MAXMUR (31.01.2006) – A commission consists of United Nations (UN) representatives from Jordan and representatives from Federate Kurdistan Region, had visited the Refugee Camp of Maxmur and interviewed with camp representatives.

Huseyin Seyhan, who is the member of the Committee of Foreign Relations of Maxmur, said that they represented their requests consists of 10 matters, about coming back, to representatives of UN in Kurdish, English and Turkish and Kurdish National Leader Mr. Abdullah Ocalan’s freedom is of first priority.

The inhabitants of Maxmur Refugee Camp who live in enforced situations for 12 years, hosted another foreign committee. A committee consists of 9 persons; 3 persons from United Nation’s (UN) Jordan Reopresentation and the authorities of Federate Kurdistan Region, Head Official of Maxmur and top level military authorities, had visited the Camp of Maxmur under intensive safety measures.

Huseyin Seyhan, who is the member of the Committee of Foreign Relations of Maxmur gave knowledge about the visit. He said that the foreigners show a great interest to the camp, and talked like this; "The UN committee had made this visit to follow closely, to observe and to take our opinions about the formation of the camp, the problems of infra-structure and the economical difficulties that we have. The system that we formed in the camp, affects the committees which come here to visit our camp. We have got some infra-structural problems. We have got some economical problems. But despite all these difficulties, we have got a system that we formed. We have to leave in diffucilties, we have to organize our life and we did it. This situation is affected an interest to the people from outside and they get curious. This committee also asked some questions to us in this sense. We tried to explain".

WE WANT TO COME BACK

Seyhan said to the UN committee that they organized their lifes in the frame of responsibilities. He talked like this; "We said that we were been immigrated from Turkey by force, when we were explaining the difficulties and our existent system. We determined that we were been immigrated from our places, our houses and villages had been fired. We said that we don’t want to live in refugee situations and we want to come back to Turkey, to our own villages, if the situations will change in Turkey and if our requests will assume”.

Seyhan said that they represented their requests consists of 10 matters, about coming back, to representatives of UN in Kurdish, English and Turkish in oral and written way. He said that beside economical and political requests, they embrace Kurdish National Leader Mr. Abdullah Ocalan as a political willpower principally and they touched on the increased pressures on him.

Seyhan said that freedom of Mr. Ocalan is the first matter of their coming back requests and talked like this; "Our Leadership is the political willpower of all Kurdish people. A lot of Kurds from different countries of world proved this with their campaigns. But Mr. Abdullah Ocalan who is the leader of a nation, is under arrest in a prison Imrali Island for 7 years alone. His health problems are getting heavier day by day. With the last 27 days cabin punishment, our leadership want to destroyed in this cabin. We explained to the committee that we condemn this tendency and we won’t be silent about this situation in this sense. Expect the pressures on our leadership, and also pressures on Kurdistan are increasing. Slaughters and murders are on our agenda again. The village guard system is continuening deeply. The gangs in the government are also available. Last Semdinli events are the evidence of this".

Seyhan added that, among their coming back requests there are; giving the right of mother tongue in Kurdish, the removing of village guard system completely, making an amnesty consists of political prisoners and the guerillas in the mountains, giving the cultural and social rights, providing the social guarantee and paying the coming back compensation.
www.kurdishinfo.com

KurdishMedia.com-Two men were killed and an oil engineer was kidnapped in the Kurdistani city of Kirkuk while 11 bodies were found west of the capital, Bagdad, on Tuesday, according to local Kurdistani and Iraqi media.

A group of unidentified gunmen kidnapped an oil engineer, known as Qayis Sahaza Atiyan, working for the oil company in the Kurdistani city of Kirkuk, reported local Kurdish media on Tuesday without any further details.

In a separate incident, Ibrahim Hatam Karim, a retired man, was killed in the Askary Quarter of Kikruk. Another man, known as Abbas Abid Khidhir was stabbed to death in front of his house in the Domizi Quarter of Kirkuk, reported Iraqi News Agency.

South of the Kurdistani city of Kirkuk in the capital Bagdad, 11 bodies were discovered in a pickup truck on a motorway west of the city. Iraqi police confirmed that they were shot in their heads and torture marks can be seen on their bodies.

Iran Focus– Iran’s nuclear point-man Ali Larijani said Tuesday evening that the Islamic Republic will end snap inspections of its nuclear facilities by international inspectors if the UN nuclear agency’s board of governors went ahead as is expected to report Tehran to the Security Council.

Larijani, who heads the Supreme National Security Council and is Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, had earlier in the day said that reporting or referring Iran’s nuclear file to the UN Security Council meant the “end of diplomacy”.

Speaking to reporters later in the day after a meeting with a official from Armenia, Larijani said that a statement by the Security Council’s Permanent 5 as well as Germany showed that the European Union did not have the “capacity” to resolve the international standoff over Tehran’s sensitive nuclear work.

The West suspects that Tehran is developing nuclear weapons under the pretext of nuclear power production.

Larijani said that the Islamic Republic had to look for a solution other than negotiations with the EU to find a solution the impasse.

“It is not clear that this path is to their benefit, since we are forced in accordance with the law ratified in Majlis to remove all suspension and stop adhering to the [nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty’s] Additional Protocol”.

Under the NPT’s Additional Protocol inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency must be granted access to declared nuclear sites to carry out spot inspections.

While it had been negotiating with the EU, Iran had suspended the enrichment of uranium which can be used in nuclear weapons, but Larijani’s comments confirmed that Tehran plans to resume the activity.

voanews.com
By David Gollust

The United States and other permanent member countries of the U.N. Security Council, including Russia and China, agreed early Tuesday to refer the issue of Iran's nuclear program to the council. The referral will come later this week but any action in the council would not occur until March at the earliest.
The agreement, which U.S. officials describe as a major advance, came at the end of a four-hour ministerial-level dinner meeting of the major powers at the official London residence of British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.
A joint statement said the five Security Council member countries, and Germany which also took part in the session, agreed that this week's meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency governing board should report the issue of Iran's nuclear program to the council.
In what is seen as a compromise giving Iran time to consider rolling-back recent nuclear moves, the participants said any action on the Security Council should await a report by IAEA Director General Mohamed elBaradei to the following meeting of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, set for March 6th in Vienna.
A senior U.S. official who briefed reporters called the joint statement a very strong message to Iran and a reflection of growing frustration about its recent decision to restart nuclear activities it had agreed to suspend two years ago in talks with Britain, France and Germany.
The official said Iran had been banking on abstentions on the referral issue this week by Russia and China, and that the decision by those two countries to go along puts Iran on the defensive, and under pressure to yield to international concern about its nuclear intentions.
The senior official said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice feels good about the big-power agreement, which he described as the most decisive international action on the Iranian issue in several years.
The United States has insisted that Iran's nominally peaceful nuclear program has a secret weapons component, and had strongly backed a referral to the Security Council.
The council could impose broad sanctions against Iran for violating international nuclear commitments, though the U.S. official said there was minimal discussion and no decision here of what the council might do in March if Iran has not been responsive to demands that it fully disclose its nuclear activities.
At a London news conference Monday, Secretary Rice again said the use of force against Iran was not in prospect, and that a Security Council referral does not signify that diplomatic means to resolve the crisis are nearing exhaustion:
"As to military issues, we have said that it is not on the agenda, because we believe that there is a lot of life left in the diplomacy. There is a diplomatic solution for the taking. After all, going to the Security Council is not the end of diplomacy, it's just diplomacy in a different, more robust context. But the President of the United States doesn't take his options off the table," she said. "Frankly I don't think people should want the President of the United States to take his options off the table."
The big-power statement said the parties confirmed their resolve to work for a diplomatic solution to the Iranian problem.
The six countries said they share serious concerns about Iran's nuclear program and agreed that an extensive period of confidence-building was now required from Tehran.
They called on Iran to restore in full the suspension of uranium enrichment-related activity, including research and development, that it ended three weeks ago.
U.S. officials had been saying for some time they believed there were enough votes in the 35-nation IAEA board to send the issue to the Security Council.
They say the decision by Russia and China to join the big-power consensus assures the action, which is expected by Thursday.

TEHRAN, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Any move to report or refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council over its nuclear standoff with the West would spell the end of diplomatic efforts to resolve the issue, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator said on Tuesday.

"We consider any referral or report of Iran to the Security Council as the end of diplomacy," Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, was quoted as saying by state television.

The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council agreed on Tuesday that the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog should report to the Council this week on what Iran must do to cooperate with the agency.

But with Russia and China opposed to a dramatic escalation of the Iran case, the agreement stopped short of recommending a formal referral of Iran to the Security Council, where it could face economic sanctions.

"This statement does not discuss referral but I believe that the Europeans should be more careful," the semi-official ISNA students news agency quoted Larijani as saying.

"We have asked for talks with the Europeans which shows that Iran wants to try all amicable ways to achieve peaceful nuclear technology," he said.

Iranian officials have previously said any move to inform or report Tehran's case to the Council would lead it to scale back cooperation with U.N. inspectors and resume uranium enrichment

-- the most sensitive phase of the atomic fuel cycle.

NCRI - The growing international consensus on referring the mullahs' nuclear file to the UN Security Council is a major development in dealing with the regime in the world community. The regime's internal consolidation of power, increased internal repression, and de facto declaration of war on the international community, is an indication of its increased sense of vulnerability in the final phase of its rule in Iran. The regime's international isolation, is a consequence of the new belligerence emanating from Tehran, and is considered to be a political turning point. It also necessarily advances the Iranian national resistance to bring down the religious tyranny.

Tehran's totalitarian regime feels a need to go on the attack in order to fend off threats to its existence, according to regime's strategists like Javad Larijani, mullahs' chief nuclear negotiator, and Mohammad Khatami, former president, otherwise it could implode.

The export of Islamic fundamentalism to Iraq, intensification of efforts to acquire nuclear weapons, and continued internal consolidation of power, are all aspects of the regime’s dilemma. The Iranian Resistance has in contrast blocked the regime's aggressive strategy with its principled policies.

The Iranian people and resistance movement have persistently called for a referral of the mullahs’ nuclear file to the UN Security Council and welcome this as a move in support of democratic change in Iran to end religious dictatorship and establish freedom and democracy in Iran.

Opposing a UNSC referral stands the clerical regime and its apologists who have vested interests in maintaining the regime, in clear conflict with the interests of the Iranian people and the growth of democracy in the region. To this end, the anti-referral front speaks about the disadvantages of a UN referral and sanctions, and accentuates difficulties that sanctions might pose for ordinary Iranians. However such an argument is feeble and will fail because sanctions will deprive the regime of the means with which it suppresses the Iranian people and blackmails the international community and is inevitable due to efforts of Iran’s organized resistance and its supporters inside Iran and across the world.

As the campaign to refer the clerical regime's nuclear file to the Security Council gains ground, supporters of democracy in Iran and peace and security in the region and the world should redouble their efforts to end appeasement and push Tehran’s nuclear file and human rights record before the UN Security Council. This would be the first step in isolating the regime which has suppressed the Iranian nation for two decades and poses unacceptable threats to regional and international peace and security.

The policy of appeasement and all its vestiges against Iranian democracy and world peace should be abandoned. The most harmful aspect of this failed policy has been the terrorist designation of the People's Mojahedin and denial of the Iranian people's inalienable right to resist against a brutal dictatorship.

Advocates of appeasement who now openly admit to its failure should act promptly to remove the terror tag from the People's Mojahedin as a moral duty and recognize its right

NCRI – Iranian regime has invited Tony Blair, the British Prime Minister to Tehran to take part in a conference on the Holocaust by the clerical regime.

"It would be good for Mr. Blair to participate in the Holocaust seminar in Tehran," mullahs' foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters today.

"He can also contribute with an article. If he wants to defend the Holocaust in that article, he can do so. We will give him the time to read out his article so others can hear his point of view," he said.

The conference is planned for next spring.

London (KurdishMedia.com) 28 January 2006: Dr. Roya Toloyee, in a recent interview with Radio Farda, said that she was "violently tortured" by Iranian Security Forces while in prison for sixty-six days. The interview conducted in Persian, The Iranian Regime charged with conspiracy and accused her of leading last summers protests in Sine (Sanandaj) in Eastern Kurdistan.

Dr. Toloyee, Kurdish Human Rights Activist and head of Rasan Newspaper, said that she was kidnapped by seven guards in the Iranian Security Forces while her children watched helplessly crying. During her sixty-six daysin prison, she also said that she was placed in isolation for seventeen days.

During the interview, Dr. Tolyee shed some tears and said she could not talk about the tortures in detail. However, she said that was told by the Iranian Security Forces that they would not stop the torture until she would confess for leading the protests in Eastern Kurdistan.

One of the other charges against Dr. Toloyee by the Iranian Government was for writing a book in the Kurdish language, which she had published in Suleymaniya.
Source: Interview by Radio Farda

IranFocus-Clashes erupted between Iran’s State Security Forces and bus drivers and union activists in the Iranian capital Tehran on Saturday after authorities arrested activists in an attempt to prevent a demonstration that had been planned for the day, local residents told Iran Focus.

Agents of the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), Iran’s notorious secret police, raided the homes of bus drivers in Tehran in the early hours of the morning, arresting hundreds of bus union activists and in some cases their relatives as well, one resident reported.

Those arrested have been taken to unknown locations.

Demonstrations began in several locations throughout the Iranian capital from the morning onwards.

Police shot live rounds into the air and fired teargas at the protesters in an attempt to disperse them, an eye-witness who requested anonymity told Iran Focus by telephone.

“Hundreds of armed agents of the State Security Forces were patrolling and attacking the protestors”

“There were also truck loads of etela’aties (MOIS agents) being brought in to arrest bus drivers who refused to work and were protesting”.

The demonstration had originally been planned in protest to Tehran bus drivers’ insufficient pay and hard working conditions.

Telegraph
portal.telegraph.co.uk

The head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards has warned America and Britain that Teheran will respond with its missiles if attacked over the ongoing crisis surrounding its nuclear capability. "The world knows Iran has a ballistic missile power with a range of 2,000 kilometres (1,300 miles)," Gen Yahya Rahim Safavi said on state-run television.
"We have no intention to invade any country. We will take effective defence measures if attacked. These missiles are in the possession of the Guards."
Iran has sparked renewed international concern over its ambitions by announcing it was resuming work at its Natanz uranium enrichment facility.
There is growing pressure to refer Iran to the UN Security Council, but American Senator John McCain said yesterday that it was important to maintain the "leverage" of the military option.
Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, rejected talk of military action against Iran, saying it was "not on the table".
Mr Straw was speaking ahead of talks with Mohamed El-Baradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "There is not a military option. There certainly is not one on the table, let's be clear about that. And no-one is talking about it.
"I have never had a discussion with any senior American from the very top downwards, except to say the military option is not on the table."
Iran's Revolutionary Guards are a separate organization from the regular armed forces, with their own air, naval and ground components.
Iran insists its nuclear facilities are to provide energy, but other countries fear it is trying to develop a capability to make nuclear weapons.

DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - Iran has little chance of avoiding being hauled before the U.N. Security Council unless it changes its stance on nuclear fuel enrichment, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said on Saturday.
But Straw would not say directly if he still expected the U.N. nuclear watchdog to decide on a Security Council referral next week -- a prospect that has receded in recent days because of Russian and Chinese reservations.
Asked if such a decision was still possible at the February 2 meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Straw told Reuters Television that Iran was "very clearly" not complying with its nuclear non-proliferation obligations.
"We are trying to persuade Iran to come back into compliance. There is some intense diplomacy taking place over this weekend. We will make judgments in the light of discussions which will occur on Monday in London amongst the permanent five Security Council foreign ministers," he said.
Speaking earlier at the World Economic Forum, he said the London meeting would discuss what kind of resolution to put to the IAEA's board of governors after Iran this month moved toward resuming sensitive atomic fuel research.
"If that remains the position, then I think the chances of them avoiding a reference to the Security Council are low," Straw said.
"We would much prefer to resolve this within the IAEA, that's what it's there for, but the IAEA statutes also make clear that where you can't resolve this issue and they're non-compliant -- and they are -- then the matter goes to the Security Council."
While Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons, Straw reiterated that it needed to provide "objective guarantees" on this.
"We have no certainty that they have those (weapons) intentions," he said.
But he added: "The working assumption in the international community from all sides is that it is prudent to assume at the least that Iran is seeking to develop a nuclear weapons capability so that they can have the choice at some stage ... to activate it."

Mullahs intensify domestic suppression in step with creating foreign crises with export of fundamentalism and terrorism

The anti-human clerical regime in Iran has executed five prisoners and condemned 10 others to death in a continuing wave of suppression and extensive violation of the Iranian people’s human rights. State-controlled news agencies reported that two of the victims, Ali Khani and Hassan Ghanbari on January 25 in the city of Qom (situated south of Tehran), and another prisoner named Arash on January 23 in Esfahan (central Iran), and another person on January 18 in Varamin (near Tehran), were all hanged in public.

Another of the victims was according to IRNA news agency Behrouz Mehranpour, a blind and deaf person who was 18 years at the time of his alleged crime.

The wave of brutal executions in Iran is meant to intimidate and terrorize the general public and is the flip side of whipping up foreign crises by the medieval clerical regime in Iran. The Iranian Resistance calls for the clerical regime’s record of gross human rights violations to be referred to the United Nations Security Council.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
January 27, 2006

List of persons executed:
1. January 25, 2006 – Ali Khani and Hassan Ghanbari, public hanging, Qom (IRNA)
2. January 23, 2006 – Arash Sh., 27, public hanging, Esfahan (Fars News Agency)
3. January 18, 2006 – One person, public hanging, Varamin (Fars News Agency)
4. January 16, 2006 – Behrouz Mehranpour, blind and deaf, 18 years at time of his alleged crime, hanged (IRNA)

List of persons condemned to death:
1. January 26, 2006 – Abol-Ghassem, 23, death sentence upheld by clerical regime’s Supreme Court (Sharq newspaper)
2. January 23, 2006 – Mohammad-Reza, 24, death sentence upheld by clerical regime’s Supreme Court (Hamshahri newspaper)
3. January 17, 2006 – Young couple, sentenced by 102nd District General Penal Court of Esfahan to public hangings (Hamshahri newspaper)
4. January 15, 2006 – Young man named Morteza, death sentence by Tehran’s Penal Court (Hamshahri newspaper)
5. January 11, 2006 – Sadegh, 26, death sentence by 71st District Court (Hamshahri newspaper)
6. January 8, 2006 – Farhad, 36, death sentence upheld by clerical regime’s Supreme Court (Hamshahri newspaper)
7. January 8, 2006 – Hassan Gholi, 27, death sentence by 71st Tehran District Court (Sharq newspaper)
8. January 8, 2006 – 50 year-old man, sentenced to death (Sharq newspaper)
9. January 6, 2006 – young boy, death sentence upheld by clerical regime’s Supreme Court (Etemad newspaper)

NCRI – The workers union at Tehran's Sherkat Vahed (Tehran’s bus company) has called for an all out strike on Saturday, January 28, in protest to detention of Mr. Mansour Asalou, general secretary of the union for undeclared reasons.

In a statement issued on January 24, the union pledged its full support for the demands of the workers and stressed: "The Workers Union of Tehran's bus company will defend the rights of its members wholeheartedly and is ready to pay every price for it including greater hardship, loosing jobs and being taken for interrogations in security centers."

The statement complained that the regime has not met with the demands of the workers so far and instead Mr. Asalou was arrested on January 21 for no known reason. The union called on the workers to stop work on Saturday and hold protest gatherings around the capital until Mr. Asalou is released, the union recognized and the demands of the workers met.

Workers at Tehran’s Sherkat Vahed (Tehran’s bus company) have for years suffered from economic hardships, low wages, difficult working conditions, and lack of minimum professional bonuses as a consequence of the Iranian regime’s repressive policies. The situation has deteriorated considerably for bus drivers in recent months, especially after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has taken office as the new president of the clerical regime.

Authorities in the Iranian regime have attempted in recent months to sow division within the ranks of the company’s workers and have delayed responding to their just demands, held back on wage payments, and attempted to prevent workers’ protests and strikes.

The workers in Tehran's bus company were on strike in late December 2005 for the same demands.

International Federation of Iranian Refugees, UK Branch

Campaign for the rights of Iranian asylum seekers in the UK
We have fled the barbaric regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Under this regime,
laughter, happiness and love are a crime and sexual discrimination, flogging and
executions are the norm. The regime imprisons, tortures and executes people for their
beliefs. It executes children and teenagers. It stones women and men to death and
hangs gays for consensual sex. Under this regime, workers are denied the right to
organise and strike; labour activists are routinely beaten up and imprisoned. There is
no freedom of expression and opposition political activity is banned. Women are
treated as second-class citizens and sexual apartheid rules. Young people are denied
the prospect of any meaningful life; their protests for rights and freedoms are violently
suppressed. The list is endless.
To flee such conditions is the basic right of people, and many have already done so
and continue to do so – often at the cost of endangering their lives and that of their
families. They take such risks to find shelter in other countries in order to escape from
the nightmare of prison, torture and persecution. They risk starvation and death at sea
or in freezing mountains to get themselves to a safe place. Hundreds and thousands
have had their dreams buried on the way to safe zones.
Arriving at a safe shore, such as the UK, is not the end of the agonies of asylum
seekers. For many, another nightmare is just beginning! In clear breach of its
obligations under international conventions on the rights of persons fleeing
persecution, the British government has arbitrarily refused the applications of
thousands of refugees who have fled the Islamic dictatorship in Iran. The reasons for
these refusals do not correlate with the truth. When a refugee says she is a woman
who escaped the Islamic reaction, they do not accept her application. If a worker says
that they had not been paid any salary for months, and the response to their protest
had been arrest and torture, they are told that those are not reasonable grounds for
refugee status. If a student says they were persecuted for their activities against the
regime, they are not believed. If someone says that as a youth they did not have any
political, social or cultural freedoms, their applications are denied any consideration.
The current policy of the British government towards asylum seekers is totally
arbitrary, irresponsible and inhumane. Refusing their applications and deporting them
back to Iran is tantamount to denying the crimes of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and
returning victims back to their persecuters.

Address: IFIR, BM Box 1919, London WC1N 3XX
www.hambastegi.org
E-mail ifiruk@yahoo.com
Tel: 07931866985

The International Federation of Iranian Refugees (IFIR) in the UK protests against
this policy of the British government. Since 16 January 2006 we have started a
campaign for a period of two months with the following aims:
1-Iran under the Islamic Republic is not a safe country. No Iranian asylum
seeker should be deported to Iran;
2-There should be an immediate stop to all detentions of Iranian asylum seekers.
All those currently in detention in British prisons for the ‘crime’ of seeking
asylum should be freed;
3-Given the present suppressive nature of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the
British government must change its policy towards the asylum seekers and
grant them refuge.
We urge all humanitarian organisations and individuals to support our campaign.
For more information, please contact Siamak Amjadi, the Secretary of the
International Federation of Iranian Refugees, UK Branch.
Tel: 07946 75 25 34 or 07931 866 985
ifiruk@yahoo.com
BM Box 1919
London WC1N 3XX

MARDIN (DIHA) - In the 2005 report of the human rights breaches, made by the Human Rights Association, Mardin department, 129 out of 138 were made by the security forces.

The report made by HRA Mardin department was about the breaches of the rights to live, to be secure, right of freedom of thought and expression, and the freedom to work. In the report, arresting, torturing, sentencing without a trial, crimes signed against unknown people, mines' explosions, deserved the attention.

In the breaches, 4 people disappeared, 43 were arrested, 7 were threatened by governmental officers, 23 cases were of the death of people in conflicts in the Mardin department districts, 3 people were sentenced without a trial, and 6 people because of mines.

From 138 breaches, 129 were breaches to the right to be secure, by the security forces, from these; 6 cases by the Gendarmerie, 2 by executive guard members and one by the village protectors. Giving the place for a case of rape, another case was about breach concerning the environment. Concerning the right to think, one person was forced to migrate, and investigations were opened to 50 people, or they were sentenced.

Associated Press
By ANNE GEARAN
AP Diplomatic Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration renewed its claim Wednesday that the United States and European allies have enough support from other countries to take Iran before the U.N. Security Council but also indicated some key nations have not committed to that course.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the United States is encouraging Russia and other nations to vote to refer Iran's case to the Security Council when the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency holds an emergency meeting on the issue next week.

"We believe it's time. Many other members of the international community believe it's time, as well,'' McCormack said.

Russia, India and China are allies and trading partners of Iran who have been reluctant to see Tehran punished or ostracized through the Security Council. All three sit on the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which meets in Vienna, Austria, on Feb. 2.

"Right now, we're talking with the Russians, as well as others, about what the diplomatic next steps should be,'' McCormack said.

President Bush, meanwhile, expressed doubts about Iran's new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, citing in particular his statements calling for elimination of the state of Israel. "I am very concerned about a president of a great country like Iran declaring his intent, or his interest in the destruction of one of our closest allies,'' Bush said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. "And that should be of concern to people who care for the peace around the world.''

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will have a chance to lobby her Russian and Chinese counterparts Monday, during a special meeting on Iran in London.

As for India, the U.S. ambassador there said a landmark nuclear energy deal between India and the United States will fail in Washington if New Delhi supports Iran in the IAEA vote.

The deal, seen as a cornerstone of the emerging alliance between India and the United States, "will die in the Congress,'' U.S. Ambassador David Mulford said.

McCormack put the issue more delicately.

"We would certainly encourage and we would hope that India would vote for referral to the Security Council,'' McCormack said.

"We deal with the Indian government on these two issues as separate issues. Certainly, they come up in the same conversations; I'll tell you that.''

The administration also stressed that the mere act of referring Iran's case to the powerful U.N. body, which can impose a range of sanctions or other measures, may be enough to persuade Tehran to give up disputed nuclear activities.

"It changes the dynamic to have the Iranian weapons program in the spotlight in the Security Council rather than considered at a technical agency in the U.N.,'' U.N. Ambassador John R. Bolton told reporters in Washington.

Russia has said the Iran issue should be resolved at the level of the IAEA, which has repeatedly sent inspectors to Iran to survey what Tehran insists is a purely peaceful program to develop the know-how to produce nuclear energy. The United States says Iran really wants to build a bomb and must be prevented from mastering aspects of nuclear technology that could be misused.

Even if the U.S. and its allies prevail in scheduling and winning a vote at the IAEA, it is not clear that the Security Council would then vote for severe penalties. The United States is not pushing for tough economic sanctions now but has not specified what action it wants instead.

Iran's top nuclear negotiator seemed to warm to a Russian proposal Wednesday that could defuse the nuclear crisis, but he said the plan needs work. Ali Larijani said Tehran and Moscow could discuss the proposal further next month - just when the Security Council could take up the Iranian case.

"Over the years, they have made every effort to try to avoid being referred to the Security Council,'' McCormack said. "I think this is just one more move that they are making.''

Russia has offered to perform sensitive uranium enrichment on Iran's behalf, a compromise that would let Iran pursue legitimate civilian nuclear technology.

Larijani also repeated a threat that any attempt to refer Iran to the Security Council would lead the country to move forward with a full-scale uranium enrichment program.

Meanwhile, the former U.N. chief weapons inspector who turned out to be right that Iraq did not posses unconventional weapons was skeptical of taking Iran to the Security Council.

"I think that would harden Iran's attitude,'' Hans Blix said. "It doesn't help very much to go to the council.''

Blix, a Swedish diplomat who once ran the IAEA, spoke in Washington at the 25th anniversary of the Arms Control Association, a private group.

Iran Focus – Iran’s Defence Minister vowed on Wednesday that the Islamic Republic would send arch-nemesis Israel into an “eternal coma” if it attacked any of the country’s suspected nuclear weapons sites.

“Israel wouldn’t dare attack Iran, and if it makes such a huge mistake, the response by the defenders of Islamic Iran will put Israel into an eternal coma, just like [Israeli Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon”, Revolutionary Guards Brigadier General Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar told a press conference in Tehran.

“Of course, you can’t expect anything other than mischief and violence from the illegitimate state of Israel, which has been set up through murder, robbery, and terrorist acts. Their threats just show the violent and terrorist nature of this regime”, Mohammad-Najjar said.

The Defence Minister said that the “Great Satan and the Little Satan”, or the United States and Israel, had embarked on a psychological warfare against Iran.

Mohammad-Najjar, a veteran commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, is tied to the suicide bombing of the U.S. Marines compound in Beirut airport in October 1983, which killed 241 Americans.

He was in command of the IRGC expeditionary force in Lebanon when on October 23, 1983, at 6:22 a.m., a suicide bomber drove a large water delivery truck loaded with explosives into the Marine Barracks, killing 241 U.S. service members.

The Americans quickly withdrew their forces from Lebanon and the suicide operation became a turning point in the increasing use of terrorism by radical Islamic fundamentalists across the world.

Mohammad-Najjar also headed the IRGC’s Military Industries Organisation in 1985 which later developed the 320-mm “super mortars” that were intended for use by the Revolutionary Guards’ Qods Force for terrorist operations in Europe and the Middle East.

Iran Focus- Iran’s hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused the United States and Britain of being behind twin bomb attacks in the southern Iranian city of Ahwaz.

At least eight people died and dozens were injured when two bombs exploded at a bank and a government building in the oil-rich city on Tuesday.

Speaking after a cabinet meeting in Tehran Wednesday morning, Ahmadinejad said, “The footprints of the occupiers of Iraq in the events in Ahwaz are crystal clear and they must accept responsibility for their criminal actions”.

Separately, Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki accused Britain of involvement in the two bombings.

“Britain must answer the Iranian nation’s questions regarding the events in Ahwaz and the terrorist explosions in Khuzestan [Province]”, Mottaki said.

Ahwaz, the capital of the Arab-dominated province of Khuzestan, has been the scene of unremitting anti-government protests since the start of 2005. Iran has pointed the finger at Britain as the primary instigator of anti-government violence in Khuzestan.

Mottaki said that London had to be answerable for the “cooperation and support of the occupying forces in Basra and the disturbances, explosions, and events that have occurred in Khuzestan”.

The Iranian foreign minister said that his country’s intelligence service was sure that the attacks were planned in either London or in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, where British troops are based.

“Yesterday’s attacks were carried out by individuals who along with their likeminded colleagues in London proudly take photos with British officials. In Basra they are supported by British army commanders. The British government must be held accountable to the Iranian nation”, Mottaki said.

The BBC is reporting that access to its Persian language website is being blocked by Iranian authorities.

The block appears to have taken effect over the past three days, according to the Beeb, as tensions between the UK and Iran increased, depriving Iranian web users of a respected, independent news service.

According to the BBC, its Persian website is the most popular of its foreign language websites but in a climate of growing international web censorship some of the world's most controversial regimes are setting their sites on limiting their people's access to such internet resources.

Nigel Chapman, director of the BBC World Service, said: "BBC Persian.com is a major source of news for Iranians and has the biggest impact of any online site or newspaper in Persian.

"We are very concerned at this action and regret that it deprives a great number of ordinary Iranians of a trusted source of impartial and editorially independent news and information."

Chapman said the BBC will be making representations to the Iranian authorities in an attempt to get access to the service reinstated.

He added: "Online is an important part of life in modern Iran; there is a hugely active and engaged online community. The country is a world leader in terms of the proportion of the population engaged in blogging."

networks.silicon.com

The Associated Press - As the Bush administration pushes to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council, many members of Congress are advocating get-tough approaches and say military force should remain an option to thwart Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

Lawmakers largely back the effort to haul Iran before the Security Council over the Iranian government's refusal to give up its uranium enrichment program. But some say they doubt that a simple reprimand from the council — seen as a likely outcome — will be enough to persuade Iran to change course.

Rather, Republicans and Democrats alike say the United States should seek international economic sanctions that are harsh enough to hurt Iran, while securing assurances from Tehran's major trading partners that they will abide by any restrictions the Security Council imposes.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has repeatedly emphasized that the United States is committed to addressing the Iran standoff diplomatically and is working to line up support for a vote of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency to refer Iran to the Security Council.

Rice has shied away from discussions of possible U.S. military action, saying the United States is focused on a diplomatic course. But she has consistently said President Bush reserves the right to use any option, including force.

Lawmakers say the threat that Iran could obtain weapons of mass destruction is so serious that the international community must act decisively to halt Iran's nuclear program. The Bush administration should not rule out other avenues should diplomatic efforts fail, they say.

"It's important to give diplomacy a try, but I don't believe we should take any option — including military force — off the table," said Sen. John Cornyn (news, bio, voting record), R-Texas, chairman of the Senate Armed Services emerging threats subcommittee.

"If you eliminate the threat of military action, the possibility of it, then there's no way to secure compliance," added Rep. Gary Ackerman (news, bio, voting record), D-N.Y., a House International Relations Committee member.

The standoff with Iran over its nuclear program has intensified in the month that Congress has been away from Washington for its holiday break.

Iran has broken U.N. seals at a uranium enrichment plant and said it was resuming nuclear research after a 2 1/2-year hiatus. European countries declared dead their negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program.

The Iranian government claims its intention is purely peaceful — to generate electricity. But the United States and its allies fear Iran has a more threatening objective — making nuclear bombs.

Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record), R-Ariz., said diplomatic efforts must be exhausted before turning to the "last option," the use of force.

"There's only one thing worse than the United States exercising a military option, and that is Iran having nuclear weapons," the No. 2 Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee said on "Fox News Sunday."

Some analysts have said that while an American military strike could destroy Iran's nuclear facilities, it would anger U.S. allies, intensify the Muslim world's bitterness toward the United States, drive up oil prices and rally Iranians behind their president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., said the United States and European countries must do everything possible to secure the support of China and Russia to take Iran before the Security Council, and then stake out "a tough posture" that includes sanctions.

However, said Obama, a Senate Foreign Relations Committee member, "We have to be judicious in how we apply sanctions — there may be some sanctions that may not make a difference."

Rep. Christopher Smith (news, bio, voting record), R-N.J., vice chairman of the House International Relations Committee, said: "We need to use the diplomatic means very, very aggressively."

Some lawmakers are suggesting that new Iranian leadership is needed.
Sen. Jon Kyl (news, bio, voting record), R-Ariz., said that for now, the United States and its allies must intensify its pressure on Iran to halt its nuclear program. "But ultimately," he said, "there must be change in the country's leadership. The current Iranian government is a corrupt and dangerous regime that's out of step with its citizens."

Cornyn said Iran has become more authoritarian and autocratic. "We need to do a better job of letting pro-democracy forces in Iran know that we are supportive of their efforts of peaceful regime change," he said.

Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of senators led by Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Norm Coleman, R-Minn., has introduced a resolution condemning Iran's nuclear program, calling for the immediate suspension of uranium enrichment activities and endorsing a referral of Iran to the Security Council.

At the same time, Sen. Evan Bayh (news, bio, voting record), D-Ind., is pushing his own resolution that in part accuses Bush of ignoring the threat of Iran for years.

NCRI – Iranian regime accused Britain on Wednesday of cooperation with terrorists who bombed southern Iranian city of Ahwaz on Tuesday. Eight people were reported to have been killed in this bombing.

Mullahs' foreign minister Mottaki told a press conference: "Their (British) co-operation, either in London or Basra, is clear and we will seriously express this to British officials." He added: "They enjoy the cooperation of British army commanders and use their facilities in Basra."

"We hope British officials take this seriously, put it on their agenda and act accountably," caustioned Mottaki.

The British government rejected the new allegation as "completely without foundation."

"We reject these allegations from Mottaki," a Foreign Office spokesman told AFP. "Any linkage between HMG (Her Majesty's Government) and these terrorist attacks is completely without foundation."