Iranian Alert -- December 4, 2003 -- IRAN LIVE THREAD

The US media almost entirely ignores news regarding the Islamic Republic of Iran. As Tony Snow of the Fox News Network has put it, “this is probably the most under-reported news story of the year.” But most American’s are unaware that the Islamic Republic of Iran is NOT supported by the masses of Iranians today. Modern Iranians are among the most pro-American in the Middle East.

There is a popular revolt against the Iranian regime brewing in Iran today. Starting June 10th of this year, Iranians have begun taking to the streets to express their desire for a regime change. Most want to replace the regime with a secular democracy. Many even want the US to over throw their government.

The regime is working hard to keep the news about the protest movement in Iran from being reported. Unfortunately, the regime has successfully prohibited western news reporters from covering the demonstrations. The voices of discontent within Iran are sometime murdered, more often imprisoned. Still the people continue to take to the streets to demonstrate against the regime.

In support of this revolt, Iranians in America have been broadcasting news stories by satellite into Iran. This 21st century news link has greatly encouraged these protests. The regime has been attempting to jam the signals, and locate the satellite dishes. Still the people violate the law and listen to these broadcasts. Iranians also use the Internet and the regime attempts to block their access to news against the regime. In spite of this, many Iranians inside of Iran read these posts daily to keep informed of the events in their own country.

This daily thread contains nearly all of the English news reports on Iran. It is thorough. If you follow this thread you will witness, I believe, the transformation of a nation. This daily thread provides a central place where those interested in the events in Iran can find the best news and commentary. The news stories and commentary will from time to time include material from the regime itself. But if you read the post you will discover for yourself, the real story of what is occurring in Iran and its effects on the war on terror.

I am not of Iranian heritage. I am an American committed to supporting the efforts of those in Iran seeking to replace their government with a secular democracy. I am in contact with leaders of the Iranian community here in the United States and in Iran itself.

If you read the daily posts you will gain a better understanding of the US war on terrorism, the Middle East and why we need to support a change of regime in Iran. Feel free to ask your questions and post news stories you discover in the weeks to come.

If all goes well Iran will be free soon and I am convinced become a major ally in the war on terrorism. The regime will fall. Iran will be free. It is just a matter of time.

Iran making room for its spiritual minorities
But one religion still faces unapologetic persecution

By Robert Collier
San Francisco Chronicle
December 4, 2003

Yazd, Iran -- Shahram Goharian could be called a typical Iranian, except for the poster of the Hebrew prophet Moses that he hangs above his shop counter.

He owns a small clothing store in the city of Yazd, a historic caravan stop amid the vast emptiness of the country's central desert. On a recent day, his store was filled with neighboring shopkeepers whiling away a slow afternoon in front of a soccer match on his television.

Hands waved, and shouts erupted. No one paid any notice to the Moses poster.

Goharian is Jewish, one of a tiny, sometimes persecuted minority in Iran that is tenaciously holding on to its way of life under Iran's Shiite Muslim theocracy.

When asked how it is to be a Jew in Iran, he smiled. "It's not anything important. All my neighbors know. I'm open Fridays (the Muslim holy day) but closed Saturdays (the Jewish Sabbath). They collect my packages on Saturdays," he said.

A murmur of assent came from his friends in the shop -- all of them Muslim -- before they swung their attention back to the soccer game.

Among its population of 70 million, Iran has about 25,000 Jews, 100,000 Christians and 60,000 adherents of Zoroastrianism, which was the religion of the Persian Empire before the Muslim conquest in the seventh century.

While they have been through troubling times since the 1979 Islamic revolution -- the government has acknowledged executing 17 Jews, often on charges of spying for Israel, and the number of Jews in the country has shrunk by one half -- the three groups today appear to be making slow, discreet progress, a sign that the government itself is slowly becoming more open.

Last year, Jewish leaders in Iran successfully petitioned the nation's top cleric, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to halt a campaign of anti- Semitic slander in the conservative media under his control. Also, 10 Iranian Jews sentenced to prison in 2000 on charges of spying for Israel were released.

Despite their small numbers, the three groups -- "recognized minority religions" under the 1979 constitution -- are guaranteed five seats in the 290-member parliament. Jews and Zoroastrians get one seat each, Armenian Christians two, and Chaldean and Assyrian Catholics share one seat. They have their own schools, as well as churches, synagogues and temples. Unlike Iran's Muslims, men and women of these minority faiths are permitted to dance together in their clubs and to serve liquor -- as long as no Muslims are admitted to the premises.

Another major step forward may come with the ending of one of Iran's most egregious forms of discrimination -- unequal status for minorities in the payment of "blood money" as compensation for victims of violent crime.

Under the system, the amount legally owed by a perpetrator to the victim's family is just 1/13 of the amount due to Muslims.

Iranian law retains an old Islamic definition of blood money as one of the following: 100 camels, 200 cows, 1,000 sheep, 200 silk dresses, 1,000 gold coins or 10,000 silver coins.

To simplify things, religious authorities have set an inflation-adjusted cash equivalent, which this year is 150 million rials, or $18,750. Because auto and life insurance coverage is rare in Iran, the ability to collect blood money can be vital for citizens who lose a family member.

A bill to eliminate the discrepancy between Muslims and non-Muslims is winding its way tortuously through the legislative system -- after being vetoed twice by the powerful 12-member Guardian Council as un-Islamic -- and may become law by the end of this month.

Western governments and human rights groups have pressed Iran to approve the bill, and the equally powerful Expediency Council, which consists of senior clerics and former top politicians and has final say over disputes between government bodies, is expected to approve a compromise under which Khamenei will decide on a revised payment formula.

"For sure, this bill will not be rejected in the Expediency Council," said Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi, a cleric in the city of Qom who is close to Khamenei. "The supreme leader has expressed his support for it. There is a fatwa determining that blood money should be equal."

Said Leon Davidian, an Armenian Christian member of parliament, "We have received assurances from the supreme leader's office that the bill will be approved, and if that occurs, it would be a big step for making minorities feel more comfortable here in Iran."

Except for one. The Baha'is, Iran's largest religious minority, continue to face unapologetic persecution. A 19th century offshoot of Shiite Islam, the Baha'i faith is viewed as apostasy by the Shiite establishment.

The estimated 300,000 Baha'is in Iran are denied permission to worship, hold office or carry out other communal affairs publicly or privately. They are banned from university education, they are denied most business and professional licenses, and their property is often confiscated.

Jewish legislator Moris Motamed said that the ayatollahs' antipathy for Baha'is makes the issue too hot to handle. "Their situation is beyond our grasp," he said.

Iranian women also will not benefit from the blood money reform. They receive only half the payment due Muslim men (or 1/26 if they are female members of the three minority religions).

A group of female legislators is campaigning to equalize the amounts. They say that while the system may have made sense centuries ago in a nonindustrial society, in which the death of a man spelled the loss of a family's entire income, it is unjust for women in contemporary Iran.

"The issue of minorities and blood money is very closely linked to the issue of women," said Mohsen Esmaeli, one of 12 members of the Guardian Council who voted to veto the bill. "There are important precedents that we must be very careful about because this could have many bad effects."

After the soccer game ended on Goharian's television, the merchant guided a visiting reporter down his city's crooked alleyways, lined with ancient mud walls, to his synagogue.

Early in the 20th century, it was one of 13 in Yazd. But now, as most Jews have moved away to Tehran, the United States or Israel, it is the only one remaining, and there are barely enough worshipers to fill the Friday night service.

It is a simple, adobelike structure -- the ceiling a single whitewashed dome, the floor covered with Persian carpets with Hebrew lettering. An ancient teiva (ark) stands in the middle. But in a sign of Islam's ultimate power, a small portrait of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the father of Iran's Islamic revolution, hangs on the wall.

"It's a sign of respect, nothing more," said Goharian, shrugging. "This is an Islamic country. What can we do?"

E-mail Robert Collier at rcollier@sfchronicle.com

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/12/04/MNG0Q3FQD31.DTL

Iran Still Hasn't Signed Nuke Agreement

WILLIAM J. KOLE
Associated Press
Dec 4th, 03

VIENNA, Austria - Iran still has not signed a key agreement opening its nuclear facilities to outside scrutiny, the U.N. atomic agency chief said Thursday, raising questions about whether Tehran is stalling.

Mohamed ElBaradei, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told reporters that although Iran has not yet signed the accord, he expected it to do so "shortly."

Iran agreed last month to open nuclear sites that until now have been off-limits and to let IAEA inspectors conduct intrusive, unannounced checks to ensure the country is not trying to develop atomic weaponry, as the United States has alleged.

Hasan Rowhani, the head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, had indicated that Tehran would sign the agreement soon - possibly within days.

ElBaradei suggested a signing could come within a week. Other IAEA officials sought to play down the delay and said the agency would not become alarmed unless another week passes without Iran's signature.

But a Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press that Tehran appeared to be stalling, and that the United States and other countries were waiting with impatience "for Iran to keep its promises and sign."

Last week, the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors censured Iran for 18 years of secrecy in a resolution that warned Tehran to stay in line with international efforts to make sure the country has no nuclear weapons ambitions.

Although the resolution did not confront Iran with a direct threat of U.N. sanctions - a tougher approach that Washington had sought - it warned Tehran that the IAEA would consider further action if "further serious Iranian failures" arise.

The wording implicitly warned Iran that the agency could report it to the Security Council, which has the power to impose economic or diplomatic sanctions.

Iran insists its atomic energy program is peaceful and geared only to producing electricity. Under international pressure, it has agreed to sign the inspection agreement and to suspend its enrichment of uranium, which it says had been confined to non-weapons levels anyway.

ElBaradei said the agency was developing a "plan of action" in the next few months on how to deal with Iran.

He said agency experts were now in the process of contacting companies that sold Iran centrifuges and other equipment that bore traces of highly enriched, weapons-grade uranium. Iran contends the equipment already was contaminated when it acquired it. ElBaradei declined to identify the companies or the countries involved.

"We still have a lot of work to do, and a lot of work is in progress," he said.

Although there has been evidence of suspect nuclear activity in Iran, ElBaradei characterized it as "laboratory-scale involving small quantities" and expressed confidence that his agency would uncover any significant effort to enrich uranium for weapons use.

"There will always be a centrifuge somewhere. But we can detect industrial-scale activities," he said. "If a country moves from research and development to the industrial scale, it's highly unlikely that would go undetected."

ElBaradei said the agency hopes to return its inspectors to Iraq, and said he expects the Security Council to give it a fresh mandate next year, even though he still considers its current mandate valid.

Although the agency has found no evidence Iraq was trying to revive its atomic weapons program before the war, "we still need to verify that Iraq does not have nuclear weapons of mass destruction," ElBaradei said.

"We need to go back as soon as possible," he said.

http://www.timesleader.com/mld/timesleader/news/7412411.htm

U.S. Gets Tough Over WMD Trade

December 03, 2003
CNN News
David Ensor

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration says the U.S. and its allies are willing to use "robust techniques" to stop so-called rogue nations from getting materials to make weapons of mass destruction.

The blunt warning, delivered by U.S. Under Secretary of State John Bolton on Tuesday, could involve measures that include the interdicting and seizing of such "illicit goods" on the high seas or in the air if those nations weren't willing to follow a path of non-proliferation.

Bolton specifically cited Iran and North Korea, along with Syria, Libya and Cuba, as rogue nations "whose pursuit of weapons of mass destruction makes them hostile to U.S. interests."

He said those countries "will learn that their covert programs will not escape either detection or consequences."

Bolton also singled out Iran, saying the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) should refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council if it discovers any more violations of nuclear non-proliferation agreements -- a step that has so far been opposed by U.S. allies in Europe.

"The real issue now is whether the board of governors (of the IAEA) will remain together in its insistence that Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons is illegitimate, or whether Iranian efforts to split the board through economic incentives and aggressive propaganda will succeed," he said. (Full story)

Bolton -- who oversees the State Department's arms control and international security efforts -- said that while the United States and its allies will "pursue diplomatic solutions whenever possible" to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction, they might also use military assets to interdict WMD materials.

"If rogue states are not willing to follow the logic of non-proliferation norms, they must be prepared to face the logic of adverse consequences," Bolton said in a speech to a security conference sponsored by the Institute of Foreign Policy Analysis.

"It is why we repeatedly caution that no option is off the table."

Officials tell CNN that Bolton's remarks were cleared by Secretary of State Colin Powell and senior White House officials.

The under secretary said recent interdiction training exercises hosted by Australia, Britain, Spain and France will be followed by concerted action to stop trafficking in WMD and missile technologies.

The activities are part of a new Proliferation Security Initiative announced by U.S. President George W. Bush in Poland in May.

While 11 countries initially joined together to create the PSI, Bolton said more than 50 nations have now signaled that they are ready to participate with interdiction efforts.

"Properly planned and executed, the interception of critical technologies can prevent hostile states and terrorists from acquiring these dangerous capabilities," Bolton said. "At a minimum, interdiction can lengthen the time that proliferators will need to acquire new weapons capabilities."

Addressing the standoff over North Korea's nuclear ambitions, Bolton said the United States will insist on a tough verification regime as part of any deal made during six-party talks to resolve the dispute, in order to make sure Pyongyang cannot restart its program.

http://edition.cnn.com/2003/US/12/02/wmd.warning/index.html

Police Close Popular Fast-food Restaurants in Iran

December 04, 2003
Reuters
Ha'aretz

TEHRAN -- Police have shut down four of the Iranian capital's Western-style fast-food restaurants, popular with youngsters as meeting places to mingle with the opposite sex, in an apparent crackdown on un-Islamic behavior.

Restaurant owners said the closures were ordered 12 days ago by a branch of the police notorious for closing down shops and eating places deemed to have contravened the Islamic Republic's strict moral code.

"They closed the biggest fast-food places in Tehran in one day, without giving a reason," one owner, who declined to be named, told Reuters on Thursday. "We've had to fire all our workers because we don't know when we'll be allowed to reopen."

Bored teenagers, officially prohibited from socialising with unrelated members of the opposite sex, pack into brightly lit eateries and coffee shops in the evenings and at weekends to subtly flirt over a burger or a coke. Young women, in particular, have incurred the wrath of hardline authorities by wearing make-up, short coats and colourful scarves pushed back to expose as much hair as possible instead of the head-to-toe black chadors deemed necessary by the country's ruling clerics to protect a woman's modesty.

Another owner told the reformist Tosea newspaper that police said his restaurant - located, like the other three, in upmarket northern Tehran - was shut for "not observing the Islamic code of behavior."

"If (the police) have a problem with how the youth dress or behave they should adopt a cultural solution for the problem," Tosea quoted him as saying.

Tehran police officials could not be reached for comment.

Tired of such costly closures, some restaurants in Tehran have begun to employ soccer-style penalties for diners who could jeopardise their business. Girls deemed to be improperly dressed or men flirting too openly with the opposite sex may receive a "yellow card" on their table warning them to modify their dress or behavior.

Repeat offenders receive a "red card," and are asked to leave at once.

Psychologists said shutting restaurants would have the opposite effect to that intended. "By closing such places they are channeling that behavior
indoors where anything could happen. You cannot suppress young people's instincts," one psychologist, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=368479&contrassID=1&subContrassID=8&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y

New Ways Considered For Tackling Growing Drug Use Among Young People in Iran
By Golnaz Esfandiari
Despite its best efforts, Iran's drug problem has worsened over the years, with the number of addicts rising, their ages decreasing, and more and more narcotics being seized in the country.

Prague, 3 December 2003 (RFE/RL) -- Iran has paid a heavy price for its fight against drugs -- 3,500 police officers and soldiers have been killed in clashes with drug traffickers and billions of dollars have been spent on efforts to combat illegal narcotics over the last 20 years.

During this time, Tehran says 2.7 million people have been arrested for drug-related offenses and more than 10,000 drug traffickers and distributors have been executed. According to Iranian law, anyone who is found to be carrying more than 30 grams of heroin or 5 kilograms of opium could face the death penalty, although in recent years only a small percentage of these sentences have been carried out.

Despite these efforts, however, the drug problem in Iran has worsened. Officially, Iran has some 2 million drug addicts. But some experts say the real number of addicts is as high as 5 million to 6 million -- and increasing.

Drug addiction is the source of many of Iran's social problems, such as domestic violence and prostitution. Drug addiction is also the main cause for the fast spread of HIV/AIDS in Iran. Seventy percent of Iranians infected with the deadly virus are intravenous drug users. There are currently about 300,000 intravenous drug users in the country.

The major consumers of opium and heroin in Iran are young people. The use of chemical drugs, such as ecstasy, is also spreading among youth. Drug use among young people is a major preoccupation for Iranian officials, since 70 percent of Iran's population is 35 or younger.

Experts say an unemployment rate of about 20 percent, combined with a lack of social freedoms, are among the main causes for drug use among Iran's young population.

Twenty-year-old Amir from Tehran says that for many of his friends, using drugs is a way to escape. "We don't have entertainment here, and drugs are very cheap and easy to get," he said. "Whatever you get from the supermarket, for the same price you can buy drugs in your neighborhood. Because of this lack of entertainment, whenever young people get together, the only thing they think about is getting and using drugs because it makes them happy. And also because of the problems they have, they want to get rid of these problems for some time. They have no hope in the future. They think there is no future for them in Iran."

While possession of any drugs is forbidden in Iran, casual drug use is often tolerated and penalties for possession are not strictly specified. In most cases, first-time offenders are let go with a warning and a flogging. Those arrested numerous times for drug-related offenses can be sentenced to prison at the discretion of individual judges.

Iranian officials admit that, up to now, the methods they have used to fight drug use have been one-dimensional and unsuccessful. In recent years, officials in charge of the antidrug campaign have been underlining the importance of preventive measures and treatment. Drug addiction is being viewed more as a social problem than a crime.

Dr. Said Jahanshahi is an expert on the prevention of addiction and launched Iran's first website on the subject. Jahanshahi says more attention is now being paid to prevention in Iran. "The programs are moving toward prevention and harm reduction. For example, we don't have as many arrests as before, when they would immediately arrest someone for the use of drugs," he said. "The laws have not changed, but because the way addiction is viewed has changed, this problem [of arresting people] is to a large extent being solved. The budget for preventive measures has also naturally increased a lot."

Jahanshahi said Iran's Welfare Organization, the main state body responsible for the prevention of drug addiction, is focusing on new methods intended to eliminate the use of drugs as psychological "crutches."

"For example, a series of skills is being taught to students. They are not directly connected to addiction, but they learn how to control their emotions," Jahanshahi said.

Drugs are readily available in Iran due to its proximity to Afghanistan, the world's top opium producer. Drug traffickers use Iran as a major transit route for the transport of drugs from Afghanistan and Pakistan to Europe and Persian Gulf countries.

A large portion of the smuggled drugs hit the Iranian market. Iran accounts for 80 percent of the opium and 90 percent of the heroin seized in the world. But these hauls are estimated to be only about 15 percent of the drugs that enter the country.

William Samii is a regional analyst for Southwest Asia at RFE/RL. Samii says it is difficult for Iran to stop the flow of narcotics along its eastern borders. "It's a very long border with Afghanistan. It's about 936 kilometers long, and the terrain is very rough. It goes from mountainous to desert. The police, the army, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps are tasked with guarding this border, but just because of this difficult terrain, they can't cover the entire range of it," Samii said, adding that drug traffickers tend to be more heavily armed than the security forces opposing them.

Samii says stopping the cultivation of opium poppies in Afghanistan is largely out of Iran's control. "One thing Iran is doing is working with Afghanistan to have crop substitutions so the Afghan farmers grow less opium and try to grow other crops," he said. "Unfortunately, this is something that's out of the Iranians' hands. As much as you might try to help Afghan farmers, if they don't have other economic options, they're going to continue to grow opium just so they can feed their families. So that's an issue that's going to confront the region -- not just Iran -- for years to come."

During a recent visit to Iran's eastern borders, Antonio Mario Costa, head of the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime, said more work needs to be done in Afghanistan. "Unless the farmers stop growing," he said, "the drugs will keep flowing."

http://www.payvand.com/news/03/dec/1023.html

Iran Courrt Convicts Journalist of Campaigning Against Govt

December 04, 2003
The Associated Press
Dow Jones Newswires

TEHRAN -- An investigative journalist who accused a former Cabinet minister of murdering dissidents has been convicted in the Revolutionary Court and given a suspended sentence of one year's imprisonment, his lawyer said Thursday.

Emadeddin Baqi, author of the book "Tragedy of Democracy in Iran," was found guilty of campaigning against the ruling Islamic establishment and working in favor of opposition groups, said lawyer Saleh Nikbakht.

Baqi condemned the trial Thursday, telling The Associated Press he had received an "illegal verdict issued after a two-minute, so-called closed-door trial."

Judiciary officials couldn't be reached for comment late Thursday, which is the beginning of the weekend in Iran.

Baqi walked out of prison in February after serving most of a three-year term for "insulting sanctities" and "publishing falsehoods." Officials then warned him he could face new charges relating to articles he wrote before entering jail.

Baqi wrote for several pro-reform newspapers, which were closed down by hard- line judges.

His trials and the newspaper bannings are part of a power struggle between reformists and conservatives in Iran. The reformists, who look to President Mohammad Khatami, seek to liberalize the Islamic system whereas the hard-liners, who look to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, seek to uphold a strict theocracy.

Baqi said Thursday he was summoned to the Tehran Revolutionary Court last month and told he was on trail.

"My lawyer was not allowed in," he said. "There was only a judge who didn't even identify himself. He briefly read the charges against me without specifying what. I still don't know why such charges have been brought against me."

Baqi said he told the judge he considered the court illegal and refused to defend himself.

On Thursday, he was again summoned to the court and received the verdict and sentence.

"What kind of a trial is it where there is no lawyer, no jury, the judge is the prosecutor and the accused is not even informed of the specific charges against him?" he said to the AP.

Baqi said he viewed the suspended sentence as a warning that he would be imprisoned for any more criticism of hard-liners.

Lawyer Nikbakht told the AP he intended to appeal the sentence even though Baqi did not want him to.

In his book, Baqi accused hard-line clerics, notably former Intelligence Minister Ali Fallahian, of murdering four dissidents in late 1998. Fallahian has denied the allegation.

The Intelligence Ministry admitted its agents were involved in the murders, but said they were rogue operatives.

In 2001, a court convicted three former Intelligence Ministry agents of the murders and condemned them to death. Five other people were sentenced to life imprisonment for lesser roles in the murders.

Many Iranian intellectuals and reformist politicians believe the agents didn't act on their own initiatives. They accuse the government of failing to get to the bottom of the affair.

http://iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl?l=en&y=2003&m=12&d=04&a=11

The Baha'is Still Faces Unapologetic Persecution in Iran

December 04, 2003
San Francisco Chronicle
Robert Collier

Yazd, Iran -- Shahram Goharian could be called a typical Iranian, except for the poster of the Hebrew prophet Moses that he hangs above his shop counter.

He owns a small clothing store in the city of Yazd, a historic caravan stop amid the vast emptiness of the country's central desert. On a recent day, his store was filled with neighboring shopkeepers whiling away a slow afternoon in front of a soccer match on his television.

Hands waved, and shouts erupted. No one paid any notice to the Moses poster.

Goharian is Jewish, one of a tiny, sometimes persecuted minority in Iran that is tenaciously holding on to its way of life under Iran's Shiite Muslim theocracy.

When asked how it is to be a Jew in Iran, he smiled. "It's not anything important. All my neighbors know. I'm open Fridays (the Muslim holy day) but closed Saturdays (the Jewish Sabbath). They collect my packages on Saturdays," he said.

A murmur of assent came from his friends in the shop -- all of them Muslim -- before they swung their attention back to the soccer game.

Among its population of 70 million, Iran has about 25,000 Jews, 100,000 Christians and 60,000 adherents of Zoroastrianism, which was the religion of the Persian Empire before the Muslim conquest in the seventh century.

While they have been through troubling times since the 1979 Islamic revolution -- the government has acknowledged executing 17 Jews, often on charges of spying for Israel, and the number of Jews in the country has shrunk by one half -- the three groups today appear to be making slow, discreet progress, a sign that the government itself is slowly becoming more open.

Last year, Jewish leaders in Iran successfully petitioned the nation's top cleric, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to halt a campaign of anti- Semitic slander in the conservative media under his control. Also, 10 Iranian Jews sentenced to prison in 2000 on charges of spying for Israel were released.

Despite their small numbers, the three groups -- "recognized minority religions" under the 1979 constitution -- are guaranteed five seats in the 290-member parliament. Jews and Zoroastrians get one seat each, Armenian Christians two, and Chaldean and Assyrian Catholics share one seat. They have their own schools, as well as churches, synagogues and temples. Unlike Iran's Muslims, men and women of these minority faiths are permitted to dance together in their clubs and to serve liquor -- as long as no Muslims are admitted to the premises.

Another major step forward may come with the ending of one of Iran's most egregious forms of discrimination -- unequal status for minorities in the payment of "blood money" as compensation for victims of violent crime.

Under the system, the amount legally owed by a perpetrator to the victim's family is just 1/13 of the amount due to Muslims.

Iranian law retains an old Islamic definition of blood money as one of the following: 100 camels, 200 cows, 1,000 sheep, 200 silk dresses, 1,000 gold coins or 10,000 silver coins.

To simplify things, religious authorities have set an inflation-adjusted cash equivalent, which this year is 150 million rials, or ,750. Because auto and life insurance coverage is rare in Iran, the ability to collect blood money can be vital for citizens who lose a family member.

A bill to eliminate the discrepancy between Muslims and non-Muslims is winding its way tortuously through the legislative system -- after being vetoed twice by the powerful 12-member Guardian Council as un-Islamic -- and may become law by the end of this month.

Western governments and human rights groups have pressed Iran to approve the bill, and the equally powerful Expediency Council, which consists of senior clerics and former top politicians and has final say over disputes between government bodies, is expected to approve a compromise under which Khamenei will decide on a revised payment formula.

"For sure, this bill will not be rejected in the Expediency Council," said Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi, a cleric in the city of Qom who is close to Khamenei. "The supreme leader has expressed his support for it. There is a fatwa determining that blood money should be equal."

Said Leon Davidian, an Armenian Christian member of parliament, "We have received assurances from the supreme leader's office that the bill will be approved, and if that occurs, it would be a big step for making minorities feel more comfortable here in Iran."

Except for one. The Baha'is, Iran's largest religious minority, continue to face unapologetic persecution. A 19th century offshoot of Shiite Islam, the Baha'i faith is viewed as apostasy by the Shiite establishment.

The estimated 300,000 Baha'is in Iran are denied permission to worship, hold office or carry out other communal affairs publicly or privately. They are banned from university education, they are denied most business and professional licenses, and their property is often confiscated.

Jewish legislator Moris Motamed said that the ayatollahs' antipathy for Baha'is makes the issue too hot to handle. "Their situation is beyond our grasp," he said.

Iranian women also will not benefit from the blood money reform. They receive only half the payment due Muslim men (or 1/26 if they are female members of the three minority religions).

A group of female legislators is campaigning to equalize the amounts. They say that while the system may have made sense centuries ago in a nonindustrial society, in which the death of a man spelled the loss of a family's entire income, it is unjust for women in contemporary Iran.

"The issue of minorities and blood money is very closely linked to the issue of women," said Mohsen Esmaeli, one of 12 members of the Guardian Council who voted to veto the bill. "There are important precedents that we must be very careful about because this could have many bad effects."

After the soccer game ended on Goharian's television, the merchant guided a visiting reporter down his city's crooked alleyways, lined with ancient mud walls, to his synagogue.

Early in the 20th century, it was one of 13 in Yazd. But now, as most Jews have moved away to Tehran, the United States or Israel, it is the only one remaining, and there are barely enough worshipers to fill the Friday night service.

It is a simple, adobelike structure -- the ceiling a single whitewashed dome, the floor covered with Persian carpets with Hebrew lettering. An ancient teiva (ark) stands in the middle. But in a sign of Islam's ultimate power, a small portrait of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the father of Iran's Islamic revolution, hangs on the wall.

"It's a sign of respect, nothing more," said Goharian, shrugging. "This is an Islamic country. What can we do?"

E-mail Robert Collier at rcollier@sfchronicle.com.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/12/04/MNG0Q3FQD31.DTL

Europe's 9/11 Labeled 'Made in Iran'?

December 04, 2003
World Tribune
Sol Sanders

“See Naples! and Die!”. In World War II, some of us heading into combat, not overly taken with the beauty of the Vomero, interpreted this differently than the poet. But as EU foreign ministers packed up in late November to leave a meeting there, “cheered”, we are told, for having formulated a new defense gimmick, you have to muse on our more literal interpretation. What the European diplomats put together was a new EU military “skeleton” outside NATO [or maybe tucked into NATO? hiding behind NATO? — or maybe just deducting from NATO. Cherchez la texte francaise!].

Whatever. The fact is that with declining military budgets all over Europe, wherever the new “initiative” leads, it isn’t going to solve Europe’s problem of – yes, still – living in a dangerous world.

Almost immediately, in Brussels where the EU bureaucrats usually hang out, outgoing NATO Secretary-General Robertson, using his famous Scottish pluck, scrounged to make NATO credible in Afghanistan. Robertson was “demanding” 14 helicopters and 400 specialist troops for NATO‘s 5,700-man force now in Kabul. Plans call for expanding NATO’s peacekeeping to other cities — a pledge made by the way to the UN which the Europeans so often call on in their mantras to peace through multilateralism. Meanwhile the U.S. strike force does the heavy lifting, continuing to beat back the Taliban – and if luck is with them, either find, kill, or finally neutralize Osama Bin Ladin in the fierce tribal areas on the Afghan-Pakistani border. Tune in next week to see if the EU members of “the world’s most successful alliance” get with the program.

A much more sinister EU “initiative” was taking place, however, in a Vienna United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] confab. It was, in fact, a trial for Iran’s fanatic mullahs, leading terrorist sponsors. The U.S. pushed for reporting Tehran’s suspected nuclear weapons program to the UN Security Council for multilateral action the Europeans [and the Junior Senator from New York] say world peace requires. Tehran had owned up to 15 years of playing hide and seek with the IAEA – not a terribly demanding game, it turns out, with versions already perfected by Sadaam Hussein and Kim Il Jong.

Iranian exiles earlier accurately reported Teheran's secret nuclear program including Potemkin facilities the mullahs built for the IAEA. When the IAEA finally discovered weapons quality uranium, the mullahs first said it must have rubbed off on them by accident when they imported machinery, then finally came clean and promised to reform. The Iranians said they would halt their uranium enrichment program, sign the so-called Additional Protocol – [originally designed to halt weapons of mass destruction in Iraq!] In what must have been accidental double entendre [you can’t make this stuff up!], Iran’s Supreme National Security Council head Hassan Rohani, told journalists Iran "is not at all worried with the continued [IAEA] inspection operations".

Still the Europeans, unfortunately led by Britain, beat back the U.S. proposal for new promises. Hardly was the debate ended, and everyone finished their Sacher tort and went home, when the Tehran mullahs said they had changed their minds: they would not halt their uranium enrichment program because they wanted the full nuclear fuel cycle for their power program. [Why one of the largest oil and gas producers with some of the world’s largest reserves wants nuclear power has never been explained.]

The exiles say the West is rapidly reaching the point of no return, that Iran is self-sufficient in nuclear capability [it has uranium], that it could be reached as early as the early 2004. Israel’s Mossad Director Meir Dagan told the Israel’s cabinet Nov. 23 that the Russian-built Bushehr nuclear reactor – which President Bush has repeatedly pleaded unsuccessfully with President Putin to halt -- would be operational over the next 14 months and the Kashan uranium-enrichment plant would have an annual 10 atomic bombs.capacity.

But then is not Iran – from the European perspective -- “a far and distant country about which we know little”? Not quite. Iran simultaneously had announced it would suspend Shihab-4 development– a missile unlike the inventoried Shihab-3 – which had not yet reached production but is estimated able to strike Europe. Even were the announcement accepted at face value, Britain’s International Institute for Strategic Studies says it does not represent any overall slowdown in Iran's missile development. Early estimates gave the Shihab-3, based on the North Korean Nodong [remember the “Axis of Evil”?], has a nominal range of 1,300k – enough to reach Israel, other Mideast U.S. partners and parts of Europe. But recent Iranian statements have set its range at 1,700k, while Israel warns it might be extended to 2,500k.

Now with reports that Osama’s son is holed up in Iran, it might be well to begin to think of missile defenses for the Eifel Tower, Westminster, or the new Bundestag in Berlin. A EU military planning initiative, indeed.

Sol W. Sanders, (solsanders@comcast.net), is an Asian specialist with more than 25 years in the region, and a former correspondent for Business Week, U.S. News & World Report and United Press International. He writes weekly for World Tribune.com.

http://216.26.163.62/2003/s12_01.html

''Tehran Outmaneuvers Washington For Now''

December 04, 2003
Power and Interest News Report
Erich Marquardt

From the beginning, Iran's decision to comply with the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) latest stipulations on its nuclear research program was an attempt to politically outmaneuver Washington.

Tehran agreed to temporarily cease its uranium enrichment program and to allow for more stringent inspections of its nuclear facilities. The Bush administration has been pushing for international pressure to be placed on Iran in the hopes of stunting the country's nuclear research program. Washington fears that Iran's growing nuclear knowledge and sophisticated nuclear facilities will allow the country to develop nuclear weapons, a scenario that would greatly increase Iran's power potential in the Middle East and Central Asia.

On the face of it, this outcome looks to have worked in Washington's favor, but the latest set of demands by the IAEA are much too weak to have any significant effect on Iran's nuclear research program. The stipulations that Iran agreed to are considered temporary, as is only too evident by statements made in Tehran shortly after its decision to comply with the IAEA. Hassan Rowhani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, assured observers that Iran's suspension of its enrichment program "could last for one day or one year; it depends on us."

Diverging interests

The differing geopolitical interests in Europe and in the United States can best explain why the IAEA promoted such a watered down set of demands. Unlike the United States, the European Union does not consider Iran to be a "rogue state." The European Union has important diplomatic and economic ties with Tehran; it is Iran's biggest trading partner, especially the E.U. states of the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. This growing relationship explains why these three countries sent their foreign ministers to help negotiate Iran's decision to comply with the IAEA.

Even more disturbing to Washington policymakers was how the three E.U. countries also promised Tehran that if it complied with IAEA demands the E.U. would be willing to assist Iran's nuclear research program by giving it greater access to modern technology and supplies. This would allow Iran to buy nuclear technology that has been kept out of its grasp due to 20 years of sanctions. Nikolai Shingaryov, spokesman of the Russian Atomic Energy Ministry, made a similar offer, telling Itar-Tass last Thursday that the IAEA resolution on Iran "gives an opportunity to step up Russian-Iranian cooperation in nuclear power engineering."

Other regionally significant countries, such as Russia, are also unwilling to support a hard-line U.S. policy towards Iran. In contrast to U.S. strategy, Russia is currently building a nuclear reactor in the city of Bushehr in southern Iran. Moscow also has provided massive supplies of military equipment to Tehran, such as MiG-29 fighter aircraft, Su-24 fighter bombers, T-72 tanks, and Kilo class attack submarines. Moscow is pursuing the prospect of building more nuclear reactors and facilities in Iran, a development that would help Russia earn much-needed financial capital. Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov summarized Moscow's commitment to Iran, recently saying in a CNN interview, "I see no grounds for imposing sanctions against Iran. On the contrary, if it carries out its obligations to the IAEA, the world community, on the basis of international agreements, is obliged to assist Iran in developing its nuclear program for peaceful aims."

Additionally, Russia does not want Iran to be weakened by the United States, since Washington is already encroaching on Russia's southern border in Central Asia. If Washington were able to orchestrate a change of government in Tehran -- one that complied with American interests rather than Russian interests -- it would cause a further deterioration in Moscow's security environment across its southern border. Furthermore, it would allow Washington to have increased influence in the rich oil and gas areas of the Caspian Sea -- an outcome that Russia would like to avoid.

These geopolitical differences explain why the European Union intervened and fostered an agreement that would place temporary, rather than permanent, limits on Iran's nuclear research program.

Concern in Washington

Washington's fear over Iran developing nuclear weapons is not contrived. Washington is attempting to preserve the current power balance in the Middle East and Central Asia. If Iran were to become a nuclear-armed state, it would greatly increase the Persian country's foreign policy leverage. A nuclear-armed Iran, coupled with its already sizeable military, would greatly increase the country's defensive capabilities and limit the ability of rival states to threaten Iran's territorial and governmental integrity; moreover, it would also prove more difficult to check Iran's regional ambitions. Indeed, this is why the leadership in Tehran has been so keen on furthering its nuclear research program.

Iran has demanded that it be able to enrich uranium for the purposes of providing fuel to its nuclear reactors, a process necessary for the development of nuclear energy. Enriching uranium is also a process, however, that can be used to provide nuclear material required for the production of nuclear weapons. Because Iran has the legal right to control the entire nuclear fuel cycle for the purposes of peaceful nuclear research, the United States has been trying to bind Iran to an agreement where Tehran would only import enriched uranium, rather than enrich it independently. This would allow greater transparency of Iran's nuclear research program and make it more difficult for Iran to covertly develop nuclear arms.

With the agreement designed by the European Union, this stipulation was not proposed. Now, the only legal way to prevent Iran from enriching uranium is for international observers to prove that the country is using the uranium for nuclear weapons, rather than for research and energy purposes. Finding proof to make a case against a country that may be secretly developing nuclear weapons has always proved difficult.

Take, for instance, Israel, which began a covert program to develop nuclear weapons in 1952. When U.S. weapons inspectors visited Israel's Dimona nuclear reactor in the 1960s, they were unable to detect that Israel was secretly developing nuclear weapons. According to the Federation of American Scientists, in order to hide their nuclear weapons program, Israeli engineers had installed "false control room panels and [placing] brick over elevators and hallways that accessed certain areas of the facility."

Viewed in this context, the agreement between the European Union and Iran may only delay Iran's development of nuclear arms. If inspectors fail to find that Iran has a covert nuclear weapons program -- which is likely -- then the country will eventually be allowed to enrich uranium and handle all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle.

Regional implications

A nuclear-armed Iran would threaten Washington's ability to alter the power balance in the Middle East since it would limit Washington's political and military leverage in the region. A nuclear-armed Iran would also subdue Israel's power projection capabilities; presently Israel has a nuclear monopoly in the Middle East, being the only state that has developed nuclear weapons. Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, speaking in the United States, argued that a nuclear-armed Iran would be "intolerable."

Tehran has watched as Washington increased U.S. influence in the entire region; first by establishing military bases in Afghanistan, and second by establishing them in Iraq. This explains why Tehran has been unwilling to compromise on the future of its nuclear research program. Shortly after agreeing to the European Union's provisions, Rowhani was quick to assert that Iran would remain sovereign over all aspects of its nuclear research program. Rowhani stated, "We believe that stopping enriching uranium is totally unacceptable and we think nobody agrees with [doing] that in Iran."

Then, in recent days, Rowhani continued to assert Iran's nuclear mandate: "Our decision to suspend uranium enrichment is voluntary and temporary. Uranium enrichment is Iran's natural right, and [Iran] will reserve for itself this right. ... There has been and there will be no question of a permanent suspension or halt at all." Rowhani continued: "We want to control the whole fuel cycle. ... Today, we can produce centrifugal parts ourselves. We possess the technology."

Therefore, as long as the European Union and other significant states that have influence in Tehran - such as Russia - are unwilling to unite with Washington's desired hard-line policy towards Iran, the leadership in Tehran may be able to outmaneuver Bush administration policymakers and come closer to their goal of acquiring nuclear weapons.

http://pinr.com/report.php?ac=view_report&report_id=116&language_id=1

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