Iran Says Talks on Nuclear Inspections Positive
Wed August 6, 2003 05:59 AM ET
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's official news agency said on Wednesday Tehran held "positive and constructive" talks with the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog on snap inspections of nuclear facilities Washington suspects may be used to make atomic bombs.
An International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team arrived in Tehran on Monday to discuss the possibility of Iran signing an Additional Protocol to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) which would allow inspectors to carry out more intrusive, no-notice checks of nuclear sites.
The talks were due to continue on Wednesday, the official IRNA news agency said. "Both sides termed the talks 'positive and constructive'," it reported.
Iran's signature of the Additional Protocol is seen as crucial to allaying international concerns that Tehran's nuclear ambitions may go beyond its stated aim of generating electricity from nuclear power.
While Washington has led the chorus of international concern about Iran's nuclear program, the European Union, Russia and Japan have also urged the Islamic Republic to provide greater assurances that it will not be diverted into military uses.
In a June report, the IAEA criticized Tehran for failing to report a number of activities related to its nuclear program.
Iran has pledged to cooperate fully with the IAEA which is due to release another report on Iran in September.
While pro-reform government officials and lawmakers argue that signing the protocol would ease international pressure on Iran, hard-liners say it would give carte blanche to Iran's enemies to spy on the country.
"The notion that accepting the Additional Protocol will exculpate Iran is an infantile and amateurish supposition," Hossein Shariatmadari, editor of the hardline Kayhan newspaper told the ISNA student news agency on Tuesday.
"The only thing which can foil the plot hatched jointly by America, the European Union and the International Atomic Energy Agency against Islamic Iran is our withdrawal from the NPT."
Officials from Iran's pro-reform government have said Tehran has no intention of pulling out of the NPT.
http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=3228343Two demonstrators found guilty of "war on God", face serious penalties
5 August AFP
Two people arrested during recent demonstrations in Shiraz, southern Iran, have been found guilty of "warring against God", which carries heavy penalties including death, a press report said.
The conservative daily Abrar quoted local judiciary head Hossein Ali Amiri as disclosing the verdict of the court but not the sentence.A lawyer told AFP that under the Islamic republic's laws, "warring against God" is punishable by death, amputation or exile.
Amiri said the cases of the two men would be transferred to the supreme court, Iran's highest judicial authority. He said a total of 32 demonstrators were sentenced for damaging Shiraz town hall, and post office and telecommunications buildings.
"The majority were layabouts, just taking advantage of the situation," he told the newspaper, without "sensible demands" and no "justification for their behaviour". "They didn't have a ringleader and they weren't organised, but influenced by foreign satellite channels working for the counter-revolution," Abrar quoted the official as saying.
Amiri added that the judiciary released 43 others who were arrested during the demonstrations.
In June, police detained 4,000 following 10 days of violent anti-regime demonstrations in Tehran and provincial cities. Last month, tens of thousands jammed the streets around Tehran University to defy a ban on gatherings to mark the fourth anniversary of bloody pro-democracy student riots.
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http://www.iranexpert.com/2003/warongod5august.htm Comment: To be accused of "war on God" implies that there is a God. How do you prove that in court?