NewsTalk examines news inside Iran, developments in US-Iran situation; Rice trip to Middle East/Persian Gulf with Bahman Aghai Diba, consultant, World Resources Company, Nasser Mohammadi, writer and journalist, Kayhan-London and Elahe Boghrat, freelance journalist.
News & Views reports on Russia selling Iran anti-aircraft missiles. Russian Defense minister Sergei Ivanov confirmed today that Russia has supplied Iran with the TOR-M1 air defense missiles in accordance with a contract between the two countries. In addition we have comments from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on top Bush administration officials’ recent statements that Iran is a threat to the entire Middle East region. Report on Secretary Rice's trip to the Middle East, her meeting in Riyadh with the Saudi Foreign Minister to win support for the new Iraq strategy. A new report from Israeli's Ha'aretz newspaper reports on secret peace negotiations between Israel and Syria over the last two years leading up to the Israeli-Hezbollah war. Latest from Iraq. A series of bomb blasts rock Baghdad, killing at least 15. A new U.N. report says more that 34,000 Iraqis have been killed in sectarian violence. Interviews with Senators Jack Reed (D-RI) and Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) on the new Iraq strategy and the role of the Kurdish pesh murga in quelling sectarian violence.
Roundtable hosts Mr. Faramarz Khodayari, a San Francisco based broadcast journalist, to discuss the human rights situation in Iran and Iranian refugees in Turkey.
Late Edition: Our top story today is a new U.S. State Department effort to promote the country’s image abroad. It is a newly created award aimed at encouraging non-governmental groups to bolster America’s image. It is named the Benjamin Franklin Award for Public Diplomacy and will be given out every year to a company, university or non-governmental organization.