Replies

Khatami Distances Iran From Sadr

April 11, 2004
AFP
Arab News

TEHRAN -- Iranian President Mohammad Khatami yesterday distanced Iran from the latest violent developments in Iraq under the leadership of radical Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr, saying there was no connection between Iran and radical Shiites.

IRNA news agency quoted Khatami as saying that the latest violence and kidnapping in Iraq harms the general image of Islam and Muslims.

The president stressed that Iran supports the moderate policies of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), headed by Abdul Aziz Al-Hakim, and Shiite spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani.

Both Sistani and Al-Hakim are known to be openly supported by Tehran but at the same time regarded as political rivals of Sadr. Iran, said Khatami, was one of the first countries to acknowledge the Governing Council in Baghdad.

But he added that violence and tension would continue and escalate unless the US ends its occupation and allows the Iraqi people to determine their political fate. The president had earlier this week condemned the attacks by US- led coalition forces on Shiites in southern Iraq, describing them as contrary to their initial claims of bringing freedom and democracy to the country.

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi discussed Iran’s nuclear case with the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany, seeking their support ahead of a June meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency board of governors, Iranian dailies reported yesterday.

“Iranian public opinion expects that Iran’s peaceful nuclear case be settled by June and the IAEA and the European Union fulfill their commitments towards Iran,” Kharrazi said in a phone conversation with his German counterpart Joschka Fischer.

In his talk to his French counterpart Michel Barnier, Kharrazi said the visit by IAEA Director General Mohamed El-Baradei to Tehran earlier this week “provided the appropriate opportunity to draw a timetable for normalizing Iran’s nuclear case before the next meeting of the IAEA board of governors.”

Kharrazi told British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw: “A timetable has been prepared to discuss and settle the nuclear issue between Tehran and the IAEA and the two sides have agreed on it.”

Last October, Iran gave the IAEA what it said was a complete declaration of its nuclear activities.

It was later found to have made a number of omissions, including its acquisition of designs for sophisticated P-2 centrifuges that can produce weapons-grade uranium, way above the normal level of enrichment required for atomic reactors.

In another development, Kharrazi voiced concern over the kidnapping of an Iranian cleric in Guyana and called on officials there to work quickly to secure his release, state media said.

“We are worried about the kidnapping of an Iranian religious scholar and researcher in Guyana,” the state IRNA news agency reported Kharrazi as telling his Guyanese counterpart Clement Rohee in a telephone conversation. “We want the necessary action to be taken to release him as soon as possible and for the abductors to be prosecuted,” the minister added.

Muhammad Hassan Abrahemi, 35, was abducted outside the International Islamic College of Advanced Studies on April 2 as gunmen fired shots at his car and the building.

On Wednesday, Sheikh Salim Ibn Abdul Kadir, interim head of the college said Iran would send a fact-finding mission to Guyana next week to investigate the kidnapping, but this could not be confirmed with the Iranian foreign ministry.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&section=0&article=42897&d=11&m=4&y=2004

Iran seeks European trio's backing over its nuclear stance

TEHRAN (AFP) Apr 10, 2004

Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi discussed Iran's nuclear case with the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany, seeking their support ahead of a June meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board of governors, Iranian dailies reported Saturday.
"Iranian public opinion expects that Iran's peaceful nuclear case be settled by June and the IAEA and the European Union fulfill their commitments towards Iran," Kharazi said in a phone conversation with his German counterpart Joschka Fischer.

In his talk to his French counterpart Michel Barnier, Kharazi said the visit by IAEA director general Mohamed Elbaradai to Tehran earlier this week "provided the appropriate opportunity to draw a timetable for normalizing Iran's nuclear case before the next meeting of the IAEA board of governors."

Kharazi told British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw: "A timetable has been prepared to discuss and settle the nuclear issue between Tehran and the IAEA and the two sides have agreed on it."

Last October, Iran gave the IAEA what it said was a complete declaration of its nuclear activities.

It was later found to have made a number of omissions, including its acquisition of designs for sophisticated P-2 centrifuges that can produce weapons-grade uranium, way above the normal level of enrichment required for atomic reactors.

The three European countries in October struck a deal with Iran for it to cooperate with the IAEA. The United States however claims Iran is secretly developing nuclear weapons and is seeking a tougher stance with Tehran.

In March, the IAEA board of governors passed a resolution that condemned Iran for failing to report crucial technologies, such as the advanced P-2 centrifuge designs.

ElBaradei returned to Vienna last Wednesday from Tehran, where he had hammered out an agreement for Iran to adhere to a timetable to answer the agency's questions about its nuclear activities.

http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040410125433.z44ztak4.html

US Criticizes Iran Over Human Rights

VOA News
10 Apr 2004, 23:48 UTC

The U.S. State Department has released a pamphlet denouncing Iran for human rights abuses.
The 16-page brochure, which is also available on the State Department web site, denounces steps by Iran's un-elected clerical leadership that Washington says trample democracy and freedom of speech.

The pamphlet, entitled "Iran: Voices Struggling to be Heard," says the Iranian people are being stifled as they call for their rights, beliefs and needs to be respected. It says un-elected elements of the Iranian government are responding by increasing repression.

The brochure details several recent incidents in Iran, including the death in custody of Canadian-Iranian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi last year. It also refers to the closure of reformist newspapers and the disqualification of hundreds of reformist candidates from February's parliamentary elections.

The pamphlet goes on to say that Iranian youth, who have staged massive pro-reform rallies, represent hope for the future of Iran.

http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=3CCFC159-377C-44B2-B04C1CE78DFBDD92

Iran Reactor Could Produce Plutonium

Atlanta Journal-Constitution
April 8th, 04

VIENNA, Austria (AP)--Iran will start building a nuclear reactor in June that can produce weapons-grade plutonium, diplomats said Wednesday. Although Tehran insists the heavy water facility is for research, the decision heightens concern about its nuclear ambitions.

One diplomat said the planned 40-megawatt reactor could produce enough plutonium for a nuclear weapon each year, an amount experts commonly say is 8.8 pounds.

The diplomats told The Associated Press that Iran informed the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency last year of its plans to build a reactor, and Iranian officials have previously suggested the reactor was already being built.

But the diplomats said construction had not yet begun and that Iranian officials announced the June start date for the first time during talks Tuesday in Tehran with Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency.

With Iran open about its desire to build the facility, the diplomats said the Iranian decision to go ahead with the plan was not an overt example of Tehran backtracking on pledges to dispel suspicions it is pursuing nuclear weapons.

Still, it ``sends a bad signal at a time all eyes are on Iran,'' one of the diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

International scrutiny of Iran's nuclear program has been growing since the IAEA discovered last year that Tehran had not disclosed large-scale efforts to enrich uranium, which can be used in nuclear warheads.

Traces of weapons-grade uranium found by inspectors and evidence of suspicious experiments led to a series of critical resolutions by the IAEA's board of governors.

The resolutions stopped short of forcing Iran to go before the U.N. Security Council, as demanded by the United States. But if ElBaradei gives a negative progress report on Iran when the IAEA board of governors meets in June--just as construction of the reactor is getting under way--Tehran could face action by the security council.

Iran argues that it needs the reactor to produce radioisotopes for medical research. But spent fuel rods from the planned reactor can be reprocessed to produce plutonium--also used for nuclear warheads--although the facility would be subject to IAEA inspections and other controls intended to make sure no plutonium is created.

Still, the United States and other countries may seize on Iran's plans as further evidence that the Islamic Republic is not serious about quelling suspicions about its intentions.

``We feel strongly that there is no need for indigenous heavy water in Iran,'' said a Western diplomat, also speaking on condition of anonymity. ``It's not necessary and highly suspicious.''

The reactor site is at Arak, next to an existing heavy water production plant. It is to replace a reactor using non-weapons grade enriched uranium that the Iranians mothballed, saying it was outmoded and lacked fuel.

Because enrichment can be used both to generate power and make nuclear warheads, Iran has said it has suspended all enrichment activities to prove its peaceful intentions. It also cannot buy enriched fuel on legal markets because of international suspicions about its intentions.

Seeking to counter accusations of continued deceit, Iran on Tuesday pledged to deliver a complete dossier to the IAEA detailing all its present and future nuclear activities by the end of April, ElBaradei said.

``We have agreed on an action plan with a timetable with how to move forward on the major outstanding issues,'' he said after meeting with Hasan Rowhani, secretary of Iran's powerful National Security Council.

Critics say Iran reneged on commitments to win international trust as IAEA inspectors discovered evidence of past experiments that could be used to develop weapons.

Adding to the skepticism was Iran's announcement last month that it inaugurated a uranium conversion facility in Isfahan, 155 miles south of Tehran, to process uranium ore into gas--a crucial step before uranium enrichment.

Iran insists the move does not contradict its pledge to suspend enrichment. But Britain, France and Germany--which have stymied past U.S. attempts to castigate Iran--said the plant sent the wrong signal.

Last year, the three secured Iran's agreement to suspend enrichment and cooperate with the IAEA in exchange for promised access to Western technology.

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/ap/ap_story.html/Intl/AP.V8503.AP-Iran-Nuclear-Ag.html

News Agency Reports on Sadr Seeking Political Asylum in Iran

April 11, 2004
BBC Monitoring
monitor.bbc.co.uk

Tehran -- Without mentioning any specific sources, Al Sharq al-Awsat has published a report claiming that Muqtada al-Sadr will be transferred to Iran as a political refugee.

According to a report by the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA), the newspaper, which is published in London, quoted a source whom it only described as "an Iraqi Shi'i official". It claimed that Iraqi Shi'i figures are trying to mediate on Muqtada al-Sadr's behalf to organize his transfer to Iran as a political refugee.

Quoting the source, the aforementioned newspaper claimed that the intermediary was an important Iraqi political figure. Quoting the aforementioned source, the newspaper, which is published in Iraq [as received, it is also printed in Iraq] wrote: I have information on the mediation effort and the Iraqi figure's meetings with Iranian officials.

Text of report by Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) web site

Source: ISNA web site, Tehran, in Persian 0849 gmt 11 Apr 04

http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk/nfnews.shtml#fourth