يکصد و سي نماينده اصلاحگراي مجلس اعلام کردند دسته جمعي استعفا ميدهند

(rm) صدا |

Summary of Iran Stories of Today's BroadcastBehnam NateghiThursday, February 05, 2004 US Urges Iran to Follow Libya's Example on its Nuclear Program • The U.S. ambassador to the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency praised Libya on Thursday for owning up to running atomic weapons programs and urged Iran to do the same by fully cooperating with the agency's inspectors. “It's very clear that in the case of Libya you're dealing with a country that has made a decision (to disarm) and is acting on that decision, and that has not been said about Iran,” U.S. Ambassador Kenneth Brill told reporters after a briefing by IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei on Libya. (Mahdieh Javid) Reformists Face Biggest Defeat, as Guardians Council Uphold Elections Bans • In the aftermath of the Supreme Leader's refusal to delay the February 20 elections, the reformist MPs, banned from reelection by the Guardians Council, faced their biggest defeat yet in the hands of their conservative rivals. By calling the reformist MPs' 25-day sit-in protest at the Majles illegal and un-Islamic, the Supreme Leader gave ammunition to the conservative judiciary to prosecute the reformist MPs. If the satisfactory negations bear the desired results, we can expect a bright horizon, Majles speaker Mehdi Karrubi speculated, after a meeting with the Supreme Leader, during which, the Leader reportedly asked the Guardians Council to review bans on reformist candidacy applicants, including 87 Majles MPs. At least 154 of 190 Majles seats have already been assigned to conservative candidates, reformists' website Emrooz complained. (Keyvan Hosseini) • Of the list of 600 disqualified election candidacy applicants, who had been approved to run in previous elections, the Guardians Council reinstated only 55, including five Majles MPs. Judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi threatened to prosecute interior ministry officials who had said they would refuse to hold un-free, unfair and non-competitive elections. Supreme Leader advisor and member of the Expediency Council Ayatollah Ali-Akbar Nateq-Nouri said the MPs' speeches at the Majles were against the law. Observers said the conservative faction is determined to hold the elections on February 20, without the participation of the reformists, and plans to prosecute the MPs, provincial governors and interior ministry officials who had opposed the Guardians Council's mass disqualification of reformist candidacy applicants. (Jamshid Zand) • A group calling itself “independent members of the Islamic student councils,” which arrived in buses to the front of the interior ministry's building in central Tehran, staged a demonstration in support of the Supreme Leader's call for no delay in the elections. No one has the power to oppose the will of the people to hold the elections on February 20, spokesman of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Masoud Jazayeri said. He called the striking Majles MPs “simple-minded,” and threatened them with legal action. The subversive strategy to postpone the elections was hatched by the foreign enemies of the Islamic government, the society of conservative clerics (Jame'eh Rouhanioun Mobarez) said in a statement issued today in defense of the Guardians Council as an institution that “preserves the Islamic and democratic features” of the regime. To delay the elections is the subversive strategy of the enemies of the Islamic government, the conservative society of Qum seminary teachers said in a statement. Our revolution is an extension of prophet's movement, and the banner of justice-seeking and ignorance-fighting is in the hands of the Supreme Leader, conservative Tehran mayor said. Those, who once could mobilize thousands of students with a gesture of their finger, have now stooped to begging, and no one would even look at them, he added, referring to President Khatami and his reformist cabinet. (Mahmonir Rahimi) • Radio Farda Roundtable: The reformist MPs, who resigned from the Majles, have now the opportunity to campaign for reforms as members of the opposition. Their new position is preferable to being ineffective members of a Majles whose legislations were vetoed by the Guardians Council, Mashhad-based pro-reform journalist and banned election candidacy applicant Mohammad-Sadeq Javadi-Hesar says. The reformists' have now concluded that they have to campaign for constitutional reform, and to do so, they have to maintain their political capital by refusing to take part in the elections, even if the Guardians Council finally lifts the bans on their reelection, Paris-based member of the coordination council of the alliance of non-monarchist secular republicans (Ettehad-e Jumhurikhahan-e Iran) Bijan Hekmat tells Radio Farda. The Supreme Leader's order against delaying the elections places the reformists between two grim historical milestones. The first one was the Supreme Leader's order four years ago against any attempt to reform the press law. With his new order, the Supreme Leader in effect has banned free elections. The people have lost faith not only in the reformists, but in all non-violent opponents of the regime. The reformists have now two options. They either exit the regime proudly by resigning, or take part in the elections, which will end with their humiliating defeat, Amsterdam-based independent journalist Sina Motalebbi says. (Amir-Mosaddegh Katouzian) • The conservatives believe that by rapprochement with foreign powers after eliminating the reformists, they can hold on to power, Frankfurt-based leftists activist Mehdi Khanbaba Tehrani tells Radio Farda. (Maryam Ahmadi) • The rumored resignation of President Khatami appears unlikely. The reformists wasted the opportunity to stand up to the Supreme Leader, when four years ago he ordered against deliberations on reforming the press law. Instead of drinking from the fountain of reason, they only gargled its water. (Alireza Taheri) • Only a miracle can prevent the new wave of political oppression rising in Iran, Cologne daily Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger writes. The conservatives believe that the people will not rise to protest against their renewed oppression, Berlin daily Der Tagesspiegel writes. The conservatives have prepared themselves to take over the Majles and open the windows to the West, it adds. The people of Iran notwithstanding, there has been no bigger loser in the present political turmoil in Iran than President Khatami, Vienna daily Die Presse writes. (Parviz Farhang, Cologne) • People have lost their faith in Khatami and the reformists, secretary general of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) of Iran Abdollah Hassanzadeh, who is visiting Germany, said in an interview with Frankfurter Rundschau. (Shahram Mirian, Cologne) • The elections crisis pitted reformist ayatollahs against the conservative ones, reports Italian independent news agency Kronos. (Ahmad Ra'fat, Rome) Confusion over Majles Vote on the Budget Bill • The resignation of more than 124 Majles MPs created confusion over the budget bill. The Majles finance committee has finished its review of the bill, but it is not clear if or when the bill reaches the Majles floor. Head of the plan and management organization Mohammad Sattarifar said the Majles will vote on the budget bill before the end of the fiscal year on March 22, 2004, but his deputy Mohammad Kurdbacheh said the Majles vote appears unlikely under the current circumstances. (Fereydoun Khavand, Paris) Russia Calls for High-Level Talks on Caspian Sea Legal Regime • Russian deputy foreign minister in charge of negotiations with the littoral states on the Caspian Sea legal regime Victor Kaliuzhny called for a meeting at the foreign ministers level. A final settlement agreeable to all parties maybe close, London University's international relations professor and an expert on Caspian Sea legal affairs Pirouz Mojtahedzadeh tells Radio Farda. Russia has come to terms with its two neighbors on the northern side of the Caspian. It now wants to use the results in negotiating with others, he adds. (Maryam Ahmadi) Foreign Minister Arrives in Beirut for Hezbollah-Israel Prisoner Swap Negotiations • Foreign minister Kamal Kharrazi arrived in Beirut today to take part in the second phase of prisoners swap negotiations between Israel and the Lebanese Hezbollah. The first stage of the swap, mediated by Germany, included two prominent Hezbollah leaders, Shaikh Abd al-Karim Ubaid and Mustafa Dirani, snatched from their homes in Lebanon by Israeli commandos in 1989 and 1994 respectively. “We hope that the fate of the four Iranian diplomats who were captured (in 1982) would be determined through our talks today and tomorrow and through the committee that will be formed,” Kharrazi said after meeting with the Lebanese President, adding that there was “a lot of information” that the four were in Israel, a charge that Israel has repeatedly denied. (Peyman Pezhman) Islamic Government's Quest for Plutonium • In an article published today, London-based Jane's Intelligence Review assesses the wIslamic government's pursuit of its goal to obtain enriched uranium and plutonium. If international treaties fail to prevent the Islamic regime from continuing its uranium enrichment program and heavy water project to obtain weapons-grade plutonium, then resorting to force would be the only solution, JIR's editor Chris Aaron tells Radio Farda. The projects such as Arak's heavy water facility, which can process the spent fuel of the Bushehr nuclear power plant, are too small for producing enough plutonium to make nuclear weapons, but can provide the experience and know-how required to do so, he adds. (Shahran Tabari, London) يكصد و سي نماينده اصلاحگرا در مجلس شوراي اسلامي امروز اعلام داشتند بطور دسته جمعي از نمايندگي مجلس استعفا ميدهند. اين نمايندگان که پيشتر استعفانامه هايشان را تسليم كرده اند، همچنين اعلام کردند، انتخابات مجلس را تحريم مي کنند. محمد رضا خاتمي، نايب رئيس مجلس امروز گفت که دستيابي به تفاهم براي حل بحران ردصلاحيتهاي انتخاباتي به شکست انجاميد. پيشتر شوراي نگهبان از فهرست 600 نفري ارائه شده از سوي وزارت اطلاعات، كه مدركي براي رد صلاحيت آنها ارائه نشده بود، صلاحيت بيش از 50 تن از داوطلبان نامزدي در انتخابات، از جمله 12 نماينده کنوني مجلس را، تاييد کرد و اعلام كرد بررسي ادامه دارد.