Summary of Iran Stories in Today's BroadcastsBehnam NateghiThursday, April 22, 2004
<b>Italian Military Intelligence Blames Iran for Iraq Unrest</b>
• The Islamic Republic trains and arms Iraqi radical cleric Moqtada Sadr's militia, and has deployed agents to cities across Iraq to participate in terrorist attacks, the Italy's military security intelligence agency SISMI said in a report today. The Islamic Republic agents, who have set up houses in Najaf and Karbala, are pressuring moderate Iraqi Shiite clerics to back Iran-supported radical clerics, despite the radicals' lack of popularity, claimed SISMI in its report to the Italian parliament's intelligence committee, a copy of which has been obtained by <b>Radio Farda</b>. SISMI, a unit of the Italian defense ministry, warned against possible insurgents' attacks against coalition forces, and urged the authorities to focus on the “unconstructive” role being played in Iraq by the Islamic Republic. (Ahmad Ra'fat, Rome)
<b>US President Warns Iran on Nuclear Program</b>
• “The Iranians need to feel the pressure from the world that any nuclear weapons program will be uniformly condemned,” US President George Bush said today in remarks at the Newspaper Association of America annual convention. “It's essential that they hear that message,” he added, in response to a question about cooperation of other countries in combating terrorism. “The development of a nuclear weapon in Iran is intolerable, otherwise they will be dealt with, starting through the United Nations,” he said. Describing the Islamic Republic authorities as “a tough crowd to negotiate with,” he added: “They've got the classic principle-to-non-principle negotiating strategy available for them. They've got a fellow sitting up on top, probably the decision-maker on most matters, and yet the world goes to Khatami, so you're not really sure if the message is getting totally delivered or not.” The US President said one of his jobs is to make sure that in their talks with Iran, Britain, Germany and France “speak as plainly as possible” to the Iranian authorities “and make it absolutely clear that… it would be intolerable to peace and stability in the Middle East if they get a nuclear weapon, particularly since their stated objective is the destruction of Israel.”
• In a meeting with foreign minister Kamal Kharrazi on Wednesday at the Élysée Palace French President Jacques Chirac chastised Iran for failing to comply fully with the IAEA inspections of its nuclear sites, and implied that Iran had violated the spirit of an agreement with France, Germany and Britain to curtail its nuclear programs, senior French officials said. Kharrazi also met France's foreign minister Michel Barnier, who said Iraq needs the cooperation of all its neighbors. Kharrazi said Iran has used its influence in Iraq to promote calm and stability.
• Kharrazi will meet British foreign secretary Jack Straw later today.
<b> Committee for Defense of Prisoners' Rights Elects Board</b>
• The newly-formed committee for defense of the prisoners' rights elected dissident writer and former prisoner Emadeddin Baqi as chairman of the board. The committee's board of directors will meet once a week to review the prisoners' problems, spokeswoman <b>Farideh Gheyrat</b>, a member of the Tehran bar association, tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. “We are finalizing the bylaws, she adds, after which, we shall form specialized committees in fields such as education, healthcare, legal, judicial and welfare,” she adds. (Mahmonir Rahimi)
<b>Advocacy Group Calls the Supreme Leader to Accountability on Press Freedoms</b>
• Citing the Supreme Leader's New Year speech in which he said all officials are accountable to the people, the society for defense of press freedoms asked the Supreme Leader to account for his 15-year record in the field of press freedoms. In its open letter to the Supreme Leader, the society said it has not received any answer to a similar letter it sent to the Supreme Leader two years ago. Instead, the it has witnessed more violations of press freedoms.
<b>Khatami Confirms Cabinet Changes</b>
• President Mohammad Khatami confirmed today that he ousted finance and economic affairs minister Tahmasb Mazaheri, and said head of the management and plan organization Mohammad Sattarifar resigned. Mazaheri and Sattarifar avoided each other, the official news agency IRNA's daily <i>Iran</i> writes. (Fereydoun Khavand, Paris)
<b>Political Murders' Investigator Ganji Begins Fifth Year in Jail</b>
• Today, jailed investigative journalist Akbar Ganji began the last year of his five-year sentence. Ganji, who was thrown in jail after he published a series of investigative books on the 1997 serial murders of political dissidents, suffers from asthma and other ailments, his wife Masoumeh Shafii said, adding that Ganji is being refused medical furlough. Ganji, and other journalists and political activists, who are in jail for their views, did not receive the constitutional protections for “political crimes,” because, according to legal experts, there is no Majles legislation on the definition of political crimes. The Guardians Council vetoed the Majles bill in which the reformist MPs had defined non-violent expression of opinion as political crime, which the Islamic Republic constitution says has to be tried in special courts with juries and lawyers, activist Emadddin Baqi writes in his website, adding that the expression of opinion is not a crime, and those in jail for expressing their opinions are just prisoners, not criminals. (Mahmonir Rahimi)
• Member of the Iranian writers association Alireza Jabbari, who has been in jail for more than a year, is in need of heart surgery, but the prison officials have denied his request for medical furlough, Jabari's daughter <b>Azarang Jabbari</b> tells <b>Radio Farda</b>, adding that her 60-year-old father suffers from physical and psychological problems. Other political prisoners in need of medical attention include veteran journalist Siamak Pourzand, student activists Ahmad Batebi and Mohammad Ebrahimi.
<b>Government Protests to Germany over Terrorism Plaque</b>
• Foreign ministry's director of European affairs Ali Ahani summoned German Ambassador Baron Paul von Maltzahn on Wednesday and voiced the Islamic government's “strong objection” to the unveiling in Berlin of a plaque that blames the Supreme Leader and other top officials for the 1992 killings in Mykonos restaurant of the leaders of the Iranian Kurdish Democratic Party.
<b>Iran Ready for Democracy, Says Former Crown Prince</b>
• The outside world should cease implicitly tolerating the repressive theocratic regime in Iran, that country's former crown prince, Reza Pahlavi, told a Williams College audience Monday night. “It is incumbent upon the world to say, ‘We will not condone these violations of human rights' and not legitimize the regime by entering negotiations with the regime,” Pahlavi said at a press conference Tuesday morning. A resident of the United States since 1984, Pahlavi attended Williams during the Iranian Revolution. During his talk Monday, he called his visit here an emotional homecoming. And he underlined his country's need for a secular democracy. He said the regime has an interest in fostering instability throughout the region to maintain its stranglehold on power. This includes obstructing the Palestinian peace process, and aggressively developing weapons of mass destruction as a last-resort deterrent, the <i>Berkshire Eagle</i> reports.
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امير مصدق كاتوزيان (راديو فردا): سازمان امنيت و اطلاعات نظامي ايتاليا، موسوم به سيزمي SISMI در زمينه گزارشي كه در ارتباط با بحران گروگانهاي دولتي به دولت و كميسيون پارلماني كنترل نيروهاي امنيتي ارسال داشته است، بار ديگر به نقش جمهوري اسلامي در عراق اشاره كرده و خبر از حضور چريكهاي ايراني در اين كشور مي دهد.
احمد رافت (راديو فردا): سازمان امنيت و اطلاعات نظامي ايتاليا، سيزمي SISMI در گزارش جديدي بار ديگر به نقش جمهوري اسلامي در عراق و حمايت مقامات تهران از گروههاي تندرو شيعه و حتي سازمانهاي خرابكار در اين كشور عربي اشاره مي كند. در اين گزارش كه راديو فردا توانست آن را مطالعه كند، همچنين اشاره شده است جمهوري اسلامي نه تنها نيروهاي تندرو شيعه و بويژه هواداران مقتدي صدر را تعليم نظامي مي دهد و آنها را جهت حمله به نيروهاي ائتلاف تجهيز و مسلح مي نمايد، بلكه عناصر و ماموريني نيز جهت شركت مستقيم در عمليات خرابكارانه را به داخل عراق اعزام داشته است.
در بخش ديگري از اين گزارش كه در روزنامه كوريره دلاسرا نيز به آن اشاره مي شود، دقيقا آمده است چريكهاي ايراني برپايه اطلاعاتي كه ما در محل بدست آورده ايم، در نظر دارند در محله الجديليه در حومه بغداد دست به عمليات نظامي عليه نيروهاي آمريكايي بزنند. در اين گزارش چون گزارش قبلي كه سيزمي به دولت و كميسيون كنترل نيروهاي امنيتي پارلمان رم ارسال داشته بود، باز اشاره مي شود كه نيروهاي نفوذي جمهوري اسلامي، مركز عمليات خود را در شهرهاي نجف و كربلا قرار داده اند، هرچند نيروهاي تندرو شيعه كه توسط اين مامورين تعليم ديده اند در ديگر شهرهاي عراق از ناصريه تا كركوك حضور دارند.
گزارش سيزمي با توجه به حضور نيروهاي نظامي ايتاليا در ناصريه به تمركز هواداران مسلح مقتدي صدر در اين شهر و حومه آن اشاره كرده و صحبت از حملات قريب الوقوع سپاه مهدي به پايگاههاي ايتاليايي مي كند. در ابتداي اين گزارش اشاره مي شود استراتژي جمهوري اسلامي بوجود آوردن موقعيتهايي براي ايجاد درگيري بين نيروهاي ائتلاف و شيعيان است. اين درگيريها بنابر آنچه در ادامه اين تحليل آمده است، مي توانند به روابط اهالي جنوب عراق با نيروهاي نظامي خارجي كه در حال حاضر مي توان آنها را خوب دانست، به طور قابل ملاحظه اي لطمه وارد سازد.
در گزارش سيزمي همچنين اشاره مي شود جمهوري اسلامي ميان رهبران شناخته شده شيعه در شهر نجف از حمايت و پشتيباني آنچناني برخوردار نيست. هرچند كه ادامه درگيريها ميان نيروهاي ائتلاف و هواداران مقتدي صدر مي تواند به گفته سيزمي مراجع نجف را مجبور سازد در حمايت از شيعيان تندرو و طرفدار ايران عليه نيروهاي ائتلاف موضع گيري كنند. در خاتمه اين گزارش سازمان امنيت و اطلاعات نظامي ايتاليا كه به وزارت دفاع وابسته است، به دولت رم توصيه مي كند به نقش غير سازنده جمهوري اسلامي در عراق و همكاري عوامل نفوذي تهران با نيروهاي تندرو و خرابكار توجه كافي بشود. سازمان امنيت و اطلاعات نظامي ايتاليا، سيزمي SISMI در گزارشي جديد درباره حمايت جمهوري اسلامي از گروههاي تندرو شيعه و سازمانهاي خرابكار در عراق، مي نويسد جمهوري اسلامي نه تنها نيروهاي تندرو شيعه و بويژه هواداران مقتدي صدر را جهت حمله به نيروهاي ائتلاف آموزش مي دهد و تجهيز مي كند، بلكه عناصر و ماموريني نيز جهت شركت مستقيم در عمليات خرابكارانه به داخل عراق اعزام داشته است. گزارش SISMI كه نسخه اي از آن دراختيار راديوفردا قرار گرفت حاكي است: نيروهاي نفوذي جمهوري اسلامي، مركز عمليات خود را در شهرهاي نجف و كربلا قرار داده اند و عليرغم عدم محبوبيت آنها در نجف، ادامه درگيريها ميان نيروهاي ائتلاف و هواداران مقتدي صدر مي تواند مراجع تقليد شيعه در نجف را مجبور سازد در حمايت از شيعيان تندرو و طرفدار جمهوري اسلامي عليه نيروهاي ائتلاف موضع گيري كنند.
