Iran bloggers back women's protest

 

By Sebastian Usher World media correspondent, BBC News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5076992.stm

Iranian news websites and women bloggers have been full of angry comment about the way that policewomen took part in breaking up a women's demonstration for more legal rights in Tehran on Monday.

Pictures on several Iranian websites showed the policewomen in black chadors wielding batons against women protesters - many of whom were dressed in patterned headscarves and short, colourful overcoats and jeans.

The descriptions and photos appeared on some of the more than 100,000 active blogs in Iran that have sprung up in recent years, providing an unprecedented insight into Iranian people's lives and concerns - and for the most part bypassing the censors.

The women's rally in Tehran on Monday was organised to demand an end to Iranian men's right to take more than one wife, as well as to call for greater equality on divorce.

The protest, involving about 200 women, was broken up by the police, using batons and pepper spray.

'Without restraint'

Among the police were a number of women officers. Their behaviour has been widely noted by Iranian bloggers.

A posting described policewomen taking off chadors to use their batons more easily - commenting they didn't seem to mind non-family members seeing them uncovered

One site commented that the women police were swinging their batons without restraint.

Another written by an eyewitness called the confrontation between the women police officers and protesters "very interesting" - and described one protester being chased by a policewoman, shouting back at her: "Don't you care if your husband takes a second wife?"

A posting on another site described some policewomen as taking off their chadors so they could use their batons more easily - commenting acidly that they did not seem to mind that non-family members could see them uncovered and hear their voices.

Photos of the rally posted on several Iranian websites bore out these descriptions - with one picture showing a policewoman in a black chador facing off against a protester in a tight, short coat and high heels, symbolising the gulf between conservative and reform-minded women in Iran.

Counter intelligence

Iranian women were allowed to join the police in 2000 for the first time since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

In line with the conservative Islamic code in force in Iran since then, their activities are mainly confined to dealing with other women. Their involvement in breaking up a protest is a rare occurrence.

The bloggers and websites that have commented on their involvement are just a small part of about 800,000 websites that have been registered in Iran in the past five years.

Although most are dormant, it is estimated that at least 100,000 are currently active.

As in the rest of the world, most are personal and non-political - but others do express views and post news and information that run counter to official opinion in Iran.

This has become particularly important in the past few years as most mainstream reformist outlets have been closed, forcing opposition voices to find new ways to express themselves on the internet.

Iran to release report on rights abuses in U.S., EU

 

Tehran, Iran, Jun. 14 – Iran’s Foreign Ministry will soon publish a report outlining “human rights violations” in the European Union and the United States, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki announced on Tuesday.

“The Foreign Ministry has prepared a comprehensive report on the violations of human rights in the U.S. and Europe which will be published in the form of booklets and a book”, Mottaki, who was speaking on the sidelines of a meeting with Iran’s Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahroudi, said.

He described the murder of Morad Amoun, an Iranian prisoner in France, as a “blatant violation of human rights” by Paris.

Separately, the Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying that it had sent a memorandum to Austria, the current EU president, demanding the 25-nation block take “effective measures” to prevent human rights abuses in European countries and the U.S.

The memorandum was in particular highly critical of France for the numerous street riots in October 2005 and March 2006 and subsequent police action.

It accused Britain and France of spreading Islamophobia in schools.

 

Khomeini's grandson: Topple Iran clerics

By JPOST.COM STAFF

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1150191576574&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

 

In an interview with Al-Arabiya TV's Web site on the occasion of the 17th anniversary of the death of the founder of the Iranian Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, his grandson Ayatollah Hussein Khomeini said that the current Iranian regime was "a dictatorship of clerics who control every aspect of life," and called for foreign intervention to topple the regime.

He said that "freedom must come to Iran in any possible way, whether through internal or external developments. If you were a prisoner, what would you do? I want someone to break the prison [doors open]...'"

THE IRANIAN THREAT
JPost.com special: news, opinion, blogs and more

In the interview, he argued that the "rule of the jurisprudent" was not based on Shi'ite religious principle, but developed for historical reasons having to do with persecution of clerics in pre-revolutionary Iran. He also said that in its current form, the revolution has "strayed from its original course" by abandoning the principles of freedom and democracy, and stated that Iran would gain real power only when it reembraces these principles - not through relying on bombs and weapons.

"I lived through the revolution, and it called for freedom and democracy - but it persecuted its leaders," said Khomeini.

He further said that his meeting with the son of the deposed Shah Reza Pahlavi was "an ordinary meeting with a man who shares my suffering," because of tyranny.

Addressing the issue of the hijab, the veil Iranian women are required to wear, Khomeini said that if he came to power in Iran, he would first "pass a law which makes the wearing of the hijab an optional choice for Iranian women... I am personally in favor of the hijab, but not like this. The hijab is a personal issue. If a woman wants, she may [wear it], and if she doesn't [want it], she may [refuse it]," he explained.

At the end of the interview, he remarked that he believed his father Mustafa to have been poisoned, although, to this day, it is not clear who was responsible.

For the last three years, the Iranian regime has kept Khomeini under surveillance and has banned him from giving interviews to the Iranian media because of his criticism of the regime.

This report was translated by MEMRI.

Iran accuses France, UK of rights violations

http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=43637&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs

LONDON, June 14 (IranMania) - Iran's foreign ministry has criticized what it calls human rights violations in France and Britain in a letter to the Austrian presidency of the European Union, the ISNA news agency reported.

Tehran asked Britain and France to "take effective steps to prevent further violation of human rights", the letter said.

Austria currently holds the EU presidency, which rotates every six months.

"Iran voices its concern and regret over the terrible social and legal situation in France, such as a resumption of street unrest, the introduction of martial law in some cities, the crisis in employment law and attacks on Sorbonne University," the statement said, according to AFP.

It added that France suffers from a "regretful situation in prisons, excessive police brutality, torture and harassment of prisoners, and incorrect policies towards immigrants".

On human rights in Britain, the Iranian foreign ministry said: "Human rights violations have been on the rise in Britain. In the fight against terrorism, civil and religious liberties have been tarnished."

"Detaining people without informing them what they are charged with for a long time, violent treatment by the British Home Office along with humiliation against immigrants and refugees has been reported, so we expect the EU to exert more pressure on Britain to improve its human rights record," the letter added.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran also voices its concern over the treatment of Muslims in those countries, especially Muslim schoolchildren, and therefore seriously asks the EU to prevent moves that insult Muslims in Europe," the letter concluded.

The foreign ministry statement came a week before the annual meeting of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, at which the Iranian judicial system could find itself the subject of criticism.

Bush's approaching endgame with Iran

The Monitor's View

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0614/p08s02-comv.html

It's been nearly half a decade since 9/11 and the big question remains: Are violent Islamists on the run as a result of the US response? At the least, Al Qaeda has not repeated an attack in the US. On other fronts, US success is tentative, especially in dealing with Iran.

All around that keystone power in the Middle East the US is heavily engaged in either combat, covert operations, or intense diplomacy. The Taliban in Afghanistan are out of power but their remnants keep US and NATO soldiers engaged. In Iraq, the US has killed Al Qaeda's local leader, Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, and finally helped create a democratic government. But it's made little headway in quelling sectarian slaughter.

While Iraq struggles to become a model Arab democracy, as the US hoped by invading it, other successes in boosting regional democracy have put two militant Islamic groups - both supported by Iran - in a new, harsher light.

As a result of recent elections in which their political wings did well, Hamas radicals in the Palestinian territories and Hezbullah guerrillas in Lebanon are now in the awkward position of having to decide whether to bend to popular opinion and end their drive to eliminate Israel.

If either succumbed to that democratic will, it would weaken Iran's influence. It would also lift US hopes that the Iranian people might also moderate the terror-exporting policies of their Muslim leaders, if not boot them out.

Unfortunately, the US, which brands Iran as the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism, only recently launched a campaign to support the forces of democracy in Iran. Since 9/11, the Bush administration's main focus has been to prevent the reigning clerics in Tehran from developing nuclear weapons. A White House fear that Iran might slip an atomic bomb to terrorists someday - the same fear that drove the US to attack Iraq - at first led it to further isolate Iran and brandish "the military option." That changed in 2003 when President Bush supported European talks with Iran aimed at providing incentives in exchange for Iran giving up nuclear research that could be used to make bombs.

When the talks faltered this year as the world learned more about Iran's deceit over its nuclear ambition, Bush decided to both bolster the package of incentives and join the multilateral talks directly, but with one big condition: that Iran suspend its uranium enrichment. He has also tried to win support from Russia, Japan, and Europe to impose economic sanctions if Iran refuses the offer.

This "bigger carrot, bigger stick" approach has put Iran's clerics in a difficult spot: Keep the nuclear option or give it up in return for trade and aid that will boost their weak economy and keep them in power? The US has given Iran weeks to respond.

More than Iraq, a denuclearized and fully democratic Iran would be the real post-9/11 prize for the US in the Middle East. The showdown over that endgame now appears near. If Bush keeps enough allies on board and forces Iran to back down, then the kind of radical Islam that blossomed with Iran's 1979 revolution and hit hard on 9/11 could be on the run.

If not, the US faces further stark choices in a "long war" on terror. The limited successes so far have helped. The US needs a big one like Iran.

US cites China firms for supporting Iran military

Reuters
Tuesday, June 13, 2006

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/13/AR2006061300761.html

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday named one U.S. and four Chinese companies as supporters of Iran's military and Iranian weapons programs.

The designation, under an executive order issued by President George W. Bush in 2005, freezes those companies' U.S. assets and outlaws U.S. firms or people from doing business with them.

The Chinese companies are Beijing Alite Technologies Co. Ltd., LIMMT Economic and Trade Co. Ltd., China Great Wall Industry Corp., and China National Precision Machinery Import/Export Corp.

The U.S. company, G.W. Aerospace Inc. of Torrance, California, is the representative office of China Great Wall Industry.

The Treasury Department designates firms or people under a range of executive orders and laws in an effort to stop flows of financing to countries, groups, or individuals it says are engaged in weapons proliferation, terrorism, or other illicit activities.

The executive order used in Tuesday's announcement is aimed at choking off funding for weapons programs in North Korea, Iran, and Syria.

"Governments worldwide are urged to take appropriate measures to ensure that their companies and financial institutions are not facilitating Iran's proliferation activities," Treasury Undersecretary Stuart Levey said in a statement.

The companies were named as the United States, Russia, France, China, Britain and Germany seek to pressure Iran to drop its nuclear program with the promise of rewards if it does so and sanctions if it does not.

U.S. officials have said they will continue to pursue financial and defensive restraints on Iran regardless of how Tehran responds to the offer.

The Treasury Department said the companies it designated helped or were trying to help Iranian companies that Bush has cited for involvement in Iran's missile program, including the Aerospace Industries Organization and the Shahid Bakeri Industrial Group.

Khamenei Urges Saudi-Iran Effort to Unite Muslims

June 14, 2006
Agence France Presse
Arab News

link to original article

TEHRAN -- Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called for “strategic cooperation” with Saudi Arabia including help in resolving Sunni-Shiite tensions in Iraq, official Iranian media reported yesterday.

In a meeting on Monday with visiting Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal, Khamenei also called for Islamic nations to support the Hamas-led Palestinian government.

“Iran and Saudi Arabia should take steps to establish strategic cooperation to solve the Islamic world’s problems and make efforts to unite Muslims,” Iran’s all-powerful leader was quoted as saying.

“Our countries can have good cooperation with regard to the Iraq issue and to prevent enemies from sparking differences between Shiites and Sunnis,” Khamenei added.

“Islamic countries should help the Hamas government because this government can give great services to the future of Palestine,” Khamenei was quoted by the local press as saying.

Prince Saud delivered a message from Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah to Khamenei, the content of which was not revealed.

Stir Over Iran President's Trip to 'Terror' Conference

June 13, 2006
The Financial Times
Geoff Dyer in Shanghai and Andrew Yeh in Beijing

link to original article

A central Asian summit to discuss security issues is likely to be overshadowed by the presence of Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, the controversial president of Iran, who arrives in Shanghai on Wednesday. He will be an observer at Thursday’s summit of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation. The five-year-old grouping is one of China’s first attempts at playing a bigger diplomatic role in the region but it is prompting growing concern in the US.

Much attention will be focused on how China and Russia behave towards Iran and whether the countries discuss Iran’s nuclear fuel programme on the sidelines.

China and Russia, both members of the United Nations Security Council, have been much less keen than the US or European governments to seek tougher action against Iran’s nuclear programme.

China has been trying to build closer relations with a number of Middle Eastern countries, including Iran, because of its ever-growing demand for oil. Iran provides about 13 per cent of China’s imports of oil and Beijing has signed a deal to buy liquefied natural gas from Iran and to allow a Chinese company to exploit the Yadavaran oilfield in Iran.

However, China will be keen not to let the presence of Mr Ahmadi-Nejad eclipse a diplomatic event that has been meticulously planned and which is one of its main strategies for projecting political influence in Asia.

Analysts in the US had already expressed concern that the SCO was becoming a bulwark against US interests in the region, even before Mr Ahmadi-Nejad’s visit was announced.

In addition to China and Russia, other SCO members are Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. India, Pakistan and Mongolia have observer status. The organisation was designed to combat terrorism in the region and claims not to be a military alliance, although the member countries have conducted joint military exercises.

But at a conference in Singapore last week, Donald Rumsfeld, US defence secretary, said it was strange that China and Russia would invite “a leading terrorist nation” to “an organisation that says it is against terror”.

In the run-up to the meeting, there has been speculation that Iran will be offered permanent membership of the SCO.

However, in recent days officials have played down the prospects of new members joining this week. Li Hui, China’s assistant foreign minister, said a number of countries had applied to join but there were several obstacles, including the absence of a clear application procedure.

Yang Guang, head of a Middle East research institute under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a state think-tank, said Iran’s attendance at the SCO was normal and a chance for more diplomatic progress on the nuclear issue. But he said now might not be the time to allow Iran permanent member SCO status.

In his first visit to China since being elected last year, Mr Ahmadi-Nejad is scheduled to meet President Hu Jintao.

US Cites China Firms for Supporting Iran Military

June 13, 2006
Reuters
Yahoo News!

link to original article

The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday named one U.S. and four Chinese companies as supporters of Iran's military and Iranian weapons programs. The designation, under an executive order issued by President George W. Bush in 2005, freezes those companies' U.S. assets and outlaws U.S. firms or people from doing business with them.

The Chinese companies are Beijing Alite Technologies Co. Ltd., LIMMT Economic and Trade Co. Ltd., China Great Wall Industry Corp., and China National Precision Machinery Import/Export Corp.

The U.S. company, G.W. Aerospace Inc. of Torrance, California, is the representative office of China Great Wall Industry.

The Treasury Department designates firms or people under a range of executive orders and laws in an effort to stop flows of financing to countries, groups, or individuals it says are engaged in weapons proliferation, terrorism, or other illicit activities.

The executive order used in Tuesday's announcement is aimed at choking off funding for weapons programs in North Korea, Iran, and Syria.

"Governments worldwide are urged to take appropriate measures to ensure that their companies and financial institutions are not facilitating Iran's proliferation activities," Treasury Undersecretary Stuart Levey said in a statement.

The companies were named as the United States, Russia, France, China, Britain and Germany seek to pressure Iran to drop its nuclear program with the promise of rewards if it does so and sanctions if it does not.

U.S. officials have said they will continue to pursue financial and defensive restraints on Iran regardless of how Tehran responds to the offer.

The Treasury Department said the companies it designated helped or were trying to help Iranian companies that Bush has cited for involvement in Iran's missile program, including the Aerospace Industries Organization and the Shahid Bakeri Industrial Group.

In Iran, Relax and Learn to Enjoy the Bomb

Tuesday , June 13, 2006

By John Moody

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,199343,00.html

TEHRAN, Iran — There is a Persian saying that, roughly translated, goes: Once you’ve been near death, the flu isn’t so bad.

Perhaps it is such wisdom that Iranians use now to cope with the frustrations of living in a theocracy.

Islamic law, as applied here, forbids pleasures taken for granted in the West: casual contact between men and women, the consumption of alcohol (although smoking, treated as a near mortal sin in the United States, is practiced without penalty), dancing, racy movies, financial loans that carry interest charges, and open debate on topics like religion.

CountryWatch: Iran

Still, Iranians who lived through much or part of the 27 years since a revolution ousted the shah and brought religious zealots to power appreciate the relative moderation they now enjoy in comparison with only a few years ago. Hands and heads are no longer lopped off publicly, as they were at the behest of Attorney General Sadeq Khalkhali during the early days of the theocracy. Public fights and public displays of affection are both punishable by stiff fines, a sentence that one chastened lovebird says “is more painful than their damned whips.”

And for all his conservative-sounding rhetoric, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has allowed enforcement of social regulations to go lax. The tasks of humiliating women who let too much hair peek out from their headscarves, or ankle show beneath their Capri pants, has been transferred from the once-dreaded Revolutionary Guards to regular municipal police, who appear to appreciate the sight as much as anyone.

Young couples in uptown Tehran, as the capital’s wealthiest section is known, stroll the streets hand in hand. Do they dare do more?

“Sex is easy in Iran, probably easier than in America,” says a young man with slicked-back hair who has visited the United States. Once behind the doors of their homes, the hajibs, or headscarves, come off, and the liquor bottles come out. While there are some voluntary followers, for millions of others in Iran, adherence to Islamic law is a matter of public appearance, not a real lifestyle.

While Japanese and German cars sell for nearly double their U.S. prices, homemade models of Peugeot and Kia, notably called the Pride, sell for $6,000. Not surprisingly, car sales have skyrocketed, reaching an estimated 900,000 last year. As a result, the wide boulevards and ancient alleys of Tehran, whose metropolitan area has a population of 20 million, are choked with cars that run on 10-cent-a-gallon gasoline that still contains lead. Pollution levels rival those of Mexico City, generally considered the most polluted city on earth.

Housing remains a problem, both in Tehran and other major cities. A one-bedroom apartment in the capital can cost $500,000, well beyond the means of the average Iranian. Since mortgages are un-Islamic, buyers must pay cash. President Ahmadinejad recently proclaimed an interest-free loan program for potential homebuyers on a limited budget that dodges the religious objections of clerics. But the amounts offered are paltry in comparison with the inflated real estate prices.

What few people besides the chattering classes in Tehran spend much time worrying about is Iran’s development of a nuclear program based on enrichment of uranium that could also be used to make nuclear bombs.

“Nobody wants a nuclear war, but when Ahmadinejad sticks his finger in the Americans’ eye, people say, ‘That’s our boy,’” says Nasser Hadian-Jazy, an associate professor of political science at Tehran University and a longtime friend of the president. “They don’t think Iran will use its uranium to make a bomb, not even to use on Israel. And they don’t think the Americans will dare to attack us unless they can prove we’ve got a bomb.”

To that end, the nuclear program that has become the center of an international crisis is a perverse point of pride to many Iranians, even those who do not support Ahmadinejad. It is proof that Iran has become a power both in the region and the world that can neither be bullied nor ignored.

More than a few Iranians would toast their president with champagne for his bald-faced defiance of the world’s superpower, if doing so too openly wouldn’t land them in one of his prisons.

Iran Keeping Hamas Afloat

http://www.thetrumpet.com/?page=article&id=2279

Ever since Western nations pledged not to fund the Hamas-led Palestinian government until it recognizes Israel’s right to exist, Hamas has increasingly looked to Iran for both economic and political support—a role Iran is keen to fill.

On June 11, Iranian Majlis Speaker Gholamali Haddad-Adel renewed his government’s support for the Hamas-led Palestinian government, saying Iran is willing to closely cooperate with Hamas and is eager to share experience with the Palestinian government on running state affairs. “Palestine has its place in the hearts of [the] Iranian nation, so that under leadership of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, the great Iran will always support Palestinians,” said Haddad-Adel, in a meeting with Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar (bbc, June 11).

Haddad-Adel added that he appreciated Hamas’s position of not recognizing the occupying regime of Israel, saying that compromise with Israel will not serve the national interest of Palestine.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki also recently spoke on his country’s support for the Hamas-led Palestinian government. He reminded reporters of his nation’s approval of $50 million for the Hamas-led government. This funding augments the millions Iran gives in “gift” payments to family members of Palestinians who carry out homicidal terrorist attacks against Israelis (ibid., June 10). Mottaki added that Tehran was sending 300 Iranian-manufactured automobiles to be used by Palestinian municipalities and that Iran was ready to accept Palestinian students to any of its universities.

Iran is the dominant player in the Middle East. The West’s recent punishments against the Hamas-led Palestinian government has had the unintended consequence of bolstering Iran’s influence and power with yet another Islamic people.

special Dispatch-Iran

June 14, 2006

No. 1185

 

 

To view this Special Dispatch in HTML, visit: http://www.memri.org/bin/opener_latest.cgi?ID=SD118506 .

 

On June 6, 2006, E.U. Foreign Policy chief Javier Solana arrived in Tehran and delivered the "5+1" proposal to Iran's Supreme National Security Council Secretary 'Ali Larijani.

 

The content of the proposal was not made available to the public, but was published by the Iranian Kayhan(1) and Jomhour-e Eslami(2) dailies and by the Iranian news agency Aftab.(3) All three sources noted that the content of the E.U. proposal had been published by the ABC television network; however, MEMRI's research has found no English version of the proposal.

 

The following are excerpts from the introduction to the incentives package offered by the E.U. to Iran, and highlights from the text, according to the Iranian news agency Aftab:

    

 

From the Introduction

 

"...According to the agreement [with] the Europeans, it has been decided that until the date of the declaration of an official Iranian position, the content of the proposal will not be released to the public...

 

"As the president of Iran said, Europe has asked us not to publish the details of the report. The text of the proposal by the 25 E.U. countries to Iran, that also won the support of the U.S. and the [U.N.] Security Council members, was given to Ali Larijani.

 

"While Iran is examining the European proposal, and while it was decided that this content would not be released by the U.S. and Iran, on Tuesday the ABC News network published the full text of the European proposal after examining it... In this text it was stated that for the sake of deepening cooperation and relations with Iran based on mutual respect and maintaining global security regarding Iran's nuclear project for peaceful purposes, and in order to re-start negotiations for a comprehensive agreement and reconciliation with the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA], and for the lifting of the sanctions by the Security Council, the international community will carry out the following actions:

 

 

Highlights of the E.U. Proposal of Incentives to Iran

 

"- The affirmation of Iran's inalienable right to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, in accordance with Article Four of the NPT and in coordination with the international commitments and diplomatic aid for expanding a non-military nuclear program.

 

"- Practical aid for activity connected to Iran's non-military nuclear program, including the construction of new light water reactors in Iran via a joint project in the framework of the IAEA, and in accordance with its laws.

 

"- Mutual agreement between Iran and the E.U. to halt discussion of Iran's nuclear portfolio in the U.N. Security Council, if negotiations are restarted.

 

 

Iran's Obligations

 

"- A commitment to examining the suspended issues [i.e. issues raised by the IAEA that Iran has repeatedly refused to address] and all the global concerns by means of full cooperation with the agency [i.e. the IAEA].

 

"- A complete halt to all activity connected to uranium enrichment and production, and a commitment to continue this commitment during negotiations.

 

"- Renewal of the implementation of the Additional Protocol [to the NPT].

 

"Future cooperation will be determined in negotiations on a long-term agreement.

 

 

Nuclear Cooperation

 

"- The international community will carry out the following actions:

 

"- Iran has the right to obtain nuclear energy.

 

"- To affirm its inalienable right to nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, in accordance with Article Four of the NPT and in coordination with the international commitments, and also to affirm diplomatic support [to Iran] for expanding a non-military nuclear program.

 

"- [To conduct] negotiations and to implement a nuclear cooperation agreement between Iran and Europe.

 

"- [To provide Iran with] light water reactors.

 

"- With regard to Iran's program to produce non-military nuclear energy: [Iran will be provided with] practical aid for building new light water reactors in Iran, via a joint project in the framework of the agency [i.e. IAEA], and in coordination with its laws, [including] the use of modern technology, along with permission for the passage of goods for this purpose.

 

 

Economic Cooperation

 

"- International investment and trade [with Iran].

 

"- Aid in obtaining full membership in the international organizations, including the World Trade Organization, and establishment of a framework for increasing direct investment in and trade with Iran (including agreements for economic and commercial cooperation with the E.U.).

 

 

*Non-Military Aeronautics Industries

 

"- Non-military aeronautic cooperation (including an option [for Iran] to purchase non-military planes), and to lift restrictions on the repair of these planes, [and] on exporting such planes to Iran, and in this way to allow Iran to acquire a fleet of new planes for conveying passengers.

 

 

*Energy Cooperation 

 

"- Strategic Iran-E.U. energy cooperation, via expansion of oil and gas distribution, scientific and technical cooperation, and the construction of an international [oil] pipeline.

 

 

*Advanced Technology Cooperation

 

"- Cooperation in advanced technology - and in the other areas subject to agreement - in the research and expansion of nuclear energy.

 

"- Proposal of a comprehensive package of research cooperation and expansion, including possible construction of light water research reactors and particularly regarding the production of radioactive isotopes, via nuclear activity and medical and agricultural research.

 

 

*Guarantees for a [Nuclear] Fuel Supply [to Iran]

 

"- Participation as a member in the World Center for [Nuclear] Fuel Cycles in Russia, which enriches all the UF6 (uranium fluoride) produced by the UCF power station at Isfahan.

 

"- Establishment of a [nuclear] fuel bank to assure Iran of a supply of nuclear fuel for five years, with the participation of the agency [i.e. IAEA] and under its supervision.

 

"- Implementation of French and American ideas regarding guarantees for an apparatus for marketing fuel [to Iran].

 

 

Oversight of Legal Issues

 

"- A long-term agreement, with attention to joint efforts for the establishment of international security for agreed-upon oversight in all aspects, as follows: The agency [i.e. the IAEA, will work according to the principle of the resolution of] all issues that Iran has repeatedly postponed examining, and the removal of the rest of the global concerns, and the assurance that no activity or unknown nuclear materials or conversion of nuclear materials will remain in existence in Iran .

 

"- Iran will present any kind of new nuclear activity connected to economic needs and that are to be carried out with the approval of the [IAEA] program for producing non-military nuclear energy.

 

"- [The implementation] of the resolutions of the [IAEA] and the U.N. Security Council, such that all Iran's commitments will be fulfilled and the international security will be restored with regard to the absolute essence of Iran's nuclear project for peaceful purposes.

 

 

Diplomacy

 

"- Security cooperation in the region.

 

"- Support for the establishment of a regional intergovernmental organization, to include the countries of the region and other countries interested in advancing the level of cooperation and talks on security issues in the Persian Gulf, with the aim of fulfilling the security agreements in the region and cooperating on important security issues in the region, including guarantees of political power and territorial integrity [for Iran].

 

"- Elimination of WMDs in the Middle East.  

 

"- Support for maintaining a region free of WMDs and from middlemen who transfer this kind of weapon to the Middle East.

 

 

Punitive Actions Against Iran

 

"In the event that Iran does not cooperate with the international community, we [i.e. the E.U.] take it upon ourselves [to act] according to Section 41 of Article Eight of the U.N. Charter:

 

"- A ban on [international] export [to Iran] of goods and technology connected to these programs.

 

"- Expropriation of the property of and sanctions on organizations and individuals connected to Iran's nuclear and missile programs.

 

"- A ban on travel and on issuing visas to individuals in this context.

 

"- Cancellation of [Iran's] technical cooperation with the IAEA.

 

"- A ban on industrial investment connected to these activities.

 

"- Iranian students may not be enrolled in institutions with a connection to nuclear or ballistic activity.

    

 

*Diplomatic and Economic Prohibitions

 

"- Reduction or elimination of cooperation between the sides.

 

"- No visas granted to high-ranking Iranian representatives and statesmen.

 

"- Expropriation of the property of individuals and organizations cooperating with Iran or maintaining a close relationship with it.

 

"- Expropriation of Iranian weapons.

 

"- A ban on exporting unique products to Iran.

 

"- A ban on investing in and cooperating with Iran in special areas.

 

"- Objections to Iran's request for membership in the World Trade Organization.

 

"- Reduction of government support for guarantees for credit for trade and export to Iran."

  

  

Endnotes:

(1) http://www.kayhannews.ir/850318/2.htm#other205 , June 8, 2006.

(2) http://jomhourieslami.com/1385/13850318/index.html , June 8, 2006.

(3) http://www.aftabnews.ir/vdcb5abrhwbza.html , June 8, 2006.

 

 

Source: Iran Has Secret Uranium Enrichment Sites

Kenneth R. Timmerman

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

http://newsmax.com/archives/articles/2006/6/13/130256.shtml?s=lh

 WASHINGTON -- New evidence is emerging that Iran has built several secret uranium enrichment plants in defiance of the International Atomic Energy Agency and its nuclear inspection efforts.

 The evidence comes to NewsMax from Western diplomats and a former Iranian intelligence officer.

One of the secret plants, located some 20 kilometers to the northeast of Tehran near the Lashgarak dam, houses a clandestine centrifuge uranium enrichment plant, where Iran is making nuclear weapons material, according to an Iranian intelligence officer who has defected to the West.

 A Chinese contractor began work in 1995 on the Lashgarak plant, disguised as part of a bridge near the Latian dam on the fast-flowing Jajerud river, he said.

 The plant was buried in a series of nine tunnels beneath the lake that were disguised as bridge pilings, the former intelligence officer said. Once the underground facility was installed, construction work on the bridge across the Jajerud river was abandoned.

The 2,200-square-meter buried plant now houses uranium enrichment centrifuges and is run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, or Pasdaran, he said.

The existence of the secret centrifuge plant, code-named Zirzamin 27, was first revealed by the Telegraph newspaper in London yesterday.

The Persian word zirzamin means "underground," and is used to describe underground cellars, presses, or springs.

 According to the Telegraph, "27 refers to the 27-year-old Iranian revolution."

Another, possibly related site has been disguised as a fish farm near a village 60 kilometers north of Iran's Busheir power plant on the Persian Gulf.

The second site was completed around six to eight months ago, the former Iranian intelligence officer said. Part of it was built by a Canadian company that specializes in building warehouses using material that cannot be scanned by airborne sensors.

The former Iranian intelligence officer has provided information in the past regarding clandestine Iranian nuclear and missile locations that has been verified by Western intelligence agencies.

United Nations inspectors first suspected Iran might have a parallel military program in 2004, when efforts to visit a military site at Lavizan, in an area of Tehran controlled by the Revolutionary Guards, were thwarted. To prevent U.N. inspections of the Lavizan site, the Tehran municipality (then headed by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who became Iran's president last year) razed the laboratories to the ground and carted away the earth.

 Commercial satellite images, obtained by the Institute for Science and International Security, documented Iran's destruction of the site in early 2004 following IAEA requests to inspect it.

 Nearly two years after the destruction, IAEA inspectors successfully located some of the equipment once used at the site and took environmental swipes for further analysis at the IAEA laboratory at Siebersdorf, Austria.

The samples taken from the Lavizan equipment tested positive for "natural and high enriched uranium," according to a report from IAEA inspectors to the Board of Governors released today. Under standard IAEA procedures, a second laboratory confirmed the results before they were released.

"Many of us assume that Iran has a parallel uranium enrichment program," a U.S. official told NewsMax.

 "Iran keeps talking about research and development. But their declared enrichment plant at Natanz is not for research and development. It is a commercial scale facility. So where did they do all that R&D?" the official added.

 Iran's R&D efforts have remained secret and could conceal significant production of centrifuges for a parallel, military enrichment program, diplomats based in Vienna told NewsMax.

Iran told the IAEA on June 6 that it was resuming uranium enrichment at an industrial-scale facility in Natanz, but has not declared the parallel program.

The U.N. Security Council called on Iran to suspend all uranium enrichment activities in March.

Former European Union official Javier Solana traveled to Tehran on June 6 to deliver an offer by the Permanent Five members of the Security Council plus Germany to provide Iran with technology and economic incentives, in exchange for a verifiable suspension of its uranium enrichment activities.

Instead, Iran notified the IAEA while Solana was in Tehran that it had "started feeding" uranium hexafluoride gas into an enrichment cascade composed of 164 high-speed centrifuges, and was "continuing its installation work on the other 164-machine cascades," the latest IAEA report states.

 Iran also said it had launched "a new conversion campaign" of uranium hexafluoride (UF6) feedstock for enrichment that same day.

The IAEA report noted that inspectors continued to question Iranian officials about the suspected parallel program to make UF4 feedstock, known as the Green Salt Project, as well as work on "high explosives testing" and a possible nuclear missile re-entry vehicle. However, "Iran has not expressed readiness to discuss these topics further," the report noted.

Iran and the Terror Within

 

http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htterr/articles/20060613.aspx

June 13, 2006: While Iran has long been castigated for supporting Islamic terrorism around the world, they also have a terrorism problem at home. This is a result of Iran still being an empire. Only about half of Iranians are ethnic Iranians (or Persians, as many Iranians still call themselves). The rest of the Iranians are ethnic and religious minorities. It's the ethnic minorities that cause the most terrorism problems. The largest minority, Azeris (Turks) are a quarter of the population. Kurds are about seven percent, one percent are Baluchis, and three percent are Arabs. Another 14 percent are various other Turkic groups, or Indo-European groups related to the Persians.

 Right across the border in the northwest is the nation of Azerbaijan, which used to be part of the Soviet Union. Independent for the last fifteen years, the existence of an independent Azerbaijan, run by Azeris, has inspired some separatist sentiments among Iranian Azeris. That's unfortunate, because Azeris have done well in Iran, and for the nearly two centuries that Russians ran Azerbaijan, it was the Iranian Azeris that believed they had the better deal. Many Iranian Azeris hold prominent positions in government, academia, business and the clergy. But ethnic Iranians still look down on the Azeris, and this often comes out into the open. Part of this is resentment, as for the last five centuries, Azeris have been overrepresented in the ruling class. Because of that, most Azeris live in and around the capital. But some of the Azeris living up bear the border with Azerbaijan, are acting up. This, literally, terrifies ethnic Iranians, for the ultimate nightmare is widespread unrest by the nations largest, and most able, minority. Iran also shares a border with Turkey, which considers itself the protector and "elder brother" of all the Turkic people. Ethnic Iranians blame unrest by Azeris on "Turkish agents," but there is no proof of that. However, many educated and affluent Azeris are unhappy with the religious dictatorship that runs Iran (even though many of the senior clerics running things are Azeris.) 

 The Kurds, like their kinsmen in Turkey and Iraq, have been rebelling for centuries. Currently, there are several organized separatist Kurdish groups in Iran. There have been lots of gunfire and explosions in the Kurdish areas of Iran (near the border with northern Iraq, where semi-independent Iraqi Kurds live.)

The Iranian Arabs are native to the areas of southwest Iran where most of the oil, but have not benefited as much as they believe they should have from all that wealth. Ethnic Iranians have a low opinion of Arabs, and rarely try to hide it. Separatist Iranian Arabs have been getting more violent since Iraq became independent. The Iranian Arabs are Shia, and now they see Iraqi Shia Arabs running Iraq. You know the rest.

 The Baluchis, like the Pushtuns, Kurds and Tajiks, are Indo-European peoples like the Persians. The major difference is that the Persians (actually a coalition of "tribes" that have long since merged into one ethnic group) got themselves very organized and founded an empire thousands of years ago. The Persians have founded several empires, and regard their tribal kinsmen as a bunch of unruly cousins. The Baluchis have never fully accepted Persian domination. Most of the Baluchi people live next door in Pakistan, where a very violent Baluchi separatist movement is fighting the Pakistani government. This has encouraged the Iranian Baluchis to get restive as well.

 The remaining Iranian minorities are quiet, for the moment. But there's little comfort in that, with terrorism on the rise among the subject peoples of the Iranian empire.