Iranian Alert -- September 14, 2003 -- IRAN 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.

CANADIAN, AUSTRALIAN AND JAPANESE ENVOYS MUST BE EXPELLED: IRAN PRESS

TEHRAN 13 Sept. (IPS)

The Islamic Republic reacted angrily to the Friday resolution by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Directors calling it to sign up the additional Protocols to the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and also stop at once all its uranium enriching programs.

In the absence of any official statement to the resolution, it was the press, both reformist and conservative, that took up the matter, urging the authorities to expel the ambassadors of the three nations that initiated the resolution, namely Canada, Australia and Japan, get out of the NPT and revise its relations with all the nations that approved the resolution.

The resolution, adopted without a vote, a procedure that the IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming described as "very unusual", was presented by Japan, Canada and Australia.

Iran’s delegation at the Board, led by Ali Akbar Salehi, its Ambassador at the IAEA, walked out of the meeting, stating that "such an offensive text risks to kill an otherwise constructive process".

"My country can possibly not accept a decision taken under political considerations", he told journalists in Vienna, accusing western powers of the Board of presenting Iran "biased, illegal and illegitimate" demands that could not be met in the time limit (of 31 October) fixed by the resolution.

The Iranian walkout was a protest against the resolution and against the procedure", an IAEA spokesman explained.

Mr. Salehi also accused the United States, Britain, France, Germany for their "extreme position" that, he said, was "nothing new".

But Mohammad El-Bradeh’i, the Egyptian Director of the IAEA expressed satisfaction, saying the resolution sends a clear and strong message to Iran, calling on it to cooperate with IAEA "fully and immediately".

"I reiterate that in the weeks ahead, we have a lot to do in regard with Iran’s nuclear projects, as I have to submit to the Board (of Directors) a precise report concerning the state of Iran’s cooperation with the resolution", he stressed at the end of the meeting.

Noting that urging the Islamic Republic to sign "immediately and unconditionally" the additional protocols is one of the "most humiliating clauses" of a resolution that denies the Majles and other decision-making organs of the nation to exercise their rights, the hard line evening daily "Keyhan" said Saturday that the "least pride and persuation" the officials can show toward this action is to immediately expel the ambassador of the three countries that formulated the resolution and not allow them to return until their countries presents full apology to the Iranian people and government.

In an editorial signed by Mr Hoseyn Sharia’atmadari, a specialist in interrogating political and intellectual dissidents appointed as Editor of the paper by Ayatollah Ali Khameneh’i, Keyhan assured that if the authorities fail to expel the three ambassadors, the Muslim people of Iran would do it by closing down their embassies in Tehran.

"Yesterday (Friday) resolution of the Board of Directors of the IAEA leaves not doubt about the fact that the recent cacophonies over the nuclear activities of our nation is a well calculated plot aimed at toppling the Islamic Republic of Iran, using the NPT as a pressure tool", added the daily that reflects the view of Mr. Khameneh’i, the leader of the Iranian clerical regime.

For its part, "Jomhuri Eslami" (Islamic Republic), a radical daily that belongs to Ayatollah Khameneh'i went even further, saying that Iran should follow the example of North Korea, which on December 31 expelled all IAEA inspectors and later withdrew from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

"It should be accepted that the correct way was the one North Korea chose", the paper said.

While the state-run, leader-controlled Tehran Radio run a commentary on the same line, "Yas No", the official organ of the Islamic Iran Participation Front, a coalition of groups and parties that back the embattled President Mohammad Khatami and also control the parliament, advised the government to "revise" its relations with all the countries that supported the resolution.

"The (IAEA) resolution was adopted under heavy pressures applied by the United States on other countries, including the European Union and this is exactly what makes it partial, discriminatory and unusual", said Mr. Morad Veisi of Yas No, adding that "not only the Iranian people would stand up to the discriminatory decisions of IAEA, but would also consider revising relations with all the nations that supported the resolution".

"However, one must also ask why the position of Iran has degraded from its peak of the golden period of after second Khordad (26 May 1997, marking the surprising victory of Hojjatoleslam Mohammad Khatami) to present situation where even nations such as Japan, Canada and Australia sides against the Islamic Republic?", Mr. Veisi added in his commentary.

But Russia, the country that is constructing Iran’s first nuclear powered electrical plant in the Persian Gulf of Booshehr called Saturday on Tehran to comply with the resolution.

"This resolution is a serious and respectful appeal by the agency for Iran to cooperate with IAEA...and do so without delay", Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak told the independent Russian news agency Interfax.

"Observing that the resolution is not a threat to Iran, Mr. Kislyak hoped that by accepting the resolution, the Islamic Republic could remove all the existing problems it has with the IAEA", added from Moscow a correspondent for the Persian service of the BBC.

The United States and Israel, joined by the EU, alleges that Iran’s civilian nuclear programs are a front for building atomic bomb aimed at destroying the Jewish State.

But both Tehran and Moscow rejects the accusation, insisting that all atomic projects are for civilian and peaceful purposes, mainly producing electricity.

"Since the victory of the Islamic revolution 25 years ago, the Islamic Republic of Iran has never been in such an awkward position on the international scene", observed Mr. Sadeq Saba, the senior commentator of the BBC on Iranian affairs. ENDS IAEA IRAN 13903

http://www.iran-press-service.com/

November 20 is crunch time for Iran in nuclear row

AFP - World News (via Iranmania)
Sep 13, 2003

VIENNA - Iran is facing two crunch dates between now and late November in the worsening international row over its alleged development of nuclear weapons.

The first is October 31, the deadline imposed by the United Nations' nuclear watchdog for Tehran to prove it is not secretly developing nuclear weapons, to suspend all enrichment of uranium and to give full details of all uranium it has imported.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has also urged the Islamic republic to sign an additional protocol to the international nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) that would allow the UN's nuclear inspectors to make unannounced visits to suspected nuclear weapons facilities.

The second crunch date is November 20, when the IAEA's board of governors convenes again in Vienna to consider how to respond to the crisis.

If the IAEA governors conclude on November 20 that Iran has not answered all their concerns about its nuclear activities and is therefore in violation of the NPT, then they could refer the problem to the UN Security Council and that could lead to the imposition of international sanctions on Tehran.

"We hope that Iran gives us all the cooperation we've asked for. If they cooperate we could be able to report to our board of governors (on November that we have resolved all the outstanding issues," IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky told AFP on Saturday.

"One possibility is that we conclude that their nuclear programme is solely devoted to peaceful purposes. That's what we hope for. The toughest decision that the board can take is to declare that Iran is not in compliance and to refer the matter to the Security Council.

"Between these two scenarios there are a lot of possibilities. But I don't want to speculate on those."

Iran, like Iraq and North Korea before it, is accused by Washington of illegally developing weapons of mass destruction. Tehran, which is building a civilian nuclear plant with Russian help, denies it intends to use any nuclear material for military purposes.

Pointing out that both the United States and its Middle East ally Israel have nuclear warheads, Tehran accuses Washington of double standards and of seeking to use the weapons argument as a pretext for invading the country, as it did oil-rich Iraq, in a bid "to re-engineer and re-shape the entire Middle East region".

It remains to be seen whether Iran will provide the IAEA with the cooperation it desires.

When the IAEA issued its October 31 deadline on Friday, Tehran's ambassador to the UN watchdog stormed out, accused the IAEA of pressurising it for political motives and warned that Iran could stop all cooperation with the inspectors.

Gwozdecky said he hoped the worse would not happen.

"We do not force any country to cooperate with us. We believe that Iran will understand that it is in its interest to cooperate with us because we provide a service for them.

"It's through our inspection process that they can demonstrate to the world that what they say is true. And it's only through impartial, international verification that the global community can have confidence in what is happening in Iran."

In the run up to November 20, the IAEA planned to continue its inspections in Iran, Gwozdecky said.

"We have a responsibility to do that," he explained.

"We hope that Iran will extend to our inspectors and experts their full cooperation,.. give us access to those sites which we want to visit and to answer fully all the questions we put to them," he added.

Gwozedcky said the IAEA would begin discussions with Tehran on the possibility of the Iranians signing an additional protocol to the NPT.

The IAEA would also continue to probe Iran's argument that the only reason the UN inspectors had discovered particles of highly enriched uranium at one of the sites they inspected was that it had been brought in on contaminated imported equipment.

"We will be discussing with other countries the story that Iran has imported equipment from abroad. And they have said that is why we have found particles of highly enriched uranium in our sampling," he said.

"We are waiting for Iran to give us the information but we're going to pursue this investigation."

Once the October 31 deadline arrived, the IAEA would begin preparing a new report on Iran for its 35 member nations, who would receive it by mid-November, in time for the crucial board meeting later that month, he said.

http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_2333.shtml

US military denies allowing Iran rebels to continue operations from Iraq

Jordan Times, Saturday, September 13, 2003

BAGHDAD (AFP) — The US military Thursday roundly denied reports that it was allowing the Iranian armed opposition People's Mujahedeen to mount attacks from Iraq four months after Washington gave orders for its fighters to be disarmed and confined to camp. Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, the coalition ground forces commander in Iraq, insisted that the group, also known by its Persian name Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK), had been deprived of its weapons and was being guarded by more than 5,000 coalition troops.

"The MEK has been separated from its combat equipment," Sanchez told a Baghdad news conference. "The MEK has not been able to conduct any operations against the Iran-Iraq border."

The general acknowledged that initially not all of the arms had been removed from the Ashraf camp northeast of Baghdad, where about 3,800 People's Mujahedeen militiamen are being held and screened, but stressed that all of them had been put beyond use.

"Some of their weaponry was at the same camp that they were at Ashraf," he said. "That equipment had been disabled but it was in the same camp. It has now been moved."

The Washington Post reported Thursday that Secretary of State Colin Powell had written to Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in the past week to complain that the People's Mujahedeen were being still given wide freedom to operate despite being designated by Washington as a terrorist group. The paper said that, according to administration officials, the Pentagon had allowed the group to retain its weapons, come and go as it pleased and use camp facilities to broadcast propaganda into Iran.

"It's unbelievable," the daily quoted an unnamed State Department official as saying. "It's a pretty cushy arrangement for a terrorist group."

But Sanchez insisted that there was no truth to the suggestion that the rebels were being given broad leeway amid staunch opposition from the Pentagon to calls from some in the State Department for a rapprochement with Iran.

"I can guarantee you that they are not carrying out operations," he insisted.

Asked why there were only 3,800 People's Mujahedeen fighters in coalition custody, a fraction of the group's prewar strength, he replied: "You tell me."

http://www.aljazeerah.info/News%20archives/2003%20News%20archives/September/13%20n/US%20military%20denies%20allowing%20Iran%20rebels%20to%20continue%20operations%20from%20Iraq.htm

14 Sep 2003 07:08:59 GMT
Iran says cooperation with IAEA open to debate

TEHRAN, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Iran's Foreign Ministry said on Sunday Tehran was debating whether to continue cooperation with the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog which last week gave Iran seven weeks to prove it had no secret atomic weapons programme.

Iran insists it has no nuclear arms ambitions and accuses Washington of seeking a pretext to invade the Islamic Republic as it had its neighbours Afghanistan and Iraq.

"The nature of our cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is under consideration," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told a weekly news conference.

"The relevant authorities are discussing it and our decision will be made public in future. We haven't made a concrete decision on how to continue cooperation with the IAEA," he said.

The IAEA has accused Tehran of failing to come clean about its nuclear programme. Iran says its nuclear facilities are solely geared to generating electricity.

A resolution passed by the IAEA's governing board on Friday called on Iran to clear up lingering doubts by October 31 and suspend all uranium enrichment activities for the time being.

The resolution implied that should the IAEA still have concerns about Iran's nuclear activities in November, it could declare Tehran in breach of international obligations and report it to the U.N. Security Council for possible economic sanctions.

In an interview with the German weekly Der Spiegel Iran's ambassador to the IAEA Ali Akbar Salehi warned that Tehran could follow North Korea's lead by pulling out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Asked on Monday if Iran would pull out of the NPT, Asefi reiterated that cooperation with the IAEA was under review.

Diplomats in Tehran said Iran's decision-making process was complicated by divisions in the ruling establishment.

While the reformist government led by President Mohammad Khatami has been pushing for greater cooperation with the IAEA, powerful hardliners close to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have argued the opposite.

"The IAEA board's tough statement may have given hardliners greater ammunition to argue that cooperation with the IAEA merely invites greater pressure on the country," one said.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L14518596.htm

Splintered mujahedeen ready to harass US troops, Kurds and Tehran

Splinter elements within the People’s Mujahedeen have taken to the rugged mountains separating Iran and Iraq, and were preparing to wage attacks against US troops, ethnic Kurds and Tehran, local officials and military sources said.

But US commanders and local sources insist their capabilities are limited after the bulk of Mujahedeen, also known by its Persian name Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK), hatched a deal with coalition authorities and withdrew to nearby Camp Ashraf in April.

Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Cantwell, Commandant of Camp Ashraf, said the 4,000 MEK members in the former Mujahedeen base were consolidated, detained, disarmed and were being screened for any past terrorist acts.

“All vehicles, arms and ammunition is under coalition control, they do not even carry a bayonet,” Cantwell, a Battalion Commander with the 324 Military Police, said.

The MEK has been classified by Washington as a terrorist outfit but Cantwell said this did not mean that each member of the MEK was a terrorist, hence the screening process to determine each individual’s legal status.

“It’s about restraint of the use of force and compliance with the Geneva Conventions, we’re especially trained in that, and that’s why we’re here,” Cantwell said.

He said the screening process and heavy restrictions on movement was taking a toll on the Mujahedeen, who are only allowed routine shopping trips into the town of Khalis under a heavy military escort.

“There’s nothing here that’s cushy and there is a fair degree of anxiety among them about their future,” he told AFP.

The MEK was a well-armed, secular fighting force that with backing from Saddam Hussein had continued a guerrilla insurgency against the hardline Islamic government in Tehran since the Iran-Iran war ended in 1988.

Their equipment included British Chieftain and Russian T-55 tanks.

One military source said the MEK had initially fled its bases along the Iranian border in southern Iraq as the United States was preparing to launch its March 20 invasion of Iraq from Kuwait.

The source, and members of the local branch of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), one of the main political parties in the area, said about 5,000 rebels then converged on the two bases near Jalawla about 30 kilometres west of the Iranian border in late March.

Those bases are now empty of rebels, occupied solely by looters and scrap-metal merchants who moved in after the Mujahedeen shifted to Camp Ashraf.

Deputy chief of the PUK branch in nearby Saadhiyah, Abdul al-Karim Mahmud, said the Americans began bombing the bases at about the same time as Saddam was being ousted from power on April 9.

“But the bombings were designed to frighten the MEK, not kill them, and then there were long negotiations with the Americans and the MEK,” he said.

He said eventually a deal was hammered out and most of the MEK agreed to relocate to Camp Ashraf but more than 1,000 of the rebels refused to move, kept their arms and headed into the mountains.

“Now they are fighting the Americans, the Kurds and the Iranians,” he said.

“The PUK were against Saddam, the Mujahedeen were with Saddam and they fought against the Kurds in the 1991 uprising. They refused to make peace with us so now they are fighting against the Americans and the PUK,” he said.

The military source, a senior officer based in the area, agreed.

“They had for a long time operated camps in southern Iraq, then pulled up to the border area to the north and west of Baghdad before the US began its invasion,” he said.

He said all the camps in the south, like those in Jalawla, and near Baghdad were empty and looted, except for Camp Ashraf which sits about 100 kilometres west of the Iranian border and 60 kilometres north of Baghdad.

There are some rebels still out there “but there is no way of telling exactly how many,” he said.

Washington announced on April 22 it had reached a ceasefire with the MEK and the following day Mujahedeen officials said the agreement allowed the MEK to keep its weapons and carry on its activities in Iran from Camp Ashraf.

But Cantwell said any such claims were non-existent by June when troops from the 324 Military Police took control of Camp Ahraf and the MEK was consolidated and “all weapons secured by MPs.”

He declined to comment on current MEK strength or any operations the rebels could conduct against the Americans, Iranian-government forces or the PUK.

“But I will say a substantial number have agreed to consolidate in one camp,” he said, “at Camp Ashraf.”

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_14-9-2003_pg4_10

2003/09/14
Daily calls to expel diplomats

Tehran, Sept 14 - Managing Director of the influential Persian daily Keyhan Hossein Shariatmadari, here Saturday called on the authorities to adopt measures to expel from Iran the ambassadors of Japan, Australia and Canada.

The three countries set forth a resolution in Vienna on Friday against Iran over its nuke activities.

The 35-member board of governors of the IAEA adopted the resolution setting the October 31 deadline for Iran to prove it is not seeking secretly to develop nuclear weapons.

The resolution calls on Tehran to clarify its nuclear program and suspend all its uranium enrichment activities.

In Keyhan's editorial, Shariatmadari commented on the IAEA governing council resolution against Iran and asserted that the said states' envoys have to be expelled from Iran and so long as their government have not apologized the Iranian government and people they should not be allowed to return to Iran.

If any negligence is seen as for expulsion of the ambassadors of Japan, Canada and Australia in Tehran, the devotees of the Islamic Revolution and the martyr's families would not allow the embassies of the trio to operate in Iran, he noted.

Shariatmadari said with a view to what has happened till now, the least reaction to the joint ploys of the United States and its allies, translated into action under the eyes of the United Nations, would be for Iran to immediately withdraw from the Non-Proliferation Treaty, (NPT).

Shariatmadari argued that the main objective of the United States and its allies which set forth and approved the anti-Iran resolution is to disarm the Islamic Republic and turn it into an agonizing state like Iraq and finally to overthrow it.

The Friday resolution of the IAEA governing council is nothing but an action to blackmail Iran, he said adding that the resolution is by no means in line with the laws and regulations of the IAEA code.

The immediate approval of the anti-Iran resolution is an ominous act that ignores all the legal and judicial mechanisms of Islamic Iran and even negates the very existence of the Islamic system, Shariatmadari said.

He commented on the voice heard as for the protocols 93+2 and said some 60 percent of the oil required by the West is produced in the Persian Gulf and if Iran is banned from exporting oil then it would not allow the oil export from the entire region.

Shariatmadari's comments came as Iran's permanent representative to the United Nations blamed the United States for its efforts to deprive Iran of nuclear power.

http://www.iribnews.com/Full_en.asp?news_id=187967&n=14

((( It seems that the regime wants to fight against the universe )))...!LOL

(( ECONOMIC NEWS FOR YOU ))

Iran widens talks on development of Azedegan oilfield

The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) has reportedly asked more international oil companies to consider bidding for the development of the Azadegan oilfield, in addition to a Japanese consortium which is already negotiating a sector, IRNA reported from London.

According to next Monday`s edition of Middle East Economic Survey, the move is designed to divert US pressure on the ongoing talks with the Japanese to link negotiations to the intense debate over Iran`s nuclear program.

The Iranian Oil Ministry believes that widening the scope of the the discussion on the huge Azedegan field will reduce the pressure on Japan by increasing the number of countries which the US would need to win over, the Cyprus-based weekly suggested.

NIOC was said to have invited a handful of European and Asian companies to obtain details of the development and whether they would like to take the talks further.

Russian and China were reported to have offered to take over the dlrs 2.8 billion when it was reported in July that the Japanese consortium was considering suspending negotiations in the face of threatened US sanctions.

Japan`s interest in developing the field with reserves estimated at between 5-6 billion barrels followed its loss of oil rights in Saudi Arabia in 2000.

But the readiness of Russia and China to step in was seen as demonstrating the difficulties faced by the Bush administration in its efforts to halt Iran`s alleged nuclear weapons program through economic sanctions.

At the time, the Financial Times suggested that the loss of Azadegan to China would be a serious blow to Japan because both are competing for energy sources in the Middle East.

http://www.payvand.com/news/03/sep/1079.html

From the Daily Star Lebanon:
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/opinion/10_09_03_e.asp

A killing Iran might not be able to shake

An authoritarian state is like the universe in that much of its mass consists of dark matter. The beast hiding behind the facade can be glimpsed only in brief flashes provoked by lighting from occasional political thunderstorms. These last longer when the authoritarian state is weak and when its society contains democratic components. That?s why a great deal of the murky operations of the Iranian judiciary will be exposed before the storm blows over the recent death of Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi, who died on July 10 as a result of injuries sustained while being interrogated in an Iranian prison.

One can contrast the episode with what happened 17 years ago during the Iran-Contra affair. In November 1986, a rogue clergyman named Mehdi Hashemi embarrassed Iran?s government by leaking the story of its clandestine contacts with the US to a Lebanese magazine. He was swiftly tried and put to death, but damage control was not optimal. In exposing the gun-slinging ayatollah?s shadowy career, the state also exposed itself as one in which activities similar to his could go unpunished if the perpetrators did not defy the system. But the revelations were too oblique, scant and controlled to compare to scandals that in democratic systems interrupt illegal activities and occasionally bring down governments. The clergyman?s trial did not amount to a ?Hashemigate.?

At the outset of President Mohammad Khatami?s first term in 1997-98, a band of state-sponsored assassins who had done away with scores of undesirables under the previous government concluded that the reformers lacked the backbone to interfere with their activities. This encouraged them to continue with the business of assassinating dissidents, ending with the grisly murder of the renowned nationalist politician Daryoush Forouhar and his wife. But Khatami stood firm (for the first and last time in his presidency), and as a result the perpetrators were brought to justice and the information ministry uncovered as the den of their nefarious activities.

However, the light went out as soon as Khatami?s government faltered in its his resolve to see the case through. As a result the lines of command leading up from the perpetrators were never officially explored. What followed would make a mafia don blush: the ringleader was found dead (allegedly by suicide) and the trials of the accused were so rigged by the partisan judiciary as to preclude reference to those who had ordered the assassinations. Subsequently, Saeed Hajjarian, a veteran information official and reformist who headed a committee that captured the culprits, was assassinated. Akar Ganji, a top journalist investigating the political network of the murderers, was imprisoned on trumped up charges.
Once again, although the modus operandi of the ?shadow government? that had ordered the killings remained in the limelight for a much longer period than during the trial of Hashemi, a ?Forouhargate? never materialized.

The murder of Kazemi at the hands of the right-wing judiciary however, may very well turn into a ?Kazemigate.? To begin with, the victim?s Canadian nationality ensures the investigation will not be compromised as a result of insider deals. The murder is now cast as an international crisis along with Iran?s nuclear ambitions and the role Tehran may have played in the attack on the Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires. Therefore, it cannot be snuffed out for partisan and personal reasons, or in the name of preserving the honor of ?the holy order of the Islamic Republic.?

Furthermore, the murder of Kazemi was different from previous scandals in that it occurred on the active fault lines of Iran?s reform-right-wing divide. After seven years of oppression by the right, such reform leaders as the parliamentarian Mohsen Armin (who regularly and publicly challenges the judiciary?s fabrications about Kazemi?s death) have little to lose by hanging tough on this issue. They consider the judiciary a brutal and dastardly organization that has perverted the cause of justice in order to crush both reform and dissent. Khatami?s information ministry has also refused to play the scapegoat and obtained the release of two of its employees wrongfully arrested by the judges as the main suspects in this case.
The coming Kazemigate will direct a powerful searchlight at the violent and secret world that Akbar Ganji has called Iran?s ?dungeon of ghosts.? It could also focus the world?s attention on the intractable problem of torture in Iran. But its disclosures will not be as devastating to the system as a Forouhargate might have been. Unlike those killings, Kazemi?s murder does not seem to have been part of a larger scheme. Nor is it likely that the lines of command will lead all the way up to the top of the system.

However, at the very least some illustrious right-wing heads must roll, starting with that of the notorious judge Saeed Mortazavi, who personally supervised Kazemi?s interrogation and later attempted to cover up her death by issuing false statements about its circumstances and causes. We can also expect a heavy blow to the right-wing judiciary for its perverted, proto-legal campaign against the democratic movement and for its brutalization and torture of dissidents.

Ahmad Sadri is a professor of sociology at Lake Forest College in Illinois. He wrote this commentary for THE DAILY STAR

Asefi: Iran is examining how to continue cooperation with IAEA

Tehran, Sept 14, IRNA -- Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi said here on Sunday that the Islamic Republic is examining how to continue cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for what he said was the poor performance of the agency.

Asefi told reporters in his weekly press briefing that the related organizations are currently studying how to continue cooperation with IAEA, adding that the results of this study will be announced later.

"The Islamic Republic from the beginning had declared that the IAEA must act professionally and had warned the agency not to enter a political game," he said.

"However, the agency has been regretfully misused by certain Western states, particularly the US, and the process of debates and the behind-the-scene lobbies showed that Iran`s warnings were right and that the IAEA has overlooked its professional work and has entered political bickering."

The IAEA Board of Governors last Friday set an October 31 deadline for Iran to prove it is pursuing peaceful nuclear programs. The resolution that was submitted by Canada, Japan and Australia also calls on Tehran to clarify its nuclear program by the end of October and to suspend its uranium enrichment program.

Asefi said the fact that the resolution had been passed by the IAEA Board of Governors without taking votes showed that the atmosphere in the meeting had not been natural.

"The efforts by the US and certain Western states show that they want to deprive Iran of its natural and legitimate right to acquire nuclear technology," he said. "The Islamic Republic cannot overlook this natural and legitimate right, but the measure by the IAEA created very serious doubts about its performance."

Elsewhere in his remarks, the Foreign Ministry spokesman said Japan, Canada and Australia had taken a very improper step to submit the resolution against Iran, stressing that Tehran would give the suitable response by using the due diplomatic capacities.

Answering a question on Russia`s position toward the IAEA anti-Iran resolution, Asefi said the position of all countries toward the issue is not equal, and that Tehran will adopt an appropriate consideration according to the position of each country. "Russia will not side with the Western countries, but its positions were not the same that we expected.... They had their own reasoning for the decision they made," he said.

"Russia will continue its cooperation with Iran in building the Bushehr nuclear power plant, and this shows that Moscow is abiding by its commitments toward Tehran."

http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=17977&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs

Also another related story to this at :

http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=17971&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs

Iran Official Says Tehran Will Cooperate with IAEA

Sun September 14, 2003 07:04 AM ET
By Parinoosh Arami

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran will continue to cooperate with the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, a senior official was quoted as saying Sunday, despite hard-liners' calls for Iran to reject a U.N. deadline to prove it has no atomic arms program.

Using softer language than in recent days, Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Ali Salehi said Tehran would not make "nervous and tough reactions" to a tough IAEA resolution last week on Iran's nuclear program.

"We will continue our cooperation with the IAEA as before and our clear criticism does not mean we will sever our cooperation with the agency," the state-run Iran newspaper quoted him as saying.

But he added that Iran should not show total "obedience to the West's demands" since that "could pave the way for unlimited demands."

The IAEA has accused Tehran of failing to provide full and accurate information about its nuclear program. Iran says its nuclear facilities are solely geared to generating electricity. A resolution passed by the IAEA's governing board Friday called on Iran to clear up lingering doubts by Oct. 31 and suspend all uranium enrichment activities.

The resolution implied that if the IAEA still had concerns about Iran's nuclear activities in November, it could declare Tehran in breach of international obligations and report it to the U.N. Security Council for possible economic sanctions.

Iran insists it has no nuclear arms ambitions and accuses Washington of seeking a pretext to invade the Islamic Republic, as it has its neighbors Afghanistan and Iraq.

PULL OUT OF NPT?

Several hard-line Iranian commentators have said Iran should follow North Korea's lead by expelling IAEA inspectors for good and pulling out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi Sunday said Tehran's future cooperation with the IAEA was under review.

"The relevant authorities are discussing it and our decision will be made public in future. We haven't made a concrete decision on how to continue cooperation with the IAEA," he said.

Asefi described the IAEA resolution as "politically-motivated" and said its three co-sponsors -- Australia, Canada and Japan -- had "made a grave mistake."

Diplomats in Tehran said Iran's decision-making process was complicated by divisions in the ruling establishment.

While the reformist government led by President Mohammad Khatami has been pushing for greater cooperation with the IAEA, powerful hard-liners close to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have argued the opposite.

"The IAEA board's tough statement may have given hard-liners greater ammunition to argue that cooperation with the IAEA merely invites greater pressure on the country," one said.

The hard-line Jomhuri-ye Eslami newspaper in an editorial on Sunday said the IAEA resolution was "a historical opportunity to clarify Iran's position against the world's oppressors."

"This resolution is against Iran's dignity and independence and Iran will not accept it," it said.

The more moderate Iran newspaper urged policy makers to bear in mind that resisting pressure to open up its nuclear program to tougher inspections "could have a negative impact on Iran's economic activities, especially foreign investment."

http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=3439904

Once Again on How to End Islamist Terrorism

It is so simple that Islamist terrorism is the work of those who want to quickly get their country to become an ideal Islamist state, which they believe Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) to be since its inception in 1979. And it is not such a complex dilemma that ending Islamist terrorism can only be done by Iranian people removing IRI. Just as when Soviet Union was removed by its own people, and the people of Soviet Union finally spoke of what the nightmare of life under Communism was, and this way the Communist terrorism in the world that was inspired by Soviet "paradise" also ended, and we no longer hear of so many Communist terrorist groups that used to exist all over the world.

The above reality of Islamist terrorism is so obvious and yet it escapes the eyes of many political analysts who still hope to end terrorism with the help of some so-called "reformist" faction of IRI whose goal is not to end Islamism but is to save the Islamic state in Iran. The Islamist terrorists of Saudi Arabia were trying to recreate another Islamist state in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere, and they committed WTC heinous crimes as part of their worldwide strategy to usher in the Islamist "paradise" on Earth, and the ones in Indonesia were hoping for the same thing in Indonesia. Appeasing IRI will not help ending this Islamist *dream* of IRI which is a living force in the minds of the Islamist terrorists.

Only the Iranian people who have lived under the nightmare of Islamic Republic for 24 years in Iran can tell the world what Islamism means and that will happen after Iranian people remove IRI and replace it with a futurist secular republic which we are trying to achieve. This is how the death to America slogan of Islamists will end.

What the world people, organizations, and governments can do is at least not to legitimize IRI. The IRI lobbyists work hard even in the U.S. to censor and silence the voice of pro human rights secularists of Iran and to legitimize the Islamic Republic. They try to get the world press to be silent on organizations like MEHR that have been the only ones speaking seriously about dealing with IRI's crimes against humanity and has worked tenaciously to create a pro human rights Iranian voting block and a real Iranian lobby in the U.S. and not an IRI lobby which the IRI lobbyists have made.

When the wife of IRI's president is invited by South Africa and the so-called First Lady of Iran meets Mandela's wife to discuss women rights issues and the press just advertises it, it shows the world does not know that the women in Iran are not even allowed to dress as they wish, and they are forced to wear a scarf and have no right to get a divorce, and do not even have the right to travel without permission of their husband, and if their scarf moves a little bit, they are taken in by the morality police to be beaten up.

Treatment of women is the every day terrorism of IRI inside Iran that is being ignored by the so-called progressive organizations and personalities such as Nelson Mandela himself, who has been only appeasing IRI all these years. The IRI-supported-press are the ones that have the upper hand in the Iranian press abroad, because of being financially supported by IRI, and they censor serious fundamental exposure and critic of IRI.

Many international progressive forces in the world are silent about IRI's crimes against humanity, and many of the leftist media are fully behind the so-called Islamist "reformists" without pay, because of their erroneous mindset of cultural relativism, and go for so-called IRI reformists who still support Khomeini's fatwa to kill Salman Rushdie.

When no serious force is supporting the secularists of Iran, what can one expect in getting rid of Islamist terrorism when the Mecca of Islamist terrorists' dream is protected by appeasement. What can one hope when the Shi'a Islamists are being helped in Iraq to ascend to power when already the same approach in Afghanistan with Sunni Islamists created the Taliban which the West later had to remove.

As noted eloquently by Steven Emerson, the Islamist terrorism is not just an issue limited to the Middle East or to Middle East natives. In fact, the ones who have fought it the most have been the secularists of the Middle East, and let's remember some of the brave Iranians who even at the risk of their lives held a Candle Light Vigil in Tehran on Sept 18, 2001 for the victims of Sept 11th.

It is time to know that the same way American Dream is what kept democracy and secularism going in the U.S. and abroad, the Soviet "Dream" kept Communism going and the IRI "Dream" has kept Islamism going and unless the Islamist "dream" is ended by removal of IRI and the world learns that it has been a nightmare and not a dream, the world will still have to be dealing with Islamist terrorism which is not by the terrorists of Saudi or Iran, but by the Islamists of other countries, even American or British, who want to change their society to the Islamist Dreamland these terrorists wish for.

Hoping for a Futurist, Federal, Democratic, and Secular Republic in Iran.

http://www.ghandchi.com/259-EndTerrorism.htm

Think-Tank on role of Iran, EU ties

Brussels, Sept 14 - A leading European think-tank has underlined the important role and position of the Islamic Republic for the European Union, and also acknowledged the great influence of Islam in shaping European civilization.

''Iran is a very important country for the EU. As the EU develops its own independent foreign and security policy, its relations with Iran will become more important,''said John Palmer, political director of the Brussels-based European policy center said.

''This is a country of immense culture, potentially a very important economic and political partner of the EU,''said Palmer, a widely-respected analyst and former political editor for many years for the British paper the Guardian in Brussels.

He said the full democratization of Iran would be very important not only politically but in strengthening Iran's economic international impact.

''We know that the reform process is yet incomplete. We think that the interest of all Iranians lie in completing that process.''He said that Iran has a very considerable influence in the region and the Islamic world particularly in the world of Shiite Islam.

The European policy center, he noted, is an independent think-tank founded seven years ago, operating at the level of the EU and focused on how EU policy be evolved and improved.

The active cooperation of Iran is very important to resolve the problems in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, and terrorism, he said.

Palmer pointed out the difference in EU-US approach towards the Islamic Republic.

The EU's policy has been one of dialogue and engagement with Iran, he said, adding that''we did not agree with the 'axis of evil''characterization by the Bush administration.''

He, however, pointed to Europe's concern about Iran's nuclear program.

On the situation in the Middle East, Palmer said the Europeans have been very critical of Israeli policy in many areas.

http://www.iribnews.com/Full_en.asp?news_id=188027&n=18

(( WHY DOES The EU STICK TO IRAN ))

Iran's Leading Islamist Threatens Countries in Favour of IAEA Ultimatum

September 13, 2003
Iran Weekly Press Digest
Iran WPD

Iran’s leading Islamist, Hussein Shariatmadari, threatened on Saturday those countries in favour of the ultimatum approved at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meeting in Vienna.

“The ambassadors of Australia, Canada and Japan should be expelled from Iran … otherwise the supporters of the Islamic revolution will not allow the three embassies to operate in Iran,” Shariatmadari wrote in an editorial in his Islamist daily Kayhan.

Shariatmadari, who enjoys the massive support within the country’s Islamists, held the three countries as the main responsibles for Friday’s IAEA ultimatum against Iran and demanded from them a formal apology.

He also called on Iran to “at least” withdraw from the Non-Proliferation Treaty as reaction to what he called as latest conspiracy by the United States and its allies against the Islamic state.

“Accepting the ultimatum would not only be a disrespect of the country’s own political and legal structure but also that of the whole Islamic system,” Shariatmadari wrote.

In an interview with the news agency IRNA, the Iranian envoy to the IAEA, Ali-Akbar Salehi, termed the positions taken by countries such as Britain, France, Germany and the U.S. as “radical” with the sole aim of realizing their own political interests.

“Their radical requests are not only illegal but also realistically not feasible as even if the charges were correct, the time until the deadline (until October 31) would not be enough to clarify them,” Salehi said.

http://www.iranwpd.com/

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