Friday October 17, 7:03 PM
Iran will not build nuclear weapon says Khatami
Iran's President Mohammad Khatami said his country would not build a nuclear weapon and would continue to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as a crucial deadline approaches.
"The issue of making a nuclear bomb is excluded," he told a press conference on the sidelines of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) here on Friday.
He said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) demands were unfair but "we are continuing our cooperation with the IAEA".
"We have no major problem in principle but we insist on our right since we have no intention to build nuclear weapons. Because of our religious principles, our ideological principles and our dedication to dialogue among civilisations, we are totally against the proliferation of nuclear weapons."
"We never said we would not sign the protocol and cooperate with IAEA."
The IAEA has been pressing Iran to sign an additional protocol to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which would give the watchdog the right to carry out unannounced inspections of suspect facilities.
Khatami said because his country had existing stocks of uranium, it had a legitimate right to continue enriching it for peaceful purposes.
The agency has given Iran until October 31 to answer questions on its nuclear programme, amid fears it is trying to develop nuclear weapons.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) head, Mohamed ElBaradei, who paid a flying visit to the Islamic republic Thursday to press for quick answers over its nuclear program, said he received assurances of Iran's "readiness" to open up its suspect facilities.
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/031017/1/3f22d.htmlIran's Parliament Vote May Swing Politics - The Guardian
Friday October 17, 2003 11:46 AM
By BRIAN MURPHY
Associated Press Writer
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - The clerics running Iran consider these dozen men watchdogs of the Islamic Revolution. To many reformers, they are non-elected obstacles to authentic democracy.
But all agree the path to the Feb. 20 elections for parliament, or majlis, leads directly through the Guardian Council gantlet.
What a firebrand imam and his 11 colleagues decide in the coming months could help return control of parliament to conservatives and profoundly reshape how Iran's political feuds are waged, analysts say.
The six clerics and six legal scholars - led by hard-line hero Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati - must vet all candidates for the majlis and presidency. Anyone deemed a troublemaker for the system doesn't make it through.
The big question is how the appointed Guardian Council - all loyal and answerable to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei - will apply their authority this time around.
``Their decisions could set the political tone for years to come,'' said Davoud Hermidas Bavand, a Tehran-based political analyst.
The council could ban most leading reformers from the ballot, leading to a threatened boycott by their supporters. The 290-member parliament would likely return to the hands of conservatives - who now command less than a third of the seats.
Ebrahim Yazdi, a prominent reform activist, said being outside the system could stir ``more radical demands.''
``The opposition groups could be out on the streets and directly challenge Khamenei's authority,'' he said.
The losers could be the cautious reformers led by lame duck President Mohammad Khatami, who has greatly lost credibility as a force for deep changes and cannot run for re-election in 2005.
``Iran's domestic politics are getting less predictable by the hour,'' said Ehsan Ahrari, an international affairs commentator based in Norfolk, Va.
``The sustained intransigence of the hard-liners ... is edging Iran closer to the potential of internal turmoil,'' he added.
But the Guardian Council may try a compromise path, some suggest.
It could allow the candidacy of selected ``reformists'' considered willing to work with the regime. The goal, experts say, could be to seek a majlis palatable to Iran's key middle ground - those wanting more freedoms but not at the price of trying to bring down the theocracy.
The Guardian Council reportedly has sent envoys around the country to study prospective middle-of-the-road candidates they can presumably trust. It does not want to be burned again.
In 1997, they allowed the presidential bid of Khatami, then a little-known bureaucrat who was expected to be steamrolled by the ruling clerics' choice. Khatami stunned the theocrats with his wildly popular vision of ``Islamic democracy.''
In the last parliament vote in February 2000, the Guardian Council also apparently failed to do its homework. It cleared the way for many successful candidates who later became some of the biggest thorns for the establishment.
Allowing more moderate candidates could dilute the conservatives' overall influence in parliament. But there appears to be a greater worry: voters staying away.
International critics of the Islamic rulers, including the United States, would likely consider a low turnout as a loud cry of discontent. Iran's regime is already under huge pressure from U.N. nuclear inspectors and the stunning Nobel Peace Prize award to rights activist Shirin Ebadi.
The majlis election in 2000 had a 75 percent turnout. If reformist leaders urge a boycott, the figure could plummet to well below 50 percent, most analysts predict.
``If the Guardian Council omits too many candidates, it's not going to be good for voter participation,'' said Amir Mohebian, political editor of the conservative Resalat newspaper and a prominent strategist for the Islamic establishment. ``That's bad for us.''
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-3275022,00.html