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Iran Escalates Envoy Arrest Row

August 24, 2003
BBC News
BBCi

Iran has demanded an apology from the UK Government over the arrest of its former ambassador to Buenos Aires on terrorism charges.

President Mohammad Khatami escalated the diplomatic row with Argentina and the UK in remarks on Iranian state radio.

"I hope that the British Government will swiftly go back on this incorrect action and apologise," he said.

The former ambassador, Hadi Soleimanpour, was arrested by British police on Thursday in Durham, northeast England, over his alleged role in the bombing of a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires in 1994 in which 85 people died.

He is to be held in custody until late August when a London court will rule on an Argentine extradition request.

President Khatami said the British Charge d'Affaires would again be summoned to the Foreign Ministry.

"What has happened has been politically motivated," he said

"There are currents behind the case trying to put the Islamic Republic under pressure by levelling baseless accusations and unfounded allegations against Tehran."

Ties cut with Argentina

Iran announced on Saturday that it was cutting cultural and economic ties with Argentina.

Senior British and Argentine diplomats were summoned to Iran's foreign ministry in protest at the arrest.

According to the state news agency, IRNA, the Argentine Charge d'Affaires was informed his government would be held accountable for all the legal and political impacts of the ruling.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) wants full inspections of nuclear facilities

The British Charge d'Affaires was asked to order the immediate release of the former diplomat.

He is alleged to have been involved in planning and commissioning the bombing and that he provided information about the location and timing of the attack.

Mr Soleimanpour, who is now a research assistant at the University of Durham, denied the charges when he was arrested by police on Thursday.

The move provoked a media storm in Tehran, with one right-wing paper calling on the British ambassador to be kicked out.

The BBC's Miranda Eeles in Tehran says it is not yet clear how serious the diplomatic fall-out could be.

Relations between Iran and Britain have never been easy, but the trend in the last few years has shown signs of improvement.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has visited the country four times in the last two years and there is growing co-operation between the two countries over issues such as Afghanistan and fighting the drugs trade.

Diplomats say this tentative softening of relations could now be in jeopardy.

Eight warrants

The extradition warrant for Mr Soleimanpour was one of eight issued by an Argentine judge, Juan Jose Galeano, against Iranian citizens last week.

Similar warrants issued in March against four Iranian diplomats caused tension between Buenos Aires and Tehran, and resulted in the recall of the Iranian ambassador.

Last month, Argentine President Nestor Kirchner said the lack of progress in the case was a "national disgrace", and vowed to bring those responsible to justice.

Argentina's 300,000-strong Jewish community is the largest in Latin America, and has been the target of other attacks.

A 1992 bomb attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires in which 29 people were killed also remains unsolved.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3177355.stm

Iran Promises "Strong Action" Over Envoy'

August 24, 2003
Reuters
Reuters.com

TEHRAN -- Iranian President Mohammad Khatami says Iran will take "strong action" over the arrest of its ex-ambassador to Argentina in connection with the bombing of a Jewish centre in Buenos Aires in 1994.

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

Iran has called for Soleimanpour's immediate release and calls the case is politically motivated, a charge dismissed by Britain. Iran said on Saturday it was cutting economic and cultural ties with Argentina because of the arrest.

"The Iranian government will take strong action on this issue," the president said in remarks broadcast on state television, but gave few details about what that would involve.

Khatami said he had demanded an immediate apology from Britain and said the Foreign Ministry would summon the British charge d'affaires in Tehran for a second time.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran is sensitive about all of its citizens, particularly those who have responsibility, and it will not compromise on this," Khatami said.

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

Diplomats said the Iran's cutting of economic ties could affect Argentinean exports to Iran of wheat, sunflower oil, rice and other foodstuffs.

Soleimanpour entered Britain on a student visa in February last year to study at Durham University.

Tehran denies any involvement in the Buenos Aires bombing and withdrew its ambassador from Argentina soon after the incident to protest against the allegation.

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=363075&section=news

Kayhan Daily, "British Ambassador Out"

August 23, 2003
AFP
IranMania

TEHRAN -- A conservative Iranian daily demanded Saturday the expulsion of the British ambassador in response to the arrest by British authorities of Iran's former envoy to Argentina over his alleged links to a 1994 bombing in Buenos Aires.

"British ambassador out," headlined the right-wing Kayhan newspaper. "The first measure to take, and the easiest, to punish the British government is to kick out the ambassador," an editorial said.

Hadi Soleimanpur, 47, was arrested Thursday by British police in northeast England, where he was attending university, and he is being held in custody until late August when a London court will rule on an Argentine extradition request.

He is one of several Iranian diplomats wanted by Argentina on charges they plotted the July 1994 bombing of the Israeli-Argentine Mutual Association building, a Jewish charities center, which killed 85 people.

In Saturday's editorial, Kayhan's chief editor Hossein Shariatmadari said Soleimanpur's arrest made it "evident" Tehran was the victim of a "conspiracy hatched by the Zionist regime, Argentina and Great Britain."

"Why not exercise our right to punish the backwards government of Britain which, according to its own parliament members, has no other role on the international scene but to act as the tail of the dog," he added, referring to US President George W. Bush.

If Tehran does not expel ambassador Richard Dalton, "the Islamic Iranian nation ... will act itself," Shariatmadari warned.

Britain, along with the rest of the European Union, is negotiating a key trade and association pact with Iran, but relations between the two have cooled lately due to Britain's participation in the war on Iraq, which Tehran opposed.

http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=17586&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs

Iran's Murdered Photojounalist Verdict Within Days

August 24, 2003
mytelus.com

Iran will release the results of its investigation into the death of Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi within 48 hours, an Iranian news agency reported Sunday.

The Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA) says the information came from Ja'far Reshadati, Tehran's deputy prosecutor.

Iranian criminal court judge Javad Ismaili is heading the investigation.

Kazemi, 54, was arrested in late June after taking photos of a Tehran prison. She died on July 11 while in Iranian custody.

An autopsy concluded that Kazemi died from a brain hemorrhage resulting from blows to the head.

Iranian officials refused to allow Canadian authorities to conduct their own autopsy on the body. Kazemi was buried in her birthplace in southern Iran against the wishes of her Montreal-based son, Stephan Hachemi.

Amnesty International, Iran's Islamic Human Rights Commission and other rights organizations have called for an independent investigation into Kazemi's death.

http://www.mytelus.com/news/article.do?pageID=cbc/world_home&articleID=1390853

Analysis: Is 'Perfect Storm' Brewing for Bush?

By REUTERS
NYTimes
Filed at 11:03 a.m. ET 8.24.2003

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As the 2004 election nears, President Bush could face an international ``perfect storm'' -- more attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan, an overextended deployment of U.S. troops eager to come home and blackening clouds over the Middle East, North Korea and Iran.

The confluence of world events will test Bush's foreign policy leadership even as he must concentrate on the U.S. economy and other domestic issues that could determine whether he wins a second term.

Although most Americans still have a favorable opinion of the president, his job performance rating has slipped to 52 percent positive and 48 percent negative in a recent poll of 1,011 likely U.S. voters by Zogby International. This compares with a post-Sept. 11, 2001, peak rating of 82 percent positive.

The president and his top aides have repeatedly insisted that their course in Iraq is the right one.

But last week's bombing of the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, which killed 24 people, has provoked demands for a reassessment of U.S. Iraq policy.

Meanwhile:

-- Renewed Israeli-Palestinian violence may have scuttled a U.S. peace plan for the region.

-- Six-party talks in Beijing this week raise both peril and promise in dealing with the North Korean nuclear crisis.

-- A U.S. push to have the United Nations address concerns about Iran's nuclear ambitions could provoke a crisis.

STORM BREWING

``A perfect storm (on security) is brewing for the rest of the year,'' said one military planner, referring to a catastrophic clash of three storms that menaced the U.S. Northeastern coast in 1991.

In Iraq, a major lightning rod is the issue of troops -- whether the 139,000 U.S. military on the ground should be supplemented with more Americans or foreign forces.

In a letter to Bush last week, Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Chuck Hagel, members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the Baghdad attack showed the ``urgent need'' for more foreign forces in Iraq.

They urged Bush to find a way to broaden the U.N.'s role, so leaders of countries that opposed the war can have the ``political cover'' to justify post-war cooperation.

``It is worth enhancing the role of the United Nations because it will allow us to share the huge risk and expense of securing, policing, and reconstructing Iraq -- tasks that will take tens of thousands of troops and tens of billions of dollars over many years,'' the senators wrote.

More compelling to the White House, perhaps, may be the stance of William Kristol and Robert Kagan, neo-conservatives who helped create the intellectual climate that propelled Bush's decision to overthrow Saddam Hussein.

In The Weekly Standard, which Kristol edits, they warned that the future of U.S. world leadership and security is at stake in Iraq but Bush has ``failed to commit resources to the rebuilding of Iraq commensurate with these very high stakes.''

TOO FEW TROOPS

There are too few U.S. troops and too little money committed to Iraq and another $60 billion and two army divisions are needed, they said.

``This is the time to bite the bullet and pay the price. Next spring, if disaster looms, it will be harder. And it may be too late,'' they wrote.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has insisted that no more troops are required, just that the United States must hasten preparations for Iraqis to take over security duties.

Nevertheless, Washington has revived discussions with the United Nations on a resolution to encourage countries like France, Turkey, Germany and India to send troops and resources.

Military planners say if the U.N. did pass a resolution that France and others approved, it could take eight weeks for troops from those countries to arrive on the ground in Iraq.

That would bring them to Iraq's one working port and airport about the time thousands of U.S. forces are due to rotate out.

But as the administration remains adamantly opposed to sharing power in Iraq with the United Nations, agreement may be impossible, or at least a long time in coming.

Over time, if security in Iraq does not improve, the original occupation force may have to return for another tour of duty, said Phillip Gordon of the Brookings Institution.

That could mean thousands of disgruntled military and their families in an election year, experts say.

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/politics/politics-security-bush.html

Argentina Plays Down Iranian Decision To Suspend Economic, Cultural Ties

August 24, 2003
AFP
TerraNet

The Argentine government played down news of Tehran's decision to suspend diplomatic cooperation following Britain's arrest of a former Iranian ambassador to Buenos Aires.

"We are taking it with caution," a government source said on Saturday, adding that the government was trying to avoid any escalation of a row between Argentina and Iran.

London moved Thursday to detain Hadi Soleimanpour, who was Iran's ambassador to Argentina in 1994 when suspected Islamic militants blew up a Jewish community center here, killing 85 people and injuring 300.

"We think Iran may be planning to magnify the issue, which could lead to an escalation in measures ultimately leading to a break-off of relations," the government source told private news agency NA.

The ex-ambassador has lived in Britain since February 2002 on a student visa. An Argentine judge requested his arrest on August 13, along with that of 12 other Iranians who are believed to be resident in Iran.

The official Iranian news agency Irna reported Tehran's diplomatic measure against Argentina on Saturday.

Argentine business coordinator in Tehran Ernesto Alvarez was summoned to the Foreign Ministry where Americas Director General Mehdi Mohtachami told him Iran was making an "energetic" protest over the detention, Irna said.

Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Assefi denied Friday any involvement by Iran in the July 1994 attack in Buenos Aires. Assefi said Buenos Aires was politically and legally responsible for the arrest, claiming it ran "counter to international rules."

http://www.terra.net.lb/ch/english

UK Rejects Iran's Call for Apology

August 25, 2003
Independent
Anne Penketh

Britain yesterday ignored a call from the Iranian President for an apology following the arrest of a former ambassador.

The former Iranian envoy to Argentina, Hadi Suleimanpour, was arrested on Thursday in connection with the bombing in 1994 of a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires, which killed 85 people. His arrest in Durham, where he is a research assistant at the university, drew sharp protests from Iran, which has denied involvement in the bombing.

On Saturday, Tehran severed economic and cultural ties with Argentina, which last week ordered the ambassador's extradition and the arrest of seven other Iranians in connection with the bombing of the community centre.

But the row deepened yesterday when the Iranian President, Mohammad Khatami, demanded an apology from Britain and announced that the government would take "strong action". "What has happened has been politically motivated," he said. "There are currents behind the case trying to put the Islamic Republic under pressure by levelling baseless accusations and unfounded allegations against Tehran."

The British chargé d'affaires, Matthew Gould, who was summoned to the Iranian Foreign Ministry yesterday for the second time this weekend, told the Tehran authorities that the judicial process in Britain was independent of the government.

The Foreign Office refused further comment other than the statement made by Mr Gould.

The Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, has visited Tehran four times in the past two years as part of efforts to end Iran's isolation. Mr Straw and the Iranian Foreign Minister, Kamal Kharrazi, have reportedly been in regular contact about the Suleimanpour case.

Argentina has stepped up its investigation into the 1994 bombing under the presidency of Nestor Kirchner. Last month he described the lack of progress in the bombing as a "national disgrace".

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/story.jsp?story=436894

Iran Threatens Britain

August 25, 2003
The Guardian
Dan De Luce

Iran threatened "strong action" and demanded an apology from Britain yesterday over the arrest of a former Iranian ambassador to Argentina who faces possible extradition in connection with a bombing in Buenos Aires.

Hadi Soleimanpour, 47, was arrested in Durham on Thursday over the AMIA Jewish community centre blast that killed 85 people in July 1994.

Mohammad Khatami, the president of Iran, condemned the arrest as a political attack but did not specify what actions his country would take.

"I declare from here that the British government will have to cease carrying on with this incorrect deed in a short period of time and apologise," he said in remarks broadcast by state television.

"What has happened has been politically motivated. There are forces and lobbies behind the case trying to put the Islamic republic under pressure by levelling baseless accusations and unfounded allegations against Tehran."

The British charge d'affaires in Tehran, Matthew Gould, was summoned to the foreign ministry yesterday for the second time in two days in a case that threatens to disrupt improving ties between the countries. British diplomats said that the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, and Iran's foreign minister, Kamal Kharrazi, had been in "regular contact".

Britain maintains that the court proceedings are outside the government's authority.

Tehran has cut cultural and economic ties with Argentina, which had exported items such as rice wheat and sunflower oil to Iran.

The extradition proceedings come at awkward time for Iran as it faces mounting pressure from the US and European Union over its nuclear programme, and protests from Canada over the beating to death of a photojournalist.

Since the election of Mr Khatami's reformist government, Iran has tried to shed its militant image and play down its links with groups opposed to Israel.

The conservative daily newspaper Kayhan yesterday called for the expulsion of the British ambassador, Richard Dalton, because of the detention of Mr Soleimanpour. If the reformist government failed to do so, the newspaper warned "the Islamic Iranian nation ... will act itself".

Mr Soleimanpour, who is studying in Durham, is one of several Iranian diplomats named as suspects by the Argentinian authorities.

Argentina, Israel and the US have long suspected Iran or Iranian-backed members of Hizbullah were behind the bombing. Iran withdrew its ambassador from Buenos Aires in March in protest.

Argentinian authorities tried former police officers accused of providing a van used by the bombers, who packed it full of explosives.

The former Argentinian president Carlos Menem has denied a report in the New York Times that alleged he took a bribe to cover up Iran's alleged role in the attack.

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/foreignaffairs/story/0,11538,1029027,00.html

Senior Cleric Targeted in Latest Iraq violence

August 24, 2003
The Financial Times
Gareth Smyth and Edward Alden

A senior Shia cleric was the target of a bombing in the central Iraqi city of Najaf yesterday that killed three guards and wounded 10 people, the latest in a string of attacks at the weekend that underscored the deteriorating security situation in Iraq.

Ayatollah Mohammed Said al-Hakim, one of Iraq's most senior Shia clerics, escaped with cuts to the neck.

Ayatollah Hakim recently told the Financial Times that the measures taken by US-led occupation forces against supporters of the ousted regime of Saddam Hussein were not strong enough, and called for the transfer of more decision-making in security and other fields to Iraqis.

A spokesman for Sciri, the leading Shia Muslim political group, said last night it had begun an investigation into the bombing, and suspected it was the work of loyalists of the former regime.

US-led forces have a very limited presence in Najaf, which is a scholastic city revered as the burial place of Imam Ali, son-in-law of the prophet Mohammed.

The bombing came on a weekend when ethnic clashes between Turkomen and Kurds broke out in the northern city of Kirkuk, leading to several fatalities.

In southern Iraq, three British soldiers died on Saturday in an attack on their vehicle as it left their military headquarters in Basra, the mainly Shia southern city, bringing the number of British fatalities to 10 since president US George W. Bush declared hostilities over on May 1.

The deteriorating security situation in Iraq has raised pressure on the Bush administration to increase troop deployments in Iraq or to move more determinedly to persuade other governments to send forces.

Paul Bremer, who heads the US Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, said on Fox News Sunday that a growing number of al-Qaeda affiliated terrorists had been infiltrating Iraq from Syria and Saudi Arabia. "I suppose they could calculate that if [they] succeed in Iraq, it will change the entire structure of this area of the world," he said.

"It shows what the stakes are for all Americans. We've got to win this fight here."

Joe Biden, the top Democrat on the Senate foreign relations committee, said on NBC News that "we need more troops, we need more cops, we need more civilian affairs people". He said the US needs to "swallow our pride" and go back to the United Nations to seek international support.

He warned unless Mr Bush seeks greater international help, "we are going to lose the American people's support for this undertaking". A Newsweek poll published at the weekend indicated that US public enthusiasm for the Iraqi campaign is waning. A slim majority of 48 to 47 per cent said the US should withdraw from Iraq if current trends continued, while 55 per cent were opposed to putting more US troops in Iraq. Sixty per cent also said the US should reduce spending on Iraq.

The US has tried to shore up support both domestically and internationally by portraying the recent attacks in Iraq as the latest and most important battle in the global war on terrorism. Mr Bush on Friday called Iraq "one of the major battles of the first war of the 21st century".

The Bush administration has insisted that, while it wants an increased international presence, additional US troops are not currently needed.

General John Abizaid, who commands the US force in Iraq, has said that the US's immediate need is for better intelligence, not more troops. But General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, yesterday said the administration would not oppose a request from General Abizaid. "If he wants more troops he can have more troops," he said on NBC News.

http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1059479268206&p=1012571727172