Al-Qaeda 'hates Iran as much as it hates the US'
August 14, 2003
The al-Qaeda terrorist network hates Iran as much as it hates the United States, Iranian President Mohammed Khatami said yesterday.
"Whenever we find al-Qaeda members, we arrest them and the group has as much hatred and enmity to Iran as it does to the US," Mr Khatami was quoted by the news agency IRNA as saying.
He reiterated that all al-Qaeda members whose nationality could be verified would be extradited. The others were to be tried inside Iran.
He said there was no deal with the US over the prisoners, rejecting press reports that Washington and Tehran were in contact about swapping the al-Qaeda suspects for members of the Iranian rebel group People's Mujaheddin, which used to be based in Iraq before the fall of Saddam Hussein.
Mr Khatami did not disclose the identity of the al-Qaeda members detained in Iran, citing security reasons.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/08/13/1060588457819.htmlMajlis' approval of bill allowing Iran to join convention banning discrimination against women a mistake of MPs
Tehran, Aug 15, IRNA -- Interim Friday Prayer Leader of Tehran
Ayatollah Mohammad Emami Kashani said here that the approval by Majlis
of a law that would pave the way for Iran to join the Convention
Banning Discrimination Against Women was due to the MPs' lack of
familiarity with the subject.
Speaking to thousands of pious worshipers at the central campus of
Tehran University, the prominent alim added: "I heard President
(Khatami's) cabinet was opposed to the idea of presenting the bill to
parliament from the very beginning."
"But all the same," added Kashani, "had the people's
representatives been careful enough in tackling the various dimensions
of that bill, the resulting decision would not have been made."
He added: "The articles in that convention include phrases that
would render the attachment of any condition to its acceptance quite
meaningless."
Judging the convention to be unIslamic and against the rules of
humanity, the Friday prayer leader said: "Yielding to the articles of
that convention would be tantamount to ignoring the rules of justice
and humanity as far as relations between the two sexes are concerned.
Ths would not only endanger Islam but mankind as a whole, particularly
the "foundation of families."
http://www.irna.ir/en/hphoto/0308140000-0.ehp.shtml