Abu Mus'ab Al-Zarqawi moved to Iran several months ago, shortly after the Fallujah incidents, and stayed a few weeks at a camp belonging to the Iranian revolutionary guards in the Mahran region on the border with Iraq, until leaving for the city of Bakuba in Iraq. (Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, London, 8/11/04)
The commander of the Al-Quds army of Iran's revolutionary guards, general Qasem Sulimani, acknowledged that Iran has been making concessions to Abu Mus'ab Al- Zarqawi. A reliable Iranian source reports that general Sulimani said that Zarqawi's operations in Iraq 'serve the supreme interests of Iran,' particularly in preventing the establishment of a regime cooperating with the U. S. (Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, London, 8/11/04)
The Iranian source said that Al-Zarqawi and 20 commanders of his organization need no prior approval to enter Iran: 'there are border points from Halabja in the north to Ilam in the south through which Zarqawi and 20 of the Ansar Al- Islam fighters can enter Iranian territory whenever they want.' (Al-Sharq Al- Awsat, London, 8/11/04)
Iran's Basij (paramilitary youth organization) commander General Mohammad Hijazi said the Basij is striving to form an army of 20 million. (Jomhouri-ye Eslami, Iran, 7/14/04)
Iranian supreme leader Khamenei said those who hold hostages in Iraq are not Muslims. We suspect very much, he said, that they are agents of Israel and the United States. (Al-Zaman, Iraq, 7/14/04)
Russia's Atomic Energy Organization director Alexander Rumyantsev said Russia and Iran are likely to sign an agreement over the return of spent nuclear fuel to Russia during his upcoming visit to Tehran in the autumn of 2004. Rumyantsev noted that since Iran has signed the NPT, there are no obstacles to its construction of new nuclear power plants. (Aftab-e Yazd, Iran, 7/13/04)
Iran's Parliamentary National Security and Foreign Policy Commission gave the go-ahead for the resumption of uranium enrichment activities. (Aftab-e Yazd, Iran, 7/7/04)
Pyongyang refuted Japanese media reports that North Korea is engaged in nuclear cooperation with Iran, and also denied reports by a Japanese newspaper that a delegation of Iranian scientists is staying in North Korea with the aim of carrying out joint tests of detonators for nuclear bombs. (IRNA, Iran, 6/27/04)
The World Islamic Organization's Headquarters for Remembering the Shahids has registered over 2,000 Iranian volunteers for martyrdom operations. The youngest volunteer is seven years old, and 25% are under 18. Recruitment headquarters head Mohamed Samedi said that the organization would carry out martyrdom operations if Iranian Leader Ali Khamenei asked them to. (Sharq, Iran, 6/5/04)
Iranian First Vice President Mohammad-Reza Aref said that expansion of relations with Turkey is of top priority in Iran's foreign policy and that transporting Iranian gas to Europe via Turkey was among the important issues discussed with turkey. (IRNA, Iran, 7/30/04)
Iranian Majlis Energy Commission head Kamal Daneshyar said Iran should be able to persuade OPEC members to increase oil prices to $50 per barrel within the next year. He stressed that the prices should even be increased to $100. (IRNA, Iran, 7/25/04)
Iran's envoy to OPEC's managerial board, Hossein Kazempour Ardebili, said the range of prices Iran favors for OPEC's basket of crude oil is $30 to $35 per barrel. (IRNA, Iran, 7/24/04)
The Qatari government and Exxon Mobil signed an agreement worth $7 billion for use of gas fields between Iran and Qatar. (Aftab-e Yazd, Iran, 7/17/04)
Source:
http://www.memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=Announcement2404
