Summary of Iran Stories in Today&apos;s BroadcastsBehnam NateghiWednesday, December 03, 2003 <b>US to Block Iran&apos;s Access to Advanced Weapons Technology</b> • The US intends to block delivery of nuclear and ballistic missile technology to Iran “from whatever source,” US Undersecretary of State John Bolton said on Tuesday at the 34th annual conference of the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis and the Fletcher School of International Security Studies Program. “We are watching what Iran does very carefully,” he said. Iran was using economic incentives to persuade European countries not to take a tough stand on its nuclear weapons program, he added. (Maryam Ahmadi)) <b>Supreme Leader Hands Over 20-Year Plannign Document to Khatami</b> • The Supreme Leader handed over to President Khatami the 20-year planning document, prepared as part of the fourth five-year economic development plan. The 20-year plan had been drafted by the Expediency Council and does not go beyond the same general guidelines and goals that during the past 25 years have been repeatedly pronounced by the authorities: elevation and deepening of religious philosophy and religious outlook, implementation of Islamic values in thought and action, strengthening national unity and identity based on Islam and the Islamic revolution, deepening the spirit of enemy-recognition, purifying the country&apos;s cultural atmosphere, endeavoring to implement social justice, job creation and lowering the jobless rate, endeavoring to reduce the economy&apos;s dependence on oil income, struggle against (Western) cultural aggression, and the like. What is new in this document are the slogans adopted from the reformists&apos; platform, such as religious democracy and institutionalization of “permitted” freedoms and avoiding tensions in relations with foreign countries. Observers say, at the outset of the upcoming Majles elections, the conservative majority of the Expediency Council and the Supreme Leader, who have been blocking the reformists for the past six years, have now adopted the reformists&apos; campaign slogans. (Fereydoun Zarnegar) • The cabinet is due to review the fourth five-year economic plan next Sunday, deputy director of the macro economy office of the management and plan organization Mohammad Kordbacheh said. The government has more or less finished reviewing the budget bill for the next fiscal year, which will begin on March 22, 2004. The budget bill will soon go to the Majles for final approval, he added. (Baktash Khamsehpour) <b>Yemen Welcomes Iran&apos;s Membership in the Arab League</b> • Yemen welcomes Iran&apos;s request to participate in the Arab League as an observer member an official at the Yemeni foreign ministry announced yesterday. “Iran&apos;s participation is to enhance the role of the Arab League, and the fraternal cooperation between the Arab and Islamic states,” the unnamed official told Yemen&apos;s official news agency. (Siavash Ardalan) <b>US Delegate to take Part in the Tehran Conference on Georgia</b> • Representatives of several countries, including the US, will take part in a conference in Tehran on the future of Georgia, deputy foreign minister Alireza Moayeri said, according to the reformist Tehran daily <i>Shargh</i>. He indicated that most countries will send a deputy foreign minister to the conference. (Siavash Ardalan) <b>Foreign Minister Urges Japan to Improve Ties</b> • Japan “should not let itself be influenced (by the US), but on the contrary, should act independently and take rapid and concrete measures to strengthen its friendly relations with Iran,” foreign minister Kamal Kharrazi said in a meeting with Yukio Okamoto, an adviser of Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. On Sunday, foreign ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi asked Japan, as well as Australia, South Korea, Canada and New Zealand, “which adopted an unforeseen position (during last week&apos;s IAEA meeting), to correct (their error) and create a favorable climate” with Iran. (Mahmonir Rahimi) <b>South Pars Oil and Gas Fields to Begin Production</b> • Phase One of the huge South Pars oil and gas field, which were developed by Iranian companies, “will go on line before the end of December 2003 with a capacity of 27 million cubic meters (954 million cubic feet) of gas and 40,000 barrels of light oil per day, which represents daily revenue of $840,000 for the gas and $1 million for the oil,” according to managing director of state-owned oil company Petropars. (Amir Armin) <b>Ideological Constitution&apos;s 24th Anniversary</b> • Twenty-four years ago on this day, the Islamic Republic constitution was ratified in a national referendum. The constitution was written from an Islamic ideological point of view, before any real-life governing experience could be gained by the country&apos;s post-revolutionary rulers. It was amended once in 1989, in order to turn the clerical rule into “absolute” clerical rule, and define the role of the Expediency Council as the arbiter between the Majles and the Guardians Council. Some reformist politicians have spoken about the need to amend the constitution; but President Khatami equaled to treason any demand for constitutional change. Even though the principle 107 of the constitution does not maintain any special privileges above ordinary citizens for the Supreme Leader, other principles of the constitution give the Supreme Leader a holy place above the laws, making it impossible to even criticize the Supreme Leader, or his position. (Nima Tamadon) <b>Tabriz City Council Appoints Mayor after Seven Months</b> • After seven months of hesitation and squabble, the politically divided Tabriz city council elected city council member Ehtesham Hajipour as the mayor of this city of 2 million, Iran&apos;s second largest. All candidates who were not city council members pulled out of the race for mayor, Tabriz-based independent journalist <b>Ensafali Hedayat</b> tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. Hajipour took part in the session and voted for himself, he adds. The provincial administration&apos;s arbitration committee banned Alaedin Nourmohammadzadeh and Maqsoud Ehbab from membership in the city council, but the decision was met with the protest of local members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC)&apos;s Basij unit, some of whom pushed their way today into the provincial governor&apos;s office and demanded reinstatement of the two, he adds. (Farin Asemi) <b>IRGC&apos;s Basij Unit Block Nobel Peace Prize Winner from Speaking at Girls&apos; School</b> • Members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC)&apos;s Basij unit prevented Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi from speaking at the al-Zahra girls&apos; only university in Tehran. Meanwhile, a group of leftist activists in Norway are preparing to hold a demonstration against Shirin Ebadi in Oslo, where she is expected later this month to receive her prize. As communists prepare to attack me for defending Islam, Islamists attack me in a state-owned school, Ms. Ebadi said after the event. When communists have such a view of me abroad, I don&apos;t know why within the country I am being accused of blasphemy, she added. (Farin Asemi) <b>Big Government, Low Productivity</b> • The 400 percent growth in the number of civil employees in the past twenty years has lowered the productivity of government organs, acting director of the national productivity organization Qasem Ansari said. Government&apos;s productivity grew by an average of only 2.2 percent, he added, blaming a lack of budget for improving productivity for the slow growth. Economic experts believe that productivity will improve after privatization, which would rid the country of government managers, but even the industrial units whose shares have been sold to the public, continue to be managed by government appointees, since the government has remained on board as the majority shareholder. (Arash Qavidel, Tehran) <b>Conservative MP Calls Reformists Zionist</b> • In the February 20 elections, the voters will send to the dust bin of history all the so-called reformists, who are in fact Zionists sitting the Islamic Majles, conservative Kouhdasht MP Ali Emamirad said in a speech this morning at the Majles. People know that the Majles complaints committee is an arm of the foreign and anti-revolutionary forces, he added. (Keyvan Hosseini) • Four former high-level intelligence and military officials will coordinate the conservative faction&apos;s regional election campaigns. Former intelligence minister Ali Fallahian heads the conservatives&apos; regional elections headquarters. Its members include Rouhollah Hosseinian, who defended the mastermind of the 1998 serial murders. The regional campaign committee plans to focus its propaganda on the Persian-speaking regions of the country with the message that the reformists&apos; actions did not match their promises. (Shireen Famili) <b>Government Approves Medical Poppy Cultivation</b> • Government approved health ministry&apos;s bill to allow opium poppy plantation for pharmaceutical use, health minister&apos;s pharmaceutical deputy announced. The bill had been drafted in response to domestic drug companies&apos; request, he added. A unit of the state-owned drug maker Darupakhsh has been using the heroine and opium confiscated from drug traffickers for producing morphine-based painkillers, Tehran-based pharmacologist <b>Dr. Heydar Tabrizi</b> tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. Considering that Iran is one of the largest exporters of opium in the world, due to its proximity to Pakistan and Afghanistan, there seems to have been no need for the country to begin legalizing poppy cultivation, he adds. (Mahmonir Rahimi) • The website www.iranaddiction.com is a part of a program called “common defense,” to promote cooperation between various government organs in various parts of the country. It gathers psychologists, therapists, and others active in the fight against addiction under one virtual roof, Tehran-based webmaster and addiction therapist <b>Said Jahanshahi</b> tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. Proximity to Afghanistan, the largest producer of opium in the world, and high jobless rate, have been cited as the cause of the rapid spread of opium and heroine addiction in Iran, he adds. In the new anti-addiction programs, devised by the national welfare organization Sazeman Behzisti, more attention is being paid to prevention, counseling and cultural issues, he adds. (Golnaz Esfandiari) . جان بولتون معاون وزارت امور خارجه آمريکا روز سه شنبه گفت ايالات متحده قصد دارد از انتقال تکنولوژي حساس هسته اي و موشکي به ايران از هر منبعي که باشد جلوگيري کند. مريم احمدي (راديو فردا) : آقاي بولتون در کنفرانس امنيت بين الملل گفت ما به دقت ايران را زير نظر داريم. آقاي بولتون گفت ايران با استفاده از انگيزه هاي اقتصادي مي کوشد کشورهاي اروپايي را به اتخاذ موضع ملايمي در مقابل برنامه هاي هسته اي خود تشويق کند. معاون وزارت خارجه آمريکا گفت اين استراتژي ديگر کارآيي ندارد. جامعه بين المللي اکنون نياز دارد که درمورد شفافيت برنامه هاي هسته اي ايران و چگونگي واکنش نشان دادن به موارد جدي نقض مقررات پيمان منع گسترش سلاح هاي هسته اي که ايران خود به آن اعتراف کرده به يک تصميم گيري برسد. آقاي بولتون که در سي و چهارمين کنفرانس سالانه موسسه تحليل سياست خارجي در کالج فلشر براي مطالعات امنيت بين المللي سخنراني مي کرد گفت که ايران در مورد تعهدات خود به سازمان بين المللي انرژي اتمي احساس چندگانه اي دارد و به عنوان نمونه به اين مساله اشاره کرد که ايران هفته پيش ايران اعلام کرد قصد دارد براي توليد انرژي هسته اي به غني سازي اورانيوم بپردازد و تصميمش براي توقف برنامه برنامه عمليات غني سازي اورانيوم موقت و داوطلبانه بوده است. آقاي بولتون گفت در اين باره که سازمان بين المللي انرژي اتمي موظف است هرگونه نقض مقررات را به شوراي امنيت سازمان ملل ارجاع دهد نبايد جاي هيچگونه ترديدي وجود داشته باشد. معاون وزارت امور خارجه آمريکا افزود اکنون موضوع اصلي آن است که شوراي حکام يک صدايي خود را مبني بر اينکه تغيير برنامه هاي هسته اي از سوي ايران مشروعيت ندارد حفظ کند و اجازه ندهد ايران با استفاده از انگيزه هاي اقتصادي، يا تبليغات تهاجمي در شوراي حکام د ودستگي ايجاد کند. آقاي بولتون گفت کره شمالي، سوريه، ليبي و کوبا هم همچون ايران دولت هاي متمرد هستند و مي کوشند به سلاح هاي کشتار جمعي دسترسي پيدا کنند. ايالات متحده تلاش دارد هرجا که ميسر باشد از راه هاي ديپلماتيک استفاده کند اما هم آمريکا و هم متحدانش حاضرند به روش هاي سخت تر از جمله مصادره کالاهاي غير قانوني نيز متوسل شوند. جان بولتون معاون وزارت امور خارجه آمريکا روز سه شنبه در يك سخنراني در سي و چهارمين کنفرانس سالانه موسسه تحليل سياست خارجي در کالج فلشر براي مطالعات امنيت بين المللي، گفت آمريکا قصد دارد از انتقال تکنولوژي حساس هسته اي و موشکي به ايران از هر منبعي که باشد جلوگيري کند. آقاي بولتون گفت ايران مي کوشد کشورهاي اروپايي را به اتخاذ موضع ملايمي در مقابل برنامه هاي هسته اي خود تشويق کند امااين استراتژي ديگر کارآيي ندارد. وي با اشاره به اين مساله که ايران هفته پيش ايران اعلام کرد قصد دارد براي توليد انرژي هسته اي به غني سازي اورانيوم بپردازد و تصميمش براي توقف برنامه برنامه عمليات غني سازي اورانيوم موقت و داوطلبانه بوده است، گفت آمريکا و متحدانش حاضرند به روش هاي سخت تر از جمله مصادره کالاهاي غير قانوني نيز متوسل شوند.