Iranian Alert -- August 23, 2003 -- LIVE THREAD PING LIST

The regime is working hard to keep the news about the protest movment in Iran from being reported.

From jamming satellite broadcasts, to prohibiting news reporters from covering any demonstrations to shutting down all cell phones and even hiring foreign security to control the population, the regime is doing everything in its power to keep the popular movement from expressing its demand for an end of the regime.

These efforts by the regime, while successful in the short term, do not resolve the fundamental reasons why this regime is crumbling from within.

Iran is a country ready for a regime change. 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.

Please continue to join us here, post your news stories and comments to this thread.

Britain to Continue Holding Former Iranian Ambassador to Argentina

VOA - By Tom Rivers
Aug 22, 2003

LONDON - A former Iranian ambassador to Argentina will remain in custody in Britain pending a court decision on whether to extradite him to Argentina. Hadi Soleimanpur is wanted in Argentina for his alleged involvement in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center. The court adjourned the extradition hearing Friday and ordered the former envoy held until August 29.

Argentine authorities allege Hadi Soleimanpur had been involved in the planning and commissioning of the bombing of the Jewish center nine years ago, in which 85 people died and hundreds were injured. Mr. Soleimanpur, along with seven other Iranians, faces conspiracy charges in Argentina.

But a lawyer for the former ambassador says his client has always publicly and strenuously denied these allegations.

Mr. Soleimanpur, now a researcher at Durham University in northeastern England, was arrested Thursday on an extradition warrant and held by local police pending Friday's court appearance. He was remanded in custody and ordered to appear before the court of August 29.

Earlier, an attorney for the Argentine-Jewish Association Federation in Buenos Aires said Mr. Soleimanpur's arrest is extremely important in the process of unraveling details about how the attack was organized. Argentina has the largest Jewish population in South America, estimated at around 300,000.

Iran has long denied it was in any way involved in the powerful blast, and denounced the arrest of the former diplomat as politically motivated and illegal.

Last March, Argentina's arrest warrants for four other Iranian diplomats caused tensions between Buenos Aires and Tehran, and the current Iranian ambassador to Argentina was recalled for consultations.

Just weeks ago, Argentina's president, Nestor Kirchner, called the slow progress in the investigation a "national disgrace." He vowed, on the ninth anniversary of the attack, to bring those responsible to justice.

Mr. Soleimanpur has been in Britain since February last year. The 47-year-old entered the country on a student visa.

http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_1890.shtml

Iran ready to send spent nuke fuel to Russia- IRNA

TEHRAN, Aug. 22 —

Iran has said it is ready to sign a protocol to return nuclear waste to Russia, which is building a nuclear power plant in the Islamic Republic, Iran's official IRNA news agency reported on Friday.

Analysts have said that comments by Iran in the past that it wanted to manage spent fuel from the plant being built at the southern port of Bushehr had raised some fears it could be seeking to convert it to weapons grade material.

The United States has accused Iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian programme.

Iran has dismissed the charge, saying it wants to develop nuclear power to satisfy a booming demand for electricity and save its massive oil and gas reserves for export.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran has said it is ready to sign a protocol on the return of waste fuel from the Bushehr nuclear plant to Russia,'' IRNA reported, quoting the Iranian embassy in Moscow.

"The Iranian government, based on its former stance during negotiations between the head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organisation with Russian officials in Moscow, is ready to sign this protocol,'' IRNA said.

Analysts said Iran has been seeking to reduce international pressure for it to sign an Additional Protocol to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty that would allow more intrusive snap inspections of its nuclear facilities.

The U.N. body, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), is producing a report on Iran's nuclear programme to be issued early in September.

Russia has agreed to supply low-enriched uranium for the 1,000 megawatt power plant at Bushehr.

http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/reuters08-22-123852.asp?reg=MIDEAST
But Iran has said it is building its own uranium enrichment facility, which has also raised some concerns that by doing so it could move closer to developing a capacity for making highly enriched uranium suitable for nuclear weapons.

Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.

Military Transformation Tough, Important and Progressing, Secretary Says

By Sgt. 1st Class Doug Sample
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said bringing change to a department as large as the Pentagon will be tough, but change is important so that the military is not "stuck back in the 20th century."

"We've worked hard at it, we've got a lot of wonderful people working on it," Rumsfeld said during an Aug. 18 National Public Radio interview. "It's a difficult thing to do with a great big institution like this." But he said that if the transformation initiatives under way are "as successful as the department believes they will be, I think there will be some success."

Rumsfeld emphasized that transformation efforts within the Pentagon would not be easy. "Change is hard for people," he said. However, he explained that Pentagon leaders understand the importance in organizing, training and equipping the military for the 21st century.

He also noted that lessons learned from Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, as well as the global war on terrorism, illustrate the importance for changes in the military.

"It's not good enough to be capable of fighting big armies and big navies and big air forces on a slow, ponderous basis," he said. "We have to be able to move quickly and have to be agile and have to have a smaller footprint. And we have to be able to deal with the so-called asymmetrical threats, the kind of threats that we're facing with terrorists and terrorist networks. So I think the people in this department understand it and that they're making good progress on it."

Rumsfeld also discussed nuclear threats posed by Iran and North Korea. He said that Pentagon officials do not believe that Iran currently possesses nuclear weapons, but there are strong indications that North Korea may have up to three.

"We know they (Iran) have the ability to deliver ballistic missiles and conceivably if they had a nuclear weapon, could deliver it. But at the moment no one that I know of in our intelligence community or elsewhere assesses that they currently have that," he said. "It has been assessed that they're engaged in a process where they may wish to acquire or develop or produce nuclear weapons. But at the moment it's my best information that they don't have them."

However, Rumsfeld said North Korea is a different situation. U.S. intelligence has assessed that North Korea, "very likely" has "one or two or three weapons," and that the country has programs to develop and the materials to produce nuclear weapons, he noted.

"They've announced that they have them (nuclear weapons). That is to say they've informed people," he explained. "… Because it's a closed society, it's not possible to have really good visibility into what they're doing precisely. … If they're saying what they're saying, one has to assume they have some reason for saying it: either that it's true or that they want others to believe it's true."

Rumsfeld also expressed his concern for the likelihood of North Korea, which has sold ballistic-missile technologies in the past, selling nuclear weapons to other countries.

"If they're publicly saying they would be happy to proliferate those technologies and if we know they proliferated ballistic-missile technologies, then reasonable people have to assume that that's at least a strong possibility."

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Aug2003/n08212003_200308214.html

Iran's Rafsanjani says UN should run post-war Iraq, fix US "disaster"

Fri Aug 22
TEHRAN (AFP) - Former Iranian president Ali Akbar Rafsanjani called for the United Nations to replace the coalition in running post-war Iraq to fix the "disaster" left by the US-led administration.

"If the United Nations takes charge in Iraq, then countries like Russia, Germany, France, China, India and the Islamic countries will come to Iraq to find a way to help the region get out of this disaster that the United States has made," Rafsanjani said during weekly prayers on Friday.

"The Iraqi situation is becoming like a puzzle, which has very bad repercussions for the world," he added.

"All the Muslims and the world have to come together to find a logical solution for the Iraqi and the Palestinian issues which have inflamed our region," he said.

On Thursday, President Mohammed Khatami, reacting to the massive bombing of UN headquarters in Baghdad, said the occupation of Iraq by US-led forces had caused an increase in "terrorism."

The moderate president expressed support for UN efforts in Iraq, and said Tehran also wanted to see peace and stability in its neighbor.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1514&e=2&u=/afp/20030822/wl_mideast_afp/iran_un_iraq_030822150836

US: Terrorists Entering Iraq From Saudi Arabia, Syria and Iran
VOA News

A top U.S. diplomat says Washington is greatly concerned by the infiltration of foreign terrorists into Iraq from Saudi Arabia, Syria and Iran.

Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage made the comment in a Friday interview with the Arab language Al-Jazeera television network.

Mr. Armitage made it clear the United States is not saying the governments of Saudi Arabia, Syria and Iran are responsible for the infiltration. But he also said the terrorists are not being stopped at the borders.

U.S. officials have long suspected some terrorists have come through Syria and Iran, and have warned both countries against interference in Iraq. Saudi Arabia has not been previously singled out.

On Friday, U.S. General John Abizaid, the top U.S. military commander for the Persian Gulf region, said terrorism is becoming the number one security threat in Iraq. The general called Iraq "the center of the global war on terrorism."

General Abizaid also said a revived terrorist group, Ansar Al-Islam, is now firmly established in Baghdad. The group has been linked to the Al-Qaida network.

http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=C81E700D-0950-4F7D-AD033050450025AD

Iranians deny Al-Qaeda given safe passage into northern Iraq
By Ilnur Cevik

Iranian diplomatic sources categorically denied Iraqi Kurdish claims that al Qaeda operatives had been allowed to slip into northern Iraq from Afghanistan via their territory in the past few months, thus helping to fan the rising wave of violence in and around the Baghdad area.

Iraqi Kurdish sources were quoted in a Turkish Daily News report on August 16 that more than a thousand al Qaeda operatives and other Arab extremists had been allowed to pass through Iran from Afghanistan and join the pro-Saddam militants who are currently waging a war against the coalition forces led by the U.S. The Iraqi Kurds said they had caught some of them while most managed to slip into Iraq.

The Iranians categorically denied this, saying they were not at all on good terms with al Qaeda or the Taliban in Afghanistan. They also pointed out that several al Qaeda operatives and some high-ranking officials were in custody in Iran. "It is no secret that the al Qaeda people are Vahabis and they are strongly against us Shiites so it would be irrational to think we would be cooperating with them," a ranking Iranian diplomatic source told the Turkish Daily News.

Al Qaeda operatives and Arab extremists are being blamed for the gradual rise of attacks against coalition forces led by the U.S. Observers say the attacks have become more organized and have the marks of Middle East-based experienced terrorists. They say the attack on the United Nations representation in Baghdad on Tuesday, killing more than 20 people including U.N. Special Representative in Iraq Sergio Vieira de Mello, may well be the work of these experienced terrorists. There are claims that these terrorists have joined forces with the pro-Saddam groups to wreak havoc in Iraq.

Terrorism experts have said while the Iranian argument that Tehran would not allow al Qaeda people to use their territory to slip into Iraq would be valid still Arab extremists could slip into the rugged areas bordering Iraq and use the mountain passes formerly used by Turkey's PKK separatist Kurdish terrorists to move in and out of Iran at will.

On August 16, the Turkish Daily News also published Iraqi Kurdish claims that the Ansar al-Islam terrorist group was resurrected and its fighters had slipped into the region from Iran to assassinate Iraqi Kurdish leaders and disrupt reconstruction efforts in the north.

The bases of Ansar al-Islam, a small shadowy fundamentalist group, were destroyed during the war when American troops backed with fighters of Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) attacked them in the mountains bordering Iran. Most of the Ansar fighters were killed but some managed to escape into Iran.

An analysis in the New York Times on Wednesday quoting American intelligence sources confirmed the resurrection of Ansar and said some 150 fighters had managed to slip into northern Iraq. However, the NY Times story said the Ansar fighters aimed to attack allied military forces or the administrative offices of those involved in the reconstruction of Iraq.

Until now the Americans have pointed the finger directly at Syria for helping the Arab extremists slip into Iraq to attack the coalition forces. Iran has not been directly mentioned but the U.S. has charged Tehran of interfering in the internal affairs of Iraq. The Iranians have denied this.

In a related development, diplomatic sources in Ankara told the Turkish Daily News that al Qaeda fighters linked to the Chechens had started leaving Chechenya and were infiltrating into Iraq through Syria in a steady flow since June.

Iraq's U.S. administrator Paul Bremer said in remarks published on August 19 that foreign militants were entering the country from Syria and that he hoped Damascus would cooperate more in stopping the flow. Bremer said in an interview with the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat that Iraq's neighbors, including Iran, should not interfere in the country's internal affairs.

"The truth is that there are still problems and there are still foreign terrorists entering Iraq across the borders from Syria," Bremer said. "We have discussed this with the Syrians and we hope to see better cooperation."

"We believe that a free Iraq must not be subject to any interference from its neighbors in its internal affairs," Bremer said, adding that official Iranian bodies were working against the United States and its allies in Iraq. He did not identify them.

© Iranian.ws

http://www.iranian.ws/news/publish/article_315.shtml

Iran's Khatami Loses Key Reformist Ally, Reports Say
Sat August 23, 2003 10:04 AM ET

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's reformist president, Mohammad Khatami, accepted the resignation Saturday of a key cabinet ally who quit in protest at mass arrests during pro-democracy demonstrations in June, media reported.
The loss of Higher Education Minister Mostafa Moin is a fresh blow to Khatami, whose efforts to create more open rule in the Islamic republic have been frustrated by religious hard-liners who control key levers of power such as the judiciary.

"Your resignation is accepted with deep regret and we hope your knowledge, experience, and competence may be of service in another field," state radio said, quoting a letter by Khatami.

Moin, who reformists said was a strong supporter of Khatami's reform agenda, asked to step down in July after the student-led pro-democracy protests. Judiciary officials said 4,000 people were arrested across the country in the unrest.

"From the outset I was opposed to such massive arrests," Moin was quoted as saying in the Hamshahri newspaper last week.

"My resignation should be viewed as an objection to the atmosphere in which the country is governed," he added.

Moin's bills to restructure his ministry had also been vetoed by the hard-line watchdog body, the Guardian Council. Moin complained that he did not have the authority in his post to push through change, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Moin had also asked to resign in 1999 after a clampdown on student protests in July of that year. But his request then was turned down by Khatami.

Jafar Meili-Monfared, another deputy in the Education Ministry has replaced Moin as acting minister.

http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=3325749

Iran condemns Shanab's assasination

Tehran, Aug 23 - Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi here Saturday condemned the assassination of Abu Shanab, political activist of the Palestine Liberation Organizations Central Council (Hamas), on Thursday.

Abu Shanab was martyred by Israeli troops on Thursday.

Exacerbation of situation in Palestine has roots in the actions of the Israelis who are blamed for violation of cease-fire, he said.

Abu Shanab, a senior Hamas leader, attained martyrdom on Thursday in an air strike by Israeli troops in Gaza.

The assassination of a Palestinian political activist is a blatant sign of state-terrorism violating the principles of human rights as well as international norms, he said.

Asefi called on all international bodies as well as advocates of human rights to pay due attention to the critical situation of Palestinian and take the pressures exerted by Israeli on defenseless Palestinians as serious and to take action against inhumane actions of the Zionists.

http://www.iribnews.com/Full_en.asp?news_id=186480&n=31

*Comment: They still support the worst terrorist group of the world.

UK Charge d`Affaires Summoned to Foreign Ministry

August 23, 2003
Islamic Republic News Agency
IRNA

Tehran -- British Charge d`Affaires to Tehran Matthew Gould was summoned here Saturday to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to be informed of Tehran`s objection to the arrest of former Iranian ambassador to Argentina, Hadi Soleimanpour.

Since the British ambassador was not available, Director General for Western Europe desk at the Foreign Ministry Ibrahim Rahimpour summoned the UK charge d`affaires and informed him of Iran`s protest over the arrest.

According to the Information and Press Bureau of the Foreign Ministry, the British charge d`affaires was informed that the court case and the arrest of Iranian national was a politically motivated move orchestrated by the Zionist circles.

The UK was asked not to enter into the new game masterminded by the Zionist circles through Argentine.

Rahimpour underlined the need for cooperation between Iran and UK to resolve the issue and clear the charges lodged against the former Iranian diplomat.

Highlighting judiciary procedures in England, Gould assured that he will convey the matter to his country`s officials and will ask that the case be pursued without bias.

He underlined that as soon as he receives a reply from British officials, he would inform the Iranian authorities about it....

http://www.irna.ir/#2003_08_2318_53_501

Iranians Arrested for Planning Sabotage campaign in Iraq

August 23, 2003
BBC News
BBCi

US President George Bush has predicted that more foreign troops will join American forces in Iraq to help win "the continuing battle in the war on terrorism".

Mr Bush said "al-Qaeda-type fighters" were moving into Iraq, but insisted the US would "stay the course".

He said he was working with the United Nations to seek broader international support - but he gave no sign he was prepared to relinquish more power to the UN.

Iraqi police said that earlier this week they arrested a group of Iranians who were planning a sabotage campaign in Baghdad.

A source within the Iraqi interior ministry told the BBC the Iranians had been handed over to the American military police for interrogation.

Speaking in Seattle, Mr Bush said a "foreign element" was moving into Iraq.

"They want to fight us there because they can't stand the thought of a free society in the Middle East," he said.

UN discussions

London and Washington want a UN resolution authorising a larger international force, following Tuesday's bomb attack on the UN headquarters in Baghdad.

But the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, has warned they face a "difficult" task to secure wider involvement in Iraq unless the UN is given more say.

Germany, France and Russia - three of the most vociferous opponents of the US-led invasion - are among those demanding a wider role for the UN.

None of the three are expected to send troops but several potential large contributors, such as India, Pakistan and Turkey, have refused to send soldiers without a stronger UN mandate.

"We do need and welcome more foreign troops into Iraq and there will be more foreign troops into Iraq," Mr Bush said.

"Those who hate freedom destroyed the infrastructures that we've been improving, so we'll get more people guarding then, and that'll help free up our hunter teams."

The BBC's Greg Barrow at the UN says many countries have expressed a willingness to assist in Iraq but they do not want the stigma of serving under an occupying force which has yet to win over the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people.

The body of the UN's envoy to Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, who was among more than 20 killed in Tuesday's apparent suicide attack, is being flown to Brazil for a wake, before his funeral in France.

Vieira de Mello's interim replacement in Iraq has been named as Ramiro Lopes da Silva, a fellow Brazilian.

Mr Annan said the UN was largely counting on the US-led coalition to provide its staff with security in Iraq.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3175425.stm

All Officials Must Remain Vigilant - Leader
Tehran Times - Politics Section
Aug 23, 2003

TEHRAN -- Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei here Thursday stressed that vigilance against enemy plots is among "important issues which all officials and responsible (state) apparatus, especially Information (Intelligence) Ministry, must maintain".

"As long as there is vigilance, none of the plots hatched by the enemies of the establishment and their bragging will prove effective," he told a group of senior officials of the Information Ministry.

The leader lauded the "sincere and very valuable services of Information Ministry", saying "these efforts, which are made under hard and complicated conditions and many people and officials are unaware of them, are among the acts which are blessed by God".

Information Minister Ali Younesi presented a report on the Ministry's operations before the leader's speech and said: "Information Ministry, thanks to its recognition of the country's situation as well as the enemies' plots, is giving the glad tidings that the Islamic Iran is stronger than any other time and prepared for a bright future."

http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_1897.shtml

50 Years Later, Iranians Remember U.S.-UK Coup

Fri Aug 22, 3:26 PM ET Add World - OneWorld.net to My Yahoo!

Dan De Luce, Christian Science Monitor

TEHRAN, IRAN, Aug. 22 (CSM) -– Iranians mourned this week the consequences of Anglo-American regime change as they marked the 50th anniversary of a CIA (news - web sites) coup that toppled their democratically elected prime minister.

At a time when the United States has adopted a policy of preemptive action in its war on terrorists - and is portrayed here as encouraging student street protests - the 1953 overthrow of Mohammad Mossadegh's government is taking on fresh relevance for some Iranians.

"This year, many political groups in Iran are showing more interest in the history of the [US-orchestrated] military coup," says Ibrahim Yazdi, a former foreign minister and leading member of a political party that traces its origins to Mossadegh's National Front. "Now it seems that the Americans are pushing towards the same direction again. That shows they have not learned anything from history."

Organized by the CIA and the British SIS to secure Iran's oil resources from a possible Soviet takeover and secure Iran's oil resources, the coup marked America's first intervention in the Middle East. Its aftershocks are still being felt.

The end of Iran's first democratic government ushered in more than two decades of dictatorship by Shah Muhammad Reza Pahlavi, who relied on US aid and arms. The anti-American backlash in 1979 shook the whole region and helped spread Islamic militancy.

"If there had not been a military coup, there would not have been 25 years of the Shah's brutal regime, there would not have been a revolution in 1979 and a government of clerics," says Mr. Yazdi, who served briefly as foreign minister in the first cabinet after the fall of the Shah. "What we have now is a result of the coup."

Today, Mr. Mossadegh remains a hero to many Iranians who believe he fought against colonial exploitation and dictatorial rule during his 26 months in office. Perhaps because he represents a future denied and what might have been, his memory has approached myth.

Mossadegh incurred the wrath of Britain by nationalizing the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and then argued his case successfully at the UN Security Council.

After considering military action, Britain opted for a coup d'tat. President Harry Truman rejected the idea, but when Dwight Eisenhower took over the White House, he ordered the CIA to embark on one of its first covert operations against a foreign government.

A new book on the coup - "All the Shah's Men," by New York Times reporter Stephen Kinzer - describes how the CIA and the British helped to undermine Mossadegh's government through bribery, libel, and orchestrated riots. Agents posing as communists threatened religious leaders, while the US ambassador lied to the prime minister about alleged attacks on American nationals.

The book isn't on sale here, but the 50th anniversary was front-page news in Iranian newspapers this week. One paper published excerpts from CIA documents on the coup, which were released only three years ago, and lamented how the intervention stunted the country's evolution.

In an allusion to the US-led invasion of Iraq (news - web sites), the daily Yas-e No wrote that some Iranians might wrongly assume the best way to solve the country's problems now would be to turn to a foreign power: "If a foreign country comes to an area, it will think about its own national interest first and not care about the people's rights."

The ruling conservative clergy have portrayed recent street protests in Iran as an attempt by the US to foment discontent among university students. Although student leaders distanced themselves from Washington and monarchist exiles, accusations of foreign meddling carry weight in a country with Iran's history.

The Bush administration has handed the hard-liners valuable ammunition by cultivating relations with Iranian exiles who favor restoring the monarchy and by promoting a media campaign to undermine Iran's clerical leadership.

Washington's tough rhetoric against Tehran and flirtation with the Shah's son are a kind of nightmarish dj vu for the embattled reformists and students struggling to push for democratic change in Iran.

The reformists allied with President Mohammad Khatami (news - web sites) say their country now faces another choice between despotism and democracy, and they worry that the combination of outside interference and internal squabbling within their own ranks could once again defer their dream.

At a conference here this week commemorating Mossadegh, a young Iranian man who asked not to be identified said "If there is going to be [democratic] change, it should not be done by a foreign government but by Iranians, and it should happen gradually," he said.

On Tuesday, the day of the anniversary, there were no official government ceremonies to honor Mossadegh's legacy. Deemed too secular for the Islamic Republic, he is seldom mentioned by the conservative clergy. When they do mention him, they stress the role of clerics at the time and show contempt for Mossadegh.

Abolfathi Takrousta, who worked as Mossadegh's cook, says, "Under both regimes, now and before, they like to hide his name. But the good things he did are clear to Iranians, so I don't know why they would do this. When Mossadegh died, people felt their father had died."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=655&ncid=655&e=1&u=/oneworld/20030822/wl_oneworld/4536665621061581573

Iran Cuts Culture, Economic Ties with Argentina

August 23, 2003
Reuters
Ha'aretz

TEHRAN - Iran is cutting its cultural and economic ties with Argentina because of the arrest in Britain of a former Iranian ambassador to Argentina in connection with a 1994 bombing in Buenos Aires, state television said on Saturday.

Ex-envoy Hadi Soleimanpour, 47, was arrested in Britain on Thursday after Argentina requested his extradition in connection with the AMIA Jewish Community Center blast that killed 85 people in Buenos Aires.

"Iran's foreign ministry official in charge of the Americas desk announced Iran's strong objection to the Argentinian judiciary's measure and informed him (the Argentinian charge d'affaires) of Iran's decision on halting cultural and economic cooperation with Argentina," state television quoted Foreign Ministry official Mehdi Mohtashami as saying.

Officials at the Argentinian mission in Tehran were not immediately available for comment. One Western diplomat said Argentina had a charge d'affaires in Tehran. Iranian Foreign Ministry officials were also not available.

Iran is a major wheat importer and Argentina has traditionally been among the country's suppliers. It was not immediately clear whether that trade would be affected by Iran's latest initiative. Tehran denies any involvement in the bombing and previously withdrew its ambassador from Argentina to protest against the claim of Iranian involvement, though it retains a mission in Buenos Aires.

One diplomat in Tehran said the Iranian move suggested the government wanted to express anger at the ex-diplomat's arrest, but was stopping short of a major new diplomatic initiative against Argentina.

Britain's charge d'affaires in Tehran, Matthew Gould, told Reuters he had told Iranian Foreign Ministry officials Soleimanpour's arrest was not politically motivated, and the court's decision was independent of the British government.

"The British government cannot interfere at this stage of the extradition process," he said, adding that he had been summoned to the Iranian Foreign Ministry and asked for the immediate release of the ex-diplomat. Soleimanpour entered Britain on a student visa in February last year to study at Durham University.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=332427&contrassID=1&subContrassID=8&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y

Iranian Asylum Seekers to be Forceably Repatriated

August 23, 2003
Brendan Nicholson
The Age

The Federal Government will shortly begin forceably repatriating up to 30 Iranian asylum seekers and it admits they are likely to be detained in Iran while authorities confirm their identities.

A spokesman for Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock said 15 Iranians from the Baxter detention centre in Port Augusta had gone back voluntarily in the past two months and 30 more were "available for removal".

The 15, who volunteered to leave, were mostly single men. Each took the $2000 incentive payment provided by the Government.

A further 30 had been processed and refused refugee status. Those who were not subject to court injunctions would be sent back "in ones and twos" on commercial flights as Iran indicated it was ready to receive them.

The spokesman said the Iranians might be detained in Iran "for a day or so" while authorities there verified their identities.

That was done because they had left Iran illegally and authorities wanted to ensure they really were Iranian.

The spokesman would not say when the next repatriations would take place.

The detainees have written an open letter to Prime Minister John Howard and the Australian people, saying they feared being forced to return to Iran.

"It is Friday night and we are all very frightened because they tell us that tomorrow we will be deported by force to our country," the letter said.

"So tonight we cannot sleep. We pray that something will save us and we try to help each other.

"We did not leave our country and our family for getting rich or big adventure. We must leave because our Government is a dictatorship that tortures and kills its own people, like it was in Iraq, and we see on television how they open the graves of the poor tortured people.

"We ask that you see that we cannot go back to Iran because we are too afraid of the torture and prison we will have to go to. Many of us have already lost family or have brothers and fathers in prison in Iran."

The detainees said they felt they had not always been able to explain their plight in ways Immigration Department officers could understand.

"We need your help in this terrible situation," their letter said. "Please help us and stop this deportation of us. We beg you from our heart."

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/08/23/1061529379615.html

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