Summary of Iran Stories in Today's BroadcastsBehnam NateghiMonday, December 22, 2003
<b>Guardians Council Begins Vetting Elections Candidacy Applicants</b>
• The Guardian Council began the process of investigating the qualifications of nearly 8,200 applicants who registered to stand for election to the 290 Majles seats. Fearing that many of its potential candidates would be disqualified, the reformist faction warns the conservatives against low voter turnout. The disqualification of too many reformist applicants would mean that the elections are not free, Tehran MP Mohsen Mirdamadi, head of the Majles national security and foreign relations committee, said. Less than 50 percent of 45 million qualified voters are expected to vote in the February 20 elections. The elections will go on, with or without large voter turnout, former president Ali-Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani said last Friday during the official prayer ceremony at the Tehran University. A total of 8,145 people, 90 percent of them men, applied for candidacy in the elections, the interior ministry announced. Khorasan and Tehran lead other provinces in the number of candidacy applicants, Tehran had the highest percentage of women applicants, the ministry added. (Fereydoun Zarnegar)
• Verbal attacks between the two factions heightened, as the February 20 elections near. Some reformists have to be sieved out, as mouse droppings in a sack of flour, Qum Friday prayer and head of the Assembly of Experts Ayatollah Ali Meshkini said on Friday. MP Mohsen Armin urged Majles speaker Mehdi Karrubi to react to such statements. The conservative daily <i>Jumhuri-ye Eslami</i>, published by the Supreme Leader's office, urged the Guardians Council to be more vigilant than it was during the last elections, which let some “undesirable elements” into the Majles. (Ali Sajjadi)
• Of the 290 Majles MPs, only 70 have applied for candidacy in the upcoming elections. (Leyli Arman)
<b>Judiciary Releases Jailed Activist on Bail</b>
• The regime tries to pressure activists into silence by arresting them, summoning them to courts and interrogating them, spokesman of the independent opposition group the Democratic Front <b>Hassan Zarezadeh</b> tells <b>Radio Farda</b>, following his release after 4 months in jail on 1 billion rials in bail. The plainclothes security forces arrested Zarezadeh along with Said Kalan, Ali Sarmadi and Hossein Khosravani at a planning meeting for the July 9 demonstrations. (Leyli Sadr)
<b>Foreign Ministry Slams Bremer on MKO Remark</b>
• Foreign ministry spokesman said ambassador Paul Bremer's remark that the Iraq-based anti-regime opposition group the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) would be extradited to a third country was “unacceptable.” He called for extradition of the MKO members to Iran. “We have warned other countries, particularly European states, that the presence of MKO members in those countries will leave negative impacts on their relations with the Islamic Republic,” he said. (Jamshid Zand)
• MKO members will be allowed to return to Iran, but if they have committed crimes, they will be put on trial, President Mohammad Khatami said today. The MKO is a terrorist organization, and the US and EU have reached to the same conclusion, he added. So, the US should treat them as it treats other terrorist groups. (Fereydoun Zarnegar)
<b>River's Flow from Afghanistan Drops</b>
• Low water flow in the Hirmand river from Afghanistan threatens the inhabitants of towns and villages around Zahedan, in the Sistan-va-Baluchestan province with serious health problems. The Taliban blocked the water flow for five years, which let to the drying of Hamoun lake and major change in the area's ecology. The new Afghanistan government agreed last year to honor that country's treaty with Iran and allow the water to flow again. (Leyli Arman)
<b>Iran-Pakistan Nuclear Cooperation</b>
• “Evidence discovered in a probe of Iran's secret nuclear program points overwhelmingly to Pakistan as the source of crucial technology that put Iran on a fast track toward becoming a nuclear weapons power, according to U.S. and European officials familiar with the investigation,” the <i>Washington Post</i> reported. (Ali Sajjadi)
<b>Iran, Egypt Call for the Nuclear Disarmament of Israel</b>
• Reacting to the announcement of Libya's voluntary abandonment of its nuclear program, Iran and Egypt called for Israel's nuclear disarmament in separate statements by Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Asefi and Egyptian foreign minister Ahmad Maher, who is due in Israel today. (Siavash Ardalan)
<b>Hamedan Judiciary Rejects Majles Report on Aghajari</b>
• In response to the critical report of the Majles complaints committee about its handling of the case of Islamic leftist activist Hashem Aghajari, the Hamedan judiciary defended its action in a statement that said the court found Aghajari's request for seeking comments about his lecture in Hamedan from five university professors was unusual and impossible to implement. For the June 2000 lecture on Islamic Protestantism, the Hamedan court sentenced him to death, but a higher court vacated the judgment and returned the case back to Hamedan for review. Hamedan court said Aghajari is serving his jail sentence. (Fereydoun Zarnegar)
<b> Nationalist-Religious Activist Speaks at Cologne Gathering</b>
• All political movements throughout Iran's history have been rooted in religion, nationalist-religious coalition member Habibollah Peyman said last evening at a conference on the “Future of Democracy in Iran” in Cologne, Germany. He praised the reformist Majles for standing against what he called “aggression against civil rights and personal freedoms.” He said holding a referendum on constitutional reforms or regime change is impossible, because the regime would not agree to it. The reformists' plan to exit the government would fail too, since the reformists have no public support, he added. (Shahram Mirian, Cologne)
<b>Drug Addiction Reaches Disastrous Levels</b>
• The number of deaths from drug overdose or addiction grew 30 folds in 20 years, to an average of 367 per month, according to the anti-drug headquarters. Addiction is a disease, but when addiction reaches such enormous proportions, it turns into a national disaster, Tehran-based psychiatrist <b>Dr. Gholamhossein Motamedi</b> tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. (Farin Asemi)
<b>Tehran Rounds Up the Homeless</b>
• The Tehran municipality began a large scale program to round-up the thousands of homeless people who roam the city streets, but the city has no facility to care for them. The construction of the homeless care facility in Eslamshahr, which was supposed to become ready last winter, has stopped due to budget problems, Tehran city council member Mahnoush Motamedi said. (Arash Qavidel, Tehran)
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اردوان نيكنام (راديو فردا): با آغاز فرايند بررسي صلاحيت داوطلبان نمايندگي دوره هفتم مجلس شوراي اسلامي، درگيري جناحهاي حكومتي بر سر حيطه اختيارات شوراي نگهبان بيش از پيش آشكار مي شود.
فريدون زرنگار (راديو فردا): دو روز پس از پايان مهلت نام نويسي مهلت نمايندگي دوره هفتم مجلس شوراي اسلامي، وزارت كشور اعلام كرد مجموعا در سراسر ايران تعداد هشت هزار و يكصدو چهل و پنج نفر خود را نامزد نمايندگي مجلس كرده اند كه بيش از 90 درصد آنها مرد هستند. طبق آمار فرمانداري تهران، اما سهم داوطلبان زن در تهران، 5/16% است. آمارهاي منتشرشده حاكي از اين است كه استان خراسان و تهران به ترتيب بيشترين شمار داوطلبان را دارند. از سوي ديگر اداره كل ثبت احوال كشور، شمار واجدين شرايط براي راي دهي را 45 ميليون نفر اعلام كرد.
پس از پايان مهلت نام نويسي اكنون موقع بررسي صلاحيت داوطلبين آغاز شده است. دوره اي كه در طي آن بيش از پيش اختلافات و درگيريهاي جناحهاي حكومتي آشكار مي شود. اصلاح طلبان از اين بيم دارند كه شوراي نگهبان با استفاده از حربه نظارت استصوابي صلاحيت بسياري از نامزدهاي اين جناح جمهوري اسلامي را رد كند. در حالي كه محافظه كاران و شوراي نگهبان به عنوان اهرمي از قدرت آنان، نارضايتي هاي ابراز شده از سوي اصلاح طلبان را سر و صداي تبليغاتي مي خوانند. شوراي نگهبان با استناد به اختيارات ناشي از نظارت استصوابي خود، اطلاعات چهار نهاد پيش بيني شده در قانون، وزارت اطلاعات، نيروي انتظامي، دادستاني و ثبت احوال را براي رد يا تاييد صلاحيت داوطلبان را كافي نمي داند، بلكه تصميم خود را برپايه تحقيقات خود و اطلاعات جمع آوري شده از سوي دفاتر نظارت خود مي گيرد.
اين تفسير شوراي نگهبان از اختيارات خود، مورد قبول اصلاح طلبان نيست، بلكه صلاحيت 35% از معتمدين معرفي شده وزارت كشور از سوي هياتهاي نظارت شوراي نگهبان، اولين قدرت نمايي شوراي نگهبان بود. آيت الله احمد جنتي، دبير شوراي نگهبان و رئيس هيات مركزي نظارت بر انتخابات هفتمين دوره مجلس شوراي اسلامي، با اشاره به برخي اقدامات به گفته وي، غير قانوني صورت گرفته، توسطهاي هياتهاي اجرايي در مورد معتمدين، از هياتهاي نظارت خواست تا در اين زمينه به وظايف قانوني خود عمل كنند.
اصلاح طلبان كه در مقابل قدرت شوراي نگهبان هيچ حربه دفاعي ندارند، كماكان محافظه كاران را از شركت كم مردم در انتخابات مي ترسانند. اما به نظر مي رسد گفته هاي علي اكبر هاشمي رفسنجاني در هفته گذشته مبني بر اين كه انتخابات برگزار مي شود، چه مردم كم شركت كنند و يا چه زياد، ديگر اين حربه را هم از كار انداخته بادشد.
محسن ميردامادي، رئيس كميسيون امنيت ملي و سياست خارجي مجلس شوراي اسلامي و معاون دبير كل حزب مشاركت مي گويد: در صورتي كه اصلاح طلبان با رد صلاحيتهاي گسترده روبرو شوند، انتخابات آزاد نخواهد بود. در حالي كه بسياري از تحليلگران ميزان شركت واجدين شرايط در انتخابات دوره هفتم مجلس را بسيار پايين پيش بيني مي كنند، اصلاح طلبان مي گويند: انتخابات با شركت 50% از واجدين شرايط انتخاباتي مطلوب نيست. بلكه حداقل بين هفتاد تا هشتاد درصد دارندگان حق راي، بايد به شركت در انتخابات جلب شوند. پس از پايان مهلت نام نويسي اكنون موقع بررسي صلاحيت داوطلبين آغاز شده است. دوره اي كه در طي آن بيش از پيش اختلافات و درگيريهاي جناحهاي حكومتي آشكار مي شود. اصلاح طلبان از اين بيم دارند كه شوراي نگهبان با استفاده از حربه نظارت استصوابي صلاحيت بسياري از داوطلبان نامزدي از اين جناح را رد كند. اصلاح طلبان كه در مقابل قدرت شوراي نگهبان هيچ حربه دفاعي ندارند، كماكان محافظه كاران را از شركت كم مردم در انتخابات مي ترسانند. اما به نظر مي رسد گفته هاي حجت الاسلام علي اكبر هاشمي رفسنجاني، رئيس مجمع تشخيص مصلحت نظام، در هفته گذشته مبني بر اين كه انتخابات برگزار مي شود، چه مردم كم شركت كنند و يا چه زياد، ديگر اين حربه را هم از كار انداخته بادشد.
