Iranian Alert -- November 22, 2003 -- IRAN LIVE THREAD

Shia Leader Escapes Attack

November 23, 2003
The Telegraph
Reuters

Tehran -- A rocket attack failed to kill a leading member of Iraq’s US-appointed governing council, Shia leader Abdul Aziz Al-Hakim, in a Baghdad mosque yesterday, his son said today.

Mohsen Al-Hakim said the attackers fired a Russian-made rocket from gardens near the mosque but it failed to explode. The missile missed its target and wrecked a car parked a 100 metres away. No one was injured.

“It was a terrorist attack on his life by remains of Saddam’s regime and those who want instability in Iraq. They are pursuing the same goals as those who killed Mohammad Baqer al-Hakim,” Mohsen Al-Hakim said in Tehran.

The attack took place on the same day that guerrillas fired Russian-made Katyusha rockets from donkey carts at Iraq’s oil ministry and two Baghdad hotels used by Westerners.

Guerrillas have launched increasingly audacious attacks on US-led occupying troops, foreign organisations and Iraqis working with them. Many foreign organisations have quit, following suicide car bomb attacks.

Abdul Aziz warned earlier this month that Iraq was becoming a hotbed of terrorism that was spilling over into neighbouring countries like Saudi Arabia.

He succeeded his slain brother Mohammed Baqer al-Hakim as leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) — one of the main Shia groups in Iraq but which has been criticised by some for its readiness to work with the US-led administration.

Iran-backed SCIRI campaigned for years against Saddam Hussein's rule and its leaders returned from Iran in May after Saddam was toppled.

In August, Mohammed Baqer al-Hakim was killed along with 82 others in a devastating car-bomb blast outside the Imam Ali mosque in Najaf. An audio tape purportedly from Saddam denied he had any part in the bombing.

Akila al-Hashemi, a member of the Governing Council, was killed in September when gunmen fired on her car in a Baghdad suburb. Her assassination was blamed on followers of Saddam.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1031123/asp/foreign/story_2602489.asp

U.N. Takes Issue With Iran's Human Rights

November 21, 2003
Reuters
Reuters.com

A key U.N. committee approved a Canadian-drafted resolution rebuking Iran for alleged human rights abuses, including torture, suppression of free speech and discrimination against women and minorities.

The vote in the General Assembly's human rights panel was 73 in favor, 49 against and 50 abstentions. Most European and Latin American nations as well as the United States supported Canada, while Islamic countries voted against the measure as did Russia, China and India.

Adoption by the panel, which includes all U.N. members, is a virtual guarantee of passage by the full General Assembly.

The Geneva-based U.N. Commission on Human Rights adopted annual resolutions on Iran's rights record from 1984 to 2001 and the assembly followed suit. But last year the draft was narrowly defeated in Geneva and not revived by the assembly.

Specifically, the Canadian resolution calls on Iran, dominated by Shi'ite Muslims, to eliminate religious discrimination against minorities, including Bahais, Christians, Jews and Sunni Muslims.

It expresses concern at continuing public executions, the use of torture and amputation, arbitrary sentencing of political dissidents, suppression of press freedom and systematic discrimination against women and girls "in law and in practice."

Photojournalist Zahra Kazemi, a Canadian citizen of Iranian descent, died in custody in Iran in June, from a blow to the head, seriously damaging relations between Ottawa and Tehran.

The Canadian draft did not refer to her but singled out crackdowns by the judiciary and security forces against journalists, parliamentarians, students, clerics and academics. It expressed "serious concern" at the "harsh reactions to student demonstrations" such as imprisonment and mistreatment.

But Canadian envoy Gilbert Laurin mentioned her in his address to the panel on Thursday, saying, "What the Kazemi case did was to highlight for the Canadian people the situation of journalists in Iran and the absence of freedom of expression."

Scores of student activists, estimated at 4,000, were jailed during the 10-day pro-democracy protests in June. Only a number of students were released after the supreme religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on the judiciary to exercise leniency.

Iran's powerful Guardian Council, which reviews all legislation to see it accords with Islamic Sharia law, has countered many reforms attempted by President Mohammad Khatami.

Co-sponsors of the draft resolution with Canada were the United States, the Czech Republic, Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, Andorra and Micronesia.

http://www.reuters.com/locales/newsArticle.jsp?type=topNews&locale=en_CA&storyID=3873323

Iran says IAEA nuclear talks going its way

Saturday, November 22, 2003 - ©2003 IranMania.com

TEHRAN, Nov 22, (AFP) -- Iran's representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Ali Akbar Salehi, has voiced optimism over the outcome of talks with the UN nuclear watchdog in Vienna, state television reported here.

"The majority of countries on the (IAEA's) board of governors are inclined to solving this issue peacefully," Salehi said.

"From now until Monday there will be a lot of developments. It is not predictable, but what we can definitely say is that things are moving in favour of Iran," he added.

Salehi's comments came after the United States claimed Iran had made "brazen and systematic" breaches of nuclear safeguards, but nevertheless appeared to back away from demands for the Islamic republic to be referred to the UN Security Council.

The IAEA meeting was adjourned until Wednesday after the United States and Europe's big three -- Britain, France and Germany -- failed in two days of intense, closed-door negotiations to agree on a resolution in response to the watchdog's report detailing almost two decades of hidden Iranian nuclear activities.

http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=19905&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs

US Backs Off Stand Over Iran's Nuclear Program

VOA News
22 Nov 2003, 17:00 UTC

Western diplomats say the United States has dropped its demand for the U.N. nuclear agency to declare Iran in violation of a global nuclear treaty.
The diplomats say U.S. officials abandoned their demand after it became clear that many nations on the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) would not support the measure.

The 35-member board failed to agree on a resolution concerning Iran's nuclear program after two days of negotiations which ended Friday. U.S. officials had been calling on the IAEA to take a tough stand on Iran by declaring it in violation of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which could have led to economic sanctions on Iran. However, a proposed resolution drafted by Britain, France and Germany contained softer language.

Diplomats say the United States is now pushing those three countries to toughen up their proposal, while accepting it will not declare Iran in non-compliance with the treaty. Officials with the IAEA say the board is continuing informal talks and will reconvene on Wednesday.

The United States has harshly criticized the IAEA for saying in a recent report on Iran that it found "no evidence" to suggest Tehran had a secret weapons program.

Some information for this report provided by AFP and Reuters.

http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=BFBEF232-A07E-4A33-81536794C679C603

U.S. drops hard line on Iran nukes

Sat 22 November, 2003 20:34
By Louis Charbonneau

VIENNA (Reuters) - The United States has dropped its demand the U.N. atomic watchdog declare Iran in violation of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, despite its belief Tehran wants to build an atom bomb, Western diplomats say.

After two days of talks, the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) 35-member Board of Governors on Friday adjourned until Wednesday to give diplomats a chance to revise a French, German and British draft resolution condemning Iran's 18-year concealment of sensitive nuclear research.

However, Western diplomats said informal talks continued on Saturday between Washington and the capitals of the European Union's "big three" to toughen up the trio's proposal, two drafts of which the Americans rejected as too weak.

"Talks are definitely ongoing, though much of the discussion is taking place in the capitals," a Western diplomat said.

Diplomats close to the talks said U.S. officials had foregone their demand for the resolution to contain an explicit reference to Iran's past "non-compliance" with its NPT obligations and that Tehran be reported to the U.N. Security Council, which could choose to impose economic sanctions.

"I think the U.S. will accept a resolution without an explicit reference to non-compliance," another diplomat said.

Diplomats told Reuters U.S. negotiators had abandoned early last week their demand that Iran be reported to the Council when it became apparent only four other board members -- Japan, Canada, Australia and New Zealand -- would support this.

In exchange, diplomats close to the talks said the United States, which is convinced Iran wants nuclear weapons, were now helping Britain, France and Germany revise the resolution to include a timetable to keep pressure on Iran to cooperate.

The French, British and Germans want to encourage Iran to continue with its stated policy of fully cooperating with the IAEA rather than punish it for past failures. Diplomats said Germany especially feared too harsh a resolution would backfire and cause Iran to stop cooperating with the United Nations.

BOMB PLANS HATCHED DURING IRAN-IRAQ WAR

In October, Iran gave the IAEA what is said was a full and accurate declaration of its nuclear programme and said it had no more nuclear secrets to disclose. Tehran admits covering up the full extent of its atomic programme but denies wanting bombs.

But a senior Western diplomat said there was no question Iran had an atomic weapons programme that most likely began during the fierce Iran-Iraq that lasted from 1980 to 1988. He added that there were suspicions the programme still exists.

The United States harshly criticised the IAEA for saying in a recent report on Iran that it had "no evidence" suggesting Tehran had a secret weapons programme.

U.S. Ambassador to the IAEA, Kenneth Brill, told the board on Friday the phrase "no evidence" was "highly unfortunate" in the light of revelations about Iran's cover-up and secret experiments with plutonium reprocessing and uranium enrichment. He said the IAEA should have used the words "no proof" instead.

Brill said the IAEA's wording had provoked "expressions of disbelief that the institution charged with... scrutinising nuclear proliferation risks was dismissing important facts."

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei reacted strongly, calling the U.S. statement "disingenuous".

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=407686&section=news

Mansoor Ijaz: Osama In Iran

RushLimbaugh.com

November 21, 2003

Mansoor Ijaz, whose foreign policy insights I have long praised, rang up Fox and Friends live from London on Thursday morning to talk about his extraordinary report that Osama bin Laden is in Iran. Ijaz has spent about a month "quietly debriefing some very important intelligence sources that have come out of Iran" who feel the radical Islamist regime is taking the country "right off the cliff" by putting up Osama in one of the Western provinces. < P> Mansoor told Weather Guy Steve Doocy, "I think the time has come now to essentially confront the Iranian regime with the question, 'Are you harboring the top three or four leaders of Al-Qaeda?' This is the specific information that we have." Mansoor reports that Osama and his deputy Ayman Zawahiri crossed over into Iran in old Soviet-style black limos, under the guidance of the head of the Ayatollah's Revolutionary Guard. He says that the U.S. government now has this information, and is deciding how to deal with it.

My opinion has long been that we snuffed out bin Laden when we turned Tora Bora's thermostat up to 2,000 degrees. But if we didn't and he survived, it would make total sense for him to hightail it to Iran. Iran has always been one of the principal exporters of, and training centers for, terrorism. Note that Iran's statement that it's pursuing nuclear power for energy when it's a nation sitting atop a lake of oil, is so transparent a lie that even UN Atomic Energy Commission head Mohammed ElBaradei doesn’t buy it. As I've always said: keep an eye on Iran.

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