Iranian Alert -- March 24, 2004 [EST]-- IRAN LIVE THREAD -- Americans for Regime Change in Iran

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. I began these daily threads June 10th 2003. On that date Iranians once again began taking to the streets to express their desire for a regime change. Today in Iran, most want to replace the regime with a secular democracy.

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.

IAEA Sends Inspectors to Natanz and Isfahan Facilities

•The International Atomic Energy Agency sent a team to inspect the Natanz and Isfahan uranium enrichment facilities, IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said on Wednesday. Iran postponed the inspectors' visit for eight days. The delay may have given the Islamic authorities time for camouflaging their activities, diplomats in Vienna said. Iran had made alterations prior to the inspectors' visit last year to the Kalaye Electric company near Tehran, where traces of enriched uranium were found. IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said in Egypt today that in his upcoming visit to Tehran he will ask for full cooperation.

•The Russian foreign ministry spokesman called on Iran to cooperate with the IAEA. Head of the newly formed atomic energy department Alexander Rumyantsev postponed his April trip to Iran until May.

•“We will continue to cooperate with Iran in the peaceful civilian nuclear field as there have been no instructions to the contrary by relevant international bodies,” Russian foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said today. “Russia will fully accomplish its duties regarding the construction of a nuclear power plant in Bushehr, he added. (Mani Kasravi, Moscow)

•Russia denied today that it has stopped cooperating with Iran on Bushehr nuclear plan, but a few days ago a Russian official said financial and organizational obstacles have prevented the timely completion of the project. Due to the US pressure, and Russia's own concern for relations with the European countries, the Bushehr nuclear plant would not be completed in three or four years' time, Glasgow University international relations professor Reza Taqizadeh tells Radio Farda. Russian officials' contradictory statements are nothing new, he adds. (Jamshid Zand)

•Iran has no intention of stopping its nuclear weapons program, and wastes time by trying to negotiate, Italian daily Il Folio writes. (Ahmad Ra'fat, Rome)

Judiciary Blocks Former Reformist MP from Traveling Abroad

•The judiciary banned foreign travel for reformist Tehran MP Fatemeh Haqiqatjoo, who left the Majles last week after the Majles voted to approve her resignation. she found out about her travel ban when she arrived at the airport for a trip to London to attend a students' New Year gathering, she tells Radio Farda. She adds that the travel ban maybe linked to her conviction last year to 10 months in prison for a speech she gave at the Majles. The sentence had been suspended until the end of her term, she adds. Two other resigned MPs, Armin and Yegnanegi, may have also been banned from leaving Iran, she says. (Fereydoun Zarnegar)

http://www.radiofarda.com/transcripts/topstory/2004/03/20040324_2030_0157_0536_EN.asp

IRAN LASHES OUT OVER US RELUCTANCE TO ENGAGE IN DIALOGUE
Jim Lobe: 3/22/04

Iranian officials have characterized Washington’s policy-making process as "childish" after a top Bush administration official downplayed the chances of a rapprochement between the United States and Iran. Meanwhile, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has called on Iranians to be vigilant against foreign efforts to destabilize the country.

Iran’s conservatives, who regained control over the Iranian legislature in February’s parliamentary election, have been reportedly eager to pursue a rapprochement with Washington. The rationale for normalization, from the point of view of Iranian conservative leaders, is that a greater sense of international stability is needed to increase the chances for the successful implementation of their domestic agenda, which is aimed at providing an outlet for public frustration over the country’s flagging economy. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Over the last year, Iran has made repeated overtures to the United States, expressing a desire to restart a dialogue on the normalization of relations, according to a March 16 report in the Financial Times. [For additional information see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Tehran’s main aim would be the lifting of US sanctions, an act that would make it immeasurably easier for conservatives to invigorate Iran’s struggling economy.

To demonstrate its good faith, Tehran reportedly offered to cut its support to a variety of radical groups in the Middle East, including the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas. Iranian officials also may have held out the prospect of talks concerning Tehran’s ongoing efforts to develop nuclear capabilities. Iranian leaders insist that the country’s nuclear program is designed to meet civilian energy needs. International experts worry, however, that Iran’s program may develop weapons-making capabilities. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

The Bush administration never responded to the Iranian feelers. Apparently, fierce differences among top presidential advisors caused policy gridlock within the White House, the Financial Times report suggested.

Iranian officials did not comment on the Financial Times report. Then, in a March 18, television interview broadcast by the CNN network, US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice dismissed the need for US-Iranian talks. She cited US concerns about the Iranian nuclear program. Rice also mentioned Washington’s suspicion that Tehran may be sheltering leaders of the al Qaeda terrorist organization, and trying to disrupt US stabilization efforts in neighboring Iraq. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. "I don’t think anybody needs to have a conversation with the Iranians, because they know what the problem is," Rice told CNN.

On March 20, the official Iranian news agency IRNA ridiculed Rice’s comments as "another example of contradictory and non-coherent stances in the American policy-making apparatus." The report went on to say that Washington had sent "contradictory" signals in recent months, mentioning specifically the US goodwill gesture of providing humanitarian aid to victims of the late December 2003 Bam earthquake, and the tough US stance on Iran’s nuclear program.

The IRNA commentary suggested that Iran was looking for a more consistent policy coming out of the White House. "Only a fundamental change in US policies would change the existing atmosphere of hostility between the two arch-foes [the United States and Iran]," the IRNA commentary said.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hamid Reza Asefi, also heaped scorn on the Bush administration. "America’s childish persistence on its wrong policies has led to an escalation of insecurity in the world," the foreign ministry spokesman said. He added that the US reconstruction struggles in both Afghanistan and Iraq raised questions "about the appropriateness of American policies among its [Washington’s] own allies."

Iranian leaders are now concerned that, rather than engaging Tehran, Washington will undertake measures aimed at destabilizing the Islamic republic, especially in the event that Bush wins re-election in November. Many in Tehran apparently believe that ongoing problems with reconstruction efforts in both Iraq and Afghanistan could prompt the Bush administration to attempt to cast Iran as a scapegoat.

In public comments March 21, Khamenei, the supreme leader, said the United States was "stuck in a quagmire" in Iraq. He went on to caution that the United States was likely to try to destabilize Iran. "The most important duty of people and officials is to be vigilant," IRNA quoted Khamenei as saying. "The enemy should know that any decision it is making against the Iranian nation will be thwarted because Iranians are awake and vigilant."

The shrill tone of recent Iranian rhetoric may be indicative of the conservatives’ profound disappointment over the Bush administration’s refusal to engage. The inability to count on a rapprochement with the United States means the conservatives’ ability to implement their domestic stabilization agenda is in doubt.

Just a few months ago, many observers in both Washington and Tehran believed that a thaw was in the offing. This idea gained momentum in January when the United States dispatched planeloads of emergency aid to Bam earthquake victims, and followed up with an offer to send a high-level delegation to inspect the damage.

In addition, while Washington was highly critical of February’s parliamentary election, it refrained from mounting an intensive effort to discredit the results. Meanwhile, in Iraq, the US-dominated Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) approved plans for the construction of an oil pipeline across the Shatt al-Arab waterway to the Iranian port of Abadan, a project that is expected to be completed by the end of this year. Iranian conservatives had hoped such signals meant that the United States was prepared to parlay. But subsequent events have shown that such hopes were misplaced.

http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav032204.shtml

Mideast Trips Vs. Nonprofit Support

March 25, 2004
Jewish Exponent
Joshua Runyan

With Philadelphia-based Middle East scholar Daniel Pipes at his side, Rep. Pat Toomey (R-District 15) stepped up his criticism of Republican Arlen Specter last week and called the four-term senator to task for trying to arrange a congressional delegation to the Islamic Republic of Iran.

“Arlen Specter is just plain wrong. Now is not the time for the U.S. to be establishing diplomatic relations with the mullah regime in Iran,” Toomey said during a March 16 press conference at the Union League in Center City. “Unfortunately, Arlen Specter has reached out to such tyrannical regimes in the Middle East in the past.”

The two GOP politicians are facing each other in Pennsylvania’s April 27 primary to determine who will run against Rep. Joseph M. Hoeffel (D-District 13) to represent the commonwealth in the U.S. Senate.

Speaking after Toomey, Pipes called into question Specter’s foreign policy of “co-option instead of confrontation,” and suggested that Toomey’s more hard-line approach of isolating Iran’s Islamist regime was the right way to go.

“I’d like to commend Rep. Toomey for his hard-hitting and knowledgeable assessment,” the director of the nonprofit Middle East Forum and White House appointee to the U.S. Institute of Peace said at the event, which was billed by the Toomey campaign as an endorsement of the congressman’s foreign policy. “Iran is still a dangerous state, in some ways more than ever.”

Although Pipes appeared alongside Toomey as a “private citizen,” the Specter campaign questioned the propriety of a nonprofit organization’s leader taking sides in an inherently political forum.

According to Section 501 of the federal tax code, nonprofit groups cannot endorse candidates running for public office.

“Toomey’s campaign has a history of crossing the line when it comes to ethical ways of running a campaign,” said Specter spokesman Bill Reynolds.

On the foreign-policy question, Reynolds contended that only Specter, who has championed his ability to sit down with hostile leaders and produce compromise, had the experience to serve America’s interests abroad.

“There is one candidate involved in Middle East policy for the past 25 years, and it certainly isn’t Toomey,” said Reynolds.

When Syrian President Bashar Assad “compared Zionism to Nazism” at a 2001 Arab League Summit, “it was Arlen Specter who ... confronted him on it and gave him a history lesson.”

Nixing shuttle diplomacy

Nevertheless, Pipes maintained that Specter’s shuttle diplomacy is not the way to continue dealing with rogue regimes. On Iran, specifically, Pipes said that any moves seen as propping up the Islamist government would undermine the democratic reform movements gaining strength in the country.

“We see that the ideology of the state has lost its appeal,” said Pipes. “While in general it is better to work with foreign governments, we must stay away from this regime.”

In a telephone interview after the event, Pipes defended his comments as solely his personal views, and said it was the only time that he had cooperated with the Toomey campaign.

Said Pipes: “I was not there in my professional capacity.”

According to Larry Noble, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan election watchdog group, while Pipes’ appearance was a legal expression of the scholar’s free-speech rights, the blending of nonprofits and political campaigns has always been a murky issue.

“We’ve always seen instances when people affiliated with nonprofits go to political events. It’s gone on, and it’s always raised eyebrows,” said Noble. “There’s always the danger that when nonprofits get heavily involved in politics, it will discourage voters.”

Frances Hill, a professor at the University of Miami School of Law who specializes in nonprofits and election laws, said that Pipes’ appearance was not especially troublesome.

She noted that the Middle East Forum routinely takes positions on foreign policy in the region, and for Pipes to express a certain view is not out of line.

The larger issue, she said, should be how nonprofits affect political discourse: “It may turn people off from giving to charities, and that’s a terrible risk.”

You may contact Joshua Runyan via Email: jrunyan@jewishexponent.com

http://www.jewishexponent.com/Zoom.asp?storyID=20567&szparent=569&pubID=255&Archive=

Iraq's Basra Gives View of what a Shia State May Be Like

March 23, 2004
Dow Jones Newswires
The Associated Press

BASRA, Iraq -- It was the clearest sign yet that what's developing in southern Iraq is not the open, free and democratic society promised by the U.S.-led coalition occupying Iraq. The police officer at a roadblock ordered a traveler to cover her hair if she expected to continue her journey.

"This is an Islamic country and you must respect our feelings," said the officer in the pale blue uniform supplied by the occupying coalition.

Welcome to the Islamic state of southern Iraq where almost every public building is adorned with murals and posters of the three prominent Shiite Muslim clerics "martyred" in the chaos of today's Iraq or under the rule of Saddam Hussein.

It is the sons, brothers and followers of these three men who -with the backing of neighboring Iran -are shaping the Shiite politics in the south. Here, secular ideas are not tolerated, alcohol sellers and video shop owners risk their lives, clubs and restaurants are closed for playing music, and women fearing for their lives hide behind veils.

While the world's attention has been focused on the bickering over whether the country's interim constitution should make Islam "a source" or "the source" of legislation and over the form of federation best suited for Iraq, these hardline Islamic forces are quietly putting down roots and building their power base.

Many Basra residents say that the Shiite clerics who rule Iran are behind much of the religious-vigilante violence taking place in this city of 2 million and that the Islamic Republic is determined to have an influential role here.

"Basra is the center of culture and science," said Mustafa, a 26-year-old businessman. "Most of the religious parties are mercenaries who lived in Iran .... They want to impose their ideas on us. They want their word to be the law. We are afraid of them."

Many in Basra fear that by the time elections are held next year and a constitution is in place, it will be too difficult to eliminate these forces, which will be fully entrenched.

There is not yet talk of a Shia state within a federated Iraq, but Basra and the surrounding four provinces offer some clues of what such a state would look like.

Things have changed since the days before the 1991 Gulf War when Basra was a favored weekend destination for Kuwaitis, whose country bans alcohol and who made the three-hour drive across the border to live it up in the city's bars and nightclubs.

Although alcohol is not strictly illegal, all the bars and liquor shops have now closed. Many were shut by the now ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein after the 1990-91 Gulf War to appease the Muslim faithful. Others have been bombed by Islamic vigilantes more recently, and owners of other shops shut down out of fear.

At least three vendors of alcohol have been killed in recent months. It's still possible to buy booze, but it's a hush-hush affair. A bottle of Johnny Walker Scotch goes for up to $50, so most consumers opt for the $20 harsher whiskey brewed in the region.

Women have been especially affected by the changes in Basra. They are hardly seen in the streets -almost never at night -and when they do go out they wear the hijab, or veil. Even some Christians follow this practice, though the law doesn't mandate such Islamic dress, as it does in Iran .

"The situation of women used to be bad under Saddam, but it's worse now," said Ahood al-Fadhly, a women's rights activist. "Now, they can't even come into the street the way they want to dress."

Some Basra residents complain that Britain, whose troops occupy Basra, is turning a blind eye while the religious establishment usurps the running of the city through intimidation and threats against secular residents.

Explaining why the British are loath to intervene, Maj. David King, a British spokesman, says: "We are not here to dictate our way of life," but merely "to provide a basic foundation to get Iraqis back on their feet."

Analyst Gareth Stansfield, of the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London, isn't surprised at the Iranian role. Basra is just 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the Iranian border, and Stansfield sees no way that the British, with their 8,220 soldiers, could block Iranian influence.

"Basra is in Iran 's backyard," he said in a telephone interview. "To suggest that Iran wouldn't get involved is ludicrous."

The U.S.-led coalition also is already engaged in a guerrilla war farther north, in the "Sunni Triangle," and needs the Shiites -who make up 60% of Iraq's people -as allies, and not as adversaries.

The drive south from Baghdad to Basra, Iraq's second largest city, shows how southern Iraq is changing. Villages along the road are dominated by images of Imam Ali, a revered Shiite saint, and the black and green flags of Islam fly over mud houses.

In small towns and cities -where politics is more defined -Imam Ali's images give way to murals and posters of Ayatollahs Mohammed Baqir al-Sadr, founder of the Islamic Dawa Party, Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, leader of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, or SCIRI, and Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr -whose hardline followers are now led by his young son, Muqtada al-Sadr, who is based in the holy Shiite city of Najaf.

Ayatollah al-Hakim, who was killed in an explosion last summer in Najaf, had his headquarters in Iran until the U.S.-British forces ousted Saddam, and his brother Abdel Aziz al-Hakim is a member of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council.

Al-Hakim's close ties with Iran have not dented U.S. support for him. Nor have they stopped U.S. President George W. Bush from endorsing him as a moderate.

SCIRI's presence is obvious in Basra, from the Iranian-backed al-Nakheel TV station and -more importantly -the forcing of the police intelligence unit to recruit more than 150 men from the Badr Organization, the SCIRI militant wing that is trained and financed by Iran .

But beyond that, SCIRI does not have much popular support in Basra. Even though the Dawa party enjoys more support, it is less visible in public.

In addition to the three main factions, there are more than 150 small groups that officials call organized crime mobs that have been terrorizing Basra since Saddam's fall.

Life in Basra today gives little hope for secular Muslims who were looking forward to the open society that U.S. and British officials promised when their forces invaded Iraq last year. Another fear is that the interim constitution signed in early March leaves it open for individual provinces to determine whatever laws they want, raising fears of a separate clerical-dominated Shia federation within Iraq.

http://online.wsj.com/public/us

UN Inspectors to Begin Delayed Iran Atomic Probe

March 24, 2004
Reuters
Louis Charbonneau

VIENNA, March -- A team from the U.N. nuclear watchdog will head to Iran this weekend to conduct inspections that Tehran has delayed in retaliation against a harshly worded resolution on the Islamic republic, officials said on Wednesday.

"IAEA inspectors will leave on Saturday for Iran to conduct inspections at the Natanz gas centrifuge enrichment facility and at the Isfahan nuclear research centre," International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said.

The agency's inspectors had originally planned to leave for Iran on March 12 to visit Natanz and Isfahan, but Tehran cancelled the visit in response to an IAEA Board of Governors resolution, then in draft form. The Iranians later relented and said the IAEA could return on March 27.

The resolution, passed on March 13, "deplores" Iran's failure to inform the IAEA about potentially arms-related research - such as work on "P2" uranium-enrichment centrifuges capable of making polonium, a substance that can trigger a chain reaction in a bomb, and bomb-grade uranium.

The United States says Tehran is using its nuclear power programme as a front to develop an atom bomb. Iran vehemently denies this charge and insists its programme is solely for the peaceful generation of electricity.

A number of Western diplomats have expressed concern that Tehran delayed the Natanz and Isfahan inspections so that it could hide undeclared activities from the U.N. team.

Last year, Iran carried out significant reconstruction work at the Kalaye Electric Company before granting the IAEA the right to take environmental samples there.

TRACES OF ENRICHMED URANIUM

The United States said this was an attempt to sanitise the site to prevent the United Nations from uncovering hidden activities. But the IAEA eventually found traces of enriched uranium at Kalaye believed to be of Russian origin.

In addition to the uranium at Kalaye, the IAEA found traces of enriched uranium suitable for use in bombs on centrifuges at Natanz. Iran said this was the result of prior contamination in the country of origin, which Tehran identified as Pakistan.

Diplomats who follow the IAEA said the visit to Natanz was intended to verify that Tehran was keeping its promise to suspend uranium enrichment activities.

Speaking in Cairo on Wednesday, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said he would visit Tehran at the beginning of next month. During the visit to his native Egypt, ElBaradei met Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to discuss the creation of a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction.

ElBaradei said that during his upcoming Iran visit he "would underscore the need for complete cooperation and transparency with the agency so we will be able to be sure that the Iranian programme is completely dedicated for peaceful purposes".

The IAEA began its investigation of Iran's nuclear programme shortly after an exiled opposition group reported in August 2002 that Tehran was hiding a massive underground enrichment facility at Natanz. The allegation was confirmed to be correct and Iran later declared the site to the U.N. watchdog.

(Additional reporting by Cairo bureau).

http://www.reuters.com/

The Bekaa Beckons

March 24, 2004
The Washington Times
John R. Thomson

Lebanon's beautiful Bekaa Valley is a hotbed of evil. The primary connecting link between Syria and Lebanon, the ruggedly lush area is an important center for much of what troubles and terrifies the world: drugs, terrorists and, reportedly, weapons of mass destruction.

The narrow 75-mile-long corridor has in fact become one of the most dangerous places on Earth, not just for chance passersby, but also for the world at large. It is long past time for the Bekaa Valley to be returned to its peaceful past.

For 20 years, the Bekaa has become one of the world's most important transit points as well as refining points for opium and its derivatives. In the 1960s, families would drive out from Beirut to picnic there.

No more. Syrian troops are bivouacked in the valley and people driving out from Damascus are likely to be Hezbollah terrorists. Founded and financed by Iran, and coddled by Syria, Hezbollah is dedicated to the destruction of Israel. Their fighters linger for training in the Bekaa, before heading south to the Israeli border to cause as much mischief as possible.

As peace unfolded in 1967 and during the rest of the decade, a flood of Palestinians surged north from the territory newly occupied by Israel. Intercommunal hostilities between Lebanese Christians and Muslims took a massive toll. Beirut was reduced to rubble. Israel invaded Lebanon from the south, and Syria from the east.

In October 1983, the U.S. Marines' peacekeeping encampment near the Beirut airport was truck-bombed, killing 241 troops. When the remaining Marines decamped having scarcely retaliated, Arabs throughout the region decided America had no stomach for confronting the simmering discontent emanating from the tortured Palestinian- Israeli confrontation.

With Syria effectively in control of Lebanon and already involved in the drug trade, it was a small step to utilize the Bekaa Valley as a transit base, and another small step to set up heroin- processing facilities. Indeed, units of the Syrian military have long provided the Bekaa's dirty denizens "protection" services ... to protect their monetary interests in the various businesses.

The formerly relaxed valley had become a safe haven for the manufacture of illicit drugs and a training ground for fanatical terrorists. What could have been a more natural place for Saddam Hussein, under threat of invasion and destruction, to warehouse his weapons of mass destruction?

Following the end of major Operation Iraqi Freedom hostilities, Israeli intelligence began last June to investigate the possibility, and within weeks became convinced substantial quantities of Iraqi WMDs had transited Syria and were now stashed less than 15 miles from Israeli territory. So convinced were they that plans were made for offensive strikes aimed at the Bekaa and at Damascus. And then, silence.

As the Israelis were rattling their sabers, Syrian President Bashar Assad assured Secretary of State Colin Powell his government was at last moving against terrorist organizations in Damascus, and they did so, for as long as it took Mr. Powell to return to Washington. Then Syrian officials said there had been some misunderstanding, rescinding the concessions the U.S. secretary of state a few days earlier had announced. It seemed clear Mr. Powell had been hoodwinked into convincing the Israelis to stand down from their offensive posture.

The Bekaa Valley is a fetid swamp of subversion, and it is time to drain it, whether or not WMD are found there. As was the case in Iraq, there are multiple reasons to relieve Lebanon, the region and the world of the Bekaa's multiple dangers. What a victory it would be, were the heroin factories and the Hezbollah fighters removed from their cushy existence, forcefully if necessary.

Moreover, it is time to tell Bashar Assad to come clean on a host of unsavory subjects, including :

* Revealing Iraqi WMD locations in Syria and cooperating in their disposal.

* Handing over Iraqi funds held in Damascus banks.

* Capturing ex-officials of Saddam's regime hiding around the country.

* Closing down Syria's own WMD programs.

* Withdrawing Syrian troops and ending the occupation of Lebanon.

Just as the mood in the United States has altered radically since September 11, 2001, so has the Middle East's image of America since the end of major hostilities in Iraq. Once again, there is respect for the United States - not affection, but respect. That respect has resulted in numerous national changes of direction towards more open societies:

(1) Iraq: promulgation of an interim constitution as a first step to open election of representatives and writing of a permanent constitution.

(2) Libya: Discontinuance of all WMD programs and renunciation of the presidential aspirations of Col. Moammar Gadhafi's son Seif, groomed for 12 years to succeed his father.

(3) Egypt: Declaration by President Hosni Mubarak that a special commission will create a democratic succession plan and simultaneous denial that his son Gamal, groomed for 10 years to take over, was ever a candidate to succeed the man who has headed Egypt for 22 years.

(4) Saudi Arabia: Decisions to hold the first democratic elections in the country's history, to fill half the seats on municipal councils, as well as to broaden women's rights.

(5) Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar: Announcement of plans for faster- paced democratization and more liberal women's rights.

The foregoing represent significant advances in the Middle East's glacial political climate. In less than a year, seven Arab regimes have taken important steps to loosen their autocratic grips on their populations.

If it can happen in these countries, progress can surely occur in Lebanon and Syria. For the sake of peace, in the region and worldwide, it is essential the Bekaa Valley be returned to a nonthreatening condition.

John R. Thomson has lived and worked in the Middle East for three decades as businessman, diplomat and journalist. Starting before 1967's Six-Day War, he has reported extensively on the region's wars and geopolitics from bases in Beirut, Cairo and Riyadh.

http://www.washtimes.com/commentary/20040323-091220-3532r.htm

Iran Says US-led Forces Impose New Restrictions on Pilgrims

March 24, 2004
Agence France Presse
AFP

US-led forces in Iraq have imposed new restrictions targeting Iranian nationals wanting to make pilgrimages to Shiite Muslim sites there, Iran's pilgrimage organisation said.

According to the official body, quoted by the state news agency IRNA, the occupying forces have told Iraqi police only to allow Iranians across the border if they hold a valid passport and limit their stay to a week.

The demand for individual passports is likely to present a huge bureaucratic headache to many travellers, most of whom have so far crossed to Iraq on group permits or illegally.

The new rules come in the wake of the March 2 deadly bomb attacks on Shiite worshippers in the holy Iraqi city of Karbala and the capital Baghdad, in which some 170 people were killed.

Iran, which lost 49 of its nationals in the blasts, closed its borders after the attacks but reopened them last week amid continued massive demand here for visits to Shiite holy cities.

Since the fall of Saddam Hussein a year ago, only limited numbers of Iranians have been allowed to cross legally, although a top Shiite member of the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council and Iranian officials later struck a deal to raise the number of 3,000 daily.

But thousands have made the journey illegally, despite a growing death toll from landmines and bandits and the risk of arrest by US forces on the lookout for infiltrators from a country they accuse of underming post-war security.

Pilgrimages to Iraq's holy Shiite places were halted throughout the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, and only resumed in very limited numbers at the end of the 1990s.

Six of the 12 imams revered in the Shiite branch of Islam dominant in Iran are buried in Iraq, where Shiites also make up the majority of the population.

http://www.afp.com/english/home/

UN nuclear agency "has plenty to do in Iran"

AP - World News
Mar 24, 2004

CAIRO - THE UN nuclear agency has almost finished its work in Libya, but has plenty to do in Iran, its director Mohammed ElBaradei told reporters today.

Speaking after talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, ElBaradei, who is Egyptian, said he would visit Iran in early April to try to persuade its nuclear authorities of the need for "complete and transparent cooperation with the agency to make sure that the Iranian program is completely dedicated for peaceful purposes".

Earlier this month, Iran barred inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency for two weeks after the UN watchdog criticised the country for failing to disclose certain nuclear activities. Iran later agreed to allow inspections to resume March 27.

The United States strongly suspects Iran has a secret program to build nuclear weapons. Iran denies the charge.

IAEA inspectors have been supervising the dismantling of Libya's nuclear program since the country declared in December that it would stop trying to build weapons of mass destruction.

"We're almost done concerning inspecting the Libyan program," ElBaradei said today. "Concerning Iran, we still have to do a lot of work because the Iranian program is more complicated and comprehensive."

"There was a difficult period at the beginning of our work in Iran" but things are on track now, ElBaradei said.

ElBaradei hopes to be able to present an assessment of Iran's nuclear activities to the IAEA board of governors in June.

ElBaradei said he briefed Mubarak on his meeting last week with US President George W Bush about the need for vigilance against the nuclear "black market". It was recently disclosed that a Pakistani nuclear scientist had illegally sold nuclear techniques and material to other countries.

Asked why the IAEA was concerned with Iran and Libya but not Israel, ElBaradei said: "The agency doesn't have the legal authorisation to inspect in Israel".

Israel is widely believed to have nuclear weapons, but declines to confirm or deny such reports.

http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_5467.shtml

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