لغو سفر رئيس حكومت سوريه به ايران، از ديد يك كارشناس منطقه اي

Summary of Iran Stories of Today's BroadcastsBehnam NateghiWednesday, January 15, 2003 <b>Human Rights Watch Faults Factional Dispute</b> * Human Rights Watch's Iran researcher Elaheh Shrifpour Hicks tells <b>Radio Farda</b> that the power struggle between the two ruling factions of the regime worsened the human rights conditions in Iran. She adds that the conservative Guardians Council has rejected more than 50 Majles bills, mostly in the fields of human rights, women's rights and the rights of minorities. She says the suspension of death by stoning sentencing by the Judiciary was a positive move, but the judiciary should submit a bill to ban stoning for good and it must be approved by the Guardians Council after the Majles vote. She adds that the bill to match non-Muslims' blood money with that of the Muslims' was a step forward, but it ignored half of the population, the women, whose blood money is still half of the men's. Also, the Bahais, Iran's largest religious minority, are not covered by it. (Bijan Farhoodi) <b>Impact of the Expeditors and Influence-Peddlers on the Judiciary</b> * Five months after 273 were arrested for openly selling influence in the judiciary, judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmud Hashemi Shahroudi said the influence peddlers and bribe agents have ruined the judiciary. Tehran-based lawyer and human rights advocate Ahmad Bashiri tells <b>Radio Farda</b> that reviewing all court orders that have been issued under the influence of the arrested expeditors and their colleagues would take many years. He adds that despite the arrests, influence peddlers continue to operate in the judiciary and people believe that they cannot get their divorce cases or financial disputes heard by a sympathetic judge before paying an expeditor. (Shireen Famili) <b>Appeals Court Vacates Lawyer Rohami's Conviction</b> * An appeals court acquitted human rights advocate and lawyer Mohsen Rohami, who, along with lawyer Shirin Ebadi, had been sentenced to jail and ban from practice for distributing a videotaped deposition by their client Amir-Farshad Ebrahimi, about the plainclothes agents' secret organization and activities, including their raid on university dorms in 1999 and their attack on the ministers of culture and interior during an official ceremony. * Rohami's client Amir-Farshad Ebrahimi, a former member of the plainclothes agents Ansar-e Hezbollah, tells <b>Radio Farda</b> that his lawyers had not committed any crime by turning over his taped deposition to President Khatami's office and to the court that was prosecuting the commander of the Tehran police anti-riot squad for his men's raid against student dorms. Ebrahimi says the court had no evidence to show that the two lawyers were involved in the wide distribution of this deposition. (Amir-Mosaddegh Katouzian) <b>Mediators Dissolve Tehran City Council</b> * A committee charged with mediating between the Tehran city council and the Tehran mayor voted to dissolve the 15-member city council, 40 days short of the end of its term. An interior ministry spokesman said the council members can sue the mediation committee in courts. A Tehran city council member said the dissolution of the council, which had been mired in internal quarrel over the mayor between its members, was a blow to President Khatami, who portrays the establishment of the local councils as one of his administrations accomplishments. (Bahman Bastani) * Interior minister Abdolvahed Mussavi Lari regretted the mediation committee's decision, but said the dispute among the council members over the mayor prevented it from holding regular meetings for a long time. (Homayoun Majd) <b>Syrian President Cancels Iran Visit</b> * Syrian president Bashar al-Assad cancelled his planned visit to Iran today. The cancellation was announced by an official at the President Khatami's office, who gave no reason for it. Syrian's decision must have come at the last minute, since Syria's official newspaper Tashin carries an article about the outcome of the trip. Cairo-based journalist and Persian Gulf diplomacy expert Khaled Salah, political editor of the Cairo weekly Al-Ahram-ol-Arabi, tells <b>Radio Farda</b> that countries in the region are rushing to find new allies, but one must not attach too much importance to the cancellation of Assad's Tehran visit. (Jamshid Chalangi) <b>Sanandaj Court Sentences Three Kurds for Aiding Armed Activists</b> * The Sanandaj revolutionary court sentenced Sassan Al-Kan'an, 35, to death and sent his two 30-year old co-defendants to 10 years in jail, for helping Kumeleh members, an armed political opposition group. Paris-based human rights lawyer Abdolkarim Lahiji tells <b>Radio Farda</b> that the court's ruling indicates that the three had only given shelter and food to a few men they did not know. (Homayoun Majd) <b>Leftist Reformists Accuse Conservatives of Fomenting Crisis</b> * In a statement issued on Tuesday, the leftist reformist party the Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization (MIRO) accused the conservative faction of fomenting one crisis after another to justify its opposition to President Khatami's bills to expand presidential powers and reform the election law. It listed the ban on the daily <i>Hayat-e Now</i> over a cartoon of US Chief Justice Charles Huges that resembles Ayatollah Khomeini, the trial of the importers of contaminated meat, the rumor that schoolchildren's stationary was poisoned, and the judiciary's case against the pollsters as examples of the conservatives' agitation. (Mahmonir Rahimi) <b>Iran-Azerbaijan Negotiations over the Caspian Fails</b> * Iran's Caspian affairs envoy Mohammad Safari returned home yesterday after two days of unsuccessful negotiations with Azerbaijan over the division of the Caspian resources. Tehran University political science professor Sadeq Zibakalam tells <b>Radio Farda</b> that Iran is isolated as a result of the regime's position towards the US, and other countries know that Iran has no leverage. (Amir Armin) . بشار اسد، رئيس حكومت سوريه، سفر از پيش اعلام شده خود را به تهران كه قرار بود امروز انجام شود، لغو كرد. يك سخنگوي دولت سوريه گفت قرار نبود اقاي اسد امروز به تهران برود. حميد رضا آصفي سخنگوي وزارت امور خارجه جمهوري اسلامي روز يكشنبه اعلام كرده بود اسد روز چهارشنبه وارد تهران خواهد شد. روزنامه تشرين كه نقطه نظرهاي دولت سوريه را بازتاب مي دهد سرمقاله روز سه شنبه خود را به تفسيري درباره دستاورد سفر روز چهارشنبه اسد به تهران اختصاص داده بود. خالد صلاح، كارشناس مصري امور خاورميانه و دبير سياسي هفته نامه مصري الاهرام العربي، در باره لغو سفر بشار اسد به تهران در مصاحبه با راديو فردا مي گويد: به لغو اين سفر نبايد اهميتي بيش از حجم واقعي آن داد. اما سرعت رويداد ها در منطقه در ارتباط با مسئله عراق به شكلي است كه هر كشوري در جستجوي هم پيمانان استراتژيك تازه است.