Several times between October and December, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was admonished for making “politically incorrect” statements about Israel and the Holocaust, and making an already tense situation between Iran and the Jewish state even more stressful...Read full.....

The following article is the Persian translation of “The New Multi-Prong American Iran Policy and the US’ Russian Gamble,” originally published in the AIC Update, Vol. 2, No. 36, December 2005. Read the original article...

The following article is the Persian translation of “The US Could Fall in the Trap It Has Set for Iran!,” originally published in the AIC Update, Vol. 2, No. 35, November 2005. Read the original article...

The following article is the Persian translation of “The IAEA’s Resolution Provides a New Window of Opportunity for Direct US-Iran Negotiations,” by Professor Hooshang Amirahmadi, originally published in the AIC Update, Vol. 2, No. 31, September 2005. Read the original article...

January 4, 2006

Time to Talk to Tehran
by Patrick J. Buchanan

Does President Bush intend a preventive war, early this year, to effect the nuclear castration of Iran? Or are we rattling sabers? What makes the question urgent are German reports that CIA Director Porter Goss has been in Ankara, Turkey, negotiating for U.S. use of bases for air strikes on Iran's nuclear sites. Over the weekend, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said time is running out on diplomacy to deal with the Iranian nuclear threat.
http://www.antiwar.com/pat/? articleid=8341

AIC Board member, Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani, and his wife, Sharmin Mossavar-Rahmani, give $15 million to Harvard University to take a Center in their names. We are proud of these distinguished colleagues and salute them for their generosity and achievements.

Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government recently announced one of the biggest gifts in its history, $15 million, from Sharmin Mossavar-Rahmani and her husband, Bijan, a Kennedy School alum and an AIC Founding Director. Their gift will endow the Center for Business & Government, which was named for them at a ceremony on 14 December 2005. Dr. Larry Summers, President of Harvard University, in his opening statement at the ceremony, thanked Sharmin and Bijan for their “farsighted and extraordinary gift.” He characterized the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government, the JFK School’s largest center, as a “far-flunked” center and an institution of “remarkable breadth.”

Professor Hooshang Amirahmadi, President of AIC, was among a small group of invited guests at the ceremony. On behalf of the Council’s Board of Directors, he congratulated Sharmin and Bijan for their extraordinary achievements and wished them the best in their noble efforts to bring business and government together in a responsible partnership for the betterment of societies worldwide.

Bijan and Sharmin are among a very few wealthy Iranian-Americans to give large sums to universities throughout the nation. They are distinguished examples of the many success stories of the Iranian- American community in a wide variety of fields ranging from business to technology to medicine and to university professorship. Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani is chairman of Mondoil Enterprises, an oil and gas company, and Sharmin Mossavar-Rahmani is a managing director at Goldman Sachs.

To read about the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government, please click here.
http://www.american- iranian.org/announcements/alert/Mossavar- RahmaniCenter.pdf

Kennedy School to receive $15 million gift
http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/200 5/05.05/05-gift.html

Kennedy School Receives $15 Million Gift to Endow Center for Business and Government
http://www.ksg.har vard.edu/ksgnews/PressReleases/042705_mossavar_gi ft.htm

Sharmin and Bijan (MPA 1982) Mossavar-Rahmani Pledge $15 Million
To Endow Center for Business and Government
http://www.ksg.harvard .edu/alum/education/archives/20050506_15mil.html

The prominent and pioneering Iranian women theater art figure, Maheen Oskouei, passed away this January at the age of 76. She was Iran’s first woman theater director and first woman to appear in theater stage. She began acting in Tehran’s Ferdowsi Theater when she was only 17 years old. Maheen Oskouei was a courageous woman considering the social atmosphere of Iran in the late 1940s. The performance of the young girl on the stage was so great that her family decided to send her to Russia for education in theater. She stayed in Russia for 6 years studying theater directing in one of Russia’s most prominent schools under the supervision of Zavadoski, the famous Russian theater master. Among her classmates was the renowned Jerzy Grotowski. She spent a lifetime on advancing the Iranian theater arts as director, player, teacher, play-writer and translator of major plays by such well- known writers as Maxim Gorki and Anton Pavlovich Chekhov. She also brought many of such prominent plays to life. She was born in Tehran in a family that have given Iran popular women singers like Pouran, her sister, and Rohbakhsh, her aunt.

Mahin Oskouei in Persian Sites
http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/arts/st ory/2006/01/060102_pm-ja-mahin-oskouei.shtml

http://ww w.iran-emrooz.net/index.php?/news1/more/6110/

http://www.theater.ir/page.aspx?id=26

http://www.sharghnewspaper.com/821006/art.h tm

http: //www.azindad.net/modules.php? op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=4295

English Sites
http://www.iranartists.org/en/news.php? id=2643

The American Iranian Council sends its warmest Season’s Greetings to all Americans, Iranian- Americans, and Iranians as well as to its Honorary Board of Directors, Board of Directors, Advisors, Members, Sponsors, and Supporters in the US, Iran and throughout the world. We wish them all a new year filled with peace, joys, and prosperity. We also hope that in the New Year we will witness the beginning of a serious dialogue between the two countries for better understanding and improvement in relations.

This space is devoted to informative and analytical articles written by individuals not directly associated with the Council, in Persian or English, inside Iran or abroad, that focus on US-Ian relations. Please send your writings to the Editor of the AIC Update at update@american-iranian.org. Please note that AIC will not edit your work, cannot publish pieces longer than 500 words, and takes no responsibility for your views.

If you are interested in translating any of the original articles that are published in the AIC Updates, you may do so without prior permission as long as the AIC Update is cited as the original source and the article is referenced properly and fully. We will be pleased to publish such translations in the AIC Updates or you can have them published in the outlets of your choice. We encourage you to translate and distribute our original writings!