treatment. This hostage crisis, however, ended much more quickly, with Iran releasing the British personnel Thursday after just 13 days; the U.S. Embassy crisis lasted 444 days.

Edmonton Sun - By SALIM MANSUR - Taking British sailors hostage just a test of strength

The insolence of the thuggish regime in Iran is rising in inverse proportion to the self-abasement of the West and, in particular, the European Union.

The hostage taking of British sailors by Tehran was a move to test the resolve of Britain and its allies in responding to provocation bordering on an act of war.