Egyptian President Declines Iranian Invitation
February 01, 2004
AFP
IranMania
TEHRAN -- Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has declined an Iranian invitation to attend an economic summit in Tehran later this month, a visit that was supposed to have heralded a resumption of diplomatic ties between Iran and Egypt, the Iranian foreign minister said Sunday.
"Mr Hosni Mubarak is not going to participate himself, but a high-ranking delegation is going to be sent," Kamal Kharazi told reporters.
"Iran-Egyptian relations are in the reconstruction phase and need time," he added. "There should be a natural and definite course for relations to be resumed in the near future."
"What is important is that both sides have decided on this and are working on it," he added.
Iran had invited Mubarak to a summit of the Islamic group of eight due to be held in Tehran from February 19-20.
The group was set up in 1998 on Turkey's initiative. It comprises Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey.
Diplomatic ties between Cairo and Tehran were severed in 1979, the year that Egypt signed a peace treaty with Israel and gave asylum to shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi when he was deposed by the Islamic revolution.
http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=22174&NewsKind=Current%20AffairsArlen Specter says the Iranian government "deserves credit", and we should open relations.
When is this jerk going to get voted out of office?
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,110053,00.html Specter said Iran was enormously impressed by the Bush administration's use of force in Iraq and had shown signs of wanting better relations. He cited Iran's decision to submit its nuclear facilities to international inspection.
Also, Specter said, "They have helped us in the fight against Al Qaeda and in the Afghanistan situation."
"I don't think we have given them sufficient credit. They deserve credit" for their support against the terror network headed by Usama bin Laden, he said.
Political Quake: 123 Reformist MPs Resign to Protest Elections Bans
•The reformist MPs had hoped that with their resignations, they would force the Majles to close down, and prevent it from voting on such important bills as the upcoming fiscal year's budget and the government's fourth five-year economic development plan, reported foreign news agencies AFP and AP from Tehran, adding that the earlier 109 resignations were not enough to bring the number of MPs present to below two-thirds of total MPs. (Jean Khakzad)
•In today's Radio Farda Roundtable, which focuses on the prospect of the mass resignations of Majles MPs, Tehran-based lawyer and human rights advocate Mohammad Hossein Aghasi says in order for their action to be effective in closing down the Majles five months ahead of the end of its term, enough MPs should resign to bring the number of MPs present in the Majles below the legal number required for quorum. He says the Majles speaker's appeal to the Supreme Leader is illegal, since according to the constitution, the Supreme Leader has no jurisdiction over such matters, although the conservatives place the Supreme Leader beyond and above the law. The 12-members of the Guardians Council who have created the current crisis represent a power that is beyond their legal authority, he adds. Member of the central committee of the association of the Islamic student councils (Dafter-e Tahkim Vahdat) Hojat Sharifi says: It is not inconceivable that the resignations of the MPs would be approved, because the reformist MPs' decision has been to exit the government and boycott the Majles elections. He adds that there are two analyses about the reasons that Guardians Council moved to disqualify reformist election candidacy applicants, including the Majles MPs, and in effect, eliminate the reformist faction of the regime. One is that they did it out of ignorance; the other interpretation is that the move was organized at the highest level with the approval of the Supreme Leader. However, any regime, in order to stay in power, needs either the support of its people, or the support of foreign governments, he says. It is believed that the totalitarian faction, which finds itself lacking in popular support, has made behind-the-scenes deals with foreign governments, the EU and the US. US-based commentator Hormoz Hekmat says the mass resignations of the MPs would help push forward the movement started by the people and the students and faculty members in the past two months to regain the people's right to sovereignty. But the problem is not that a number of reformists were banned from reelection, the main problem is that the Majles, which should be the people's representative, has had no authority under the Islamic regime, in which, according to the constitution, the Majles has no authority, compared to the vast authorities and powers held by the Supreme Leader and his appointees. He adds that the willingness shown by the Bush administration to negotiate with the totalitarian faction of the Islamic government is not a strategic decision, but a tactical one. The totalitarian faction's hope that it can resolve all its problems through secret deals with foreign governments is not a realistic hope.
•The conservative-backed society of Bazaar merchants threatened the reformists with harsh action. It called the mass resignation of the reformist MPs “a ridiculous show,” in a statement issued today. (Amir Armin)
•Secretary of the Guardians Council Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati said the cabinet and President Khatami himself gave the Council a list of their favorite candidacy applicants and asked that they be reinstated. The public relations office of the presidency denied Jannati's statement. (Bahman Bastani)
•Negotiations with the Guardians Council has produced no result, interior minister Abdolvahed Mousavi Lari said, urging President Khatami to accept the resignations of 27 cabinet members and provincial governors, who said the mass disqualifications by the Guardians Council of 2,400 out of 8,000 candidacy applicants would result in un-free and uncompetitive elections. President Khatami and the interior minister had both said the government will only hold free and competitive elections. Elections in which half of the winners have already been decided by the Guardians Council would not be competitive, the interior minister said. The coordination council of the reformist faction, made up of representatives of 18 pro-reform parties and political groups, announced that it would not participate in the elections. However, conservative commentator Amir Mohebbian of the Resalat newspaper predicted that the differences between the two factions over the elections would soon be resolved in secret negotiations. (Amir-Mosaddegh Katouzian)
•Some of today's reformists used to be considered hard-liners, whereas some of those who are now seen as within the conservative camp, used to known as moderates, foreign minister Kamal Kharrazi said in an interview with Swiss daily Neue Zürcher Zeitung, playing down the reformist-conservative dichotomy that is being reported in the foreign press. The current problem arising from the mass disqualification of reformist Majles candidacy applicants is temporary issue and resolvable, he added. (Shahram Mirian, Cologne)
•There was no way left for the Majles reformist MPs but to resign, senior dissident cleric Ayatollah Hosseinali Montazeri said, according to his son Ahmad Montazeri, who tells Radio Farda that his father believes the conservatives would back down from their bans on the reformist candidates, when the Supreme Leader eventually intervenes. In his meeting with German ambassador to Tehran Freiherr Von Maltzahn, Ayatollah Montazeri said the Shiite clerics in Najaf and Qum are in constant touch and there are no differences or competition between them, Ahmad Montazari says. Ayatollah Montazeri told the German ambassador that the formation of Israel was a result of the German oppression of the Jews in Europe, and now that Israel exists, it would be good if the Western countries saw to it that an independent state be formed for the Palestinians, who have lost their homes as the result of the establishment of the Jewish State. (Jean Khakzad)
•In an interview with the Rome daily Corriere della Sera, Ayatollah Montazeri said the Guardians Council's decision to disqualify reformist candidacy applicants was “illegal,” and a “treason” against the Islamic revolution (Ahmad Ra'fat, Rome)
•The mass resignation of the Majles MPs would impact the Islamic regime's relations with the EU and the US, because for the first time, it has become clear to the world that a powerful faction in Iran is trying to make its total hold on power legitimate, German press commentator and University of Osnabruek professor Mohsen Maserat tells Radio Farda. (Shahram Mirian, Cologne)
http://www.radiofarda.com/transcripts/topstory/2004/02/20040201_1830_0140_0646_EN.asp