Monday, June 21, 2004
<b>IRGC Seizes Three British Navy Boats and Arrests Eight British Sailors in the Persian Gulf</b>
• Officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps' navy seized three British navy vessels and arrested eight British sailors who had had entered Iran's territorial waters in Shatt al Arab (Arvandroud) near the Iraqi border, according to IRGC spokesman Masoud Jazaeri. “Anyone from any nationality entering our waters will face the same response,” Jazaeri told Reuters. Iran's Arabic-language satellite news channel al-Alam reported that the IRGC navy found weapons, maps, GSP navigation devices and cameras on the boats. “We can confirm that eight Royal Navy personnel from the Royal Navy training team based in southern Iraq have been detained by the Iranian authorities while delivering a boat from Umm Qsar to Basra,” Britain's Ministry of Defense said. “This morning three British vessels with eight crew entered the Iran's waters and Iran's naval forces, acting on their legal duty, confiscated the vessels and arrested the crew,” foreign ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi said in a statement. The IRGC's navy earlier this month seized eight UAE fishing boats, reciprocating UAE's seizer of an Iranian fishing boat. Britain is a co-sponsor of an IAEA resolution critical of Iran's failing to fully cooperate with UN inspections of its nuclear facilities.
<b>Iran Calls for an End to IAEA Probe</b>
• Foreign ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi called for an end to UN inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities, four days after the UN International Atomic Energy Agency “deplored” Iran's lack of “timely, full and proactive” cooperation with UN inspectors. He said the IAEA director-general and all the members of the IAEA board of governors have called for an end, within a few months, to IAEA's probe of Iran, a goal shared by Iran.
• Nuclear inspectors are expected to visit a site in the Iranian capital, Tehran, following evidence from satellite photographs that it was scraped clean earlier in 2004,” writes the <i>New Scientist</i>. Two commercial satellite images, on August 11, 2003 and March 22, 2004, show that the site's buildings have been razed, its features obliterated and its ground cleared. “The images show that Iran has taken dramatic steps that make it difficult to discover what was happening there,” says Corey Hinderstein from the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington DC in an interview with the London based science monthly. His institute is responsible for finding and releasing the images.
<b>EU Condemns Iran on Human Rights</b>
• “The European Union continues to be gravely concerned at the continued and numerous violations of human rights in Iran,” Ireland, the current holder of the EU presidency, said in a statement issued on Sunday. The four rounds of EU-Iran human rights roundtables, the last which was held in Tehran early last week, had “no concrete results,” the statement, released in Tehran by the Irish embassy, said. The EU delegation called for the “immediate and definitive” release of 40 political prisoners in meetings last week with judiciary officials. Rights violations cited by the statement include, “unequal rights for women; the use of torture in prisons and other places of detention, and a culture of impunity for perpetrators; the lack of an independent judiciary; the use of the death penalty, as well as reports of the continued use of amputations and other cruel punishments; a continuing campaign against journalists and others who seek to exercise their freedom of opinion and expression, a flawed electoral process which impedes the democratic choice of the Iranian people, and discrimination on religious grounds.” The statement noted, “The EU... underlined that the purpose of the dialogue was to bring about an improvement in the human rights situation in Iran. This is indispensable for the development of wider and eventually closer relations between the EU and Iran.”
• “The EU statement on human rights violations was “hypocritical,” Judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Shahroudi said. The EU human rights delegation praised the conditions of Iranian prisons which they visited, but the EU statement contradicts that, which is due to pressures from the “arrogant governments.”
• European governments should learn human rights from Iran, Tehran prosecutor Said Mortazavi said. The international human rights enovys praise everything when they are in Iran, but condemn everything, as soon as they leave Iran, he added.
<b>Soviet Era Planning: The Plight of the Fourth Five-Year Plan</b>
• In its final days, the reformist Majles bypassed the Guardians Council and sent its final version of the fourth five-year economic and social development plan to the Expediency Council, in order to prevent the incoming conservative Majles to revise it. But yesterday, the Expediency Council sent the bill back to the Majles in apparent coordination with the conservative Guardians Council. The event marked another death for the reformist Majles, an article in the daily <i>Shargh</i> said. In today's fast moving world, next year's economic trends are hard to forecast, but the Islamic officials still draft soviet-style five-year economic plans, which pit one faction against the other and set policies and goals for no one to follow, <b>Radio Farda</b>'s Paris-based economic commentator <b>Fereydoun Khavand</b> says.
<b>Iran To Try al-Qaeda Detainees, Rowhani Says</b>
• Iran “still detains” a number of al-Qaeda suspects who will be put on trial for attempted terrorist attacks within Iran, secretary of the supreme national security council Hassan Rowhani said on Sunday in an interview with Arabic news channel al-Jazeeria. He said the suspects had plans to bomb state buildings.
<b>Judiciary to Seek Punishment for Fathers in Murder of Children</b>
• The judiciary plans to seek a revision of the article 220 of the penal code, which exempts fathers and grandfathers from punishment in murder of their children and grandchildren. The law, based on Islamic rule that holds father's custody of his children absolute and unalienable, had created problems for the judiciary, especially in some southern provinces where young tribal girls are usually punished by death in the hands of their fathers for any violation of family rules, Tehran-based lawyer <b>Mohammad-Hossein Aghasi</b> tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. (Fereydoun Zarnegar)
<b>Court Orders Health Ministry and Blood Center to Pay Damages to HIV-Infected Blood Recipients</b>
• A court in Tehran awarded blood money of 712 persons to be equally divided between the victims and their kin of HIV-contaminated blood transfusions. In addition, the health ministry and the national blood bank were ordered to provide for complete treatment for those who contracted disease from poorly tested blood, claimants' spokesman <b>Ahmad Qavidel</b>, head of Iran's hemophiliac society, tells <b>Radio Farda</b>, calling the verdict, not a victory for hemophiliac patients, but for Iran's judiciary system. (Keyvan Hosseini)
<b>Secular Opposition Group in Exile Calls for Abolition of the Islamic Republic</b>
• A third secular, non-monarchist opposition group in exile was announced yesterday. Organizer and spokesman <b>Mehrdad Baba-Ali</b> tells <b>Radio Farda</b> that unlike the other two non-monarchist secular opposition group, who, he says, favor compromising with the reformists within the Islamic Republic government, his group is for non-violent eradication of the Islamic Republic, and would not compromise with anyone within the regime. (Shahran Tabari, London)
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فريبا مودت (راديو فردا): خبرگزاري فرانسه به نقل از شبکه تلويزيوني العالم گزارش داد که ايران سه فروند قايق بريتانيايي را که وارد آبهايش در نزديکي مرز عراق شده بود متوقف کرده و هشت سرنشين آن را بازداشت نموده است. اين خبرگزاري به نقل از منابع نيروي دريايي ايران مي افزايد: در يکي از قايقهاي بريتانيايي چند قبضه اسلحه و نقشه يافت شده است. گزارشگر راديو فردا در لندن شهران طبري در آنسوي خط است. خانم طبري شما در ارتباط با اين خبر با مقامات دولت بريتانيا در تماس بوديد، چه گفتند؟
شهران طبري (راديو فردا): من بلافاصله بعد از پخش اين خبر با دفتر ايران در وزارت خارجه بريتانيا تماس گرفتم، آنها گفتند که هنوز نمي توانند اطلاعاتي در اختيار رسانه ها قرار دهند و هنوز بيانيه اي هم در اين مورد صادر نکرده اند. فعلا دارند با دولت ايران تماس مي گيرند تا مساله را روشن کنند. ساعتي بعد از آن هم از طرف راديو فردا با وزارت دفاع بريتانيا تماس گرفتم. آنها گفتند صبح امروز تماس پايگاه دريايي بريتانيا در جنوب عراق با سه قايق گشتي که در مجموع هشت سرنشين از قسمت آموزشي نيروي دريايي سلطنتي بريتانيا داشت قطع شد و مدتي بعد از اين قطع تماس بود که مقامات ايراني اعلام کردند سه قايق و هشت ملوان را که مي گويند بريتانيايي هستند توقيف کرده اند. پس از آن بلافاصله وزارت خارجه بريتانيا با دولت ايران تماس گرفت تا ببيند آيا اين قايقها و افراد توقيف شده همان قايقها و سرنشينان بريتانيايي هستند يا نه. وزارت دفاع گفت: وزارت خارجه بريتانيا همچنين در حال بررسي شرايطي است که تحت آن اين افراد و قايقها توقيف شدند. اين تمام گزارشي بود که وزارت دفاع بريتانيا در اختيار راديو فردا قرار داد.
ف . م : خبر ديگري خانم طبري از خبرگزاريهاي عمده شنيده ايد؟
ش . ط : بله خبرهاي ديگري که رسيده يکي از خود جنوب عراق است که سخنگوي نظامي نيروي بريتانيا صبح امروز دوشنبه تاييد کرد که سه قايق گشتي و هشت سرنشين از نيروي دريايي بريتانيا از حوزه ديد و کنترل آنها خارج شدند. خبرگزاريهاي ديگر هم همين گزارشي را که وزارت دفاع در اختيار راديو فردا قرار داد با اندکي تغيير منعکس کردند. خبرگزاري فرانسه همچنين گفت: مقامات ايراني سه کشتي وارد شده به آبهاي ايران را مصادره کردند و از قول منابع نيروي دريايي ايران اضافه کرد که در داخل قايقها مقداري اسلحه و نقشه پيدا کردند. اين گزارش همچنين مي گويد که اين توقيفها در اروندرود و شط العرب صورت گرفته و اين خبرگزاريها از قول شبکه تلويزيوني العالم گفت که ملوانان بريتانيايي اقرار کردند که به اشتباه وارد آبهاي ايران شدند. همينطور گفت که سفارت بريتانيا در تهران براي اظهار نظر در اين باره آماده نبوده و به مقامات وزارت خارجه ايران هم براي اظهار نظر مراجعه کردند، ولي دسترسي به آنها ميسر نشده. اما خبرگزاري رويتر از قول مسعود جزايري سخنگوي سپاه پاسداران ايران گفت: صبح امروز ما اطلاع پيدا کرديم که تعدادي از کشتيهاي خارجي بدون مجوز وارد آبهاي ايران شدند. ما سه کشتي و پنج نفر ( گفت پنج نفر به جاي هشت نفر) را دستگير کرديم و در حال بررسي شرايط اين واقعه هستيم. رويتر در پايان گزارش خود اضافه مي کند که ايران و بريتانيا در هفته هاي اخير رابطه شان کمي تنش داشته چرا که بريتانيا به همراه ساير اعضاي سازمان ملل از ايران درباره برنامه هاي هسته ايش انتقاد کرده. شبکه تلويزيوني العالم به نقل از نيروي دريائي سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامي، گزارش داد كه ايران سه فروند قايق بريتانيايي با هشت سرنشين را که وارد آبهاي نزديک مرز عراق شده بودند، توقيف كرد. در يکي از قايقهاي بريتانيايي چند قبضه اسلحه و نقشه يافت شد. داخل قايقها، مقداري اسلحه و نقشه پيدا کرده اند. بنا به گزارش رويتر، مسعود جزايري، سخنگوي سپاه پاسداران گفت: صبح امروز ما اطلاع پيدا کرديم که تعدادي از کشتيهاي خارجي بدون مجوز وارد آبهاي ايران شدند. ما سه کشتي و پنج نفر را دستگير کرديم و در حال بررسي شرايط اين واقعه هستيم. رويتر در پايان گزارش خود اضافه مي کند که ايران و بريتانيا در هفته هاي اخير رابطه شان کمي تنش داشت، زيرا بريتانيا به همراه ساير اعضاي شوراي حكام سازمان انرژي اتمي سازمان ملل، از ايران درباره برنامه هاي هسته ايش انتقاد کرد.
