Summary of Iran Stories in Today's BroadcastsBehnam NateghiFriday, September 19, 2003
<b> Three EU Countries Offered Iran Technological Support for Iran's IAEA Cooperation</b>
• Britain, Germany and France wrote to Iran last month offering the prospect of technological cooperation in return for Iran's ending its uranium enrichment program, and accepting more stringent UN inspections. Western diplomats told Reuters that a joint letter by the three countries' foreign ministers was delivered to Tehran in early August, despite intense lobbying by Washington. The European officials were not encouraged by Iran's reaction, the diplomats said. (Amir-Mosaddegh Katouzian)
• Secretary of the Guardians Council Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati called for Iran's exit from the UN non-proliferation treaty, in a speech at today's official Friday prayer ceremonies in the Tehran University, which was televised nationally. His remarks directly opposed those of President Khatami and vice president Gholamreza Aqazadeh, head of Iran's atomic energy organization, who said last week that Iran was committed to cooperate with the IAEA. Meanwhile, Moscow and Tehran failed to agree on the protocol to guarantee the return of the Bushehr nuclear plant's spent fuel to Russia, Russia's minister of atomic energy Alexander Rumyantsev said. (Baktash Khamsehpour)
• Tehran's lack of response to the IAEA's resolution would deepen the current crisis in the EU-Iran relations, deputy director of the Italian parliament's foreign affairs committee Dario Riolta said today. (Ahmad Ra'fat, Rome)
• Iran should seek a commitment from the European countries that they will cooperate with it on nuclear projects, and would protect it from possible nuclear attacks by Pakistan and Israel, foreign policy commentator <b>Houshang Taleh</b> tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. (Baktash Khamsehpour)
• <b>Roundtable: IAEA Resolution</b> London-based leftist commentator <b>Farokh Negahdar</b>, tells <b>Radio Farda</b> that the regime's foreign policy finds itself in a crisis, and the root of the problem rests with those who make the final decisions on Iran's foreign policy and strategic matters, and at the head of them, the Supreme Leader. Glasgow University's international diplomacy professor <b>Reza Taqizadeh</b> tells <b>Radio Farda</b> that the IAEA resolution dashed Iran's hopes for good relations with less ideologically inclined countries, such as Britain, Australia, Canada and Japan. At the end, the Iranian people will pay the price of the regime's failures in foreign policy, he adds. Furthermore, the conservative faction believes that good relations with these countries helps the Khatami and reformists, so it uses any opportunity it finds to sabotage Iran's relations with the west, he adds.
<b>Bremer Accuses Iran of Destabilizing Iraq</b>
• Iranian intelligence agents were working to destabilize Iraq's reconstruction process, with such activities as “support for various people, some of whom have taken violent action against both Iraqis and against the coalition.” head of the Coalition Provisional Authority Paul Bremer said on Friday, in an interview with the <i>Daily Telegraph</i>. (Peyman Pezhman, Dubai)
<b>IRGC Arrests Three Nationalist Activists</b>
• The intelligence unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) arrested three activist members of the nationalist party “Hezb-e Mellat-e Iran (Iranian Nation Party)” Mehrdad Asgari, Maziyar Aslani and Ali Khaleqi were picked up separately, during the past month, a source told <b>Radio Farda</b>. Their families have no information on their whereabouts, the source said. (Mahmonir Rahimi)
<b>Gunman Kills Two in the Justice Ministry's Security Unit</b>
• In a shooting that broke out in the offices of the Justice Ministry's security forces, one of the armed guards shot dead two of his colleagues and wounded several others. He was arrested after he finished the round of bullets in his machinegun. The police blocked access to central Tehran for hours after the shooting. (Mahmonir Rahimi)
<b>Reformists Re-Launch Mass Exit Threat</b>
• Concerned with the Guardians' Council plan to disqualify most of them in the upcoming Majles elections, the reformist MPs re-launched the threat of exiting the government, which jailed reformist theoretician and Khatami advisor Abbas Abdi had discussed in his articles as a possible course of action for the reform faction in the face of obstructionist polices and the veto power wielded by their conservative opponents. Tehran MP Ali Shakourirad said last Tuesday that “the attitude towards non-participation (in the elections) prevails.” He said Guardians Council's power to vet the applicants for candidacy in the Majles elections, together with the inability of the interior ministry to close down the provincial offices the Guardians Council has opened to collect information on candidates, would make the coming elections a charade. Reformists also sharpened their direct attacks on the Supreme Leader last week, In the speeches they delivered at the offices of the pro-Khatami party the Participation Front, the reformists, including Khatami's brother Mohammad Reza, blamed the Supreme Leader directly for the arrests and continued detention of journalists and activists. (Keyvan Hosseini)
• The provincial offices that the Guardians Council has set up to collect information on elections' candidates, require a law; they are now operating without one, Tehran-based lawyer <b>Nemat Ahmadi</b> tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. (Maryam Ahmadi)
<b>Iran Excludes Japan from Bidding on the Azadegan Oil Deal</b>
• Iran may exclude Japan from bidding for the Azadegan oil field, due to its stance on Iran's nuclear program, the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun reported on Friday. Iran has invited companies from other countries to compete for the contract; it quoted oil sources as saying. (Golnaz Esfandiari)
• Iranian authorities seem to have given up on Japan, and are looking elsewhere, <b>Radio Farda</b>'s Paris-based economic commentator <b>Fereydoun Khavand</b> says. The Japanese are not willing to risk their good relations the US over the Middle East oil issues, he adds. China and France are not willing to risk either, considering their position on Iraq. Considering Iran's isolation, the government would have to give extraordinary concessions to foreign companies in order to attract them to invest in its oil and gas projects, he says. (Golnaz Esfandiari)
<b>Turkey Threatens Iranian Refugees with Deportation</b>
• Turkey has threatened Iranian refugees and asylum seekers with deportation, international human rights organizations and refugees' advocates charge. They said Turkish police arrested 16 Iranian refugees in the city of Van, near Iran's border, and forced them to return to Iran through the mountainous region. But the deportees returned to Turkey within two days, and settled in Van again. Most asylum seekers entering Turkey from the Iranian Kurdistan are members of the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) of Iran, whose life would be in danger if they return, their advocates say. (Shahram Mirian, Cologne)
<b>British Court Bars Former Iranian Diplomat from Leaving London</b>
• During the third session of his extradition hearing, London's Bow Street Magistrates Court told former Iranian ambassador to Argentina Hadi Soleimanpour that by leaving London or applying for travel papers he would violate the conditions of his release on bail. His lawyer asked time to study the 2600-page file Argentina submitted in support of its extradition request. Soleimanpour, along with former intelligence minister Ali Falahian and six others Islamic officials, is wanted in Argentina for his alleged participation in the 1994 terrorist bombing of the Buenos Aires Jewish cultural center in which 85 died and 300 were wounded. (Golnaz Esfandiari)
بريتانيا، آلمان وفرانسه ماه گذشته برخلاف نظرآمريکا به ايران پيشنهاد کردند درمقابل دريافت تکنولوژي ازاروپا، برنامه بحث انگيز غني سازي اورانيوم را متوقف سازد وبا بازرسي هاي سختگيرانه تر سازمان ملل متحد ازتاسيسات اتمي خود موافقت کند.
امير مصدق كاتوزيان (راديو فردا): ديپلمات هاي غربي مي گويند دراوايل ماه اوت گذشته ودرحالي که واشنگتن به شدت مخالفت مي کرد، وزيران امور خارجه بريتانيا، آلمان وفرانسه نامه مشترکي به تهران ارسال داشتند. مفاد اين نامه پيشترفاش نشده بود. اين نامه بيانگراختلاف نظر عميق ميان دولت پرزيدنت بوش وحتي نزديکترين متحد اروپائي آن يعني بريتانيا دربرخورد با ايران بود.
وزيران امور خارجه سه کشور دراين نامه ازايران خواسته بودند پروتکل الحاقي به پيمان منع گسترش سلاح هاي اتمي را امضا و به تصويب برساند وبرنامه غني سازي اورانيوم را که غرب بيم آن دارد درارتباط با برنامه مخفيانه توليد سلاح هاي اتمي ايران باشد، متوقف کند. درمقابل، دراين نامه به ايران وعده برخي همکاري ها در زمينه تکنولوژي داده شده بود. با اين حال وعده داده نشد که با برنامه اتمي ايران براي مقاصد مسالمت جويانه همکاري به عمل آيد.
يک ديپلمات که درجريان ارسال اين نامه بود گفت واشنگتن معتقد بود چنين نامه اي به هيچ وجه به مقصود کمک نمي کند. آمريکائي ها نگران آن بودند اين نامه بين اروپا وآمريکا شکاف اندازد وبه همين جهت با دوستان و همکاران اروپائي خود صحبت کردند تا آن ها را ازارسال اين نامه منصرف
کنند. ديپلمات هاي اروپائي مي گويند ازاين که تاکنون پاسخ مناسبي دراين باره ازتهران دريافت نداشته اند، دچار سرخوردگي شده اند.
محمد خاتمي رئيس جمهوري ايران روز18 ماه اوت گذشته با ارسال نامه اي براي رهبران اروپائي، ازجمله ايتاليا رئيس ادواري اتحاديه اروپا، وعده داد برنامه اتمي مسالمت آميزايران هرگز تبديل به برنامه اي نظامي نشود. آقاي خاتمي همچنين اعلام کرد ايران آماده گفتگو درباره پروتکل الحاقي به پيمان منع گسترش سلاح هاي اتمي است.
با اين حال دراين نامه تعهدي نشده بود که ايران پروتکل الحاقي را امضا و مورد تصويب قراردهد. ديپلمات هاي غربي اين سئوال را مطرح کرده اند که رئيس جمهوري ايران که درگيرمبارزه قدرت با روحانيون تندرواست، آيا واقعا کنترل موثري بر برنامه اتمي ايران دارد يا نه.
ديپلمات ها مي گويند از زمان مبادله نامه با ايران، سازمان بين المللي انرژي اتمي نظرخود را تغيير داده وبه جاي بازرسي هاي ناخوانده درآينده، تصميم دارد درباره فعاليت هاي اتمي ايران درگذشته تحقيق کند.
شوراي حکام سازمان بين المللي انرژي اتمي هفته گذشته با صدورقطعنامه اي که آمريکائي ها واروپائي ها طي آن نظرواحدي ابراز داشتند، تا 31 اکتبر به ايران مهلت داد که ثابت کند فاقد هرگونه برنامه مخفيانه اي براي توليد سلاح هاي اتمي است. عدم تبعيت ايران ازاين قطعنامه، باعث مي شود که سازمان بين المللي انرژي اتمي موضوع را به شوراي امنيت سازمان ملل متحد ارجاع کند واين شورا احتمالا اعمال مجازات هائي را عليه ايران مورد تصويت قراردهد. با اين حال يک ديپلمات يکي ازسه کشوراروپائي تاکيد به عمل آورد پيشنهاد مشترک بريتانيا، آلمان وفرانسه به ايران به قوت خود باقي است. وزيران امور خارجه بريتانيا، آلمان و فرانسه طي نامه مشتركي به تهران از جمهوري اسلامي خواستند در مقابل همكاري هاي تكنولوژيكي، پروتكل الحاقي منع گسترش سلاح هاي هسته اي را به تصويب برساند و غني سازي اورانيوم را متوقف كند. ديپلمات هاي اروپايي مي گويند از اينكه تاكنون پاسخي از ايران دريافت نكرده اند دچار سرخوردگي شده اند. يك ديپلمات آمريكائي گفت اين نامه كمكي در راه مقصود نمي كند. حجت الاسلام سيد محمد خاتمي، رئيس جمهوري اسلامي، روز 18 ماه اوت با ارسال نامه اي به رهبران اروپايي تصريح كرد برنامه هسته اي مسالمت آميز ايران هرگز تبديل به برنامه نظامي نمي شود. سازمان بين المللي انرژي اتمي امروز تصميم گرفت به جاي بازرسي هاي سرزده در آينده، در باره فعاليت هاي اتمي ايران در گذشته به تحقيق بيشتر بپردازد.
