Iranian Alert -- September 4, 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.

Motorbike gunmen fire shots at British embassy in Iran

Independent - By Katherine Butler and Angus McDowall in Tehran
Sep 4, 2003

The British embassy in Tehran came under fire yesterday in an incident that threatens to turn an already charged atmosphere into the most serious crisis in relations with Iran since the Salman Rushdie affair.

The shooting caused limited damage and injured nobody. But it came on a day when the Iranian ambassador to Britain was recalled to Tehran over the arrest of an Iranian diplomat in Britain.

Shortly before midday in Tehran, shots rang out, hitting windows in upper storeys of the embassy compound. Witnesses said two men on motorbikes stopped in front of the embassy to fire the shots with a handgun before riding away at high speed.

The embassy building is protected by a high perimeter wall that stretches two hundred yards along Ferdowsi street, one of central Tehran's busiest thoroughfares. Bullet holes could later be seen in windows facing the street.

Richard Dalton, Britain's ambassador in Tehran, said: "This was a serious incident. Six shots were fired at the embassy building. Several of them entered offices on the second floor."

The embassy had been on high alert since relations with Iran soured last month over the arrest in Britain of Hade Soleimanpour, an Iranian diplomat. Argentina is seeking his extradition in connection with the bombing of a Jewish centre in Buenos Aires in 1994 which killed 85 people. After failing to secure his release through political channels, Morteza Sarmadi, the Iranian ambassador to Britain, flew to Iran yesterday "for consultations". He is not expected to return.

There was speculation that the embassy attack was the work of Iranians angry with the British and Americans after the assassination in Najaf last week of the Iranian-backed Shia cleric Ayatollah Mohammad Bakr al-Hakim. Ayatollah Hakim had been exiled in Iran and only returned to Iraq in May. His death caused widespread grief in Iran.

But it is more likely that the shootings reflect the struggle for power in Iran and were ordered by hardline religious conservatives eager to provoke the moderate President Mohammad Khatami into tougher action against Britain.

Iran has been incensed by the arrest of Mr Soleimanpour, which it says was politically motivated. Hardliners maintain that Britain is mimicking American policy in the Middle East.

Britain insists that the police had no choice but to respond to an international extradition request. A government spokesman said the matter was purely judicial. He said the former Iranian ambassador to Argentina did not enjoy diplomatic immunity because he was studying at a British university.

With Iranian hardliners calling for the expulsion of Mr Dalton, the British Government has been braced for reprisals. Mr Dalton cut short his holiday to fly back to Tehran after Mr Soleimanpour was refused bail.

The effect of the row, compounded by yesterday's shooting, is to undermine the strategy of constructive engagement in which Jack Straw the Foreign Secretary, has invested considerable energy. The Government has been working to repair links with Iran which were severed in 1989 after the fatwa calling for the murder of Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses. Diplomatic relations were restored in 1999. Mr Straw has been to Iran four times to urge Tehran's support for the "war on terror".

A rupture with Britain would leave Iran with few friends in the international community.

There is mounting concern that Tehran may be secretly developing a nuclear weapon. The IAEA, the UN's nuclear watchdog, revealed last week that its inspectors found enriched uranium at a power plant south of Tehran. The finding appeared to confirm the suspicions of those in the Bush administration who regard Iran as a member of the "axis of evil". Mr Blair has expressed concern about Iran's nuclear ambitions and the EU may postpone a valuable trade deal when it considers the IAEA inspectors' conclusions.

The Foreign Office said diplomatic ties had not been downgraded and discussions with Iran were continuing.

http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_2133.shtml

Amir Taheri: Russia should stop its unjust suppression of Chechnya

Gulf News Online 03-09-2003

Sometime this week, the Kremlin will launch the latest phase in its four-year old plan to "tame Chechnya". Having killed almost a quarter of the Chechen people and driven nearly half of the remaining into exile, the Russian leadership is preparing a presidential election designed to provide a fig leaf of legitimacy to a regime made exclusively of Moscow's minions.

The programme, presented as a "Chechenisation" of the conflict, started last March with a constitutional referendum. Preoccupied with the war in Iraq, the international community paid little attention to the exercise which produced the usual 99.99 per cent approval for the text proposed by Moscow.

Needless to say, the text deprives the Chechens of many of the basic rights that they had enjoyed, at least on paper, throughout the Soviet era, including the right to self determination.

Now the conventional wisdom is that Moscow is holding a presidential election to legitimise the rule of Ahmad Qadyrov, the former Mufti of Chechnya who has been Russia's front man in Grozny for the past two years.

Although presenting himself as a "man of God", Qadyrov has raised a private army that has already established a record of murder, rape and plunder in the parts of the country controlled by the Russian army.

Big money

Backed by a group of Russian businessmen and a string of other shady characters, Qadyrov is spending big money trying to buy friends and, ultimately, votes. With a Kalashnikov in one hand and a copy of the Holy Quran in another, Qadyrov looks like a living caricature of the Chechens as drawn by Russian imperialists in the 19th century.

There is, however, no guarantee that Russian President Vladimir Putin will want to keep the Mufti turned politician in Grozny for a further four years.

Putin is trying to use the presidential election as a means of dividing the Chechen people so that, busy fighting one another, they would have no time to pursue their dream of self determination.

The first division started over four years ago when a group of ambitious adventurers, led by Shamil Bashaev, and backed by Arab money and "volunteers", took up arms against the democratic government of President Aslan Mashhadov.

Now the Russians are trying to divide the Chechens on the basis of religion as well. Branding all their opponents as "Wahhabis", the Russians hope to mobilise the traditional Sufi fraternities who have dominated Chechnya since it converted to Islam in the 16th century.

Applying the "divide and rule" doctrine, Moscow is encouraging and in some cases financing, the candidacy of several clan chiefs and Sufi pirs in the hope of preventing the emergence of any big bloc of Chechen voters. By the latest count there are 12 candidates, a number that could increase before the applications close next week.

Moscow may well be planning to drop Qadyrov, who is so unpopular that he can hardly venture out of his palace in Grozny without Russian bodyguards. In his place, Moscow may wish to see someone like Hussain Jabrailov whose family owns a chain of hotels in the Russian capital.

Another possible successor to Qadyrov is Aslan Aslankhanov who has been Chechnya's representative in the Russian parliament, the Duma, and a member of Putin's "United Russia" Party. Finally, Putin may wish to see Malik Saidallahyev, one of the richest businessmen in Moscow, as the next president of Chechnya.

The electoral show organised by Moscow is partly based on the hope that the United States and its allies, preoccupied with the global war against terror, will look the other way as Russian colonial rule is re-imposed on Chechnya. But this sham election is unlikely to bring peace to Chechnya. The candidates already in the field are hardly able to venture out without an escort of Russian tanks and helicopter gunships.

Chechnya's legitimate president, Mashahadov, is not expected to put his stamp of approval on a fraudulent election in which a few thousand armed men will cast ballots for half a million dead or exiled Chechens.

The absence of international observers, who were present when Mashhadov was elected, will deprive the exercise of real legitimacy.

While there can be no democracy without elections, it is perfectly possible to have elections without democracy. This was the case throughout the Soviet era and is the case in Russian-occupied Chechnya today. Some Europeans and Americans have been hoodwinked into seeing the Chechen conflict through Moscow's eyes.

They see the Chechens as a nation of hard line "Wahhabists" bent on winning independence through violence and terror. A majority of Chehens, however, belong to the Malekite school of Sunni Islam and have a strong Sufi tradition that dates back to the early stages of Islamisation in the region.

Nor do most Chechens want a complete break from Russia. They know that, landlocked as their country is, they cannot survive as a self-contained enclave in the Caucasus. All they want is the implementation of the accords signed by Mashahdov and former Russian President Boris Yeltsin more than five years ago.

The Russian Federation is a mosaic of over 100 small, medium and big nations. There are the Tatars, the Bashkir, the Udmurt, the Koumi, the Chuvache, the Morve, the Mari, the Yaqut, the Nenet, the Premen, the Ossete, the Ingush, the Daghestani, the Charkess, the Koriak, the Kalmuk and many more. Most of these minority nationalities are Muslim. And almost all have succeeded in working out a modus vivendi within the Russian federation. So, why should Chechnya be the exception?

Personal honour

The answer is that Putin has turned the crushing of Chechnya into a matter of personal honour. He believes that he would win a second presidential term only if he offers the head of Chechnya on a silver platter.

On a number of occasions he has said that the war in Chechnya has become "a personal matter" for him.

There is no doubt that Russia must be allowed to play a leading role in international politics.

But this should not come at the expense of a small and brave nation that is asking for nothing more than is enjoyed by so many other constituent nations of the federation.

The U.S. and the European Union, along with the UN and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) must stop the forthcoming election farce in Chechnya and, instead, offer a forum for talks between Moscow and the true representatives of the Chechen people, to seek a peaceful solution to this most savage of wars.

The writer is an Iranian journalist based in Europe and author of 10 books on the Middle East and Islam. He can be reached at: amirtaheri@benadorassociates.com

http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/Opinion.asp?ArticleID=96678

Russia May Supply Air Defense Systems to Iran
09/03/2003 19:31

What does Washington think about it?

Russia may start supplies of modern anti-missile defense systems to Iran, the information became known from an interview of Radjab Safarov, the director general of the Russian Center for Modern Iran Studies, with the Japanese newspaper Sankei Shimbun.

According to Radjab Safarov, a sensational proposition was first voiced by former chairman of the Duma Defense Committee, now late Lev Rokhlin during his meeting with Iran Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani that took place in the framework of an official visit of the RF Duma delegation to Iran at the end of February 1997. Radjab Safarov himself was member of the delegation as one of the deputies of Russia's defense minister.

The Japanese newspaper reports that the proposition voiced by Lev Rokhlin was as follows: as soon as Iran launches military satellites it will have a chance not only to trace all movements inside the country, at the borders and in the whole of the region within 24 hours; what is more Iran could ensure its security in the air with the help of different anti-missile and air defense facilities. The general said then: "As far as Iran has made a decision to build a nuclear power plant it is important to protect it from numerous enemies. Russia from its side is ready to supply modern air defense systems to Iran."

Radjab Safarov says that the top-authorities of Iran evinced great interest toward the proposition; they asked Russia to provide information about the price and performance specification of the system as the proposition hadn't been mentioned in the program of the visit originally. The Russian side claimed that the system cost $3-4 billion; construction of the system might take up to 3 years.

Iranian representatives participating in the talks told the general that they needed time to coordinate the proposition with the top leaders of the country. However, experts say that no official inquiry followed from Iran; the issue still remains unsettled.

Meanwhile, a Russian delegation headed by 2000 Nobel Prize winner, Duma deputy Professor Zhores Alferov is leaving for Teheran on September 19, 2003. The delegation is expected to stay in Iran for 5 days. It is not ruled out that supplies of the air defense system will be once again touched upon during the visit.

It should be mentioned that a regular session of the International Atomic Energy Agency devoted to Iran's nuclear programs is to open in Vienna on September 8. Having allowed the leakage of information about secret negotiations with Iran, Russia is raising its rates at the negotiations with the USA. After the end of the Iraqi war the whole of the world is experiencing waves of anti-American attitudes. Against this background the popularity of Russian air defense and anti-missile defense systems is gaining force.

Read the original in Russian: http://news.pravda.ru/abroad/2003/09/03/54440.html (Translated by: Maria Gousseva)

http://english.pravda.ru/accidents/21/93/375/10829_iran.html

"Israel to redirect search for missing airman toward Iran"

Thursday, September 04, 2003

JERUSALEM ,Sep 3, (AFP) - Israel is redirecting its search toward Iran for an airman who was shot down over southern Lebanon and has become a folk hero in the Jewish state, television reports said Israeli investigators have asked the United States to question -- or allow them to question -- Iraqi former prisoners of war in the Islamic republic on whether any of them saw Ron Arad, whose jet was downed on October 16, 1986.

Israeli troops rescued the plane's pilot but the navigator, Arad, fell into the hands of the pro-Syrian Shiite militia Amal.
An Israeli defense ministry commission recently concluded it was impossible to establish Arad was dead and said he should be considered still alive.

Israel has repeatedly demanded the release of Arad, or of his remains, from Lebanon. But the speaker of the Lebanese parliament, Nabih Berri, who is also head of Amal, said the group that was holding him had broken up and that Arad had been sent to Iran.

Tehran has always denied this, although the former head of Amal's intelligence wing, Mustapha Dirani, gave the same story after he was captured and jailed in Israel.

In July 2001, a freed human rights activist told the French weekly Le Point he had seen Arad in a Syrian jail seven years after he was shot down.

Arad has become a folk hero in Israel, with regular demonstrations demanding his release, a website created in his honour and even a song dedicated to him, called "Ron".

Iraq (news - web sites) and Iran have exchanged a total of 97,000 prisoners under the supervision of the International Committee of the Red Cross following their brutal 1980-1988 war that left more than one million dead on both sides.

http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=17774&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs

Israel's President Addresses Iran

President Moshe Katsav Is Iranian-Born

Sep 3, 2003 11:17 am US/Central
JERUSALEM, Israel (AP) Israel's Iranian-born president has hosted an emotional radio talk show with listeners from his native country, even as Israeli and Iranian leaders have traded barbs in recent days over Tehran's nuclear program.

The broadcast earlier this week on the Persian service of Israel Radio linked President Moshe Katsav with listeners from all over Iran, service director Menashe Amir said Wednesday.

It was the first time Katsav has addressed Iranians on the radio since assuming the largely ceremonial presidency in 2000.

Katsav chatted in a mix of Hebrew and Farsi with Iranian listeners who called in during Monday's program, recalling his fondness of the country he left as a boy.

"My family lived in Iran for over 2,500 years," he said. "We absorbed the Persian culture and mentality, and we nurture in our hearts very warm feelings for Iran's history and culture."

Katsav's comments and those of listeners, reported in the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot, were confirmed by radio officials.

Israel and Iran have been bitter enemies since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution. Iran regards Israel as a consistent violator of Palestinian rights and has called for its destruction; Israel says Iran supports terrorists and is pursuing a nuclear weapons program that threatens world peace.

Israel Radio reaches more than 1 million listeners in Iran and can be heard over the radios of shopkeepers in Tehran's markets, said Amir, who translated for Katsav.

The phone connection was routed through Europe for the president's 45-minute appearance because the two countries have no direct link.

A caller from Yazed, where Katsav was born, asked for help for a sick relative, saying he believes Israel has the best medical system in the world. Katsav said he would do his best, noting that many of his relatives are buried in Yazed and that the city remains close to his heart.

Another listener praised Israel for giving international aid but chided it for being selective.

"I am very proud of the fact that a native Iranian has become the president of Israel," the listener said. "Tell me: How is it that when there is an earthquake at the other end of the world, Israel mobilizes to help, whereas you will not help us -- the Iranian people -- go free?"

Katsav said Israel does not want to intervene in Iran's "internal affairs."

"This is a matter that is subject to the people of Iran. I am saying clearly that we are interested in rebuilding relations," he said. However, he said, "the Iranian leaders speak about the destruction of Israel."

The president "was clearly moved" by speaking to the Iranians, who showed great interest in developments in Israel, Amir said.

The broadcast came just one day after Israeli Foreign Minister Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom told EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana -- fresh from talks in Tehran -- that Iran's nuclear program constitutes a "grave threat" to the world.

Iran insists it is not seeking to make atomic weapons and that its nuclear program is only for generating electricity. Israel has never confirmed being a nuclear power, but it is widely believed to have nuclear weapons.

Last month, the Iranian government warned Israel against attacking its nuclear installations, saying any such attempt would be a serious mistake.

http://wcco.com/topstories/topstories_story_246151950.html

Motorbike gunmen fire shots at British embassy in Iran

04 September 2003

The British embassy in Tehran came under fire yesterday in an incident that threatens to turn an already charged atmosphere into the most serious crisis in relations with Iran since the Salman Rushdie affair.

The shooting caused limited damage and injured nobody. But it came on a day when the Iranian ambassador to Britain was recalled to Tehran over the arrest of an Iranian diplomat in Britain.

Shortly before midday in Tehran, shots rang out, hitting windows in upper storeys of the embassy compound. Witnesses said two men on motorbikes stopped in front of the embassy to fire the shots with a handgun before riding away at high speed.

The embassy building is protected by a high perimeter wall that stretches two hundred yards along Ferdowsi street, one of central Tehran's busiest thoroughfares. Bullet holes could later be seen in windows facing the street.

Richard Dalton, Britain's ambassador in Tehran, said: "This was a serious incident. Six shots were fired at the embassy building. Several of them entered offices on the second floor."

The embassy had been on high alert since relations with Iran soured last month over the arrest in Britain of Hade Soleimanpour, an Iranian diplomat. Argentina is seeking his extradition in connection with the bombing of a Jewish centre in Buenos Aires in 1994 which killed 85 people. After failing to secure his release through political channels, Morteza Sarmadi, the Iranian ambassador to Britain, flew to Iran yesterday "for consultations". He is not expected to return.

There was speculation that the embassy attack was the work of Iranians angry with the British and Americans after the assassination in Najaf last week of the Iranian-backed Shia cleric Ayatollah Mohammad Bakr al-Hakim. Ayatollah Hakim had been exiled in Iran and only returned to Iraq in May. His death caused widespread grief in Iran.

But it is more likely that the shootings reflect the struggle for power in Iran and were ordered by hardline religious conservatives eager to provoke the moderate President Mohammad Khatami into tougher action against Britain.

Iran has been incensed by the arrest of Mr Soleimanpour, which it says was politically motivated. Hardliners maintain that Britain is mimicking American policy in the Middle East.

Britain insists that the police had no choice but to respond to an international extradition request. A government spokesman said the matter was purely judicial. He said the former Iranian ambassador to Argentina did not enjoy diplomatic immunity because he was studying at a British university.

With Iranian hardliners calling for the expulsion of Mr Dalton, the British Government has been braced for reprisals. Mr Dalton cut short his holiday to fly back to Tehran after Mr Soleimanpour was refused bail.

The effect of the row, compounded by yesterday's shooting, is to undermine the strategy of constructive engagement in which Jack Straw the Foreign Secretary, has invested considerable energy. The Government has been working to repair links with Iran which were severed in 1989 after the fatwa calling for the murder of Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses. Diplomatic relations were restored in 1999. Mr Straw has been to Iran four times to urge Tehran's support for the "war on terror".

A rupture with Britain would leave Iran with few friends in the international community.

There is mounting concern that Tehran may be secretly developing a nuclear weapon. The IAEA, the UN's nuclear watchdog, revealed last week that its inspectors found enriched uranium at a power plant south of Tehran. The finding appeared to confirm the suspicions of those in the Bush administration who regard Iran as a member of the "axis of evil". Mr Blair has expressed concern about Iran's nuclear ambitions and the EU may postpone a valuable trade deal when it considers the IAEA inspectors' conclusions.

The Foreign Office said diplomatic ties had not been downgraded and discussions with Iran were continuing.

Source: The Independent

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=440046

Good reasons for implicating Pak in Iran nuke link: US expert

Washington, September 4

A leading expert of a US-based security think tank feels there are genuine reasons why Pakistan is being implicated by the international community for assisting in Iran's nuclear capability build-up.

"There are reasons why Pakistan is implicated. One is that the design of the centrifuge appears to be similar to that kind of centrifuge that we know Pakistan had in the late eighties, and which they (Iran) know they (Pakistan) actually acquired designs and information on how to build from Europe," Corey Hinderstein of the Institute for Science and International Security told ANI in an exclusive interview.

"There are some footsteps that would point to Pakistan. But, it's certainly not a completed investigation, and there are other countries from which this technology could also have arrived," Hinderstein added.

"I have not seen any evidence that they (Iran) have actually made the decision to go forward and actually build nuclear weapons, one, many, hundreds. But, what I am seeing, is that they are developing such a large infrastructure that if that decision was ever made, that they would be able to turn around, almost overnight, and have a tremendous nuclear capability," the expert told ANI.

Pakistan, Hinderstein said, has taken great strides in the field of nuclear technology, but it is difficult for such countries to maintain control or a cap on proliferation.

"I think that Pakistan has taken great strides, but unfortunately, it's almost impossible to put a lid on this sort of technology," he said.

His reactions assume significance in the wake of a Los Angeles Times report that suggests that Iran obtained key nuclear information and technology from Pakistan early last month, a charged rejected by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf.

On the dilemma faced by Washington vis-a-vis Islamabad's growing nuclear potential and its ability to help friendly countries in this sector, Hinderstein said: "I think they're (US) in quite a dilemma. They really rely on Pakistan to be a partner in the war on terrorism. Pakistan also has very few legal restrictions in the sense that they are not members of the NPT. They do not have International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards in place."

"So, while the IAEA is asking for their cooperation in researching what may have happened with regard to Iran, they have very little leverage on Pakistan, and it's up to Pakistan to come forward and maybe reveal some things that may be embarrassing to them.

This embarrassment is one that many countries have felt and we've already noted European countries, particularly Germany, were highly embarassed in the early nineties over revelations about the technology that got to Iraq. And, they had many more controls in place at that time than Pakistan had," he adds.

The reality is that the basics of building a nuclear bomb are fairly easily obtained in this Internet and global age. For now, the Bush Administration appears have put the war on terrorism higher on the agenda than the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Washington does not have many options when it comes to confronting Pakistan, Hinderstein opines.

He also believed that rather than focussing on Pakistan and India's nuclear capabilities, which had been openly announced in 1998, it would be more prudent to pay attention to other countries like Iran in the Asian region seeking to acquire these capabilities and to prevent them from reaching uncontrollable limits.

"Well, certainly, any active country has the potential to proliferate. And certainly we're worried about North Korea right now being able to export some of their technology right now. The nature of information and technology is very hard to regulate and hard to control," he said.

"Well, Pakistan and India have have been very open about the fact that they have nuclear weapons. Neither of them are members of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)."

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_361996,00050002.htm

THURSDAY 04/09/2003 13:25:21
Blair warning to Iran

Tony Blair today issued a fresh warning to Iran to comply with international demands on nuclear weapons and cease support for terrorist groups.

The Prime Minister said Britain would remain critical of Tehran until it signed up to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, and said his Government was under ``no illusions`` about their relationship.

The International Atomic Energy Agency is due to report next Monday on whether Iran is in breach of its international obligations. It has faced calls to open up its civil nuclear programme to international inspections amid fears that it is developing a bomb.

Mr Blair, speaking at his monthly Downing Street press conference, said: ``We have a policy of, I would describe it actually, as critical engagement (with Iran).

``We are engaged with Iran, we have a dialogue with their leadership, but we are under no illusions.

``It is important both that they adhere completely to the demands of the international community in respect of nuclear weapons and that they cease all support of terrorist groups.

``Until those two things are done, that engagement is going to remain critical.``

The Prime Minister`s warning is set to further sour relations between the two countries, already cooled by the recall of Iran`s ambassador to London this week over the detention of a diplomat wanted in connection with the 1994 bombing of a Jewish centre in Argentina.

Yesterday shots were fired at the British embassy in Tehran in an incident which could be related to the row.

Morteza Sarmadi was recalled to Tehran after he failed to secure the release of Hade Soleimanpour during a meeting with Foreign Secretary Jack Straw on Monday.

Although the Foreign Office has insisted Mr Sarmadi`s return to Iran did not amount to a downgrading of relations, the move is a severe disappointment to Mr Straw, who has been cultivating ties with his Iranian counterpart for the past two years.

Soleimanpour was detained following an extradition request from Argentina over the bombing of a Jewish centre in Buenos Aires in 1994 when he was ambassador to the country.

Last week the career diplomat, who is still employed by the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was refused bail despite his government offering £500,000 for his surety.

The extradition hearing at Bow Street Magistrates Court had heard how Iranian President Ali Mohammed Khatami had demanded the release of Soleimanpour, 47, and an apology from the Government.

http://u.tv/newsroom/indepth.asp?id=36766&pt=n

U.S. refuses to question Iraqi pilots held in Iran for information on Ron Arad

By Ellis Shuman September 4, 2003

The United States refused an official Israeli request to ask Iraqi pilots who had been held as prisoners of war in Iran if they know anything about missing IAF navigator Ron Arad, who may have been held at some time there, Channel Two television reported. The request came after an IDF panel concluded that there is no available information that can refute the defense establishment's working assumption that Arad is still alive.

After the United States refused to ask the Iraqi pilots they were interrogating about Ron Arad, Israel asked if Israelis could be given the opportunity to talk with the pilots directly. The Americans refused this request as well, Channel Two reported.

Israel turned to the Americans in Iraq at the recommendation of the Winograd Committee, a special IDF panel headed by retired judge Eliyahu Winograd. The committee was established over a year ago by then-IDF Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz with the goal of reevaluating ways to handle the case of Ron Arad, who was captured in southern Lebanon after his jet was downed on October 16, 1986.

The committee reportedly examined thousands of documents collected in the seventeen years since Arad's capture and concluded that there was no evidence to change the assumption that he is still alive. The committee presented its findings to IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Moshe Yaalon three weeks ago, but no conclusions or decisions have been made by the army, the army spokesman's office said.

"We have always said that we are certain that Ron is alive, although recently we have received unconfirmed reports that he might be very sick," said Yoske Harari, head of the Fellowship for Ron Arad's Release.

"Next Friday [September 12], we will gather some 5,000 students together near the Tel Aviv Museum to press the government not to forget Ron Arad," he said yesterday.

Dudu Arad, Ron's brother, said he was please to hear the committee's conclusion. "We were glad to hear that we are not crazy, that there is a committee, set up by the person who was IDF chief of staff and today is defense minister, that has determined that Ron is still alive."

The committee's report came as Israel and Hizbullah are negotiating a possible prisoner exchange deal. According to media reports, Israel would release former Hizbullah leader Sheikh Abdul Karim Obeid and Believers Resistance head Mustafa Dirani in exchange for Israeli citizen Elchanan Tannenbaum and the bodies of the three IDF soldiers, who were presumably killed by Hizbullah. After Israel dropped its demand for information about Ron Arad's fate, progress was made in the talks, the reports indicated.

"As part of the proposed deal it is, apparently, planned to release two important figures, Sheikh Abdul Karim Obeid and Mustafa Dirani, who were brought to Israel against their will specifically to help bring about the release and return of Ron," Harari said.

"We are sure that with patience, a deal can be concluded that would ensure the return of the missing Israelis and would include Ron or information about him. Not doing this would be a big mistake and the government still has the time to change its mind and plans," he added.

Military sources said that publication of the Winograd Committee report might complicate the prisoner exchange deal being brokered by German negotiator Ernst Uhrlau, Haaretz reported.

http://web.israelinsider.com/bin/en.jsp?enPage=ArticlePage&enDisplay=view&enDispWhat=object&enDispWho=Article%5El2711&enZone=Diplomacy&enVersion=0&

BP, Royalutch Shell ready to continue activity in Iran

Tehran, Sept 3, IRNA -- British Petroleum (BP) and Anglo-Dutch conglomerate, Royal/Dutch Shell, will continue activity in Iran despite closure of British Embassy in Tehran as a result of a shooting incident on Tuesday.

Informed sources say BP and Royal/Dutch Shell, two well-credited oil companies that started activity in Iran in recent years, would go on with their mission despite temporary closure of British Embassy in Tehran. The embassy was closed late Wednesday morning until further notice after being hit by gunfire from two motorcyclists.

Iranian police is investigating the case. BP has started activity in Iran since 1997 after setting up its representative office and is now a major purchaser of the country`s crude oil and oil derivatives.

The company is one of the two winners of a tender for development of Bangestan oil field, still awaiting National Iranian Oil Company`s (NIOC) decision to announce it as the final winner.

BP has also taken part in the tender for development of phase 11 of South Pars gas field and is currently cooperating with the NIOC to implement the first LNG project in Iran. The company is also cooperating with the NIOC and other international companies in the Output Expansion Consortium.

Meanwhile, Shell is busy with the project for development of Sorush and Norouz oil fields and is keen to contribute to development of phases 13 and 14 of South Pars gas field as well as implementation of the LNG projects in Iran.

The company signed a contract with Iran`s Oil Industry Research Center early this year for research and exploratory operations. Negotiations are underway between the Iranian party and the two British companies for implementation of GTL projects.

http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=17780&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs

Timeline: UK-Iran relations

BBC News Online looks at the chequered history of Britain-Iranian ties in recent decades.
1951: The Iranian Government nationalises the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, triggering a dispute with Britain.

1953: Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadeq is deposed in a coup backed by Britain and the US.

1979: Britain closes its embassy in Tehran following the Islamic revolution, and transfers its diplomats to a British interests section at the Swedish embassy.

1988: The British embassy in Tehran re-opens.

February 1989: Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini issues a religious edict (fatwa) ordering Muslims to kill British author Salman Rushdie, accused of blasphemy against Islam. Diplomatic ties with London are broken off.

September 1990: Relations are restored, but they are limited to the level of charge d'affaires.

May 1997: Mohammad Khatami, a reformer, becomes Iranian president, leading to efforts to normalise ties between the two countries.

September 1998: Relations with Britain are upgraded to ambassador level, after the Khatami government agrees to stop encouraging Muslims to carry out the death sentence against Salman Rushdie.

January 2000: Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi visits London.

September 2001: Jack Straw becomes the first UK foreign secretary to travel to Iran since 1979 - as part of efforts to forge a coalition against the Taleban in Afghanistan.

February 2002: Britain's improving relations with Iran suffer a major setback when Tehran rejects David Reddaway as London's new ambassador, calling him a spy.

June 2003: The UK urges Iran to open up its nuclear sites to tougher inspections, amid growing international concern that Tehran might be developing nuclear weapons.

21 August: The UK authorities arrest Iranian diplomat Hade Soleimanpour, who is wanted by Argentina on terror charges, triggering a fresh row. Tehran demands the immediate release of Mr Soleimanpour and an apology from the British.

27 August : Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Ahani travels to London to meet Jack Straw, who says the cannot interfere with a judicial matter. Tehran says it hopes the dispute will not come to the withdrawal of ambassadors, but adds that all legal and diplomatic options are open.

3 September: Iran recalls its ambassador to London "for consultations" and shots are fired at the UK embassy in Tehran.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3077540.stm

What is going on in Iraq is the outcome of the big mistake the occupying forces made.

Tehran, Sept 3, IRNA -- President Mohammad Khatami said on Wednesday
that instability in Iraq serves the interests of the Zionist regime
and that evidences available show escalation of Israeli activities in
Iraq in the past several days.
Speaking in an interview with Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television
network, President Khatami said that the terrorist acts are aimed at
disrupting peace and security in Iraq.
"I express grief over martyrdom of the great religious and
political leader from the household of the Hakim," he said.
"He was a personality who could usher in democracy, solidarity and
progress in Iraq. I believe that his assassination was engineered to
hamper establishment of stability and justice in Iraq," President
Khatami said.
"What is going on in Iraq is the outcome of the big mistake the
occupying forces made. They thought that the Iraq crisis will be
resolved through occupation of the country," he said.
"The occupying forces invaded Iraq while there had been logical
solutions to the Iraq problem. They could have established security
in Iraq without occupation," President Khatami said.
"The first step ahead is that the occupying powers should hand
over the country`s affairs to the Iraqi people by establishing a
democratic government in Iraq without ethnic affiliations," the
president said.
"I don`t think the terrorist operations in Iraq are launched by an
ordinary group. Absolutely, a state terrorism is going on with a state
behind it," President Khatami said citing the extensive bombing in
Najaf, destruction of the United Nations Office in Baghdad and
bombing of Jordan`s Embassy in baghdad.
"The occupying powers are responsible for security of the Iraqi
people. They should fulfill their responsibility in this respect."

http://www.irna.ir/

Argentina Urges Iran's Cooperation in Jewish Center Bombing Probe

September 04, 2003
AFP
TerraNet

Argentina has urged the Iranian government to fully cooperate with its investigation of a 1994 bombing of a local Jewish community center that killed 85 people, the foreign ministry said.

The appeal came as Argentine Foreing Minister Rafael Bielsa and Judge Juan Jose Galeano met with an Iranian delegation led by Moshen Baharvand, deputy director of the Iranian Foreign Ministry's legal department.

Iran is suspected of helping mastermind the attack that also injured 300 people.

Tensions between the two countries reached a new high when Iran's former ambassador to Argentina, Hadi Soleimanpur, was arrested in Britain last month on an extradition request from Argentina, which charged him with involvement in the bombing.

Soleimanpur is to appear in court September 19.

In response, Tehran said it was ending economic and cultural cooperation with Argentina and hinted it might expel British ambassador Richard Dalton over the matter.

Galeano, who is investigating the attack, has issued a dozen arrest warrants for Iranians implicated in the attack without receiving any response from the Iranian side.

British attorney Richard Halsal, who represents the detained Iranian, also took part in the talks.

The affair has also strained relations between Britain and Iran with shots fired at the British embassy Wednesday just hours after Iran's ambassador to Britain was recalled.

The shooting, which caused no injuries, came after Iran confirmed that it had recalled its ambassador from London for consultations following Britain's arrest of the former Iranian diplomat.

The embassy was closed late Wednesday morning "until further notice" after being hit by gunfire, according to an embassy spokesman.

In London, a Foreign Office spokesman confirmed the shooting. "The bullets hit offices on the first and second floors of the building," he said. Three bullet holes could be seen in the reinforced windows on the second floor.

Witnesses quoted by the official IRNA news agency said the shots were fired from two motorcycles.

Following the incident, some 20 Iranian police officers were deployed in front of the building.

The Foreign Office said earlier Wednesday that Iranian ambassador Morteza Sarmadi had returned to his country amid worsening diplomatic relations between the two countries, but added: "This is not a downgrading of relations."

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi said: "Sarmadi is here for some consultations" without specifying how long he would remain in Iran.

A diplomat in London, quoted by The Guardian newspaper, said Sarmadi had officially returned for consultations following a hastily arranged meeting with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw on Monday.

The source said Sarmadi "may not return" after failing to win any compromise from Straw over the detention of Soleimanpour, who was ordered by a British judge on Friday to remain in custody until his court appearance on September 19.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Ahani, who flew to London to discuss Soleimanpour's arrest with Straw last week, on Tuesday summoned the British ambassador to Tehran, Richard Dalton, and criticized the British judge and prosecution, IRNA reported.

The spokesman for parliament's national security and foreign policy committee, Jafar Golbaz, was quoted as saying after a meeting with Ahani: "We will not accept under any circumstance that the London court hands over Soleimanpour to Argentina."

Iran has repeatedly denied links to the Jewish centre bombing and that of the Israeli embassy in Argentina in March 1992 which killed 29 and injured 200, and has denounced "conspiracies" against it by the "Zionist regime".

http://iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl?l=en&y=2003&m=09&d=04&a=4

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