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Iranian Revolutionary Guards occupy Iraqi soilFri. 8 Oct 2004 |
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Iran Focus |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said on Friday it is concerned Iran has arrested a journalist and stopped him picking up a rights award in New York in a sign of what it called worsening violations in the Islamic republic.
Emadeddin Baghi was due to receive next Monday a Civil Courage Award from the Northcote Parkinson Fund, which said he had previously been imprisoned for exposing the killings of intellectuals.
Baghi was arrested at Tehran airport and denied permission to leave the country, and will now apparently face charges of criticizing the government, State Department spokesman Gregg Sullivan said.
These actions "send a clear message regarding the Iranian government's views on freedom of speech and expression, and is yet another clear example of the overall deterioration in the human rights situation in Iran," he said.
Iran considers the United States the "Great Satan" and President Bush bracketed the country with North Korea and prewar Iraq in an "axis of evil."
The United States frequently denounces alleged abuses in Iran to spotlight its human rights record.
Iran condemns all types of terrorism: Rafsanjani
Tehran Times Political Desk
TEHRAN (MNA) -- Expediency Council Chairman Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani here on Friday condemned state-sponsored terrorism and human rights violations committed by the Zionist regime against innocent Palestinians. In a sermon delivered at Friday prayers at the Tehran University campus, the substitute Tehran Friday prayer leader said, "Given that Iran has suffered the greatest losses from terrorism, Tehran condemns terrorism and all types of terrorist activities more than any other country." The EC chairman mentioned the Western intellectuals and scholars who propose a solution for everything, asking, "Why don't they propose a way to prevent Israel's atrocities then, since they themselves trained the Israelis?"
This was the worst week for the Palestinians, he said, adding that Israel continued its daily attacks on the pretext that al-Qassam missiles were being fired at Zionist settlements by Palestinian resistance forces and continued its week-long attacks using tanks, helicopter gunships, and soldiers, killing about a hundred, arresting twice that number, and wounding many more Palestinians.
It is shameful to witness the weak response of the Arab League to these acts and it is shameful to witness such aggression against the defenseless people of Palestine, he said.
In reference to the Arab League’s complaint to the United Nations Security Council condemning the atrocities the Zionist regime has been committing against the Palestinians, he stated that Washington vetoed the censure of Israel at the UN Security Council, as it always does.
"The international system is unjust and the U.S. veto of such crimes is the best proof of U.S. oppression at the global level," said Rafsanjani.
He stated that the U.S. war planes' bombardments of various cities in Iraq that began with the U.S.-led attack on the country are continuing.
"That is how a country which considers itself authorized to decide on behalf of the Iraqis treats the Iraqi people," he noted.
He also congratulated the congregation at Friday prayers on the occasion of Police Week, saying that the police guarantees national security.
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com
Iran has introduced what officials termed a new combat doctrine meant to repel any attack by Israel or the United States, reports Geostrategy-Direct, the global intelligence news service.
Officials have termed the doctrine "asymmetric warfare" and said it was aimed at countering a threat from a much larger and more powerful adversary. They said the combat doctrine seeks to identify and exploit Iranian military advantages in any war with a foreign power.
The new doctrine was demonstrated during the Ashura-5 military exercise in September.
During the Sept. 12-18 exercise, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps tested the effectiveness of coordinated air and ground strikes, strategic medium- and intermediate-range missiles as well as other weapons and methods.
IRGC commander Gen. Yahya Rahim-Safavi said Iran developed the concept of asymmetric warfare based on the assessment that Teheran's greatest threats came from Israel and the United States. Teheran has sought to deter these two countries by demonstrating Iran's deep-strike capability, he said.
"The principles of this kind of warfare have been formulated in view of extra-regional threats which we assume the Islamic Republic will face," Rahim-Safavi told Iranian state television.
"They know full well that if they start an onslaught against us, we will not be confined to our land borders and that we will attack them outside the boundaries of our land borders."
[On Sept. 28, several people were killed during clashes between protesters and IRGC special operations troops in the southern port of Bandar-Abbas.
Iranian opposition sources said the clashes stemmed from the killing of three local fishermen by secret police.]
Gen. Masoud Jazayeri, spokesman for the IRGC, said Iran developed its new combat doctrine based on the lessons learned from the 1980-1988 war with Iraq. The war began with a massive Iraqi ground invasion but within a year, Teheran went on the offensive. Iran's military, short of operational aircraft, sent waves of lightly armed volunteer forces to break the Iraqi front.
Jazayeri said asymmetric warfare was an important component of Ashura-5, overseen by the IRGC. He said that over the last decade Iran has enhanced the combat doctrine with newly developed tactics and logistics.
"The IRGC is therefore able to respond promptly to any attacks and can repel any invader regardless of its strength or technological abilities," Jazayeri said.
Ashura-5 was conducted in the western provinces of Hamedan, Kurdistan and Zanjan and included units from the IRGC, regular army and air force as well as Basij volunteer units. Officials said Ashura-5 focused on tactics to repel a foreign military attack in wake of what it called threats against Iran's nuclear program.
During the weeklong exercise, officials said, Iran tested defensive tactics, military platforms, psychological warfare and such logistics as the airlift of the T-72 main battle tank. The IRGC has declared the war games a success.
After Ashura-5, Iran continued to demonstrate its military capabilities during a weeklong commemoration of the Iran-Iraq war. On Sept. 21, the IRGC held a parade in Teheran in which the force displayed the Shihab-2, Shihab-3, the Nazeat-6 and Nazeat-10, the Tondar-69 and the Zelzal missiles. The corps also displayed the Iranian main battle tank Zulfiqar as well as the T-72.
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Rafsanjani, a business-minded, mid-ranking cleric would be a strong candidate for president with the likely support of Iran's resurgent conservatives. He is also a top advisor to Iran's most powerful figure Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
"If there is no other suitable candidate, I will run in the next presidential elections for the sake of Islam and the revolution," the Hambastegi daily on Saturday quoted the 70-year old as saying in a speech to students in the holy city of Qom.
"I have told the supreme leader not to order me and to let doors be opened for other candidates," he added.
Rafsanjani had previously played down interest in running for president when reformist President Mohammad Khatami has to step down after two terms in office in the middle of next year.
Rafsanjani is seen as a pragmatic conservative whose 1989-1997 presidency was marked by modest cultural relaxations and pushes for economic restructuring.
He heads the Expediency Council, Iran's top legislative arbitration council. The Expediency Council this month overhauled a key plank of the constitution to allow large-scale privatisations.
Although viewed as business-minded, in contrast to radical conservative parliamentarians, Rafsanjani has recently been keen to deny that he has amassed great wealth.
He has been plagued by rumours he and his proteges have huge holdings in pistachio farming, airlines and car industry. He says he is poorer now than before the 1979 Islamic revolution.
By Parisa Hafezi
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran would welcome a proposal by U.S. presidential candidate Senator John Kerry's running mate for a "great bargain" to solve the dispute over Tehran's nuclear program, a senior Iranian official said on Saturday.
Vice presidential candidate Senator John Edwards has said that Kerry, a Democrat, would be willing to supply Iran with nuclear fuel for power generation if Tehran abandons its own fuel-making capability - if Iran did not accept this offer, it would confirm Iran wanted to make an atom bomb.
Iran earlier rejected the proposal, saying it would be "irrational" for Iran to jeopardize what it says is its purely civilian nuclear program by relying on supplies from abroad.
But in an apparent policy shift, Hossein Mousavian, head of the foreign policy committee at Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said Iran would review the proposal.
"Iran welcomes any constructive proposal from any American candidate," Mousavian told Reuters in an interview. "We are willing to consider constructive proposals from Americans," he added.
But he said Iran, as a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), should be allowed to pursue its "peaceful nuclear program."
"Our legitimate right of pursuing peaceful nuclear technology should be considered," he said.
President Bush's administration says there is no point in offering incentives to Iran. Bush wants Iran referred to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions.
ELECTION CAMPAIGN
Mousavian said Iranian officials earlier rejected the Kerry camp proposal because they were not sure if it was part of the election campaign or a serious proposal.
He said Iran did not want to get embroiled in the U.S. election campaign. "If it is part of Kerry's election campaign ... we do not want to be part of it," he said. "Let the Americans play their game themselves."
Mousavian ruled out direct talks with Washington on Iran's nuclear program due to its "hostile" policy toward Iran.
The United States cut diplomatic ties with Iran after radical Iranian students took dozens of U.S. diplomats hostage following the 1979 Islamic revolution.
"It is because of 20 years of mistrust... Up to now, Americans have not shown any sign of good will," he said.
Mousavian called on Europeans to resist U.S. pressure and treat Tehran's nuclear dossier "fairly."
"Why they do not open a chapter of cooperation?" Mousavian said. "This issue can be solved by political talks, not by resolutions."
Iran agreed to suspend its enrichment-related activities last year after talks with foreign ministers from Britain, Germany and France. But it recently resumed key parts of it.
The IAEA board of governors passed a resolution last month demanding Iran freeze all activities connected with enriching uranium or face "tougher actions."
Mousavian said Iran considers enrichment as its "legitimate right" and would not yield to such pressures.
Iran's conservative-dominated parliament has prepared a bill that would force moderate President Mohammad Khatami's government to resume uranium enrichment.
"Parliament is concerned over whether the government is capable of guaranteeing the nations right of having peaceful technology," Mousavian said.
I assume you have a link to the history timeline of Iran? Would you like to embed it in the main banner? Thank you, Norski.
Baghdad, Oct. 8 – Crack troops of the Qods Force (Jerusalem Force), the extraterritorial force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, operating out of their base in the border town of Mehran, have seized Iraqi territories in Zeyn al-Qos, Seif Sa’ad and al-Amarah regions, according to reports from the area.
