Rooyesh

Washington and Tehran are poised for their highest-level talks for years later this week, following Iran’s agreement to attend a key international conference on the future of Iraq. Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, is expected to meet the Iranian foreign minister, Manuchehr Mottaki, at Sharm al-Sheikh on Friday. Hoshyar Zebari, the Iraqi foreign minister, said US-Iranian talks were now “highly likely”, but Ms Rice was cautious, saying she would “not rule out” an encounter.

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The bent-double backs of 10,000 men, noses to the ground, formed a vast terrace of brown, black and dark green stretching into the distance. For a moment you could hear a pin drop. Then suddenly they rose as one, row upon row of government officials, MPs, mullahs, soldiers, sailors, Revolutionary Guards and working men. “Oh Hashemi, Allah protects you,” they chanted in invocation to a man who was not just leading prayers but also leading plans to create a new coalition capable of defeating the ruling fundamentalists at the ballot box.

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A grand coalition of anti-government forces is planning a second Iranian revolution via the ballot box to deny President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad another term in office and break the grip of what they call the “militia state” on public life and personal freedom. Encouraged by recent successes in local elections, opposition factions, democracy activists, and pro-reform clerics say they will bring together progressive parties loyal to former president Mohammad Khatami with so-called pragmatic conservatives led by Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani.

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