Iranian Alert -- June 6, 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.” 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.

Europe's big three to push for cooperation with Iran over nuclear program

Time is GMT + 8 hours
Posted: 06 June 2004 1156 hrs

VIENNA : Europe's big three -- Britain, France and Germany -- are not ready to break off cooperation with Iran in uncovering its nuclear secrets despite damning new revelations from the UN nuclear watchdog, diplomats said over the weekend.

The Euro-3 told a meeting of European Union states in Vienna that they are to present a draft resolution when the International Atomic Energy Agency meets in the Austrian capital on June 14 urging Iran to answer all the IAEA's remaining questions about alleged weapons-related activities, according to diplomats.

The resolution "will be quite factual and reflect the IAEA report (on Iran's nuclear program) but not pass judgement on Iran," a Western diplomat who asked not to be named said.

The United States accuses Iran of hiding a program to develop nuclear weapons but is not expected to push for a tough resolution.

Washington has called for the IAEA, which has been investigating the Iranian program since February 2003, to refer the Islamic Republic to the UN Security Council for possible international sanctions.

But Washington does not have support at the IAEA for its hardline stance and is also hampered by the situation in Iraq, where it needs Iran to at least not inflame the Shiite population.

Washington accused Iran last week of continuing to hide clandestine nuclear activities, after an IAEA report said agency inspectors had found more traces in Iran of highly enriched uranium (HEU) that could be bomb-grade.

This cast serious doubt on Iran's claim that the HEU contamination came from imported equipment rather than HEU it had introduced or tried to make.

The IAEA also reported that Iran, which says its nuclear program is for peaceful, civilian purposes, has admitted to importing parts for sophisticated P-2 centrifuges for enriching uranium, going back on claims that it had manufactured the parts domestically.

HEU is made by centrifuges and can be fuel for nuclear reactors or the explosive in an atom bomb.

US ambassador to the IAEA Kenneth Brill told reporters that Iran's refusal to fully cooperate with the agency "fits a long-term pattern of denial and deception that can only be designed to mask Iran's military nuclear program".

"Even a disinterested observer must now ask, what is it that the Iranians are so intent on hiding," Brill said.

The EU-3 had struck in October 2003 an agreement with Iran to work with the IAEA, including building confidence with a voluntary suspension of uranium enrichment, and the Europeans are still holding to this line despite Iran's failure to halt all enrichment-related activities and failure to fully disclose its nuclear program.

The Western diplomat said the EU-3 had told their European colleagues on Friday that "maybe there are some worrisome things in the IAEA report. It is clear the Iranian file can not be closed.

"But a new resolution should be designed to move things along, rather than to condemn Iran," the diplomat said in reporting on the EU-3 position.

A tough US-inspired IAEA resolution in March on Iran's omitting to report its work into P-2 centrigues had led Iran to delay crucial agency investigations, a delay that makes it difficult for the IAEA to draw conclusions this June.

Diplomats said the EU-3 would avoid harsh wording for the June meeting of the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors.

"I don't think they will use strong language. There will be some measure of pressure but also encouragement to cooperate," another Western diplomat said.

"The resolution will be asking Iran to be more pro-active in cooperation," the diplomat said.

The United States may ask for "something that would lay out the next steps" rather than take the tougher line of calling for a deadline to be set for Iran to provide a full accounting of its activities, a third Western diplomat said.

These steps might include Iran agreeing to stop building component parts for centrifuges.

The United States clearly expects more revelations to come forth of Iran hiding weapons development, diplomats said.

This could mean that the showdown over Iran at the IAEA may only be on hold until after the US presidential election in November, the diplomats added.

- AFP

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/88666/1/.html

IN MEMORY OF RONALD REAGAN!

President Reagan and his wife(AFP/File/Mike Sargent)

Former President Reagan Dies (World News Service/Reuters)

This July 17, 1987 file photo shows former US president Ronald Reagan with former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher.(AFP/File/Mike Sargent)

photo of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan (C) and Vice President George Bush (R) showing the sights of New York city, including the statue of Liberty (background) to former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on June 30, 1995.

EU "big 3" draft nuclear resolution on Iran-diplomats

Reuters
June 6th, 04
By Louis Charbonneau

VIENNA, June 6 (Reuters) - France, Britain and Germany are drafting a U.N. nuclear resolution on Iran that could set them on course for a confrontation with Tehran at an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board meeting next week, diplomats said.

The IAEA, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, issued a report last week praising Iran for granting U.N. inspectors access to sites, but said it has continued to change its story about imports of nuclear technology that could be used to develop atomic weapons.

"The three Europeans'...draft resolution is going to say that there are areas where Iran has been cooperating with the agency and areas where they haven't been cooperating," a Western diplomat on the IAEA's board of governors told Reuters.

"It will also tell them (the Iranians) to cooperate more," the diplomat said, adding that the point of the resolution will be to keep the inspection process going.

Iran, which says its nuclear programme is peaceful, wants to be off the IAEA board's agenda as a special item, but diplomats on the board said the resolution would likely keep Tehran on the agenda for some time.

Iran said on Sunday it had done everything necessary to clear up concerns about its nuclear programme, which the United States said could be used to make atomic bombs.

"Iran has answered all ambiguities on its nuclear activities and there is nothing left on the table," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told a weekly news conference.

The United Nations has been investigating Iran since an exiled Iranian opposition group reported in August 2002 that Tehran was hiding a massive uranium enrichment plant at Natanz and other sites from U.N. inspectors.

The IAEA's new Iran report and the draft resolution prepared by the European Union's "big three" will be the main topics of discussion at a meeting of the IAEA's 35-nation board that begins on June 14.

The Europeans have been working with Iran since last year to get them to end their uranium enrichment programme in exchange for peaceful nuclear technology. The Iranians agreed to suspend enrichment activities but, to the annoyance of the Europeans, have yet to fully suspend the programme.

The United States, which said the latest IAEA report contained further evidence that Iran is trying to cover up a nuclear weapons programme, will push the Europeans to include sharp language that describes the difficulties the IAEA had getting access to military sites in the Islamic republic.

Diplomats said Washington would likely delay until after the November presidential election any attempt to push the IAEA to report Iran to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions because of Tehran's two-decade cover-up of a uranium enrichment programme capable of making material for weapons.

Iran, which says its programme is devoted to the peaceful generation of electricity, said that the IAEA's outstanding questions were "minor" and has challenged the United States to come up with hard evidence that Tehran is working on an atom bomb.

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, the author of the report, said last week it would be premature to say now that it was clear Iran's programme was not peaceful in nature.

ElBaradei's report appeared to contain ammunition for hardliners who want to criticise Iran and those who would like to praise them to keep the IAEA inspection process going and avoid an international crisis if Iran pulled out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

The report praised Iran for "providing access to locations in response to agency requests, including workshops situated at military sites".

But it also said inspections were "delayed in some cases" due to discussion of terms of access to defence industry sites.

Diplomats close to the IAEA said it took several months to reach an agreement with Tehran on the terms for inspecting a small group of military sites in Iran. One Western diplomat on the board said Iran may have wanted the delays to sanitise sites ahead of inspections.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L06175915.htm

US Intensifies Pressure on IAEA

June 06, 2004
Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting
IRIB News

Tehran -- Following reports of Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohammad Elberadei on the peaceful use of Iran's nuclear facilities, White House and Western media have started a new campaign to smear Iran's face ahead of UN board of governors meeting.

Although the IAEA director General Mohammad Elberadei, as usual, has inserted some negative points on Iran's nuclear activity in his report, the implementation of the agreements reached between Iran and Europe's big three states in Tehran are quite obvious.

Trumping up charges and creating Psychological war against Iran by the US administration and some Western states marks the political pressure pushed on IAEA board of governors ahead of the UN summit to take Iran's nuclear dossier to the UN Security Council.

But documents existing in Iran's nuclear dossier regarding the peaceful purpose of Iran's nuclear activities blocks US efforts to achieve its objectives.

http://www.iribnews.ir/Full_en.asp?news_id=205483

IAEA Does Not Intend to Close Iran’s Nuclear Dossier: Analyst

TEHRAN, June 6 (MNA) – Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Mohammed ElBaradei is applying double standards in his remarks on Iran’s nuclear activities according to political analyst Davud Hermidas Bavand.

Bavand told the Mehr News Agency that the IAEA is trying to pressure Iran by claiming that Iran has not abided by its commitments to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). He went on to say that he believes the IAEA does not intend to close Iran’s nuclear dossier.

The United States and the IAEA are trying to keep Iran’s dossier on the agenda of the IAEA Board of Governors, hoping to eventually forward it to the UN Security Council at the first opportunity, Bavand said, noting, “We should wait for the decision of the IAEA Board of Governors because other statements are biased.”

He explained that withdrawing from the NPT would not serve Iran’s national interests, given the hostile attitude toward Iran currently dominating the international arena, and thus would not be an appropriate response.

http://www.mehrnews.com/wfNewsDetails_en.aspx?NewsID=84639&t=Political

Iran will cooperate with new Iraqi government: foreign ministry

IranMania News
June 6th, 04

TEHRAN, June 6 (AFP) - Iran's foreign ministry said Sunday it will cooperate with Iraq's new interim government, even though the Islamic republic's supreme leader has dismissed the new caretaker administration as a "lackey" of the US.

"Naturally we will continue our cooperation with the current government as with the previous government," foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters.

Iran, although publicly critical of the US invasion and occupation of its neighbour, was nevertheless among the first countries to recognise the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, now replaced by an interim government.

On Thursday however, Iran's all-powerful supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei opened fire on the US over Iraq but did not rule out dialogue with the interim government.

And Asefi asserted that Khamenei was merely trying to make a point that free elections should be held as soon as possible.

"What the supreme guide says is what the foreign ministry says, that is that this (new Iraqi) government does not have any popular legitimacy and should have as soon as possible by organising elections," Asefi said.

"Power should therefore be transferred as soon as possible to an elected government."

http://www.iranmania.com/news/060604d.asp

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