Summary of Iran Stories in Today's BroadcastsBehnam NateghiWednesday, January 28, 2004
<b>Association of Islamic Student Councils Calls for Boycott of the Elections and Referendum</b>
• The association of Islamic student Councils, Daftar Tahkim Vahdat (Office of Reinforcing Unity), boycotted the February 20 Majles elections, and urged the reformist MPs to carry on their sit-in to protest the Guardians Council's bans on their reelection, even if the bans were overturned. In a statement issued today, the student organization asked that instead of the elections, the MPs campaign for a referendum to determine the future form of Iran's government. (Baktash Khamsehpour)
• The phrase “referendum on structure” in the statement means abolishing the undemocratic and unanswerable institutions in the country's system of government, and reforming the undemocratic and unproductive parts of the regime. In the present structure, there is no room for implementation of the people's will, he adds. (Siavash Ardalan)
• Fifty professors from Tehran universities spent the night at the lobby of the technical school of Tehran University in a sit-in protest in support of the 83 MPs banned by the Guardians Council from reelection. The MPs were on the 19th night of their sit-in protest at the Majles. During a sit-in, people stand up and give lectures, Tehran University political science professor <b>Sadeq Zibakalam</b>, who gave a speech to the universities' faculty members at last night's sit-in, tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. Some of the speakers expressed radical views and some had lesser radical views, but the views of the speakers did not reflect the views of the group, he added. By reinstating nearly half of the banned MPs, the Guardians Council will create a rift in the reformist camp, some MPs will end their sit-in protest, but some will continue, he predicts. (Mahmonir Rahimi)
<b>Guardians Council Overturns Bans on 700 Elections Hopefuls, Khatmai Rejects Cabinet Resignations</b>
• The Guardians Council overturned the disqualifications of 700 candidacy applicants, announced the Guardians Council's public relations director. None of reformist applicants is on the list, head of interior ministry's elections headquarters said, adding that if the Guardians Council insists on its position, the interior ministry will not hold the elections. Nevertheless, President Khatami said the government will hold fair and free elections. (Jamshid Zand)
• The provincial governors announced in an open letter that holding the elections on February 20th would be impossible, considering the current events. They asked President Khatami to postpone the elections to give more time to the Guardians Council to review the bans on reformist candidacy applicants and to the candidates for campaigning. (Maryam Ahmadi))
• President Khatami rejected the resignations of 24 cabinet ministers, most of deputy ministers, all of his own deputies and all of provincial governors. Dissident high-ranking cleric Ayatollah Hosseinali Montazeri called on the Guardians Council to abandon its hard-line position against reformist applicants for candidacy in the Majles elections. (Shireen Famili)
• The striking MPs warned that bans were not overturned by the Guardians Council, they will resign, leaving their Majles seats vacant for the rest of their terms. (Mahmonir Rahimi)
• The February 20th elections will be afflicted with the same voter apathy and small turnout that plagued the last February's municipal elections, Vienna daily <i>Der Standard</i> writes. (Parviz Farhang)
• The conservatives believe that the people's participation in the elections is a religious duty, so they are not concerned with creating political and social motives for voting, the reformist Tehran daily <i>Aftab-e Yazd</i> writes in an editorial. The Majles MPs protesting the Guardians Council's ban on their reelection, left the corridors of power and brought their call for democracy to the people, editor of the reformist daily <i>Shargh</i> Mohammad Quchani writes. (Ali Sajjadi)
• The world community should side with Iranian reformists, Stockholm daily <i>Svenska Dagbladet</i> writes. (Elaheh Ravanshad, Stockholm)
<b>US Flirts with Rapprochement, as Conservatives Destroy Democratic Reform</b>
• “Iran and Western governments have been flirting with rapprochement sporadically for years. What's remarkable is that the latest effort is developing at a moment when Iran's conservative clergy is engaged in an aggressive campaign to destroy, once and for all, the country's democratic reform movement. Before proceeding, the United States and Europe ought to draw the right conclusions from that political struggle,” the Washington Post</i> writes in a January 28 editorial. (Ali Sajjadi)
<b>Mubarak Cancels Tehran Visit</b>
• President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt cancelled his February visit to Tehran to attend the summit meeting of eight Islamic countries. (Farideh Rahbar)
<b>State Enterprises Devour 67 Percent of Budget</b>
• More than 67 percent of the government's budget goes for keeping 530 state enterprise units, from banks and insurance companies to factories, farms and airlines, afloat, economy and finance minister Tahmasb Mazaheri said yesterday at a seminar in Tehran on privatization. (Fereydoun Khavand, Paris)
<b>Iran and Venezuela Discuss Aluminum, Cement and Mining Investments</b>
• Corporacion Venezolana de Guayana (CVG) President Francisco Rangel said officials held talks with Iran's KDO group on a bauxite and aluminum plant project. Officials also met with state firm Ehdasse Sanat Corp. to discuss building a cement factory, and aimed to sign an initial accord at the G-15 meeting in Caracas next month. “We are exchanging the necessary information to sign a letter of intent to develop this project when our two presidents meet at the G-15 meeting in Caracas,” Rangel told Venpres state news agency in a statement issued late Monday, according to a dispatch by Reuters from Caracas. (Ardavan Niknam)
<b>Refugees Return to Iraq</b>
• More than 250 Iraqi refugees left a refugee camp in Iran and returned to Iraq, bringing the number of returned Iraqi refugees since the fall of Saddam Hussein government to 2,300, according to spokesman of the UNHCR Ali Deyrani. Iran has hosted 200,000 Iraqi refugees since the 1991 Shiite uprising in Iraq. (Shireen Famili)
<b>Yazd Teachers Protest Low Pay and Overdue Benefits</b>
• In a gathering at the city's local education office, a group of Yazd teachers protested against the arrest of seven teachers' union activists, who were organizing a sit-in for last Tuesday, a Yazdi teacher, who withholds his name, tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. Teachers' pay is simply too low to live on, he adds. The arrested teachers will probably be released, but the teachers will continue to protest demanding the payment of their overdue benefits. At a time when inflation is over 21 percent, the benefits that were due two years ago have already lost much of their value, he adds. (Mahmonir Rahimi)
<b>IAEA Chief Warns against Terrorists' Access to Nuclear Bombs</b>
• With the expansion of the international black market in nuclear technology and materials, terrorists may gain access to nuclear weapons, International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei warned in an interview with German daily <i>Die Welt</i>. Israel cannot be exempted from ban on nuclear proliferation, especially when we ask Iran and Libya to end their nuclear programs, he added. (Shahram Mirian, Cologne)
<b>Iran-Austria Economic Cooperation</b>
• During his Iran visit earlier this week, President Thomas Klistil of Austria signed several economic cooperation agreements with Iran, including a deal for Austrian participation in Kerman's water project at 135 million euros and building a solar collector at the cost of 50 million euros, Vienna newspapers reported. (Kianoush Farid, Vienna)
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كيوان حسيني (راديوفردا): هجدهمين روز تحصن نمايندگان مجلس روزي بود كه باز محمد خاتمي، رئيس جمهوري اسلامي همفكر نمايندگان متحصن مجلس، اين روش اعتراض را زير سئوال برد و تحصن را براي زمان كنوني مناسب ندانست.
محمد خاتمي، رئيس جمهوري اسلامي (كنفرانس مطبوعاتي، تهران): راجع به تحصن، خوب بالاخره گروه ها و احزاب كار خودشان را مي كنند من البته در جلسه هم گفتم كه وقت تحصن نيست و ما بايد برويم جلو و خواسته هاي خودمان را بدهيم و حق اعتراض هست و حق گفتن هست و اميدواريم كه از راه هاي عادي و قانوني مسئله حل بشود.
ك.ح.: وي كه در كنفرانسي خبري بارها از عزم دولت مطبوع خود براي برگذاري انتخاباتي آزاد سخن گفت، مذاكره و چانه زني با جناح مقابل را راه حل مناسب تري براي بازشدن گره احراز صلاحيت هاي نامزدهاي انتخابات در جمهوري اسلامي دانست.
آقاي خاتمي كه در اين كنفرانس خبري محافظه كاران شوراي نگهبان را دوستان ميخواند، در اين باره گفت ما فقط با دوستان مي رويم و به دوستان اطلاعات و گزارش مي دهيم اما تصميم نهائي را آنها خواهند گرفت.
وي خطاب به خبرنگاران گفت حتي اگر يك نفر به ناحق رد صلاحيت شده باشد، به عنوان رئيس جمهوري اسلامي از حق او دفاع خواهد كرد و در تشريح موضع دولت در اين باره افزود:
محمد خاتمي: وزراي من و مسئولانم به روند رد صلاحيت ها اعتراض داشتند اما سياست ما اين است كه با تفاهم پيش برويم و خواست هاي خودمان، كه خواست هاي ملت است، والا بنده هيچ خواستي ندارم، دفاع از حقوق ملت است، و انتخابات بسسيار امر مهمي است و سرنوشت ساز ترين امر در امر مردمسالاري انتخابات است به خصوص انتخابات مجلس و مجلس هرچه نمايندگي بيشتر از مردم داشته باشد و در يك جريان آزاد رخ بدهد آن نمايندگي و نماد بودنش براي مردمسالاري بيشتر خواهد بود و اين انتخابات در صورتي است كه رقابت باشد.
ك.ح.: رئيس جمهوري اسلامي دربيان خوشبيني خود نسبت به عملكرد شوراي نگهبان تا بدانجا پيش رفت كه عليرغم پاسخ دبير شوراي نگهبان به وزير كشور مبني بر مسئله دار بودن افراد فهرست 618 نفري كه در دوره هاي قبل صلاحيت شان تائيد شده گفت صلاحيت خيلي از 618 نفر تائيد خواهد شد.
اما آيت الله احمد جنتي، دبير شوراي نگهبان در پاسخ خود به وزير كشور نوشت تائيد صلاحيت دوره هاي قبل هر داوطلب نمي تواند دليلي بر تائيد صلاحيت آنان براي دوره هاي بعدي باشد. اين چالش از جائي آغاز شد كه آيت الله خامنه اي رهبر جمهوري اسلامي از شوراي نگهبان خواست در باره چنين افرادي اصل بر داشتن صلاحيت گذاشته شود.
وزير كشور در نامه خود به شوراي نگهبان اسامي 618 نفر را اعلام كرد كه پيش از اين صلاحيت شان تائيد شده بود و در پاسخ آقاي جنتي علت رد صلاحيت اشخاص به شكل آماري ذكر شده است.
عمده ترين دليل رد صلاحيت اين افراد عدم ابراز وفاداري به ولايت مطلقه فقيه ذكر شده است. اما اين پاسخ شوراي نگهبان ساعتي پيش با واكنش تند عبدالواحد موسوي لاري وزير كشور روبرو شد.
موسوي لاري دراين باره گفت اين مسئله هم همانند بقيه چيزهائي است كه قبول نكردند. بسياري از حرفهاي ما كه اصولي بوده، قبول نكردند و يكي از موارد هم همين است.
با اين همه راهرو هاي ساختمان هاي مجلس كماكان مملو از نمايندگاني است كه در 18 روز اخير در مقابله با شوراي نگهبان بست نشسته اند. به گفته علي تاجرنيا نماينده جوان مردم مشهد، متحصنين شب گذشته تا نيمه شب را در جلسه اي سپري كردند و مقرر شد كه تحصن تا 12 بهمن ماه ادامه داشته باشد و درصورت بي توحهي محافظه كاران به درخواست هاي نمايندگان، آنها از نمايندگي در مجلس ششم استفعا دهند. در هجدهمين روز تحصن نمايندگان مجلس محمد خاتمي، رئيس جمهوري اسلامي گفت: «وقت تحصن نيست و ما بايد برويم جلو و خواسته هاي خودمان را بدهيم و حق اعتراض هست. خاتمی رئيس جمهوري اسلامي تا آنجا پيش رفت كه عليرغم پاسخ دبير شوراي نگهبان به وزير كشور مبني بر مسئله دار بودن افراد فهرست 618 نفري كه در دوره هاي قبل صلاحيت شان تائيد شده گفت صلاحيت خيلي از 618 نفر تائيد خواهد شد. وزير كشور در نامه خود به شوراي نگهبان اسامي 618 نفر را اعلام كرد كه پيش از اين صلاحيت شان تائيد شده بود و افزود عمده ترين دليل رد صلاحيت اين افراد عدم ابراز وفاداري به ولايت مطلقه فقيه ذكر شده است. متحصنين شب گذشته تا نيمه شب را در جلسه اي سپري كردند و مقرر شد درصورت بي توجهي محافظه كاران به درخواست هاي نمايندگان، آنها از نمايندگي در مجلس ششم استفعا دهند.
