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Oct. 16, 2004 21:34
Iran said Saturday it would reject any proposal depriving it of the right to enrich uranium for nuclear fuel, part of a package Washington's European allies are proposing to avoid a showdown over Iran's nuclear program.
The European countries notified the United States on Friday that they intend to offer Iran a package of economic concessions and technological assistance next week in the hopes of persuading Tehran to permanently give up its uranium-enrichment program.
The US administration withheld its approval of the overture.
"Iran will not accept any proposal which deprives it of the legitimate right to the cycle of (nuclear) fuel," state-run television quoted Hossein Mousavian, a top nuclear official, as saying.
However, Mousavian, Iran's chief delegate to the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Iran would study any proposal that would end concerns over Tehran's nuclear program as long as it respected Iran's right to enrich uranium.
The key European powers agreed with the US administration at a three-hour State Department meeting Friday that the package would be Iran's final chance to avert a showdown at the UN Security Council, which could impose economic sanctions, a US official said.
Diplomats close to the talks said the European package of incentives included fuel for Iran's civilian programs and a trade arrangement with the European Union.
The US government has lacked the necessary votes on the Security Council to impose sanctions because Britain, France and Germany were negotiating with Tehran in search of a compromise.
While the Americans didn't endorse the offer to Tehran, they also did not try to stop the Europeans from going ahead with it, said the US official, who spoke Friday on condition of anonymity.
Last month, the IAEA's board of governors unanimously passed a resolution demanding that Iran freeze all work on uranium enrichment, including uranium reprocessing and building centrifuges used to enrich uranium.
The IAEA will meet November 25 to judge Iran's compliance.
Iran has said the agency has no authority to ban it from enriching uranium, a right granted under the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. However, while not prohibited from enrichment, Iran faces growing international pressure to suspend such activities as a good-faith gesture.
Defying the IAEA call, Mousavian told the AP earlier this month that Iran has converted a few tons of raw uranium into a hexafluoride gas, a stage prior to actual uranium enrichment.
Uranium hexafluoride gas is the material that, in the next stage, is fed into centrifuges used to enrich uranium. Uranium enriched to a low level is used to produce nuclear fuel to generate electricity, and enriched further can be used to manufacture atomic bombs.
Iraqi police arrest 135 infiltrators from Iran |
| www.chinaview.cn 2004-10-17 05:51:43 |
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BAGHDAD, Oct. 16 (Xinhuanet) -- Iraqi police have arrested 135 Afghanis and Pakistanis who infiltrated from the Iraqi-Iranian border, the Al Sabah Al Jadid newspaper reported on Saturday. "Border guards forces, a department of the Iraqi police, carriedout a search campaign in villages and border areas with Iran and arrested 135 infiltrators carrying Afghani and Pakistani nationalities," a police source was quoted as saying. The interim Iraqi government has accused Iran of being behind many of sabotage and explosions in Iraq and of interfering in Iraq's internal affairs. Mohamed Al Shahwani, head of the Iraqi intelligence, has recently accused Iran of recruiting elements of the Supreme Assembly of Islamic Revolution in Iraq, headed by Abdelaziz Hakim, to carry out sabotage acts and assassinations of intelligence members. He has also accused 27 people working in the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad of coordinating spying operations and assassinations in Iraq. Enditem |
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Navy’s four ships and a submarine reached the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas on Friday as part of a goodwill and training tour of the Persian Gulf.
The Iranian First Naval Zone commander, Pakistan’s Ambassador Iqbal Ahmad Khan and Naval Attache Captain Khalid Saeed welcomed Pakistani guests, said a message from Pakistan’s Embassy in Tehran on Saturday.
The Pakistan Navy ships, PNS Mohafiz, PNS Shujaat, PNS Larkana, PNS Kalmat and the Agosta submarine Sa’ad reached Bandar Abbas on October 15 after visiting Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. During their three-day visit to Iran, the Pakistan naval staff will interact with the Iranian Navy besides playing sports and sight seeing.
Iran says it won't stop enriching uranium |
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TEHRAN - Iran said yesterday it would reject any proposal to halt uranium enrichment, a step European Union diplomats are proposing to end a row over whether Iran is reaching for atomic weapons. |
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EU diplomats have said they are seeking U.S. and Russian support for a deal that would ask Iran to give up uranium enrichment in return for technical and economic assistance. |
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Posted Saturday, October 16, 2004
PARIS, 16 Oct. (IPS) Almost two months after having hanged a 16 years-old girl, the ruling Iranian ayatollahs are to commit another human crime by condemning another young girl to stoning.
According to Iranian and foreign press, Zhila Izadi, a 13 years old girl from the north-western city of Marivan had been condemned to death by stoning after being found that she had been pregnant from her 15 years-old brother.
The independent Iranian online newspaper “Peyke Iran” (www.peykeiran.com) that had first revealed the news last week reported on Saturday 16 October 2004 that the girl has given birth two weeks ago in prison.
While Zhila as been sentenced to stoning, her brother, jailed in Tehran, is to receive only 150 lashes, in accordance with Islamic laws.
Mrs. Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian outspoken lawyer and human rights activists who became the first Iranian and Muslim female to win the prestigious Nobel Peace Award for 2003 disclosed the news about the case of Zhila Izadi during her recent tour of Scandinavian countries.
The circumstances under which Zhila became pregnant from her brother is still not known, but independent Iranian sources outside the country said it was the father, a devout Muslim, who informed the authorities about the “disgrace” the young girl had caused the family.
Human rights activists in Denmark said though Zhila’s sentence had not been confirmed yet, but the fear is that, with the family’s approval, she faces the same faith as that of Ms. Ateqeh Rajabi, the 16 years-old girl hanged in public by the judge, a cleric, who condemned her on charges of prostitution.
“A court in Marivan has condemned Zhila to death by stoning and the family, which is very fundamental, has agreed”, confirmed Ms. Nahid Riazi of a Copenhagen-based human rights group that fights to the rights of women, adding that the young girl had been separated from her new born baby after the birth.
Ms. Rajabi was publicly hanged on a street in the city centre of Neka in the northern province of Mazandaran, on 15 August, for "acts incompatible with chastity".
Faced with domestic and international outcry of dismay, the authorities said the young girl was “mentally incompetent”.
However, informed sources revealed that Ms. Ateqeh was sentenced to death after, during the "trial", she expressed outrage at the misogyny and injustice in the Islamic Republic and its Islam-based judicial system.
“The lower court judge was so incensed by her protestations that he personally put the noose around her neck after his decision had been upheld by the Supreme Court”, the sources reported.
The execution of Ateqeh Rajabi was the tenth execution of a child offender in Islamic Republic recorded by Amnesty International since 1990.
Amnesty International is alarmed that this execution was carried out despite reports that Ateqeh Rajabi was not believed to be mentally competent, and that she reportedly did not have access to a lawyer at any stage.
As a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Iran is bound not to execute child offenders. Both treaties provide that capital punishment shall not be imposed for offences committed by persons under 18 year of age at the time of committing the offence.
Though it is possible that the Iranian authorities reject the stoning sentence, but it remains that the accused could very probably be condemned to death, human rights sources said, calling on the international community to put pressure on Iranian authorities to save Zhila from death.
The news of Zhila's possible stoning come at a time that the ruling conservatives have increased dramatically crackdown on the very limited social liberties, including more drastic measures on women accused of not respecting islamic codes of dressing and arresting more journalists and intellectuals.
ENDS IZADI 161004
www.georgewbush.com
The Bush administration yesterday refused to back away from its demand that Iran be referred to the U.N. Security Council over its nuclear program next month, even as European allies said they will offer Tehran a deal next week.
The European Union will present Iran with one last chance to suspend its effort to enrich uranium, which can be used to make atomic bombs, in exchange for economic and trade benefits, diplomats said after an eight-nation meeting at the State Department.
"The EU-three indicated they will be presenting their idea to Iran next week," State Department spokesman Tom Casey said in reference to Britain, Germany and France, which have taken the lead on the Iran nuclear issue.
The benefits package would include access to imported nuclear fuel for peaceful purposes, as well as lifting of some EU economic penalties and opening of trade opportunities with the Islamic republic.
"The United States listened carefully to the EU-three explanations of their approach, and the EU-three agreed to inform us of the results of their efforts," Mr. Casey said.
But he said the Bush administration continued to insist that, at its next meeting on Nov. 25, the board of governors of the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) should send the case to the Security Council.
"The United States has long made clear its views that Iran's confirmed non-compliance with safeguard obligations must be reported by the IAEA board to the U.N. Security Council," Mr. Casey said.
At its last meeting in September, the board gave Iran until Nov. 25 to suspend the uranium-enrichment program.
European officials said at yesterday's meeting that they still hope to convince Tehran to comply before the deadline.
"The U.S. position is a bit different from ours," a senior European diplomat said after the State Department session with officials from the Group of Eight (G-8) — the United States, Britain, Japan, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Russia.
"No government changed its position today," he added.
The three-hour meeting ended without a statement or decision.
"We did not decide on a new course of action," a U.S. official said.
The administration did not endorse the EU's benefits package. Even though U.S. officials said they told the Europeans to "go ahead" with it, they did not hide their belief that Tehran will not comply.
Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said earlier this week that the European Union cannot force Iran to give up its right to enrich uranium. "It is wrong for them to think they can, through negotiations, force Iran to stop enrichment," he told a conference in Tehran. "Iran will never give up its right to enrichment."
But diplomats at the IAEA headquarters in Vienna, Austria, were quoted by Reuters news agency yesterday as saying that Iran may be willing to comply if, along with a long list of benefits, it receives an assurance that it will not be attacked.
Diplomats said such a guarantee was not discussed at the G-8 meeting, where the United States was represented by Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and John Bolton, undersecretary of state for arms control and international security.
PARIS - France and its G8 partners should call for a complete suspension by Iran of its advanced uranium enrichment programme, the French foreign ministry said on Saturday.
"Time is of the essence. France will continue to work with its partners and the Iranian authorities... towards the complete suspension by Iran of its enrichment and reprocessing activities," the ministry said in a press statement.
A November 25 deadline for Iran to comply with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) demands to suspend uranium enrichment work is looming, with the possibility that Iran may be referred to the UN Security Council and face sanctions if it misses the deadline.
Britain, France and Germany told the United States on Friday at a G8 meeting in Washington that they would offer Iran incentives to try to persuade it to halt uranium enrichment activities which they fear are linked to a plan to build nuclear weapons.
The Europeans are hoping the inducements will satisfy the US, which backs a tougher line against Iran.
However Iran has since said it will reject any European proposal for a complete cessation of its work on the nuclear fuel cycle. It has said, however, that it would be willing to consider further "confidence-building" measures and extending a suspension of uranium enrichment.
"As well as leading this joint effort, we recognise the right of any state to use nuclear energy in accordance with the (nuclear) Non Proliferation Treaty," the French statement said.
It added that the Washington G8 meeting had "shown the intensity of the efforts made to try to reach a solution by diplomatic means."
"These efforts will continue in the weeks ahead with the aim of reaching an agreement between now and the meeting" of the IAEA on November 25, the statement said.
Under the terms of an accord signed late last year with Germany, France and Britain, Iran pledged to suspend uranium enrichment activities and accepted unannounced inspections of its nuclear facilities.
However, it has since resumed work on centrifuges key to the enrichment process and back-tracked on its commitment to allow snap inspections, claiming the Europeans have not held up their end of the deal.
TEHRAN: An Iranian man convicted of a series of robberies has had four fingers on his right hand amputated in public, the Jomhuri Eslami newspaper reported yesterday. The man, who was only identified as Hamid H, was reportedly caught by locals in the southwestern city of Ahvaz while he was out on a burglary in September 2003. In Iran, thieves are usually only sentenced to amputations if they repeatedly offend.
TEHRAN: An Iranian soldier has been charged with killing a party-goer during a raid on an illegal mixed-sex gathering, the student news agency ISNA reported yesterday. Security forces raided the party in the town of Karaj, west of Tehran, and one soldier opened fire, shooting dead one of the guests. "The soldier has been arrested and charged with intentional murder," a judicial official said. Parties attended by both men and women are forbidden in the Islamic republic and are often raided by security forces. Offenders can be fined or sentenced to lashes.
In an interview, made today, with the well respected Anooshirvan Kangarloo of Voice of America TV (VOA), the SMCCDI's Coordinator, Aryo B. Pirouznia, slammed the Islamic republic's repressive stands and praised the Iranian teachers and nurses in their struggle based on Civil Disobedience Movement's methods.
Pirouznia criticized, as well, Senator Kerry for his rejectable stands on the Islamic regime and his statements intending to legitimize a corrupt and falling regime.
The program (VOA's "News & Views" of 10/16/04) will be re-aired tomorrow morning, Iran local time, and can be seen on at the following link till 12:00 PM US EST by visiting: http://www.voanews.com/real/voa/nenaf/fars/pers1700v.ram. The audio-video interview can be seen from the minute 12':40'' of the program. It will be transferred after 12:00 PM to the VOA website's archives section.
 Vahid Salemi / AP
Zarqawi connection? Iran’s judiciary chief Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi (left), Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (standing) and former prosecutor Morteza Moqtadaei
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Oct. 25 issue - The Bush administration has repeatedly fingered Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi—self-confessed beheader of U.S. hostage Nicholas Berg and other Western captives—as a critical link between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda. In the vice presidential debate, Dick Cheney said that after U.S. forces attacked Afghanistan seeking to roust Osama bin Laden, al-Zarqawi "migrated to Baghdad." But other U.S. officials say the Jordanian terrorist's contacts in neighboring Iran are probably more extensive than any dealings he had with Saddam. Sources close to Jordanian intelligence say al-Zarqawi has gone back and forth across the Iran-Iraq border since Saddam's regime fell. According to a Jordanian intelligence briefing made available to NEWSWEEK, al-Zarqawi crossed the Iranian border after being wounded in Afghanistan in late 2001, was treated, then stayed in an Iranian safe house in the same town as fugitive Qaeda leaders. Later al-Zarqawi traveled to northern Iraq, Syria and Turkey. But he supposedly returned to Iran around March 2002, at which point he was "arrested" by Iranian authorities. Some Jordanian investigators believe that a high-ranking Iranian intel official then established a relationship with him to provide aid.
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| (IsraelNN.com) Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz stated today that the White House may soon impose sanctions on Iran in response to threats from Teheran. Mofaz added the sanctions may even precede the upcoming American presidential elections to be held in November. |
He said Iran should ratify a protocol signed last year with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and end its uranium enrichment programme. Iran says it will reject any proposal for a complete halt to such activities. The UK, France and Germany are to present a package aimed at convincing Tehran to give up nuclear ambitions.
The IAEA has set a deadline of the end of November for Iran to suspend all uranium enrichment-related activities. The US accuses Iran of aiming to develop nuclear weapons, but Iran says its nuclear programme is purely for peaceful purposes. Correspondents say Washington still favours UN sanctions against Iran but is prepared to give the Europeans a final opportunity to negotiate a settlement before next month's deadline. Russia is opposed to sanctions, which could threaten its $800m deal to build Iran's Bushehr nuclear power station. Moratorium Mr Lavrov said there were specific steps Tehran could take to calm IAEA fears about its nuclear programme. "The IAEA would like to see more steps promoting greater trust in the Iranian nuclear programme and Iran must take such steps," the Russian Interfax news agency quoted him as saying. He specified that Iran should ratify a protocol it signed last year allowing for additional IAEA inspections, and impose a moratorium on its enrichment programme. But the Russian minister said Russia would continue to co-operate with Iran on construction at Bushehr. Efforts to get Iran to abandon enrichment have been a failure so far, yet prospects of imposing effective sanctions on Iran through the UN Security Council are uncertain to say the least, says BBC News Online's world affairs correspondent Paul Reynolds. National security official Hossein Mousavian said on Saturday that Tehran would not be deprived of its legitimate right to a nuclear fuel cycle. Mr Mousavian's words appeared to confirm the lack of optimism that an offer to Iran would work. However, he said Iran was ready to consider continuing its suspension of uranium enrichment and discuss new initiatives to provide guarantees that the process would never be diverted to military purposes. Our correspondent says Britain, France and Germany feel there is a window of opportunity ahead of a meeting of the IAEA on 25 November. The European offer is said to include a pledge to resume EU-Iran trade talks. It is also thought to include guarantees that Iran will have access to nuclear fuel from Russia. |
Contributing Reporter Downtown New Haven will soon play host to a new effort to preserve the memories and experiences of the Iranian people.
The U.S. State Department's Human Rights and Democracy Fund recently allotted a $1 million, two-year grant to establish the Iranian Human Rights Documentation Center, which will be dedicated to recording human rights abuses by the Iranian government from 1979 to the present. The IHRDC was co-founded by former Yale Law School lecturer and senior fellow Payam Ahkhavan, professor of internal medicine Ramin Ahmadi and journalist and writer Roya Hakakain.
The current Islamic Republic of Iran was formed in 1979 when Ayatollah Khomeini deposed the former Shah. Hundreds of the Shah's supporters were executed, and the regime Khomeini established has since been accused of numerous human rights violations including torture, arbitrary execution and wrongful arrests.
Based on his experience as a U.N. prosecutor in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, Akhavan said that honesty and justice are essential to effective democratic transformation in societies such as Iran that have suffered from systematic human rights violations.
"Eradicating a culture of impunity is an indispensable component of building civil society in Iran and providing non-violent alternatives for democratic change," Akhavan said. "The rule of law must become a political habit, and this can only be achieved if public officials are held accountable for serious human rights abuses such as arbitrary executions and torture."
As a former associate producer for 60 Minutes and author of the book "Journey from the Land of No," a memoir of her experiences growing up as a Jewish teenager in Khomeini's Iran, Hakakain said she feels it is her responsibility to ensure that the true story of Iran is remembered.
"I felt that a certain history I had witnessed had been misinterpreted or, in some ways, obliterated," she said. "The project, IHRDC, is in some ways an extension of the same desire -- to want to tell the story of history in our own voice, the way that we experienced it, not the way that it's been written about so far."
Ahmadi and Akhavan said they expect that the center will be closely involved with the Yale community.
"We plan to develop a close working relationship with the Law School, and also with other departments who are interested in having their students, whether graduates or undergrads, do research on human rights," said Ahmadi.
Hakakain said she hopes that, in addition to increasing accountability for human rights violations, the center will also provide Iranians with what she terms "a body of history and memory."
"So much of what happens in dictatorships, you know, [is] that all records get deleted and everything gets constantly erased," she said. "No matter how courageous individual Iranians tend to be and no matter how hard they work, the memory of their heroism and their courage is constantly erased. I hope that the center can become an indelible body where things can stay, and in the future they can look to it and be heartened."
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Oct. 17, 2004 18:44 | Updated Oct. 17, 2004 20:19
The IDF's three-week operation in northern Gaza has not ended, but rather the army is just redeploying after its military goals were met, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told the cabinet at its weekly meeting Sunday.
"I directed the army to continue it's immediate readiness to combat the further firing of rockets on Sderot, including a continued preparedness to reenter the area when necessary" Mofaz said.
Mofaz said that the IDF did not end the fighting, and will continue to employ "special measures" in the area.
Mofaz told the ministers that the operation "succeeded" in significantly reducing the number of rocket attacks on Sderot, in damaging Hamas's ability to fire rockets, and in improving the IDF's ability to control the area.
Operation Days of Repentance ended Friday night with the IDF pulling out of the densely populated refugee camps in northern Gaza, but leaving some troops on the hilltops in the area. Mofaz said that some 120 Palestinians were killed during the operation, of which about 70 were involved in terrorist activities.
Palestinian officials have put the number of Palestinians killed at 140.
Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom also briefed the cabinet, and related to recent overtures from Syria.
"We have recently witnessed a number of positive statements coming from Syria, which are being carefully analyzed. However, like we have said in the past, Israel will be ready to return to the negotiating table without any preconditions only when Syria abandons the way of terror," Shalom said.
Shalom said there are currently discussions taking place in the UN Security Council to draft another resolution, in addition to Security Council resolution 1559 that called for Syria to remove its troops from Lebanon. Despite these moves, Shalom said, Syria is continue to work to put together a new government in Lebanon, something he said demonstrates Syria's determination to continue to exert absolute control in Lebanon.
Shalom also said that 10 days ago Iranian President Mohammad Khatami visited Syria to talk about further cooperation between the two countries.
World pressure on these two "terrorist states" is critical right now, Shalom said. The foreign minister said it is a "pity" that the European Union intends to initial an association agreement with Syria in two days.
"I call on Europe to strengthen the international front against terror and not allow Syrian to engage in a policy of divide and rule, and by so doing avoid having to answer to [the world] for its support for terrorism. A continuation of the international pressure on Syria, that will cause it to abandon terrorism, will bring them more swiftly to the negotiating table with Israel," he said.
Regarding Iran's nuclear program, Shalom said that Europe plans to offer Iran a package this week that includes "sticks and carrots." According to this plan, if Iran will abandon its uranium enrichment program, the EU will grant them a number of benefits.
"We, of course, are opposed to giving any incentives to a country that publicly tries to attain nuclear arms, which will threaten the entire world. Iran is trying to buy time, and the international community needs to act in a suitable manner to stop this. We call for the [Iranian] issue to be brought to the UN Security Council [for possible sanctions] in November."
In another cabinet development, the ministers approved the appointment of Science and Technology Minister Ilan Shalgi as Environment Minister, to replace Yehudit Naot, who formally quite the cabinet on Sunday because of health reasons. Naot, who announced her intention to resign in September, is battling cancer.
"Yehudit Naot informed me, to my great sadness, that she is quitting her position because of illness," Sharon said. "Minister Naot excelled in her job and raised environmental issues to the highest level." Sharon said Naot has displayed great courage in fighting her illness.
Shinui is slated to hold a meeting Thursday to name a replacement for Shalgi, who has served as Minister of Science and Technology since the cabinet mini-reshuffle in July.
The IAEA would like to see more steps promoting greater trust in the Iranian nuclear programme and Iran must take such steps 
