Iranian Alert -- March 14, 2004 [In Iran]-- IRAN LIVE THREAD --Americans for Regime Change in Iran

The US media almost entirely ignores news regarding the Islamic Republic of Iran. As Tony Snow of the Fox News Network has put it, “this is probably the most under-reported news story of the year.” But most American’s are unaware that the Islamic Republic of Iran is NOT supported by the masses of Iranians today. Modern Iranians are among the most pro-American in the Middle East.

There is a popular revolt against the Iranian regime brewing in Iran today. Starting June 10th of this year, Iranians have begun taking to the streets to express their desire for a regime change. Most want to replace the regime with a secular democracy. Many even want the US to over throw their government.

The regime is working hard to keep the news about the protest movement in Iran from being reported. Unfortunately, the regime has successfully prohibited western news reporters from covering the demonstrations. The voices of discontent within Iran are sometime murdered, more often imprisoned. Still the people continue to take to the streets to demonstrate against the regime.

In support of this revolt, Iranians in America have been broadcasting news stories by satellite into Iran. This 21st century news link has greatly encouraged these protests. The regime has been attempting to jam the signals, and locate the satellite dishes. Still the people violate the law and listen to these broadcasts. Iranians also use the Internet and the regime attempts to block their access to news against the regime. In spite of this, many Iranians inside of Iran read these posts daily to keep informed of the events in their own country.

This daily thread contains nearly all of the English news reports on Iran. It is thorough. If you follow this thread you will witness, I believe, the transformation of a nation. This daily thread provides a central place where those interested in the events in Iran can find the best news and commentary. The news stories and commentary will from time to time include material from the regime itself. But if you read the post you will discover for yourself, the real story of what is occurring in Iran and its effects on the war on terror.

I am not of Iranian heritage. I am an American committed to supporting the efforts of those in Iran seeking to replace their government with a secular democracy. I am in contact with leaders of the Iranian community here in the United States and in Iran itself.

If you read the daily posts you will gain a better understanding of the US war on terrorism, the Middle East and why we need to support a change of regime in Iran. Feel free to ask your questions and post news stories you discover in the weeks to come.

If all goes well Iran will be free soon and I am convinced become a major ally in the war on terrorism. The regime will fall. Iran will be free. It is just a matter of time.

Bush Draws Line in Sand with Iran

NewsMax Wires
Saturday, March 13, 2004

It may turn out to be the next foreign policy crisis, on par with the Cuban Missile Crisis and America’s recent showdown with Iraq.
And remember, you heard it here first.

NewsMax has learned from a senior State Department official that President Bush has, Alamo-style, drawn a line in the sand over Iran's nuclear weapons programs.

Bush's warning: Either Iran dismantles its nuclear weapons program or else.

Here is how the “crisis” has been unfolding.

On Saturday, Iran halted all international inspections of its nuclear facilities.

This came, as the AP reported, “hours after the U.N. atomic agency issued a resolution censuring Tehran for hiding suspect activities.”

The agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), recently discovered that Iran had been enriching its uranium to a degree that made it crystal clear they were planning to build nuclear weapons.

Faced with this evidence, Iran reneged on an agreement that it signed last year giving IAEA inspectors free access to its nuclear sites. The U.S., led by State Department Under Secretary John Bolton, has pressed for a censure by the IAEA of Iran for failing to comply with its promises.

The U.S. effort was opposed by many in the administration and the State Department. However, President Bush himself made clear his policy: Iran must comply or else.

As expected, the Iranians reacted angrily to the U.S.-sponsored IAEA resolution, with Pirooz Hosseini, Iran's permanent IAEA representative, claiming that "Iran's [nuclear] program is exclusively peaceful."

U.S. chief delegate Kenneth Brill accused Iran of "continuing to pursue a policy of denial, deception and delay."

The AP noted that an IAEA report last month accused Iran of hiding evidence of nuclear experiments and noted the discovery of traces of radioactive polonium, which can be used in nuclear weapons.

The report also expressed concern about the discovery of a previously undisclosed advanced P-2 centrifuge system for enriching uranium.

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/3/13/233654.shtml

Iran fury over 'US resolution'

Vol XXVI NO. 360 Sunday 14 March 2004

VIENNA: In a clear reference to the US, Iran blasted the UN nuclear watchdog yesterday for letting "a single country" impose a resolution against Tehran's nuclear programme.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) ended a week-long deadlock yesterday by adopting a US-backed resolution condemning Iran for hiding nuclear activities.

"A resolution is being imposed, and I think I am using the expression with true definition of the word, on the board by a single country," senior foreign ministry official Amir Zamaninia told an IAEA meeting in Vienna, according to a copy of his speech.

Iran imposed yesterday an indefinite freeze on international inspections of its nuclear facilities in protest against a critical resolution passed by the IAEA.

Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Hasan Rowhani, described the IAEA resolution as "unfair and deceitful." Hours earlier, a meeting of the UN agency in Vienna had censured Iran for hiding suspect activities, but praised it for increased nuclear openness.

A senior Western diplomat said the compromise text worked out after non-aligned states sought to soften the resolution was "still an important signal for the Iranians to continue and intensify cooperation" with the IAEA. But Zamaninia said the resolution was "a serious setback" as it portrayed" a rather benign progressive situation as a condition of high alert." He said IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei has already reported "the positive trend of active co-operation by Iran and also a process of resolving issues that is gaining pace exponentially".

The resolution that was adopted came a day after Iran had put off a UN inspection mission until the end of April in what one diplomat close to the IAEA described as "potentially a large problem in the verification process."

But Iranian ambassador to the IAEA Pirooz Hosseini said yesterday that IAEA inspectors could in fact visit Iran earlier than the end of next month.

Hosseini said his country had put back the inspection mission, scheduled to start this week, "due to the approach of the Iranian New Year" but that if people were back in their offices soon after the holiday, which starts next week, then IAEA inspectors could come.

The IAEA, which verifies the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), has since February 2003 been working to determine whether Iran's nuclear programme is peaceful, or devoted to secretly developing atomic weapons, as the United States has charged.

"Today IAEA inspectors were expected to arrive in Iran," Rowhani said. "We will not allow them to come until Iran sets a new date for their visit. This is a protest by Iran in reaction to the resolution."

Asked whether the freeze was indefinite, Rowhani said "yes."

ElBaradei said he was confident Iran would reverse a decision to temporarily suspend inspections of its suspect nuclear facilities.

http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Articles.asp?Article=76607&Sn=WORL

IAEA RESOLUTION IS "AN UGLY OGRE WITH SHARP TEETH AND BIG HORNS"

VIENNA-TEHRAN, 13 Mar. (IPS)

Iran expressed satisfaction on Saturday of what it termed "a defeat" for the United States at the International Atomic Energy Agency, saying that Washington had not been able to impose a resolution of its liking to the Agency’s Board of Directors.

"Fortunately, all American’s efforts to have the Islamic Republic accused of breach of its engagements did not materlialised and as a result, what had been approved today at noon local time is very different from what the Americans wanted", the semi-official Iranian students news agency ISNA quoted Hojjatoleslam Hasam Rohani, Iran’s senior negotiator with the IAEA as having told correspondents.

The 35-members Board of Directors passed a Resolution backed by Washington on Saturday condemning the Islamic Republic for hiding sensitive nuclear information and installations and indirectly menaced Tehran of strong economic sanctions by the United Nations if it did not cooperate in the future.

"The resolution is like an ugly ogre with sharp teeth and big horns. Although the horns are broken and the teeth extracted, but remain the picture of the ugly ogre", Mr. Rohani, who is the Secretary of Iran’s Supreme Council for National Security described the resolution that give Iran until next June to make available to the IAEA inspectors all its nuclear-related projects.

He said though the Resolution does not impose new engagements on Iran, "however, we think that its tone is not reasonable, as it has not paid enough attention to the views of China, Russia and the group of non aligned nations".

"The United States is under illusion that except Natanz, Iran has also other secret centres (for enriching uranium) and nuclear activities. This illusion can be seen in sections of the resolution that urges Iran to generalise to all of Iran’s territory the suspension of uranium enriching. The same is with (advanced centrifuges) P-2 that are still a state of research and have not materialised", he explained.

The P-2 is at the center of bitter controversy between Tehran and the IAEA, as inspectors have discovered them after the October Agreement, in which Mr. Rohani had pledged to report to the IAEA all its nuclear-related activities, equipments and installations.

The Resolution also praises Iran's increased openness to inspections but "deplores" recent discoveries of uranium enrichment equipment and other suspicious activities Tehran had not revealed.

The resolution notes "with serious concern" that the board still does not have "the complete and final picture of Iran's past and present nuclear program," needed by the IAEA to dispel suspicions Iran had a weapons agenda.

As the Resolution was passed, Iran announced that it would delay the next visit of international inspectors, due next week. Though officials explained that the postponement was due to start of Iranian New Year’s holidays that starts on 21 of March, but diplomats at Vienna and in Tehran told IPS that the decision was a signal to the IAEA, meaning Iranian dissatisfaction with the Resolution.

Asked when inspectors might visit again, Rohani replied: "It could be less than six weeks. It could be more than six weeks. We have not set a date."

But Mr. Mohamed ElBarade’i, the Egyptian Director of the international nuclear watchdog expressed confidence that his experts would soon be allowed into Iran.

"I'm pretty confident that Iran will understand that we need to go within the time scheduled, and the decision to delay the inspection will be reviewed and reversed within the next couple of days," he told reporters.

While Mr. Rohani praised the attitude of China, Russia and the group of NAM (Non Aligned Movement) at the Board, he waved the stick and offered the carrot to the European Union, particularly Britain, France and Germany, the three nations that had worked out with him last October Iran’s signing of the Additional Protocol to the Non Proliferation Treaty and suspension of uranium enriching activities.

"Europe had a constructive attitude and this even as it was not on the same level as it used to have with us during negotiations. We can regret that, but let’s hope that talks would continue and even expanded", he said, referring to Berlin, London and Paris.

Nonaligned members of the IAEA had tried to tone down the language of the resolution, while Western powers — foremost the United States — wanted to send Iran a harsh warning.

Striking a balance, the 13-nation nonaligned group dropped most of its objections but pushed through wording that effectively defers the threat of Security Council action against Iran until the board meets again in June.

The US ambassador at the IAEA had time and again criticised the European Union’s "Big 3" with Tehran, insisting that the Agreement was an attempt by Iran to gain time and hide covert activities before allowing agency inspectors access to new sites and accused Iran of "continuing to pursue a policy of denial, deception and delay."

"Is it possible that, even as we meet, squads of Iranian technicians are working at still undeclared (nuclear) sites to tile over, paint over, bury, burn or cart away incriminating evidence, so that those sanitized locations can finally be identified to the agency as new evidence of Iran's full cooperation and transparency?" he told the Board of Governors earlier.

ENDS IAEA IAN NUCLEAR 13304

http://www.iran-press-service.com/articles_2004/Mar_04/iaea_iran_nuclear_13304.htm

Iran Says Unclear When Nuclear Checks to Resume

Sun Mar 14, 2004
Reuters
By Parinoosh Arami

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran said on Sunday it was not sure when it would allow U.N. atomic inspectors back into the country and said the decision to bar them reflected Tehran's anger at an "insulting" resolution on its nuclear activities.

"This was a response to the insulting tone of the resolution. We don't allow them to talk to us in such a way," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told a news conference. "When and how a new date is set, I do not know."

U.S. officials condemned the inspections freeze and said it could be aimed at buying time to cover up undeclared nuclear activities. But International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei said he was confident Iran would reverse its decision to block IAEA inspectors from visiting the country.

It was not clear whether the dispute would push the European Union -- which has tried to encourage Iranian cooperation with the IAEA through careful negotiations -- closer to Washington's tougher stance on Tehran's nuclear program.

In the resolution, the IAEA board said it "deplores" Iran's omissions of key atomic technology from an October declaration, including undeclared research on advanced "P2" centrifuges that can make bomb-grade uranium.

It said the board of governors would decide in June how to respond to the omissions -- a clause that several diplomats said keeps the door open for a possible report to the U.N. Security Council and economic sanctions.

ANGER AND CONCERN

Iran's hard-line Jomhuri-ye Eslami newspaper on Sunday said despite Tehran's past efforts to show it has no nuclear arms ambitions it still faced "mounting pressure from Satanic powers."

"So there is no option but to opt out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and suspend all cooperation with the IAEA," it said.

But reformist newspapers expressed concern at the move to bar IAEA inspectors and reformist lawmaker Elaheh Kulai called for Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Hassan Rohani to explain Iran's nuclear policy to the assembly.

"We have seen what happened in Iraq so one should not underestimate the international propaganda against Iran," she said in a parliament session on Sunday.

Iran feels the IAEA resolution adopted on Saturday focused too heavily on omissions and failures in Iran's communications with the IAEA and failed to highlight its signature of a protocol in December allowing snap inspections of nuclear facilities and its decision to temporarily suspend uranium enrichment.
"The reality should be reflected (in the resolution). If not, the manner of our cooperation may change. Stopping the inspectors from visiting Iran should be evaluated in that framework," Asefi said.

A senior U.S. official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said the postponed inspections were supposed to take place at the Natanz enrichment site, which Iran had hid from the IAEA until an exile opposition group reported it in August 2002.

"The real issue here is are the Iranians serious about giving up nuclear weapons or are they playing games?" he said.

He added that there may even be undeclared sites inside the massive Natanz complex that the IAEA does not know about yet.

But Asefi insisted Iran was hiding nothing from inspectors and did not fear being referred to the U.N. Security Council.

"We're not worried that our case will be sent to the Security Council because, in the first place, we have had good and clear cooperation with the agency and, secondly, we have told them about everything and not hidden anything," he said.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=BZWAZE5Y5A0Y2CRBAEOCFEY?type=topNews&storyID=4562365&pageNumber=1

Deadly calshes rock N. Iran for the 2nd consecutive day

SMCCDI (information Service)
Mar 14, 2004

Deadly clashes rocked, on Sunday and for the 2nd consecutive day, the northern city of Fereydoon-Kenar located by the Caspian sea in the Mazandaran province. Several more protesters have been killed, raising the death toll to more than 8, and hundreds of other wounded and arrested.

The regime's heliported special forces sent from Esfahan and Tehran have opened fire and for the first time used of shot guns in order to break the popular demos leaded by the city's maverick women who came into the streets in support of their fathers, brothers and husbands. Several of them were seen laying on the ground and beaten up after the regime forces opened the charge.

Noise of sporadic shooting were heard all night along and several members of the Pasdaran elite force and the Bassij have been shot to death or captured in ambushes made by the residents. Several security patrol cars have been destroyed by Molotov cocktails thrown from roofs.

More official buildings, including the the home of the supreme leader's representative, have been set ablaze as young masked protesters retaliated to the regime forces extreme brutality and use of lethal force. Banks, Security HQ and several official buildings have been heavily damaged.

The situation is very tense and the regime forces have blocked all accesses to the city in order to avoid the spread of riots to the neighboring cities, such as, Babolsar, Babol and especially Amol where sporadic clashes have happened in the last days.

http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_5337.shtml

I found this post on another thread. I thought you might find it interesting. -- DoctorZin

"My husband was born in Iran and he took me and our four sons to Iran a year and a half ago. Everyone we met were so disgusted by the regime. Even traditionally religious people (my husband has a few cousins whose wives wear the chador) are anxious for the mullahs to be run out of the government. But the mullahs and their thugs have done a great job scaring the hell out of the people.

If you recall, the revolution that brought down the Shah twenty-five years ago, started out alot like this. There would be a demonstration in some city like Tabriz or something and some people would get killed by the Shah's security forces. Then, after forty days (after the mourning period was over) there would be an even larger demonstration and more cities would get involved. More people would get killed and the whole thing just kept snow-balling. The difference now from then is that the mullahs are far more ruthless and won't hesitate to use maximum force to put the demonstrators down. The Shah just wasn't mean enough to attack his own people the way the mullahs will not hesitate to do.

The irony is that in the world's only Islamic Republic, the mullahs are in the process of destroying the people's belief in their own religion. When I was in Iran I saw many young people wearing a cross. At first I thought it was just a fashion statement, but my brother-in-law told me that many, many people were converting to Christianity as a repudiation of the regime. And this is happening in a place where it is a capital offense to convert from Islam.

I pray for these brave, brave people. I love the Persian people. They are some of the lovliest people I have ever met and they have a rebellious streak in them (behind closed doors they are rowdy, sensuous and fun-loving). Let's pray that they will no longer have to live double lives and may soon have the freedom they so badly desire and deserve."

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1097144/posts?page=223#223

Armed struggle in N. Iran

SMCCDI (information Service)
Mar 14, 2004

Armed struggle has rocked, for the last two days, the northern city of Fereydoon-Kenar where tens of masked freedom fighters have joined the local residents by retaliating to the regime forces brutality and deadly shootings. Hospitals have been fill in with several killed and tens of injured, with several in critical conditions, among the protesters and the security forces which have witnessed a fierce popular resistance.

Along with daily and nightly demos, ambushes are made for the regime forces inside the city especially with the fall of night. The situation is worst for isolated regime forces in the regional roads where many young Mazandaranis have taken arms by remembering the smashed rebellions of the early 80's and the epic of the Sarbedaran group which took for several days over the city of Amol, located near Fereydoon-Kenar.

Several official buildings of Fereydoon-Kenar, such as, the local Pasdaran camp, the local Bassidj force, the regular Law Enforcement Forces, several mosques used by the regime for the control of the city, the home of several officials including the representative of the supreme leaders, the state's representative, banks and various other facilities representing the Islamic state have been set ablaze or damaged.

Many young freedom fighters and local residents are hoping to extend the protest actions and resistance to the regime forces till Tuesday night when millions of Iranians will come into the streets in order to transform their banned cultural heritage "Tchahar Shanbe Soori" (Fire Fiest) into a nightmare for the dogmatic Islamic clerics. Tchahar Shanbe Soori will place an unprecedented pressure on the regime forces and will show their inability to control the situation when actions are widely spread in all Iranian cities.

Some e.mailed pictures distributed by Peykeiran shows parts of the unrests which are taking place in the city.

http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_5340.shtml

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