Iranian Alert -- April 4, 2004 [EST]-- 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.” 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. I began these daily threads June 10th 2003. On that date Iranians once again began taking to the streets to express their desire for a regime change. Today in Iran, most want to replace the regime with a secular democracy.

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.

Ex-intelligence officer says Tehran deploying agents in Iraq

BBC - Monitoring Service
Apr 3, 2004

Text of report by Ali Nurizadah in London, entitled "Former Iranian intelligence officer: Tehran is deploying its agents in Iraq from north to south", published by London-based newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat on 3 April

The former official in charge of the Iraqi file in Iranian intelligence has disclosed in a statement to Al-Sharq al-Awsat information about the extensive Iranian security presence in Iraq, which he said is not confined to the Shi'i cities alone but extends from Zakho in the north to Umm al-Khasib in the south.

The official, who is known in Iraq by the name "Hajj Saeedi", said that elements from Iran's Revolutionary Guards intelligence and Quds Corps did not infiltrate into Iraqi territories during and after the war only but hundreds of intelligence agents, among them a number of Iraqi agents and returnees (Iraqis expelled by Saddam Husayn's regime in the 1970's and 1980's on the pretext of their Iranian origins) returned to Iraq before the war across the Kurdish areas that were not under the central government's control.

Iranian intelligence benefited after the war from the lack of any controls in the border areas to send a group of its best elements to Iraq, some of them disguised as students and clerics and others as part of the Shi'i organizations' militias.

"Hajj Saeedi", who fled from Iran recently, pointed out that the liquidation of Ayatollah Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim, chairman of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, last summer was "one of the most important achievements of the Quds Corps intelligence elements who succeeded in carrying out their mission and leaving Iraq without any difficulty", according to him.

He also revealed a failed attempt to assassinate Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the senior Shi'i religious leader, and said he sent a message through a friend who visited Al-Sistani in his house on the eve of Id al-Adha last year, warning Al-Sistani not to receive some students and clerics who came from Iran to meet him after the id.

As he told Al-Sharq al-Awsat, "Hajj Saeedi" then contacted one of Al-Sistani's aides from inside Iraq and gave him details of the plan to assassinate the Shi'i leader. He added that another plan was prepared to assassinate Ayatollah Ishaq al-Fayyadi too.

Asked where the Iranian intelligence elements are based in Iraq, "Hajj Saeedi" said there are some offices in Al-Sulaymaniyah and Darband-i Khan in the north that are known to everyone, but the Kurdish authorities do not allow these offices' elements to carry out any activities that are harmful to Iraq's security and national interests. The danger comes from the offices that have fronts other than security and intelligence. They include 18 offices of "charity" foundations in Al-Kazimiyah and Madinat al-Sadr (formerly Al-Thawrah) in Baghdad, Karbala, Al-Najaf, Al-Kufah, Al-Nasiriyah, Basra and other cities where the Shi'is are the majority. They operate under the cover of helping the poor and oppressed with money, medicines, and daily necessities from food to clothes. New agents are recruited daily in these offices.

"Hajj Saeedi" went on to say that the Iranian intelligence plan for turning Iraq into a second Iran is extensive and the focus is at present on recruiting thousands of Shi'i youths for the stage during the parliamentary elections would be held in Iraq. The recruits have to mobilize their relatives and acquaintances to vote for the candidates selected by Iranian intelligence. He pointed out that the Iranian radio and television networks, press agencies and some newspapers close to the security organs are also fronts through which Quds Corps and Revolutionary Guards intelligence elements enter Iraq.

It is recalled that these networks, agencies and newspapers have more than 300 correspondents and technicians operating in Iraq at present and the possibility cannot be ruled that the Quds Corps and Guards intelligence had planted some of their elements among them as correspondents who can move in all Iraq's areas with their press cards and deliver the intelligence offices' messages and instructions to their local agents in Iraq.

Regarding the reports that the Iranian leadership has allocated 1bn dollars to prevent the establishment of a modern secular democratic state in Iraq, the official said the monthly allocations for the public and secret security offices in Iraq are more 70m dollars. An amount of 5m dollars is distributed in some religious schools as monthly salaries for the students and assistance to some clerics who are cooperating. More than 2,700 houses, apartments, and rooms were leased in Karbala and Al-Najaf by local collaborators to house the intelligence and Quds Corps elements in 14 Iraqi cities. "Hajj Saeedi" added that the measures taken by the two Kurdish administrations during recent months prompted the Revolutionary Guards and Quds Corps intelligence to implement a plan aimed at inciting the Shi'i Turkomans against the Kurds. He added that some Shi'i Turkoman leaders went to Tehran where they received huge financial aid and guarantees that Iran would support them if confrontations broke out between them and the Kurds.

He concluded his statement by saying: "In the 1980's and on the orders of Imam Khomeyni, we took our battle with the United States to Lebanon where we hit the US marines base and the US Embassy in Beirut and kidnapped William Buckley, head of the Central Intelligence Agency in the Middle East, and several American citizens. The United States was forced to recognize our role in Lebanon. We are today moving our battle with the United States to Iraq on the orders of the revolution guide so that it will recognize our role there too."

http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_5567.shtml

Iranian radio says decisive stance needed against Israeli "oppression"

BBC - Monitoring Service
Apr 3, 2004

Text of report by Iranian radio on 3 April

The terroristic and repressive actions of the Zionist regime in the occupied territory of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip which were intensified after the assassination of the spiritual leader of Hamas, Shaykh Ahamed Yasin, continue.

The latest threatening statements made by Ariel Sharon, the criminal and expansionist prime minister of this regime, about the assassination of Yasir Arafat and Sayyid Hasan Nasrallah and the expulsion of Arabs living in the land occupied by Israel in 1948 after the completion of the so-called security wall in the West Bank, herald the terroristic and aggressive actions of the this regime in the future.

According to political analysts, if these threats materialize, the situation that existed in 1948, that is, the occupation of the Palestine and the declaration of the usurper Zionist regime which led to the homelessness of one million Palestinians, will be repeated, and probably most of the attempts that have been made since for the resolution of the Middle East problems will be rendered ineffective. Because, the recent actions of the Zionist regime for the expulsion of Arabs in the occupied Palestine which is estimated to be more than one million people, in addition to the attempts of this regime for the imposition of further restrictions in refugee camps in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip with the aim of making them to leave their homes, in the end will pit the Zionist regime against the Arab countries, of which Jordan and Egypt signed the so-called peace agreements with this regime. And should the terroristic actions of Tel Aviv spread to areas beyond Palestine, especially to Lebanon, the relative calm that exist along the Lebanese and the occupied Palestine border will be undermined and the situation in this region will be back to square one.

Therefore, it can be said that the Zionist regime by making new threats, is challenging the regional and international peace and is seriously undermining it, and with its policy of oppression and terror and by resorting to operations like the attacks by the soldiers of this regime to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, is challenging the Muslims to a fight. Therefore, the adoption of a decisive and serious stance by the world and regional communities, especially the UN Security Council, against this regime is important and any negligence in this connection will have in its wake the repetition of past atrocities.

Source: Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Tehran, in Persian 0930 gmt 3 Apr 04

http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_5568.shtml

Iran Trying to Eliminate Tension With IAEA: Lawmaker

TEHRAN (IRNA) -- Head of Majlis Energy Commission Hossein Afarideh here on Saturday said that the Islamic Republic of Iran is extending necessary cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in a bid to remove existing tension with the organization.

In an exclusive interview with IRNA, he said because of this, the Islamic Republic of Iran has agreed to sign the additional protocol to NPT and has voluntarily suspended uranium enrichment program.

On reported U.S. plans to enforce sanctions against Iran, he said the U.S. sanctions against Iran is nothing new and in case the Islamic Republic of Iran reaches an agreement with IAEA, these sanctions will not be imposed.

The MP from Shirvan, said the country's officials expect the European Union, particularly Britain, France and Germany, to exert greater influence on public opinion in order to take required measures to remove existing tensions.

The U.S. policy against Iran is rooted in the lobbying by the Zionist regime which masterminds the imposed sanctions as well as threats against the country, he pointed out.

"If the ongoing negotiations between Iran and Europe bear positive results, the US will not be able to take any action against us," he reiterated.

The U.S. deputy foreign secretary recently claimed that the U.S. is to impose a new sanctions over Iran by including 13 new items.

The sanction is aimed at preventing the country from gaining access to technological know-how on the construction of weapons of mass destruction as well as nuclear arms, he said.

http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=4/4/2004&Cat=2&Num=005

Iran, Syria Discuss Political, Parliamentary Ties

DAMASCUS (IRNA) -- Officials of Iran and Syria discussed here Saturday possible avenues for expanding political and parliamentary relations.

During a meeting between Iran's Ambassador to Syria Mohammad-Reza Baqeri and the chairman of the Syrian Foreign Policy Commission of the People's Assembly, Hoda al-Hemsi, both sides called for bolstering of bilateral ties.

And al-Hemsi also called for boosting of cooperation and coordination between the two parliaments on issues at the regional and international levels, particularly as members of the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the Islamic Parliamentary Union.

Al-Hemsi, expressing her appreciation for Iran's principled stances in various issues, urged continuation of Tehran's crucial support for the causes of the Islamic World and its strategic defense of the legitimate rights of the Islamic states. She voiced satisfaction over the increasing Tehran-Damascus relations in various bilateral, regional and international fields, and termed the role of their parliaments in achieving this end as "important and fundamental."

The Syrian official also called for bilateral cooperation with the Iranian Majlis (parliament) in settling key regional issues, including Palestine and Iraq.

Baqeri, for his part, said the visit by the chairman of the Majlis Foreign Policy Commission to Syria, the visit by the Syrian delegation of the countries' Joint Parliamentary Friendship Group to Tehran and the invitation extended by the head of the Syrian People's Assembly to the Majlis speaker to pay a visit to Damascus are symbols of the two countries' increasing cooperation.

http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=4/4/2004&Cat=2&Num=003

Germany against Iranian uranium conversion

The Washington Times
April, 1st 2004

BERLIN, April 1 (UPI) -- German Foreign Office spokesman Walter Lindner has issued a statement condemning Iranian plans to restart a uranium conversion plant.

Linder said his office has taken note of the announcement by Gholamreza Aghazadeh, head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization, that Iran has inaugurated a uranium conversion plant in Isfahan, about 155 miles from Teheran.

The plant would extract gas from uranium ore, which is a crucial step to preparing for uranium enrichment. Enriched uranium can be used both to create atomic energy and to make atomic bombs.

Aghazadeh's "declaration sends the wrong signal on Iran's readiness to implement a suspension of activities related to uranium enrichment facilities," Lindner said. "It will make it more difficult for Iran to regain international trust in its activities."

Britain and France have also condemned the development.

Germany, France and Britain have been active in Iran. Last year the three countries' foreign ministers visited Teheran and secured a commitment to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency greater access to Iranian nuclear operations.

http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20040401-120542-7237r.htm

Kidnapped, jailed, beaten ... over a bloodied T-shirt

Sunday April 4, 2004
The Observer

Repression goes on while Iran seeks friendship with the West. Dan De Luce reports from Tehran

His handsome face was seen around the world. The photograph, used on the front of the Economist magazine, showed Ahmad Batebi, his hands holding the bloodstained T-shirt of a fellow student beaten by paramilitaries. His look of indignation captured the mood of young Iranians demonstrating for democracy in the summer of 1999.
Just holding that shirt earned Batebi a 15-year prison sentence for endangering national security, served in the notorious Evin prison in north Tehran.

The student is still paying the price for his dissent. His father told The Observer last week he had given up trying to persuade the hardline Iranian judiciary to review the case. 'I believe my son is just a pawn for the political authorities,' said Mohammad Bagher Batebi, a softly spoken man who travels three and a half hours every other Sunday to see his son for only 15 minutes.

'I have sent letters to the judiciary but they don't even acknowledge receiving them ... Our only hope is the outside world.'

After meeting a visiting United Nations human rights envoy last November during brief leave from prison, Batebi was abducted and subjected to threats, sleep deprivation and other psychological torture before being thrown back into prison.

'When I saw Ahmad after that, I could hardly recognise him,' his father said. A prison doctor recently recommended the student receive medical treatment outside the jail for injuries - caused by beatings - to an eardrum, his left eye and his lower back. The judicial authorities have yet to answer the request.

In the first three months of his imprisonment, Batebi wrote an open letter to the authorities describing how interrogators held his head in a drain full of excrement and beat him on the testicles. His trial lasted for just three minutes, with the Economist cover cited as evidence that he had jeopardised the reputation of the Islamic republic. His case illustrates how Iran's clerical establishment continues to rule through repression and fear. Dozens of other political prisoners languish in jails across the country. Human rights monitors say no one knows precisely how many because some families choose to suffer in silence.

Reformist MPs helped to arrange correspondence courses for Batebi and temporary leave for him to take his university exams. Other student prisoners do not enjoy such privileges, however.

'Please mention the other students in prison. They have it much worse,' Mohammad Batebi said.

One of his son's cellmates, Arzhang Davoudi, 49, was detained after meeting Batebi during his November leave.

Davoudi, speaking on a prison telephone last week, told The Observer he was beaten severely during his first days in detention, but had refused to apologise for his political activities or writings.

'I can't hear in one ear now because of the beatings and I have trouble seeing out of my left eye,' said Davoudi. 'I don't regret anything and I didn't confess to anything. I don't co-operate at all... We want the world to know all the brutality that is going on in Iran, especially against intellectuals.'

Shortly after the interview Davoudi was transferred from the political prisoners' cell block to one housing ordinary criminals, Batebi's family said.

After more than 2,000 reformist candidates were barred from the Iranian election last month, campaigners for democracy fear Western governments may ignore Iran's authoritarian methods.

'The regime believes it can cut deals with Europe and America, then do as it pleases domestically,' said one Iranian journalist.

Even some American conservative policy analysts favour defusing tensions with Iran and promoting dialogue after the US presidential elections in November. European governments disagree about how to balance concerns over human rights abuses with the desire to cultivate relations with a powerful, oil-rich state in the Middle East.

The European Union has linked progress on human rights in Iran to trade negotiations. Although the engineered elections last month will delay any EU deals, European firms continue to sign new contracts with Tehran.

The Iranian leadership no longer executes its political enemies and has backed away from repression when it has sensed popular hostility. The supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, intervened in 2002 after demonstrations against a death sentence on Hashemi Aghajari, a maverick academic who questioned the clergy's divine right to rule. The execution was suspended, and Aghajari has continued to speak out from a prison cell.

The judiciary, dominated by clerics steeped in Islamic Sharia law, defends its human rights record and accuses foreign governments of trying to impose secular notions on an Islamic society. The stoning of women adulterers has been suspended, and officials cite this as an example of progress.

But Batebi Senior is unconvinced. 'My son's experience shows that human beings in Iran have no value,' he said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,12858,1185317,00.html

European Big Three Influenced by Iran-U.S. Conflict: MP

TEHRAN (Mehr News Agency) – MP Hassan Qashqavi said here Saturday that the statement issued by the three European countries on Wednesday concerning the starting of a uranium conversion plant in Isfahan was a propagandistic and political skirmish that marked a new era of serious conflict between Iran and the United States.

Qashqavi told the Mehr News Agency that the concerns of Britain, Germany and France on Iran’s nuclear research activities were baseless.

“Their concerns are basically related to the old conflict between Iran and the U.S. and the three countries are similarly influenced by the issue just like Canada, Australia and Japan,” he said.

Member of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission said that the U.S. has comprehensive information about Iran’s peaceful nuclear program and it tries to mislead the world public opinion in this regard.

He added that Washington’s measures toward Iran are similar to those it made against Iraq, saying that the U.S. does not intend to give up its excuses against Iran before long.

The MP said that various researches on converting uranium oxide concentrate into uranium hexafluoride gas are to be carried out in the plant, adding that this is a completely scientific procedure. The inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) were constantly monitoring the Isfahan site, Qashqavi mentioned

“Even IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei made positive remarks about this nuclear site in his strongly-worded statement that led to the agency’s unfair resolution on Iran’s nuclear program,” he said.

Even IAEA spokesman Melissa Fleming has referred to the site as an uncontroversial issue which is under full scrutiny and unconnected to a commitment by Iran to suspend uranium enrichment, he said in conclusion.

http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=4/4/2004&Cat=2&Num=019

Yassin's death exposes Arab-Iran divide

TEHRAN: The days after the death in an Israeli rocket attack of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, leader of the Palestinian group Hamas, has highlighted rifts between Iranians, and between Iran and its Arab neighbours.

The March 22 assassination drew immediate condemnation from Iran's top political and religious leaders, but Sheikh Yassin's death has so far failed to stir large-scale public reaction. Despite fiery rhetoric from their leaders, only some 7,000 people, many of them from the military and government, took part in March 29 rallies, organized by officials to commemorate Sheikh Yassin.

Members of the public and experts attributed the poor turnout to rifts between the government and people here and to a sense that Iran's Arab neighbours have treated it unfairly.

In the assassination's immediate aftermath, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a statement saying: "The gangsters, the occupiers of Palestinian land (Israelis) should know that their stupid power bears testimony to their weakness and failure and the fake sovereignty and usurper regime of Zionists is bound for extinction. Palestine belongs to the Palestinian nation."

Almost all politicians, reformists and conservatives, followed suit.

But officials waited until March 29 - Friday, a day of prayer for Muslims - to organize a public show of condemnation for the killing of Sheikh Yassin and others on their way home from prayers at a mosque in Gaza City.

"The Iranian regime had to wait until Friday as it is the only day to exploit the worshippers for political rallies for or against something," said Majid Rahamani, an editor at the state-run television network.

Alireza Hussianabadi, a lieutenant in law enforcement, said public rallies had been postponed to accommodate Persian New Year observances.

"People are busy in their Eiddidani (visiting each others' homes in the holidays)," he said.

Some remained unconvinced.

"I think the regime waited to see the reactions in other Muslim countries and then decided how to orchestrate the demonstrations," said bank teller Hasan Salmasi who happened upon the rally with his 10-year-old son. "Even in Turkey, where secularism is strong and Israelis have economic and military interests, people on their own took to the streets."

Hasan said he had respect for Sheikh Yassin, whom he viewed as a freedom fighter, but would not take part in the rally, near Tehran University. "I do not bother myself to take part in anything choreographed by the government," he said.

Sohrab Radfar, a student preparing to sit the entrance examination for government universities, echoed the sentiment.

"As there are no viable and genuine NGOs in Iran, even paying homage to the heroes of other nations is entirely pre-planned by the government and security men," he said.

Others said Sheikh Yassin, the man they were asked to mourn, remained something of a mystery.

"It seems we have romanticized the sheikh's life," said Arash E'temadi, 23.

Arash and his 20-year-old girlfriend, Shirin, had skipped the rally to queue hand in hand for tickets to see 'Boutique', a popular film about a poor girl trying to flee Iran for the West.

Mahraz Behboud, a 17-year-old student from a high school for gifted girls, said she had not known Sheikh Yassin, was unmoved by his death, and disagreed with the official policy of siding with Palestinians.

"A nation should not waste its financial resources to support weak nations. Diplomatic relations ought to be based on strong ties with the powerful nation. Israel must be our strategic ally, not Palestine," she said.

Hermidas Bavand, Tehran's ambassador to the United Nations before Iran's monarchy fell to the 1979 Islamic Revolution, said enthusiasm for the Palestinian cause had waned among middle-class Iranians in part because of rifts between Tehran and its Arab neighbours. These were unrelated to Palestine but reinforced a sense of alienation.-Dawn/The InterPress News Service.

http://www.hipakistan.com/en/detail.php?newsId=en59871&F_catID=&f_type=source

Iran denies report of bomb-grade uranium find

Sources say traces found at sites not declared to IAEA

Updated: 3:27 a.m. ET April 04, 2004TEHRAN, Iran - Iran on Sunday denied a Reuters report quoting diplomats who said traces of bomb-grade uranium had been found at sites in Iran other than the two already declared to U.N. nuclear inspectors.

"Reuters is making false, baseless and unfounded propaganda," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told a news conference.

A Western diplomat told Reuters on Friday that enriched uranium had been found in sites other than the Natanz enrichment centre and a workshop of the Kalaye Electric Company, already known to the U.N. nuclear watchdog.

The United States accuses Tehran of pursuing nuclear weapons but Iran insists its ambitions are limited to generating electricity.

Sources based in Vienna, the home of the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), who follow its work on Iran, confirmed traces had been found at other sites, but the agency would not comment.

Last month, the IAEA passed a resolution deploring Iran's failure to declare potentially arms-related activities.

Iran's omissions of key atomic technology from an October resolution included undeclared research on advance "P2" centrifuges that can make bomb-grade uranium.

But Asefi on Sunday said there were no further undeclared nuclear sites.

"There is no nuclear center in Iran which we have hidden from inspectors," he said.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4661407/

Iran's first seminar on gas export to be held in April
The first two-day Seminar on Iran's Gas Export will be held in Tehran in April to present Iran's gas export potentials as well as find new markets for this energy source, it was announced on Sunday, IRNA reported.

With 26 trillion cubic meters of gas reserves, the Islamic Republic of Iran holds the second largest gas deposits in the world. However, its share in the trade in this vital source of energy is meager.

At the seminar, foreign and local specialists will discuss issues such as cooperation between gas producers and consumers, new gas markets across the world, potential outlets for Iran's gas export, various gas agreements and markets for liquefied natural gas (LNG).

The event, sponsored by Iran's Gas Export Company, to be held on April 25 and 26 will permit participants to share their experiences in gas export sector.

The giant South Pars gas field, the world's biggest gas field, is shared between Iran and Qatar. The two countries have drawn up plans to develop the field.

Iran has some extensive plans to export gas from South Pars gas field though most of its plans have not been operational. The Iranian government is also hoping to boost gas production from the giant gas field.

Turkey is the only country to which gas is exported via pipeline receiving some 3.5 billion cubic meters of gas from Iran per annum.

The oil ministers from India, Turkey and Algeria and senior officials of some major well-known oil companies namely Dutch-British company of Shell, Statoil of Norway, Total of France and British Gas will take part in the event.

http://www.payvand.com/news/04/apr/1023.html

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