By Daren Butler

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) - A three-year-old child killed by a stray bullet raised to seven on Friday the death toll from days of clashes between riot police and Kurdish protesters in Turkey's troubled southeast, Turkish media said.

In a separate incident highlighting the tensions ravaging the impoverished, mainly Kurdish region, security forces said they had killed seven guerrillas of the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), two of them women, in rural Sirnak province.

The European Union, which Turkey aims to join, expressed concern about the violence and urged Ankara to do more to combat poverty in the southeast and to boost Kurds' cultural rights.

In Diyarbakir, the main city of the southeast which this week has seen its worst civil unrest in decades, lines of riot police in full body armor and helmets held automatic rifles as small groups of protesters chanted slogans.

Earlier, dozens of youths burned tires and threw stones at security forces for a fourth consecutive day, though violence was subdued compared to the running battles of previous days.

"It has calmed down for now but the situation could explode again at any moment," said Mehmet, 26. Like most local people, he preferred not to give a surname.

Shopkeeper Ahmet, 35, said: "The state has provoked this... People have grabbed their weapons again because nothing has been done to bring peace to the region."

Turkey's southeast suffers high unemployment and many Kurds want political autonomy and more cultural freedoms. They feel the Turkish state is hostile to them and express sympathy for the PKK, branded by Ankara, the EU and Washington as a terrorist group.

The clashes first erupted on Tuesday after funeral ceremonies for 14 PKK members killed by troops last weekend.

Separately, an explosion killed one person and injured five others near a bus station in an historic area of Istanbul on Friday. No one has claimed responsibility for the blast.

Turkish NTV television said Fatih Tekin, 3, died while playing on Friday in the town of Batman to the east of Diyarbakir. It said he was killed after police fired into the air to disperse protesters, but gave no details.

Officials confirmed a child had died of gunshot wounds, but police had no immediate comment on the circumstances cited by

NTV.

Diyarbakir Mayor Osman Baydemir said two other people had died in clashes in his city, but he gave no details.

Most shops and offices reopened for the first time in days.

CHILDREN AMONG DEAD

A man and a child were shot dead on Wednesday and a second man was crushed under a police armored car in Diyarbakir. A second child, aged 8, died overnight in a Diyarbakir hospital and was buried swiftly to avoid triggering further riots.

Shopkeepers in Diyarbakir, a city of nearly a million people, said they had been closed previously because of threats.

They did not say who made the threats but Turkish officials say the PKK is behind the riots and wants to foster a climate of fear and chaos.

"For three days, we could not open. Those who did closed again after receiving threats. But today we opened. Nobody has threatened us ... We hope there will be no more threats," said one tradesman, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The EU expressed concern about the situation.

"We are aware of the serious terrorist problem in the region but it is a much wider problem than just a security issue," EU Commission spokeswoman Krisztina Nagy said.

"The region needs peace, economic development and real exercise of cultural rights for Kurds," Nagy added.

Ankara has lifted restrictions on the Kurdish language and culture in EU-linked reforms over the past few years, but critics say it needs to do much more.

Turkish government ministers praised the security forces' handling of the riots, saying they had acted with restraint. They accused the PKK and its supporters of deliberately using children in the protests in order to win sympathy.

Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu said during a visit to Diyarbakir the violence -- which has also targeted banks and shopping centers -- would deter badly needed investment.

NTV television said police had arrested 79 people in the clashes so far after detaining more than 200.

Ankara sees the PKK as a terrorist group wholly responsible for the deaths of more than 30,000 people since it launched its armed campaign for an ethnic homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984. But many Kurds view the PKK sympathetically.

(Additional reporting by Ingrid Melander in Brussels)

kurdishinfo.com

ELIH(DIHA) -After random shots of police who had raided to houses, 3 old year Fatih Tekin named kid had losed his live in Batman.

3 year old Fatih Tekin named kid had lost his live after the fire of security forces who had raided in houses. 3 year old Fatih Tekin who was wounded by his cheek while he was in the roof of his house by random fire opened by security forces, could not be saved in the Batman State Hospital which he was rushed to. Upon incidence many soldier was dispatched to Batman's Yavuz Selim and Bayindirlik Parishes. Intervention of soldiers to houses continues.

North kurdistan

Read on: www.kurdishinfo.com

At least 70 people were reported killed when a powerful earthquake struck Lorestan Province, western Iran, on Friday, wiping out villages and sending panicked residents fleeing from their homes. Over 1,200 people were also reported to have been wounded.
According to official reports the quake was rated at 6.0 on the Richter scale which struck at 04:47 am (01:17 GMT).
Mohammad Reza Mohseni Sani, mullahs' governor of Lorestan Province, told the state television that some 330 villages suffered damages between 40 to 100 percent.
Poorly built houses using mud is the main reason for high number of casualties in Iran when quake strikes and in view of frequent tremors in the country the regime has no plan to improve the state of housing in accordance with standards for quake zones.
People in the area are expressing their dissatisfaction with the rescue operations and the hospitals are filled with wounded with no adequate medicine to help them. The number of casualties are expected to rise.

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey,(Reuters) - Six people have been killed so far in days of clashes between Kurdish protesters and police in Diyarbakir, the main town of Turkey's troubled southeast, its mayor said on Friday.
An eight-year-old child died overnight in hospital. A man and a child were shot dead on Wednesday and a second man was crushed under a police armoured car. It was not immediately clear when or how the other two people died.
"Six people have died, 200 people are wounded," Mayor Osman Baydemir told a news conference amid the worst social unrest in the impoverished region in decades.
Daily running battles between thousands of stone-throwing youths and riot police armed with teargas and guns have turned Diyarbakir, a city of nearly one million people on the river Tigris, into a battle zone.
The clashes first erupted on Tuesday after funeral ceremonies for 14 members of the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) killed by troops last weekend.
Many shops, banks and other buildings have been badly damaged. Cars and trucks have been torched.
Turkish television said many shops and offices had reopened on Friday, but witnesses reported renewed clashes between protesters and police in at least one district of the city.
CNN Turk television said on its Web site that small protests had also erupted overnight in a district of Istanbul, Turkey's largest city. Istanbul is far from the southeast but is home to a large Kurdish population.
Political analysts say they reflect local anger over high unemployment, poverty and Ankara's refusal to grant more autonomy to the mainly Kurdish region.
The state Anatolian news agency said police had arrested 48 people so far after detaining more than 200.
Police spokesman Ismail Caliskan told a news conference in the Turkish capital Ankara that the PKK was behind the violence.
"But our security forces have prevented the incidents from becoming bigger by behaving sensibly. Nothing can be gained by violence. The rioters' actions will also prevent democratisation in the region," Caliskan said.
Ankara regards the PKK as a terrorist group responsible for the deaths of more than 30,000 people since it launched its armed campaign for an ethnic homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984. But many Kurds view the PKK sympathetically.
Mayor Baydemir, viewed with suspicion in Ankara as a Kurdish separatist, said the government should try to understand the causes of the Kurdish protesters' anger.
"(Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan) should come and share the pain of our families... Our city has never witnessed such prolonged social anger," Baydemir said.
State prosecutors have begun an investigation of comments by Baydemir they believe may have helped incite the rioters.
Erdogan has appealed for calm and denied opposition claims that the government has lost control of the situation.
"Our people should feel at peace, they will be safe. Security forces will do what is necessary," he said on Thursday evening after returning to Ankara from a foreign trip.

KurdishMedia.com

London (KurdishMedia.com) 30 March 2006: The Iranian leadership is under pressure from the international community and a possible change or reform in the political leadership and system is likely in the future. Kurds can be extremely influential in the changes in Iran.

Read on: http://kurdmedia.com/articles.asp?id=11818

kurdishinfo.com

AMED (29.03.2006)- In Amed, in which demonstrations are continuening, on Sakarya Street in Baglar district, a child, named as Abdullah Duran, who was 12 years old, was killed.

According to the knowledges; 12 years old boy, named as Abdullah Duran, was killed by a bullet on Sakarya Street.

The funeral of Duran is still being waited in the morgue of State Hospital. Uncle of Duran, Mehmet Salih Gezer defined that, his nephew was shot by the bullet, which was used to the demonstrators, said that the funeral don't given to them.

The attemps of Duran family are continuening for taking the funeral.

For this last death, the killing of persons by bullet in Amed, increased to two.

It was learned that, 22 years old young boy, named as Tarik Atakaya, who was killed in Baglar district in Amed, was an apprentice in a furniture shop and had got no relations with the incidents.

It was learned that the funeral of Atakaya, who was killed by Private Teams, with bullets, is still being waited in the morgue of State Hospital.

By SELCAN HACAOGLU
Associated Press Writer
news.yahoo.com
ANKARA, Turkey - Riot police fired water cannons and used pepper spray to disperse stone-throwing Kurdish rioters Wednesday in a second day of violence that an official said left at least three people dead and 250 injured in southeastern Turkey.

Gov. Efkan Ala said 2,500 to 3,000 rioters, including many children, participated in the two days of clashes in Diyarbakir after funerals for Kurdish guerrillas killed by Turkish troops last week.

The guerrillas were among 14 killed by soldiers in the province of Mus in a two-day fight that ended Saturday. They belonged to the Kurdistan Workers Party, which has been fighting for autonomy in southeastern Turkey since 1984.

Ala said three Kurds were killed and 250 people were injured, including 130 security forces, and several government offices, private businesses and banks were damaged in the melees — among the worst in decades.

The Turkish army moved combat vehicles to the outskirts of the city, the largest in the Kurdish-dominated southeast, after clashes broke out Tuesday when thousands of protesters rampaged, hurling firebombs at armored police vehicles and smashing windows at a police station.

About 200 rioters took to the streets again on Wednesday, blocking streets with burning tires and hurling stones at riot police. They also smashed the windows of the local businesses and set a truck on fire before they were dispersed by security forces firing into the air and using a water cannon and tear gas.

Paramilitary troops stationed outside the governor's office also quickly repelled a group of stone-throwing protesters.

"Three protesters have unfortunately died," the Diyarbakir governor said. "One of them died in a traffic accident while trying to escape."

Ala did not say how the two other rioters had died, pending autopsy reports, but he added that security forces had detained 200 people.

Turkey's regional governors are state-appointed and are in charge of local security.

Authorities were still assessing damage in the city as municipality workers cleaned the wreckage of burned cars and broken glass littering the streets from the previous night.

"The aim of the perpetrators and rioters of this incidents is to destroy the unity of our country and the environment of safety," Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu said.

"Our security forces will find and hand over the perpetrators, collaborators, provocateurs and their affiliates to justice and they will be given the punishment they deserved," he added.

Authorities boosted security in Diyarbakir. A long convoy of armored personnel carriers rumbled toward a major military base on the outskirts of the city as authorities called in police reinforcements from nearby cities.

Further west in Adana, some 3,000 Kurdish protesters attending the funeral of another slain guerrilla also clashed with police on Tuesday, prompting the officers to detain several people.

Tensions have been running high in the southeast, where autonomy-seeking Kurdish guerrillas have escalated attacks recently.

The fight for autonomy has killed more than 37,000 people. The Kurdistan Workers Party is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

Turkey is under pressure from the European Union, which it wants to join, to grant more rights to its sizable Kurdish population that it does recognize as an official minority. But Ankara has ruled out any dialogue with the Kurdish guerrillas whom it regards as terrorists.

Meanwhile, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Namik Tan urged Denmark to shut down a Danish-based Kurdish satellite television station, Roj TV, which reportedly encouraged Kurdish rioters during Tuesday's clashes in Diyarbakir.

Turkey accuses Roj TV of being a mouthpiece for the PKK. Danish authorities say they are still investigating, while Roj TV insists it has no links to the rebels.

At least 35 people, including 11 police officers, were injured when Kurdish demonstrators clashed with police in the city of Diyarbakir. The clashes started at funeral ceremonies for 14 Kurdistan Workers Party members, killed in an army operation last weekend. Mourners went on a rampage, damaging 70 offices and businesses and burning down a bank. Police and protesters also clashed during a funeral ceremony in the city of Adana.

breakingnews.iol.ie

The UN Security Council has given Iran 30 days to clear up suspicions that it wants to become a nuclear power and key members are already discussing further action if Tehran refuses to suspend uranium enrichment and allow more extensive inspections.

After three weeks of intense negotiations, the 15-member council finally agreed on a statement yesterday designed to put Iran on notice that even its closest allies – Russia and China – want answers about its nuclear programme, and quickly.

While the council hopes Iran will comply with demands from the board of the UN nuclear watchdog, foreign ministers from the five permanent council nations - the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France – and Germany are meeting in Berlin today to discuss next steps if Tehran refuses.

France’s UN Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere said what the council would do in a month “will depend on Iran, and also the strategy we will discuss – and we will be ready”.

US Ambassador John Bolton said President George Bush’s administration would like Iran to follow Libya and give up the pursuit of nuclear weapons.

“The ball is back in Iran’s court and we’ll be here in 30 days to see what they say,” he said.

Meanwhile, Bolton said, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would be exploring with her colleagues at today’s meeting in Berlin how to prevent Iran from having nuclear weapons.

“The president has been unequivocal that it’s unacceptable for Iran to have nuclear weapons, and there are a whole range of steps we can take,” Bolton said, without elaborating. “I’m sure that’s what they’ll be discussing, in part, in Berlin.”

Iran’s UN Ambassador Javad Zarif said his government would respond to the Security Council statement, but he warned that “Iran is a country that is allergic to pressure and to threats and intimidation”.

“Iran is committed to non-proliferation and Iran does not want to produce nuclear weapons,” he said, but “Iran insists on its right to have access to nuclear technology for explicitly peaceful purposes. We will not abandon that claim to our legitimate right.”

France, Britain and Germany have been leading negotiations with Iran, but talks collapsed in August after Tehran rejected a package of economic and political incentives offered in return for a permanent end to uranium enrichment, which it had voluntarily suspended in 2004 under a deal with the Europeans.

Its subsequent moves to develop full-blown enrichment capabilities led the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35-nation board to send the Iran file to the Security Council.

The presidential statement approved by the council was described by all council members as a first step to pressure Iran to resolve “outstanding questions” – first and foremost by suspending uranium enrichment, which can be used to make nuclear weapons, and reprocessing. It also calls for Iran to ratify the IAEA’s additional protocol, which allows unannounced inspections.

The Europeans initially proposed a much stronger statement but accepted a milder one to get the support of Russia and China, who oppose sanctions and want the IAEA to remain in the lead on Iran. At their insistence, the Europeans dropped a statement that the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction “constitutes a threat to international peace and security” – language that already appears in virtually all UN sanctions resolutions.

Bolton was asked what more the council could do if IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei reports that Iran hasn’t complied, given the difficulty in reaching agreement on the presidential statement.

“I’m confident that secretary Rice will be very persuasive and I’m hoping they’ll make a lot of progress,” he said. “She’s determined to do it.”

France’s de La Sabliere, asked whether the presidential statement was a first building block toward sanctions or military action, replied: “We are not talking about military action.”

“We the Europeans want a gradual, incremental and reversible approach,” he said. “This is the first step of the gradual approach. Again, it is reversible. If Iran does not comply, there will be a second step.”

But whether Russia and China would agree to tough action remains to be seen.

Russia’s UN Ambassador Andrey Denisov said Moscow has very strong suspicions about Iran’s nuclear programme – but no evidence – and wants Iran to comply with the IAEA demands.

“What we have done today, that is initial step – initial but very important, very strong and very clear,” he said.

Denisov said the council must move slowly.

“It is like a ladder. If you want to climb up, you must step on the first step, and then the second, and try not to leap,” he said. “That is the case.”

Denisov said one of the most important outcomes of the long and difficult negotiations on the statement was the council’s unity – and “I am convinced that the Security Council … will be able to do it next time as well.”

The Associated Press
Lara Suktian

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- On his last visit to Iran, Canadian-based blogger Hossein Derakhshan was detained and interrogated, then forced to sign a letter of apology for his blog writings before being allowed to leave the country.

Compared to others, Derakhshan is lucky.

Dozens of Iranian bloggers have faced harassment by the government, been arrested for voicing opposing views, and fled the country in fear of prosecution over the past two years. (Blog: http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2006/03/censorship_thre.html| Related item: http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-06-12-iran-election-internet_x.htm

In the conservative Islamic Republic, where the government has vast control over newspapers and the airwaves, weblogs are one of the last bastions of free expression, where people can speak openly about everything from sex to the nuclear controversy.

But increasingly, they are coming under threat of censorship.

The Iranian blogging community, known as Weblogistan, is relatively new. It sprang to life in 2001 after hard-liners — fighting back against a reformist president — shut down more than 100 newspapers and magazines and detained writers. At the time, Derakhshan posted instructions on the Internet in Farsi on how to set up a weblog.

Since then, the community has grown dramatically. Although exact figures are not known, experts estimate there are between 70,000 and 100,000 active weblogs in Iran. The vast majority are in Farsi but a few are in English.

Overall, the percentage of Iranians now blogging is "gigantic," said Curt Hopkins, director of an online group called the Committee to Protect Bloggers, who lives in Seattle.

"They are a talking people, very intellectual, social, and have a lot to say. And they are up against a small group (in the government) that are trying to shut everyone up," said Hopkins.

To bolster its campaign, the Iranian government has one of the most extensive and sophisticated operations to censor and filter Internet content of any country in the world — second only to China, Hopkins said.

It also is one of a growing number of Mideast countries that rely on U.S. commercial software to do the filtering, according to a 2004 study by a group called the OpenNet Initiative. The software that Iran uses blocks both internationally hosted sites in English and local sites in Farsi, the study found.

The filtering process is backed by laws that force individuals who subscribe to Internet service providers to sign a promise not to access non-Islamic sites. The same laws also force the providers to install filtering mechanisms.

The filtering "is systematically getting worse," said Derakhshan, who was detained and questioned during a visit to Iran last spring, just before the election of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

But is the government threatened because the tens of thousands of Iranian blogs are all throwing insults at it, or calling for revolution? Not quite.

The debates on Iranian weblogs are rarely political. The most common issues are cultural, social and sexual. Blogs also are a good place to chat in a society where young men and women cannot openly date. There are blogs that discuss women's issues, and ones that deal with art and photography.

But in Iran, activists say all debates are equally perceived as a threat by the authorities. Bloggers living in Iran understand that better than anyone else.

"I am very careful. Every blogger in Iran who writes in his/her name must be careful. I know the red lines and I never go beyond them," said Parastoo Dokouhaki, 25, who runs one of Iran's most popular blogs. "And these days, the red lines are getting tighter."

Dokouhaki doesn't directly write about politics. She sticks mostly to social issues, but in Iran, that is also a taboo subject.

"I write about the social consequences of government decisions and they don't like it, because they can't control it," said Dokouhaki.

Outright political bloggers have an even tougher time.

Hanif Mazroui was arrested in 1994 and charged with acting against the Islamic system through his writings. He was jailed for 66 days and then acquitted.

"It's normal for authorities to summon and threaten bloggers," said Mazroui. The government continued to harass him and three months ago, he was summoned once again by the authorities and told never to write about the nuclear issue. Soon after his release, he shut down his weblog.

"They kept pressuring me," he said.

Arash Sigarchi, an Iranian journalist and blogger, was arrested and charged with insulting the country's leader, collaborating with the enemy, writing propaganda against the Islamic state and encouraging people to jeopardize national security.

He had been in jail for 60 days when he was sentenced to 14 years in prison. He appealed, and was released on bail. Although his sentence has been reduced to three years, he still faces charges of insulting the leader and writing propaganda.

Another, Mojtaba Saminejad, has been in prison since February 2005. He was first arrested in November 2004 for speaking out against the arrest of three colleagues. According to the Committee to Protect Bloggers, Saminejad's website was hacked into by people linked to the Iranian Hezbollah movement.

After his release, he launched his blog at a new address, which led to his second arrest in February 2005. He was sentenced to two years in prison, and then given an extra 10 months for inciting "immorality."

Despite the crackdown, most Iranian bloggers say the government is not interested in eliminating blogging. Instead, they believe authorities want to use blogging to further their own goals.

Farid Pouya, a Belgian-based Iranian blogger, notes the government has just launched a competition for the best four blogs. The subjects: the Islamic revolution and the Quran.

"The government has observed carefully and learned that blogs are important ... and they want to capitalize on that," she said. "They want to lead the movement, they want to control it."

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations/2006-03-28-iranian-bloggers_x.htm

March 28, 2006
Amnesty International
Urgent Action

The stay of execution granted to Fatemeh Haghighat-Pajouh on 12 October 2004 has been rescinded by the Supreme Court. Her execution is reportedly scheduled to take place on or before 1 April 2006.

Fatemeh Haghighat-Pajouh was sentenced to death for the murder of her husband. She alleged that her husband was a drug addict who had tried to rape her daughter from a previous marriage, who was 15 years old at the time. Apparently he had previously told her that he had lost the girl in a gambling match. Amnesty International does not know when she was arrested, but she may have been tried in 2002.

The Head of the Judiciary, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, had stayed Fatemeh Haghighat-Pajouh's execution after reading a letter written to him by her daughter, entitled "Don’t render my hopes hopeless", in which she appealed for clemency for her mother. Fatemeh Haghighat-Pajouh was then held in Evin prison in the capital, Tehran, whilst her case was sent to the second Division of the Supreme Court for review. According to a report in the Iranian newspaper Hamshahri on 15 March 2006, the Court has confirmed the death sentence against Fatemeh Haghighat-Pajouh and has reportedly approved the execution. Her lawyer was reported to be intending to ask the Head of the Judiciary to use his powers to issue another stay of execution.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty as the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment, in violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Iran is a state party. Article 6 of the ICCPR states: In countries which have not abolished the death penalty, sentence of death may be imposed only for the most serious crimes.

In 2005, Amnesty International recorded at least 94 executions in Iran, although the true figure may be considerably higher.

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible, in Persian, English, French or your own language:

- stating that Amnesty International recognizes the rights and responsibilities of governments to bring to justice those suspected of criminal offences, but strongly opposes the death penalty as the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment and violation of the right to life;

- expressing concern that the stay of execution granted to Fatemeh Haghighat-Pajouh has been rescinded after almost 18 months;

- urging that the death sentence imposed on Fatemeh Haghighat-Pajouh be commuted immediately;

- urging the authorities to ensure that the victim’s family is made aware of its right, under Islamic law, to pardon the condemned;

- reminding the Iranian authorities of their commitment to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in particular Article 3: Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

APPEALS TO:

Leader of the Islamic Republic
His Excellency Ayatollah Sayed ‘Ali Khamenei,
The Office of the Supreme Leader
Shoahada Street, Qom, Islamic Republic of Iran
Fax: + 98 251 7 774 2228 (mark "FAO the Office of His Excellency, Ayatollah al Udhma Khamenei") (please keep trying)
Email: info@leader.ir
istiftaa@wilayah.org
Salutation: Your Excellency

Head of the Judiciary
His Excellency Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi
Ministry of Justice, Park-e Shahr, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Email: irjpr@iranjudiciary.org (mark "Please forward to His Excellency Ayatollah Shahroudi") This email address can be unreliable. If it does not work, please send your appeal via the judiciary website: www.iranjudiciary.org/feedback_en.html
Salutation: Your Excellency

COPIES TO:
President
His Excellency Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
The Presidency, Palestine Avenue, Azerbaijan Intersection, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Fax: + 98 21 6 649 5880
Email: dr-ahmadinejad@president.ir
(Or via website) http://www.president.ir/email

and to diplomatic representatives of Iran accredited to your country.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY. Check with the International Secretariat, or your section office, if sending appeals after 1 April 2006.

http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE130312006

AFP- Two Swedish nationals have been jailed in Iran, the Swedish foreign ministry said Wednesday amid newspaper reports that the pair were arrested for illegally photographing naval facilities.

The Swedish embassy in Iran was "working intensively" to secure their release, ministry spokeswoman Petra Hansson told AFP.

She would neither disclose when the two Swedes were detained nor what they were doing in the country.

But Swedish daily Aftonbladet reported that the men, aged between 30 and 40 and from western Sweden, are construction workers who have been held for a month.

Iranian authorities have accused them of illegally photographing naval installations on the island of Qeshm off southern Iran.

Sweden's charge d'affaires in Tehran, Soeren Lundvall, told Aftonbladet that he had spoken to the men, who are being held in a prison in Bandar-e Abbas, and that they were being treated well.

"They didn't realize the severity of the photo ban," Lundvall said, adding that such offences carry tough sentences in Iran.

He said the Iranian authorities' investigation would continue throughout the year, possibly longer, and that the men would remain in jail for the duration.

Iran Focus

London, Mar. 29 – An Iranian opposition activist is in danger of imminent execution, Iran Focus has learnt.

Valiollah Feyz-Mahdavi, a 28-year-old member of Iran’s main opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI), has been officially informed that his execution sentence will be carried out on May 6, according to his relatives in Iran.

Feyz-Mahdavi was notified of his impending execution on March 24.

He was arrested in 2001 for membership in the PMOI and has endured torture in Gohardasht Prison in Karaj, west of Tehran.

His execution would be the second such known political execution in the past two months. Another PMOI member, Hojjat Zamani, who had been a political prisoner in Iran since 2001, was hanged in Gohardasht Prison on February 7. Zamani, 31 at the time he was hanged, had undergone severe physical and psychological torture to break his morale and compel him to express remorse and surrender.

Feyz-Mahdavi and Zamani along with another Mojahedin political prisoner, Jaafar Aghdami, wrote a letter to the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan on January 24, 2005, calling on him to set up a special fact-finding mission to “investigate the plight” of political prisoners.

In February, the human rights group Amnesty International announced that it had “grave concern” about the “alarming rate” of executions in Iran, in particular highlighting the cases of a number of political prisoners, several of whom are on death row.

“Hojjat Zamani’s execution has fuelled fears that other political prisoners may be at risk of imminent execution”, Amnesty said.

The rights group said that there had been reports circulating since the start of February that “a number of political and other prisoners who are under sentence of death have been told by prison officials that they would be executed if Iran should be referred to the UN Security Council over the resumption of its nuclear programme”.

“These are said to have included other members of the PMOI”, it said, adding, “It was the PMOI that was the source of evidence in 2002 revealing Iran’s nuclear programme to the outside world”.

Among those feared to be at risk were Saeed Masouri, a PMOI member who has been held in solitary confinement in Section 209 of Evin Prison since late 2004; Khaled Hardani, Farhang Pour Mansouri, and Shahram Pour Mansouri; Gholamhossein Kalbi and Valiollah Feyz Mahdavi, both PMOI members; and Alireza Karami Khairabadi, Amnesty said.

Iran Focus– Three agents of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps were killed in a gun-battle in the north-west town of Salmas, the state-run news agency ISNA reported on Wednesday.

The IRGC agents were from the towns of Khoy, Maku, and Marand, the report said.

Salmas, close to the Turkish border, is situated in the province of West Azerbaijan.

Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Mar. 28 – Iran’s Defence Minister said that Tehran was planning to make use of new “smart weapons” to upgrade the armed forces within the next 12 months, the government-run news agency Fars reported on Monday.

Brigadier General Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar told military commanders in the southern province of Kohkiloueh-va-Bouyerahmad that the Islamic Republic’s armed forces would give a “decisive” and “destructive” blow to any possible aggression by “enemy” forces.

“As we have declared many times before, the response by the armed forces to any aggression to the country will be decisive and destructive so that the enemy regrets his actions”, the general said.

General Mohammad-Najjar was accompanying hard-line Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a cabinet trip to the province.

“With the very good progress that we have had in creating electronic technology, we have laid the groundwork to obtain technology to turn our ammunition into smart weapons to pinpoint and attack enemy targets with precision”, the Iranian Defence Minister said.

BEIJING, March 28, 2006 (AFP) - China said Tuesday an upcoming six-nation meeting in Berlin on the Iranian nuclear issue was "an important part" of efforts to solve the stand-off.

"The six-nation meeting is an important part of the efforts of the international community to properly resolve the Iranian nuclear issue through negotiation," foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a regular briefing.

"China will be open to any suggestion that is helpful to the proper solution of the Iranian issue through negotiation."

The Berlin meeting on Thursday will bring together Germany and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, including China.

Qin reiterated China's position that there was still room for solving the issue within the framework of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

"We should properly resolve this issue through negotiation. Now there is still room to resolve this issue within the IAEA framework. The international community should not quit their efforts," he said.

There is growing impatience in Washington with the lack of a firm response by the international community to Iran, which insists its nuclear program is for strictly peaceful purposes.

The Security Council has been trying in vain for the past two weeks to reach agreement on a Franco-British statement, backed by Washington, that calls on Iran to honour its international nuclear commitments.

Russia and China have opposed language in the proposed statement that would even hint at punitive measures against their ally and key trading partner.

rsf.org

Austrian national of Kurdish origin, Kamal Sayid Qadir, who was arrested five months ago for posting “defamatory” articles about the authorities in Iraqi Kurdistan, has been sentenced to 18 months in prison.

At an earlier hearing he had been handed down a sentence, since cancelled, of 30 years imprisonment on exactly the same charge.

Reporters Without Borders said the conviction was contrary to international standards in freedom of expression cases. “Any prison sentence for an offence of opinion is unacceptable, even in cases of insult or defamation,” the press freedom organisation said.

“We are particularly wary of the operation of the Iraqi Kurdish justice system which started by condemning this jurist to 30 years in jail, then divided his sentence by 20, while the charges remained the same. We hope the appeal court will overturn this decision and set him free”.

His conviction was under Article 111 paragraph 433 of the 1969 criminal code, which laid down prison sentences of up to five years for defamation. The fact that the jurist belongs to a family of “24 martyrs” of Saddam Hussein’s regime was taken into account by the judge as extenuating circumstances.

His lawyer, Govend Baban, told Reporters Without Borders that the article in the criminal code could only be applied in the case of a complaint by an individual and not to a case brought by a public ministry, as was the case. He added that the court in Erbil was not competent to try the case, because the offending articles were published in Austria. His client has anyway appealed against the verdict, which he called “unfair” and “political”.

Kamal Sayid Qadir has been held since 26 October 2005 in Erbil prison in the autonomous region of Kurdistan in the north of Iraq. He was sentenced, on 19 December 2005, for "defamation of public institutions", a ruling that was subsequently quashed. In a statement posted on kurdishmedia.com, the jurist acknowledged making comments that were “inappropriate" towards some people referred to in his articles.
www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=16862

182 executed, 63 newspapers shutdown and 7,000 arrested on political charges in one year

NCRI - According to a report by the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), during the Persian calendar year of 1384 (March 20, 2005 – March 20, 2006), Iranian cities were the scenes of over 4,100 protests, strikes, and clashes between the people and the suppressive forces. These protests involved different sectors of society from white collar workers to teachers and students to political prisoners.

At least 1,380 protests were staged by workers and 737 protests by students, academics, and university professors.

The continuation and spread of protests came while 182 prisoners were executed and 123 execution sentences were handed down. Last year, 63 newspapers were shutdown, eight amputations were carried out, and hundreds of thousands arrested, 7000 of whom were detained for political reasons.

In 1384, political prisoners and members of the Iranian Resistance staged hunger strikes for a total of nine weeks.

During this period, the regimes’ henchmen attacked the houses of Tehran's transit workers and arrested their wives and children in order to crush their strike. In Qom, the regime staged crackdown on Dervishes’ mosques and gathering centers, destroying their buildings and arresting a number of them.

The protests included hunger strikes by political prisoners, uprisings in Mahabad, Gheshm, Piranshahr, and demonstrations during the Festival of Fire celebration at the year's end, strikes, sit-ins, road closures by workers, commemoration of the International Women’s Day in Laleh Park in Tehran, protest by young women outside the gates of sports stadiums, and protests following football games.

In many uprisings, people took to the streets and engaged the State Security Forces (SSF) and the Paramilitary Bassij forces, Intelligence Ministry and Plainclothes agents. Many banks, government offices, security operation centers and Intelligence Ministry offices were attacked and destroyed by the people.

The dramatic rise and continuation of protests, uprising and demonstrations clearly reflect the anger and hatred of the Iranian people towards the ruling medieval theocracy. It also reflects the Iranian people's resolve to overthrow this inhuman regime in its entirety and bring about democratic change in Iran.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran

kurdishinfo.com

HABER MERKEZI (DIHA) -HPG General Quarters had declared names of 14 guerilla who had lost their lives in the clash taking place in the scope of operation arranged by Turkish Armed Forces(TSK). HPG which announced that guerillas were killed by chemical weapon said that the assault will not go unanswered.

According to news of Firat News Agency, HPG general Quarters had made an announcement about operation which 14 guerilla had lost their lives. According to announcement of HPG, in the operation which 10 thousand soldier and rural guard participated, was initiated in the region of Mus Guneyi which is between the Mus center, Kulp, Genc and Solhan. 10 thousand soldier from powers of TSK in Mus, Bingol and Tunceli and rural guards from village of Badika and Pirijman had participated to operation. The regions of Sere spi, Berbihiv, 15 Agustos and Geliye Pirijman were kept under control by deployment of soldiers by skorscy type helicopters. In the same day forces of TSK had oriented to camps which guerillas were placed. The clash which occured over orientation of soldiers had continued till hours of night on 25 March. 14 guerillas of HPG had lost their lives due to use of heavy weapons and chemical weapons during clashes.

HPG by condoling the family of those who had lost their lives in the clash and Kurdish people said that '' We call our people not to be silent about this situation and to attend to martyrs, we as HPG will raise our resistance of legitimate defence and will not let this go unanswered.''

The identities of the guerillas who lost their lives are:



ANF NEWS AGENCY
www.kurdishinfo.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=6646

By Shamal Aqrawi

ARBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - A Kurdish writer was sentenced to 1-1/2 years in prison on Sunday for defaming Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani, in a case that has raised questions about the freedom of the press in post-war Iraq.

But the Kurdish representative to the United States, Qubad Talabani, later said Kamal Karim, an Iraqi-born Kurd with Austrian citizenship, would be pardoned.

"The president of the Kurdish region (Barzani) will likely issue a pardon," Talabani told CNN.

"Maybe it's time to revise certain laws. We are an emerging democracy ... we need to improve our institutions."

Karim was originally sentenced in December to 30 years' jail for defaming Barzani but was retried.

"I swear by God I am not guilty. I am not satisfied with this verdict. I am a victim," Karim said after the new sentence was pronounced. The judge said the court had been lenient.

"This sentence is fair and it is proportionate to the charges against him," judge Faridoun Abdullah told Reuters.

"We helped him. We took into consideration that he is an academic and has served in the education field. So we sentenced him to a year and a half. Otherwise we would have sentenced him to five years."

Karim was convicted by a state security court in Arbil after an hour-long trial on December 19 on charges of defaming Barzani and public institutions. He was arrested in October.

Karim had published articles on a Kurdish Web site accusing Barzani and his Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) of corruption and abuse of power.

European president Austria has called for Karim's release.

Barzani -- also president of the Kurdistan region -- and other Kurdish leaders promised a new era of democracy after 2003's U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein.

HUMAN RIGHTS

The Kurdish north has since prided itself on having a better human rights record than elsewhere in Iraq, where sectarian violence has raised fears of civil war.

"This court is unfair. I want a fair trial," said Karim before he was sentenced.

The writer was brought to court in December for what he was told would be a procedural hearing, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said, basing its account on an e- mail written by Karim.

When he arrived at the court in Arbil, he was told he was on trial. He had only five minutes to confer with a defence lawyer and the trial lasted just one hour, the CPJ said.

"Everything is possible in the courts of Kurdistan and the law is not applied in the right way," said Samir Salim of the Kurdistan Islamic Union, which faced riots and attacks after it broke from the alliance that includes Barzani's KDP.

On March 17, security forces working for the other main Kurdish party, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, arrested Hawez Hawezi, a teacher who also writes.

He was charged with defaming the Kurdistan regional government after an article he wrote on corruption appeared in the Hawlati newspaper, an editor at the paper, who asked not to be named, said on Sunday.

Hawezi was released on bail and is awaiting trial. An editor at Hawlati said Hawezi had been beaten while being driven to detention in Sulaimaniya.

"We call on the authorities to dismiss this case at once. Rather than pursue a journalist for doing his job the Kurdish authorities would do well to investigate those who assaulted our colleague Hawez Hawezi," said CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper.

Three days sit-in in London in protest to the Home Office's asylum laws
(27-29 March in front of parliament)

Thousands of asylum seekers who have fled the Islamic regime of Iran and have come to Britain are faced with appalling and inhumane conditions. Many have either been refused asylum and issued removal orders or are in the precarious situation of waiting. An illegal, unsafe and unprotected life has been imposed on many of them.

According to reports published by the Home Office, in 2005 alone more than 600 Iranian asylum seekers were deported back to the Islamic regime of Iran and many more are at risk of being deported in the future. Deporting Iranian asylum seekers to an Islamic dictatorship is taking place despite the fact that any opposition is violently crushed, dissidents suppressed, executions have increased, unfair trials are norms, freedom of speech and press is denied, and human rights are violated with impunity.

In recent months, several political activists have been executed; a number of young, teenaged gay boys have been hung publicly in Mashhad; hundreds of opponents in different cities and towns have been arrested and imprisoned and the Islamic government is intending to execute some of them. Also some labour activists have been arrested, tortured and imprisoned.

The flagrant violations of human rights by the Islamic Republic of Iran have concerned many human rights organisations and even some western governments! They have condemned state violence against the population at large. It is interesting to note that the British government is amongst those countries condemning the Islamic regime of Iran for violating human rights but the truth is that its condemnations are nothing more than politicking for its own political benefits not anything else!

The British government is not concerned that people in Iran are stoned to death, executed, imprisoned, tortured and faced with sexual apartheid. All it wants is to stop asylum seekers from coming here at any cost. The fact that people, who flee persecution, are directly or indirectly victims of British or western government’s policies, is not of any concern to them.

The current policy of the British government towards asylum seekers is totally arbitrary, irresponsible and inhumane Following our “life without fear” campaign and in protest against these inhuman policies, the International Federation of Iranian Refugees in the UK is organising a three day sit-in protest on Monday- Wednesday 27- 29 March in London in front of Parliament.

The International Federation of Iranian Refugees (IFIR) in the UK and the participants of this sit-in demand the following:

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, trade unions, and all freedom lovers to support our campaign for “a life without fear” and our three day sit-in.

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

news.com.au

A KURDISH writer was sentenced to one and a half years in prison for accusing Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani of abuse of power, witnesses said.

Kamal Karim, who also has Austrian citizenship, had originally been sentenced to 30 years in prison for defaming Mr Barzani but was released and retried.
The case has raised questions about freedom of the press and democracy in the Kurdish north, which prides itself on having a better human rights record than public bodies elsewhere in Iraq.

Karim was originally found guilty in December under a law passed by the Kurdish regional parliament in 2003. The region has a high degree of autonomy, including the power to enact legislation.

Advertisement:
Kurdish leaders promised to help deliver democracy and freedom of the press in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein, who oppressed the Kurds for decades.

By Shamal Aqrawi

ARBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - A Kurdish writer was sentenced to 1-1/2 years in prison on Sunday for defaming Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani, in a case that has raised questions about the freedom of the press in postwar Iraq.

Kamal Karim, an Iraqi-born Kurd with Austrian citizenship, was originally sentenced to 30 years in jail for defaming Barzani but was retried.

"I swear by God I am not guilty. I am not satisfied with this verdict. I am a victim," Karim said after the sentence was announced.

The judge said the court handed down a lenient sentence.

"This sentence is fair and it is proportionate to the charges against him," Faridoun Abdullah told Reuters.

"We helped him. We took into consideration that he is an academic and has served in the education field. So we sentenced him to a year and a half. Otherwise we would have sentenced him to five years."

Karim was convicted by a state security court in Arbil after an hour-long trial on December 19, on charges of defaming Barzani and public institutions. He was arrested in October.

Karim had published articles on a Kurdish website accusing Barzani and his Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) of corruption and abuse of power.

European president Austria has called for Karim's release.

Barzani -- also president of the Kurdistan region -- and other Kurdish leaders promised to usher in a new era of democracy after 2003's U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein.

The Kurdish north has since prided itself on having a better human rights record than public bodies elsewhere in Iraq, where sectarian violence has raised fears of civil war.

"This court is unfair. I want a fair trial," said Karim before he was sentenced.

The writer was brought to court in December for what he was told would be a procedural hearing, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said, basing its account on an e-mail written by Karim.

When he arrived at the court in Arbil, he was told he was on trial. He had only five minutes to confer with a defence lawyer and the trial lasted just one hour, the CPJ said.

"Everything is possible in the courts of Kurdistan and the law is not applied in the right way," said Samir Salim of the Kurdistan Islamic Union, which faced riots and attacks after it broke from the alliance that includes Barzani's KDP.

thepeninsulaqatar.com

TUNCELI, Turkey: Turkey’s armed forces killed 14 militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in the biggest operation against the separatist group so far this year, army sources said yesterday.

A large operation began two days ago in the eastern Turkish province of Mus, with the army using gunships against the rebels, the sources said.

“With the start of spring the PKK has started its preparations for attacks and the biggest military operation so far this year was started,” an army official said.

Operations are still continuing in the region.

Three army brigades from central and western Turkey have arrived in the southeast to join fresh attacks against the PKK near the Iraqi border, said the same official.

Ankara blames the PKK for the deaths of more than 30,000 people since the group launched its armed struggle for an independent Kurdish state in southeast Turkey in 1984.

The PKK is classed as a terrorist organisation by the European Union and the United States.

Iran Focus– Hundreds of people have been arrested in Iran’s south-eastern province of Sistan-va-Baluchistan after a deadly ambush on a government convoy carrying dozens of top provincial officials, an informed source in Tehran told Iran Focus.

The majority of those arrested are Baluchis, a predominantly Sunni Muslim ethnic minority, who the authorities have claimed have ties to the attackers. A group calling itself Jondollah has claimed responsibility for the attack

Local state-run media have received instructions from the government not to report the arrests on security grounds, the source, who asked to remain anonymous, said.

Twenty-two Iranian government and provincial officials were killed and at least seven, including the governor of the city of Zahedan, were critically wounded in the ambush as their convoy was returning from Zabol to Zahedan in the early hours of March 17. A further seven were taken hostage.

Hours after the attack, Iran’s police chief, Brigadier General Ismaeil Ahmadi-Moqaddam, announced there was evidence that the assailants had held meetings with British intelligence officers. On Thursday, he said that authorities had identified those responsible for the attack.

Iran’s Interior Minister also pointed the finger at Britain and the United States earlier this week for masterminding the attack.

The minister, radical Shiite cleric Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi, also claimed the people behind the attack were the same as those behind a spate of bombings in Iran’s south-western province of Khuzestan earlier this year and in 2005.

“What is clear about the recent events in Zabol and Khuzistan is that those behind the attackers were the same”, Pour-Mohammadi said.

“According to reports received, certain American and British security officials have had meetings with certain leaders of bandits and have encouraged them to carry out terrorist attacks [in Iran]”, he said.

Iran has witnessed escalating unrest in recent months in areas populated by Baluchis, who complain of discriminatory and repressive policies by the theocratic regime.

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - U.N. inspectors should know by next week how far Iran has advanced on the path to nuclear enrichment, diplomats said Saturday - findings that could shape Security Council action against Tehran and hurt U.S. claims that Iran has accelerated its efforts.

The International Atomic Energy Agency - the U.N. nuclear watchdog - is clearly rankled by the U.S. assertions just days ahead of a trip by IAEA inspectors to Natanz, the site of Iran's known enrichment efforts.

IAEA officials normally refuse to be identified as such when discussing sensitive topics such as disputes with leading IAEA board members, such as the United States.

But reflecting exasperation, a senior agency official dropped such reservations Saturday as he called the U.S. claims that an agency briefing on the advances made by Iran on enrichment was a bombshell "pure speculation and misinformation.''

"It comes from people who are seeking a crisis, not a solution'' to the confrontation over Iran, the official said.

The senior IAEA official did not offer details on the spat.

But a diplomat in Vienna, who demanded anonymity in exchange for discussing confidential information, said some U.S. administration officials were misrepresenting a recent briefing by the agency to Vienna-based representatives of America, Russia, China, France, and Britain - the five permanent Security Council members.

The information on where Iran was on enrichment and where it was headed was not new, but the U.S. officials claimed ``the ... IAEA was blown away by (Iran's) progress and had the U.S. redefining its timeline'' for Iran's capacity to make its first nuclear weapon down to three years, the diplomat told The Associated Press.

Just last year, U.S. officials cited intelligence estimating Iran would need 10 years for its first bomb.

IAEA experts planned a trip to Natanz ``in the next few days'' and will report to the Vienna-based U.N. nuclear watchdog by early next week, said an official close to the agency.

Their findings on how close Iran is to putting 164 centrifuges to work at uranium enrichment at its pilot plant at Natanz will come at a crucial time.

The U.N. Security Council is deadlocked on how to react to Tehran's defiance of international pressure on its nuclear program, and the report by IAEA inspectors could help - or hurt - U.S.-led efforts to ratchet up the pressure on Iran in the form of a harshly worded council statement.

Tehran is far from its ultimate goal of running 50,000 centrifuges to enrich uranium at Natanz for what it says will be the fuel requirements of its nearly finished Russian-built Bushehr reactor. It has less than 1,000 centrifuges.

But former U.N. nuclear inspector David Albright recently told the AP that Iran has enough black-market components in storage to build the 1,500 operating centrifuges it would need to make the 20 kilograms - or 45 pounds - of highly enriched uranium needed for one crude weapon.

Still, Iran has been open about its enrichment plans in recent months, telling the IAEA earlier this year it plans to start installing the first of what will be a 3,000-centrifuge plant at Natanz later this year.

The U.S. mission in Vienna declined to comment on how the Americans viewed last week's briefing. But Western diplomats from permanent Security Council nations said it revealed little new.

One of those briefed described Tehran's progress toward enrichment - including plans to activate the 164-pilot plant at Natanz - as similar to a paper presented by the Iranians a year ago at talks with key European nations.

Those talks collapsed after Iran ended its freeze on enrichment-related activities - a move that led the 35-nation board to refer Tehran to the U.N. Security Council.

The council has been at loggerheads since taking up the issue earlier this month.

Britain and France support tough language calling on Tehran to return to a freeze of enrichment but Russia and China, the two other permanent council members, are opposed.

In a telephone conversation Friday with his Iranian counterpart, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Moscow's view was that the nuclear dispute should be resolved ``through political diplomatic means within the framework of the International Atomic Energy Agency,'' his office said in a statement.

The statement indicates that Russia has not altered its position that the IAEA - and not the Security Council - should take the primary role.

The New York Times

By Steven R. Weisman

The Bush administration and Russia, struggling to forge a joint strategy on Iran, remain at odds over whether the United Nations Security Council should take a step toward imposing penalties on Iran by labeling its nuclear activities a threat to world peace, American and European officials say.

The officials say that the Russian-American impasse, in which leading European countries are siding with the Bush administration, has held up what the West had hoped would be a unanimous move by the Security Council on Iran this month. The impasse also has echoes of the Iraq war, they say, in that Russia is concerned about a possible replay of the United States' using resolutions by the Council to confront Iran in the same way it acted against Iraq.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, spoke Friday to try to close a crucial difference over the language of a possible Security Council statement on Iran, specifically the statement's reference to Iran's nuclear activities as "a threat to international peace and security," various officials said. That wording, by implication, would open the door for further Security Council action against Iran.

Ms. Rice said Friday that Russian and American officials would work through the weekend to resolve their differences.

The sensitive talks with Russia are only the latest in a series of difficulties that have strained relations in the last couple years. Among the irritants have been Russia's crackdown on dissent, its cutoff of natural gas shipments to Ukraine and its efforts to extend influence in the region.

A new source of irritation could come with the disclosure from Iraqi documents that a possible Russian spy operation early in the Iraq war in 2003 provided Saddam Hussein with information about American war plans and troop movements.

A senior State Department official said Saturday that the department was studying details related to the disclosure, and no decision had been made on whether to raise the matter diplomatically with the Russians. But American officials say that Russia is extremely sensitive over the Iraq war, and it has vowed not to let the United States use pressure from the Security Council on Iran as a means to authorize economic penalties or even military action.

Russia's foreign intelligence service has denied passing information the war plans. On Saturday, a state news agency, RIA, cited unidentified Russian security officials as saying that the American Defense Department study that included the documents seemed intended to punish Russia for opposing the 2003 invasion. "This kind of unsubstantiated allegation against Russia's intelligence service has been voiced repeatedly," said Boris Labusov, a spokesman for the service.

A Western diplomat, referring to the Security Council discussions on Iran, and speaking on condition of anonymity because the negotiations are confidential, said: "The Russians are worried that if you label Iran a threat to international peace, it's the beginning of a process. If there is going to be a solution, it will have to be negotiated by Lavrov and Rice."

The Bush administration had some hope over the weekend that the Russian-American talks could produce agreement soon. That contrasted with the mood early this week after a contentious session involving American, European, Russian and Chinese envoys at the United Nations.

Bush administration officials have declined to discuss the possibility of penalties on Iran. They and European diplomats emphasize that any future penalties against Tehran would be structured to avoid strangling the Iranian economy as a whole and stirring anti-Western resentment among ordinary Iranians.

The administration concern is that suffering by Iranians would delay the day of a more pro-Western government taking power in Tehran, undercutting a planned $85 million American program to subsidize Iranian dissidents, promote exchange programs and sponsor broadcasts to encourage pro-Western attitudes.

Despite the desire to win over Iranians, the administration and its European partners have prepared a series of escalating economic and political penalties that could be ready for imposition on Iran by the summer, officials said.

Those penalties, they said, would start with imposing travel bans or freezing foreign-held assets of Iranian officials, followed by a ban on commercial dealings with any businesses connected to Iran's military or to its nuclear programs.

More sweeping bans on commercial, business and energy relations would be saved for later, various officials have said, adding that if the Security Council does not authorize penalties, European countries may act unilaterally after consultation with the United States.

But a ban on military and nuclear energy dealings with Iran would have immediate economic effects on Russia, which has contracted with Iran to develop military defense systems and establish a civilian nuclear reactor on the Persian Gulf coast city of Bushehr. For its part, Russia argues that penalties would backfire and cut off what little cooperation Iran is still giving.

European diplomats also say that the Russians have raised objections to the American spending plan to encourage political change inside Iran. The plan is widely seen as analogous to efforts to bring about "regime change" in Iraq a few years ago.

Iranian news media outlets, meanwhile, are praising Russia and China for trying to block a Security Council action that would impose penalties on Iran, according to Abbas Milani, director of Iranian studies at Stanford University.

"The Iranian papers are bursting with stories about how China and Russia are not caving to the American pressure to punish Iran," Mr. Milani said. "It's clear that they are trying to portray this as a victory for Iranian diplomacy, which has gotten Russia and China not to cave in to U.S. pressure."

Andrew Kramer contributed reporting from Moscow for this article.

iranfocus.com-The international human rights group Amnesty International expressed concern over the possible arrest of two young Arab boys and three Arab women one of whom is pregnant in the south-western volatile city of Ahwaz, fearing that they may face “torture and ill-treatment”.

Ma’soumeh Ka’bi, aged 28, the wife of prominent political activist Habib Nabgan, was arrested along with the couple’s four-year-old son Imad at their home in the early hours of February 27, Amnesty said in a statement issued on Thursday.

Their four other children, aged between six and 13, and Habib Nabgan’s mother, were also arrested but were released the following day. Ma’soumeh Ka’bi and Imad have reportedly been held at the Sepidar detention centre in Ahwaz since March 8. Habib Nabgan, who has fled the country, has received threats that his family will be tortured or killed if he does not return to Iran, the group said.

Soghra Khudayrawi and her four-year-old son Zeidan were reportedly arrested in Ahwaz on March 7. Her husband, Khalaf Derhab Khudayrawi, is said to be wanted by the authorities in connection with his political activities, Amnesty said.

Sakina Naisi, a mother of five, was reportedly arrested in Ahwaz on February 27 along with her 19-year-old son Nahez and taken to the Sepidar detention centre. Nahez was reportedly released after about 10 days in detention. Sakina Naisi is three months’ pregnant and reportedly suffers from asthma, the statement added. Her husband, Ahmad Naisi, a prominent political activist, is said to be wanted by the authorities. Following Sakina Naisi’s arrest, the Iranian authorities reportedly destroyed her husband’s family home in the Sho’aybiyeh district of Ahwaz with bulldozers.

“Amnesty International believes all five are very likely to be prisoners of conscience held solely in order to force their husbands and fathers to give themselves up to the Iranian authorities. As such they should be released immediately and unconditionally”, the statement 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.

NCRI – A comprehensive report on the state of human rights in Iran from April 2005 to March 2006 was released today in 35 pages by the Human Rights Working Group of the NCRI.
Read on
www.ncr-iran.org/images/stories/IL/annual-human-rights-dossier-mar2006.pdf

Alison Langley

Inter Press Service, FRANKFURT - A United Nations Security Council (UNSC)vote imposing sanctions on the Teheran government for its nuclear programme could result in retaliatory executions of some seven condemned prisoners, the rights watchdog Amnesty International (AI) believes.

Iranian prison officials reportedly have told the men -- all of whom claim to be political prisoners -- they soon will die in retaliation for possible UNSC sanctions, said Kate Willingham, a staff member for AI with the Iranian portfolio.

The seven are members of the armed Peoples Mojahedin of Iran (PMOI), which, in turn, is the largest constituent of the National Council of Resistance Iran (NCRI), an umbrella organisation of dissident groups.

NCRI, in August, 2002, handed the Vienna-based, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) secret papers documenting Iran's secret nuclear programmes in Natanz and Arak.

The documents were the first indication the world had that Iran was working on a secret nuclear programme. The Iranian government claims its work is to produce nuclear energy but IAEA officials worry that there is a secret plan to develop nuclear weapons.

NCRI later revealed that the Iranian government also was working on a nuclear programme in Abe-Ali and that it had spent at least 10 billion US dollars on nuclear projects over the last 18 years.

In 2003, the IAEA confirmed the existence of an uranium enrichment programme in Iran.

As signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Iran is allowed to develop a fuel cycle for nuclear power, but only under IAEA supervision.

Because it hid its enrichment programme for nearly two decades, IAEA member states say they no longer trust the Iranian government and reported the matter to the UNSC.

"The Iranian government links the PMOI to the nuclear controversy," said Willingham, a London-based campaigner on Iran for AI in an e-mail."In this context, certain PMOI prisoners have claimed that they have been told that if Iran is referred to the UNSC over its nuclear programme, they will be executed."

None of the men is believed to have been involved in the leaking of the secret documents, Willingham said. Still, she added, because of their membership in PMOI, she believed their lives are at risk.

In February, Hojjat Zamani, a PMOI member accused of planting a bomb outside a revolutionary court in Tehran in 1998, was hanged in Ghor Dasht prison, located just outside of Tehran.

Zamani was charged with 'corruption on earth'(mafsad fil arz) and 'enmity against God' (moharebeh), under Articles 183, 186 and 187 of Iran's penal code. AI said it believed both charges to be "vaguely worded".

According to a PMOI statement, Zamani was severely tortured in detention. After Zamani's hanging, other prisoners have reportedly been told that they were next, Willingham said.

Among prisoners AI believes to be at risk are: Sa'id Masouri, a PMOI member who has been held in solitary confinement in Evin Prison since late 2004; Khaled Hardani, Farhang Pour Mansouri and Shahram Pour Mansouri-- all of whom were involved in a 2001 plane hijacking.

In addition, Gholamhossein Kalbi and Valiollah Feyz Mahdavi, both PMOI members, and Alireza Karami Khairabadi also are believed, by AI, to be at risk of imminent execution.

Of particular concern is the fate of Shahram Pour Mansouri because he was a minor, aged 17, when he allegedly committed a crime. Under international law, to which Teheran is a signatory, minors may not be executed.

Western diplomats in Teheran said they had not heard of any direct threats to PMOI prisoners. One European diplomat added, that if Iran did retaliate by executing prisoners, "we will react very strongly''.

AI claims that state executions continue "at an alarming rate" in Iran. The human rights group recorded 94 executions in 2005, although the organisation added that the true figure could be higher. So far, in 2006, the rights lobby has recorded some 28 executions in Iran.

This week, the UNSC failed to reach an agreement on the wording of any statement. Western members, led by Britain and France, want the council to list Tehran's failures to comply with IAEA demands and urge Iran to suspend any activity that could lead to nuclear weapons production.

Russia and China, both permanent members of the UNSC, prefer a shorter document that would simply underline UN support for the IAEA.

A senior Iranian official said Wednesday, that U.S. pressure on the UNSC to penalize his country for its nuclear policy would not succeed. News agencies quoted Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki as saying that the "the irrational American view" would not prevail in the council.

Iran has repeatedly denied it is trying to build nuclear weapons. "Iran will not agree with any UNSC resolution on our nuclear programme," Iran's powerful religious leader Ali Khamenei stated on an Iranian website.

BBC News, Tehran
By Roxana Saberi

As the international debate over Iran's nuclear programme has intensified, some Iranian journalists say they have come under increasing pressure not to criticise their government on the issue.

While not all journalists share this feeling, the government has warned the nation's press to avoid harsh criticism of its nuclear policies.

At a recent press conference, Iran's minister of culture and Islamic guidance, Mohammad Saffar-Harandi, made the government's feelings explicit when he called on journalists not to jeopardise the country's national interests and security.

"In the past few months, especially in regards to Iran's nuclear file, some people in the press have written the same things our enemies would say if they wanted to," he said.

Mr Saffar-Harandi was cagey when asked if this was not an abuse of press freedom.

"This is very difficult for me, so I ask journalists to be careful. I don't want any of the press we now see on the newspaper stands to be shut down."

Disagreement

At the same time, some journalists say Iran's Supreme National Security Council has pressed the media not to depict Iran's diplomatic efforts over its nuclear programme as unsuccessful or having reached a dead-end.

They also say the council has instructed the media not to create fear and uncertainty among Iranians.

The disagreement between journalists and the government has been more over style than substance.

Iran's newspapers generally support the aim of developing a peaceful nuclear programme, but some have objected to the leadership's policies, calling them confrontational.

Hardline dailies generally agree Tehran should never back down from pursuing its right to nuclear energy, while moderate papers often stress the importance of continuing diplomacy.

Etemade Melli, a newspaper founded by Iran's former parliamentary speaker Mehdi Karrubi, has called on the country's nuclear negotiators to avoid what it calls "sensational, populist and irrational slogans".

One journalist at the paper, who asked to remain anonymous, said the newspaper disapproves of some of the statements made by the new government of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"We are not opposed to the principle of having peaceful nuclear energy or knowledge," the journalist said.

"But I think the change of language that came with our new government has increased the tensions between Iran and the world."

'No obligation'

In general, the extent to which journalists feel pressured by the government to support its nuclear policies depends on their ideological views.

At a news conference in February, the editor of the conservative Hamshahri newspaper, which belongs to Tehran City Council, said his newspaper does not feel controlled by the state.

"If I sense something is not the truth, I won't write a single word about it," Mohammed Reza Zaeri said.

"It isn't that I promote the position of the regime. If I don't believe that nuclear energy is the wish of the nation, I am sure I would not write something about that in Hamshahri newspaper," he added.

"I would not be obligated to do so, either, and if one day I am forced to do this, I would leave the newspaper."

Boundaries

Some other journalists, however, feel uncertain about how far they can push.

They say they feel limited by certain boundaries, even though they do not always know where those boundaries are.

"This is one of the problems for Iranian journalists: that we don't know what the red lines are," Arash, a reporter at a Reformist newspaper, who preferred not to give his last name, said.

"You don't know how far you can go forward or criticize," he explained.

"I think it's the right of every political group, newspaper or professional to present the views that he or she has, and society can hear those views and support the ones they prefer."

National pride

In addition to turning to Iran's newspapers, many Iranians also watch state television and radio, which usually report the authorities' views on the nuclear issue.

But some Iranians say they do not believe state broadcasting gives them the whole story - they prefer satellite television news and the internet.

Still, the government has been largely successful at getting its message across through the national media.

Some Iranian analysts say local coverage has helped many Iranians see the nuclear programme as a matter of national pride - something on which many are willing to support the Islamic regime despite growing international pressure.

"There are no public opinion polls by independent institutions or independent radio or TV. It is also hard to find an independent newspaper that can echo the views of Iranians. That area of government policy seems to have worked," said an Iranian analyst who wanted to remain anonymous.

"The Iranian regime has even been able to convince the international community that... all Iranians think the nuclear issue is a national one and an inalienable right and that if the US tries to deprive Iranians of this right, all the people will stand behind the regime, and it will become more popular."

Three days sit-in in London in protest to the Home Office's asylum laws
(27-29 March in front of parliament)

Thousands of asylum seekers who have fled the Islamic regime of Iran and have come to Britain are faced with appalling and inhumane conditions. Many have either been refused asylum and issued removal orders or are in the precarious situation of waiting. An illegal, unsafe and unprotected life has been imposed on many of them.

According to reports published by the Home Office, in 2005 alone more than 600 Iranian asylum seekers were deported back to the Islamic regime of Iran and many more are at risk of being deported in the future. Deporting Iranian asylum seekers to an Islamic dictatorship is taking place despite the fact that any opposition is violently crushed, dissidents suppressed, executions have increased, unfair trials are norms, freedom of speech and press is denied, and human rights are violated with impunity.

In recent months, several political activists have been executed; a number of young, teenaged gay boys have been hung publicly in Mashhad; hundreds of opponents in different cities and towns have been arrested and imprisoned and the Islamic government is intending to execute some of them. Also some labour activists have been arrested, tortured and imprisoned.

The flagrant violations of human rights by the Islamic Republic of Iran have concerned many human rights organisations and even some western governments! They have condemned state violence against the population at large. It is interesting to note that the British government is amongst those countries condemning the Islamic regime of Iran for violating human rights but the truth is that its condemnations are nothing more than politicking for its own political benefits not anything else!

The British government is not concerned that people in Iran are stoned to death, executed, imprisoned, tortured and faced with sexual apartheid. All it wants is to stop asylum seekers from coming here at any cost. The fact that people, who flee persecution, are directly or indirectly victims of British or western government’s policies, is not of any concern to them.

The current policy of the British government towards asylum seekers is totally arbitrary, irresponsible and inhumane Following our “life without fear” campaign and in protest against these inhuman policies, the International Federation of Iranian Refugees in the UK is organising a three day sit-in protest on Monday- Wednesday 27- 29 March in London in front of Parliament.

The International Federation of Iranian Refugees (IFIR) in the UK and the participants of this sit-in demand the following:

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, trade unions, and all freedom lovers to support our campaign for “a life without fear” and our three day sit-in.

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

Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Mar. 23 – Iran’s paramilitary police chief announced that Tehran had identified those responsible for an armed attack in the south-eastern province of Sistan-va-Baluchistan which left 22 Iranian officials dead last Friday.

“Those responsible for the terrorist attack in Sistan-va-Baluchistan have been identified and introduced to the Pakistani and Afghan police via Interpol”, Brigadier General Ismaeil Ahmadi-Moqaddam told the government-run news agency Fars on Wednesday.

Ahmadi-Moqaddam said that the assailants had fled Iran to parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan not fully under the control of those countries’ security forces.

Twenty-two Iranian government and provincial officials were killed and at least seven, including the governor of the city of Zahedan, were critically wounded in the ambush as their convoy was returning from a gathering in Zabol to Zahedan.

Hours after the attack took place, Ahmadi-Moqaddam announced there was evidence the assailants had held meetings with British intelligence officers.

Iran’s Interior Minister also pointed the finger at Britain and the United States earlier this week for masterminding the attack.

Radical Shiite cleric Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi also claimed the people behind the attack were the same as those behind a spate of bombings in Iran’s south-western province of Khuzestan earlier this year and in 2005.

“What is clear about the recent events in Zabol and Khuzistan is that those behind the assailants were the same”, Pour-Mohammadi said.

“According to reports received, certain American and British security officials have had meetings with certain leaders of bandits and have encouraged them to carry out terrorist attacks [in Iran]”, he said.

Sistan-va-Baluchistan Province is home to Baluchis, a predominantly Sunni Muslim ethnic minority. Iran has witnessed escalating unrest in recent months in areas populated by Baluchis, who complain of discriminatory and repressive policies by the theocratic regime.

By Anton La Guardia, Diplomatic Editor

The Daily Telegraph - Nuclear inspectors have established a link between Iranian nuclear documents and the blueprint for a warhead bought by Libya on the black market. The discovery increases suspicions that Teheran is trying to build atomic weapons under the cloak of its "civil" nuclear programme.

As Iran faces the threat of United Nations sanctions, questions are growing about whether it has made the jump from enriching uranium to designing an actual weapon.

The new evidence on "weaponisation" has built up from several sources. They include the latest US intelligence, a surprising error by Iranian officials and the discovery in Libya of an atomic bomb manual stuffed in two plastic bags incongruously marked "Good Looks Tailor".

A key piece of evidence is a 15-page document setting out how to make enriched uranium hemispheres - the core of an atomic bomb - found by the International Atomic Energy Agency last October among hundreds of papers handed over by Iran.

Several diplomatic sources said the paper was only a general outline but was "similar" to the full blueprint for a Chinese-designed bomb sold to Libya by the disgraced Pakistani nuclear scientist, A Q Khan. "They are part of the same recipe," said one well-placed source.

Libya surrendered the weapons design to officials from America, Britain and the IAEA in January 2004, as part of its agreement to give up its weapons of mass destruction in return for rehabilitation in the West.

"The Libyans gave us two plastic bags marked with 'Good Looks' and the address and the name of a tailor in Pakistan. Inside them were the designs for nuclear weapons," recalled one participant, "It was bizarre. I still can't believe it."

Good Looks Fabrics and Tailors in Islamabad caters to members of Pakistani high society, including A Q Khan.

At first, the owner, Salahuddin Khan, said he was in shock at the discovery. But yesterday he said he had benefited from the unexpected attention: "It was a great thing. I am thankful to God for the publicity."

A Q Khan is hailed as the father of Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme. The question now is whether Iran bought the same blueprint for a nuclear warhead as Libya.

Iran says its nuclear enrichment programme, which was restarted defiantly in recent months, is only meant to produce nuclear fuel. But the West fears it will seek to make fissile material for bombs. The "hemispheres" document is arguably the closest the IAEA has come to a "smoking gun".

Iran refused to allow inspectors to take it away or photocopy it. Eventually, Teheran agreed to allow the IAEA to study it, copy its contents by hand and place it under an IAEA seal.

"We can't figure out why Iran would have given this document to the inspectors. They probably just made a mistake and did not realise it was there," said one western source.

Iran claims it did not ask for the document but it was provided free by A Q Khan's nuclear black marketeers along with the enrichment technology in 1987.

Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's ambassador to the IAEA, shrugged off the issue, saying: "I have seen the document. Of the 15 pages, only one-and-a-half deal with hemispheres in a general, non-technical manner. We have never used it."

The IAEA appears to give credence to the evidence provided by US intelligence from a captured Iranian laptop.

Western security sources say this gave details of what appear to be attempts to redesign Iran's Shehab 3 missiles to carry a nuclear warhead, albeit not the same device as the "Good Looks" blueprint.

Iran has dismissed the laptop documents as forgeries.

The Los Angeles Times
David L. Bosco

The radioactive question of Iran's nuclear program has now landed in the lap of the United Nations Security Council. Which is downright odd because, according to many learned observers, the Security Council's authority all but vanished when the United States and Britain bypassed it to invade Iraq in 2003. Or when the NATO countries ignored it and bombed Serbia in 1999. Or, if you prefer, when it stood by as genocide consumed Bosnia and Rwanda in the early 1990s.

In fact, the Security Council — keystone of the U.N.'s collective security system — has had a lackluster record of international crisis management since it was created after World War II. Conceived by Franklin Roosevelt, Josef Stalin and Winston Churchill as the world's police force, the Security Council has vast legal powers. Quite literally, it has the authority to run the world. As long as it declares a threat to international peace and security, it can fight wars, impose blockades, unseat governments and redraw borders.

Yet its five permanent members — the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China — have only occasionally deployed those powers effectively.

For most of the Cold War, the Security Council was a forum for meaningless resolutions and mediocre rhetoric. Its most famous moments were fiery clashes between American and Soviet diplomats. "I'm prepared to wait for my answer until hell freezes over!" thundered U.S. Ambassador Adlai Stevenson as he brandished photos of Soviet missile sites in Cuba. It made for great television (and many of the early Security Council debates were televised). But the Soviet Union's veto meant that the council couldn't actually do anything about the missiles.

In the 1970s and 1980s, rabid anti-Israel sentiment stoked by the Soviet Union often turned the council into a repulsive inquisition, in which Arab countries and their allies made outlandish accusations against Israel and the United States. At one meeting in 1982, the representative from Djibouti said that the behavior of Israeli soldiers "reminded us of the sadistic bouts of laughter and amusement of the Nazi Germans." Israel's ambassador, a Holocaust survivor, listened in disbelief.

The Security Council has used its powers well in only a few cases since its birth in 1946. At the start of the Korean War, an ill-advised Soviet walkout allowed the remaining members to authorize a U.S.-led multinational force to come to South Korea's rescue. But the Soviets eventually returned — and so did paralysis.

The council's finest moment was probably the Persian Gulf War, when the United States helped build a coalition to evict Iraq from Kuwait. But these moments have been the exceptions. Division and inaction have been the norm. If the council were applying for the job of running the world, it wouldn't get a second look.

And yet it never disappears. The rhetoric and polling data in the run-up to the Iraq war suggest that many people around the world — and particularly in Europe — see Security Council approval as a prerequisite to military action. In Britain, for instance, support for the 2003 Iraq invasion jumped when respondents were asked to assume that the council had blessed the mission. Even in the United States, traditionally more skeptical of the United Nations, a CNN poll found that the percentage of Americans who supported an invasion of Iraq doubled if the council approved.

Now the Bush administration has decided that the Security Council is the place to make a stand against Iran's nuclear ambitions. Tehran's pattern of deception and alarming rhetoric prompted the International Atomic Energy Agency, the international nuclear watchdog, to refer the case to the council, which began meeting on the issue this week. This is all to the good. When the world's five largest nuclear powers speak as one, even governments that would prefer to flout the international community tend to listen. The Security Council can also herd the great powers into agreement and prevent them from sending mixed messages.

But if the members cannot agree, or only utter platitudes, the council becomes a brake on effective action. As the Rwandan genocide unfolded in 1994, the council met almost continuously and poured forth statements decrying the violence. The slaughter continued, however, and members hid behind the council's inaction. The crisis in Darfur, unfortunately, has been much the same. With the death toll mounting, the council has inched painfully toward replacing an ineffective African peacekeeping force with a more robust version.

Iran may well be next on the inaction list. China and Russia strongly oppose sanctions. Last week, they even prevented passage of a statement that would have admonished Iran to cooperate with the international nuclear inspectors. "We want a constructive statement," China's ambassador, Wang Guangya, said, adding that the Western countries "want to be too tough." If Iran continues its defiance and China and Russia refuse to endorse tough action, the council's utility will end. The Bush administration, with whatever allies it can muster, would then presumably form an ad hoc coalition to try to tackle Tehran through sanctions or, as a last resort, military force. And that would be the right move.

However, not everyone agrees that such ad hoc coalitions can bypass the Security Council at will. Those inclined to a legalistic view of international relations — notably Europe and the American left — see the council as much more than a useful diplomatic tool. For them, it is a critical check on the anarchy of international relations. Any coercive steps against Iran must, they insist, receive the council's imprimatur. Without it, coercion is illegal and illegitimate.

As a matter of international law, this view is probably correct. But viewing the council as a species of world government ignores one overriding reality: The Security Council was created by power politics, and it remains an instrument of those politics. The only reason the United States, Britain, Russia and China have permanent seats is because they won World War II. (France was granted a seat in recognition of its past prominence — a gift that many U.S. administrations have no doubt wished they could take back.)

Fairness has little to do with who sits at the table. The 10 rotating members on the 15-member council are chosen for two-year terms by region, not merit. Indeed, Rwanda sat on the council while it perpetrated the genocide. Judged purely on performance, the council hasn't earned legitimacy.

If the U.S. and other Western powers decide to bypass the council, the internationalists will accuse them of undermining international law and order. Policymakers should tune them out. The world remains chaotic enough that the substance of international security must still trump procedure. A blissfully united council means little if rogue regimes acquire nuclear weapons.

There's another reason to ignore the purists: They will certainly exaggerate the danger of the council's demise. It will survive the Iran crisis just as it weathered the Iraq war and decades of irrelevance during the Cold War. And if the great powers once again see their interests align, the Security Council will still be there, ready to serve.

David L. Bosco, DAVID L. BOSCO is senior editor at Foreign Policy magazine.

KurdishMedia.com

New York 22 March 2006: In the capital of greater Kurdistan, Amed (Diyarbakir), hundreds of thousands gathered yesterday for what is annually the world’s largest Newroz celebration. Approximately one million people were expected to attend this year’s festival, and it appears that this may well have occurred.

Slight rain during the day did not dampen the mood of the people, as once again the Kurdish New Year and National Day became a celebration of Kurdistan and its people in a country where restrictions on Kurdish culture remain. Thousands of flags of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) were waved by those in attendance, in addition to many flags used by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to represent the confederation program as well as Kurdistan flags and posters of imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan. A giant Kurdistan flag was displayed at one point, as well as a banner bearing the flags of Turkey, the Kurdistan confederation, and the European Union.

Musicians playing included Koma Sevin from Mahabad, Koma Azad from Amed, Koma Car Newa from Europe, and Ilkay Akkaya and Edip Akbayram from Istanbul. Iraqi President and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) Secretary General Jalal Talabani sent a letter to Amed Mayor Osman Baydemir thanking him for the invitation to the festival, stating that “political work” prevents him from attending the event but he hopes to come to Amed in the future. The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) also sent a letter to the mayor for Newroz, and many guests from Iraqi Kurdistan were present for the festivities, as well as members of the European Parliament. A number of Turkish and European journalists also attended the celebration.

KurdishMedia.com

Over a million Kurds of West Kurdistan (Syria) took part in the demonstration to mark the anniversary of the Kurdish New Year Newroz, reported by different local sources. Some sources put the figure to 1.3 million.

The Kurdish people demonstrated in Allapo, Kobani, Qamishlo and other Kurdish cities and towns. Perhaps the sizable demonstration was in Allapo, where an estimated half a million Kurds participated. In the capital, Damascus some 300,000 Kurds took part.

The demonstrators clashed with the police in some areas and many were arrested, the sources reported.

AP
khaleejtimes.com

DAMASCUS — A Syrian security court on Sunday sentenced seven Kurds to jail terms ranging between six months and 10 years for belonging to an outlawed Kurdish party, according to a Syrian human rights lawyer.

Anwar Al Bunni said the State Security Court convicted Balkhati Abdu, Mohammad Khalil Ellow and Walat Yunis to two and a half years in prison each on charges of belonging to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.

In a statement, he said the court also sentenced Ali Sadek Ellow and Loqman Othman to seven years in prison and Ali Mohya to sixth months in prison. Ahmad Haj Omar was sentenced by the court for ten years on charges of “trying to change the entity of the society and weakening the national feeling,” Al Bunni said.

The PKK, which has battled Turkish forces for years while seeking autonomy in southeastern Turkey, once had offices in Syria.

But authorities cracked down on the group’s activities as Syrian-Turkish ties improved, particularly amid fears over the growing influence of Iraq’s Kurds.

english.aljazeera.net

Kurdish demonstrators hurled rocks at Turkish police on Tuesday as more than 75,000 Kurds gathered in the city of Diyarbakir for a spring festival.

At least eight people were injured, hospital officials said.

Turkish warplanes flew over the demonstrators in Diyarbakir, the largest city in overwhelmingly Kurdish southeastern Turkey. Many of the demonstrators shouted support for autonomy-seeking guerrillas.

Several police officers were among the eight injured during the clashes, hospital officials said. Television footage showed police trying to defend themselves with shields against a shower of rocks.

Demonstrators shouted slogans in praise of imprisoned Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan and unfurled giant pictures of Ocalan and banners of his guerrilla group, the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, television footage showed.

The PKK is listed as a terrorist organisation by the US and the European Union.

Past violence

The spring festival of Nowruz has been the scene of clashes in the past, especially in the early 1990s, at the height of a conflict between the Turkish army and Kurdish rebels.

The prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, warned on Tuesday against provocations during Nowruz celebrations and urged all to hold festivities in peace.

The family of an 18-year-old Kurdish youth said the teen was shot and wounded by police during an illegal demonstration in Istanbul on Monday evening, private NTV television reported. There was no immediate comment from police.

Kurds have been celebrating Nowruz since Sunday, singing, dancing and jumping over fires, symbolically burning away past impurities. Nowruz, the Farsi word for "new year", is an ancient Persian festival, celebrated on the first day of spring in several countries, including Afghanistan and Iran.

The festival is mainly marked by Kurds in Turkey and has traditionally been used by Kurds to express their support for Kurdish fighters who launched a war for autonomy in 1984. The fighting has claimed about 37,000 lives.

kurdishinfo.com
DIYARBAKIR (DIHA) -The war planes had flied over field of Fuar in Newroz celebrations which hundreds of thousands of people had attended. Thousands of people shouted '' Don't seek in mountains hopelessly, adherents of Apo are everywhere'' while war planes were passing.
Thousand of people who gathered with flags of Democratic Confederalism and Posters of Ocalan are shouting demands of peace and freedom. Although the celebrations had begun, thousands of people are rushing to the field. While crushes had occured sometimes for over participation some persons had lived faintings. 20 young person carrying posters of Ocalan and flags of Democratic Confederalism across the field and coming to in front of platform had taken applauses.

Answer with slogans to 2 war planes

Passing of 2 war planes over field had caused reactions, those who are in the field shouted slogans '' Don't seek hopelessly in mountains, adherents of Apo are everywhere'' and bood the passing of

war planes.

Traffic was closed
The traffic was locked up for over 2 thousand vehicles coming from near districts and centers of Siirt and Batman.

Associated Press
By Nasser Karimi

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday said the West should apologize to Iran for accusing it of trying to develop a nuclear weapons program and said his country would continue to resist international pressure to halt its nuclear energy program.

``Today they tell our nation that nuclear energy is a bad thing and it is not necessary for our people to have it. But the nation of Iran has stood (for its right),'' he said in a televised speech to mark the Iranian New Year, which begins Tuesday. ``Those who head war and crimes accused the Iranian nation of war seeking. They insulted our nation. I do advise them to apologize.''

Iran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful energy purposes but Western countries who believe otherwise have pushed for United Nations action - including possible sanctions - against the country.

Ahmadinejad stressed that Iran would not give up its nuclear rights.

``Today we announce with pride that the peaceful knowledge and technology are at our disposal in order to be used for different purposes, including electricity generation, and we have not borrowed it from anybody that can take it away from us,'' he said.

Ahmadinejad reiterated that Iran should be compensated for a two and a half year suspension of its nuclear activities. Under heavy pressure from the West, Iran suspended its enrichment of uranium and related activities in 2003 and began negotiating with Germany, Britain and France to reach an agreed framework for its nuclear development. It resumed nuclear research earlier this year when talks failed.

The United States and its European allies want Iran to permanently abandon uranium enrichment and all related activities, a technology that can be used to produce nuclear fuel for reactors or materials for a nuclear bomb.

Los Angeles Times
Josh Meyer

WASHINGTON -- U.S. intelligence officials, already focused on Iran's potential for building nuclear weapons, are struggling to solve a more immediate mystery: the murky relationship between the new Tehran leadership and the contingent of Al Qaeda leaders residing in the country.

Some officials, citing evidence from highly classified satellite feeds and electronic eavesdropping, believe the Iranian regime is playing host to much of Al Qaeda's remaining brain trust and allowing the senior operatives freedom to communicate and help plan the terrorist network's operations.

And they suggest that recently elected President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may be forging an alliance with Al Qaeda operatives as a way to expand Iran's influence or, at a minimum, that he is looking the other way as Al Qaeda leaders in his country collaborate with their counterparts elsewhere.

"Iran is becoming more and more radicalized and more willing to turn a blind eye to the Al Qaeda presence there," a U.S. counter-terrorism official said.

The accusations from U.S. officials about Iranian nuclear ambitions and ties to Al Qaeda echo charges that Bush administration figures made about Iraq in the run-up to the U.S.-led invasion three years ago.

Those charges about Iraq have been discredited. And in the case of Iran, some intelligence officials and analysts are unconvinced that Al Qaeda operatives are being allowed to plot terrorist acts. If anything, they suggest, the escalating tensions between Shiite and Sunni Muslims in Iraq would logically cause Iran's Shiite government to crack down on Al Qaeda, whose Sunni leadership has denounced Shiites as infidels.

A U.S. intelligence official said he did not see any relaxation in Iran's restrictions on Al Qaeda members.

"I'm not getting the sense that these people are free to roam, free to plot," the official said.

Still, the official acknowledged that the relationship between Tehran and Al Qaeda officials within Iran was largely unknown to U.S. and allied intelligence, especially since Ahmadinejad's election last summer.

To some U.S. intelligence officials, what worries them most is what they don't know.

"I don't need to exaggerate the difficulty in determining what these people are up to at any given moment," the intelligence official said.

The U.S. counter-terrorism official was more blunt. "We don't have any intelligence going on in Iran. No people on the ground," he said. "It blows me away the lack of intelligence that's out there."

U.S., European and Arab intelligence officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the issues publicly.

Ties between Iran and Al Qaeda were highlighted by the Sept. 11 commission, which disclosed a wealth of details about such connections in its final report. The commission said Iran and Al Qaeda had worked together sporadically throughout the 1990s, trading secrets, including some related to making explosives.

Iranian representatives to the United Nations did not return repeated phone calls seeking comment.

In November, the State Department's third-ranking official, Undersecretary R. Nicholas Burns, said the U.S. believed "that some Al Qaeda members and those from like-minded extremist groups continue to use Iran as a safe haven and as a hub to facilitate their operations."

A year ago, Iranian delegates to a global counter-terrorism conference circulated a document describing Iran as "a major victim of terrorism." The document blamed links between drug trafficking and terrorism for "thousands of security problems," especially along Iran's eastern border with Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Al Qaeda operatives and family members have lived in Iran for years, many since late 2001, when they fled the U.S.-led bombing of Afghanistan. Many other Al Qaeda figures fled to Pakistan — a U.S. ally — and are believed to be there still.

Four months ago, Iran declared that no Al Qaeda members remained in the country, but U.S. officials reject the claim. At other times, Iranian officials said that Al Qaeda members were kept under house arrest and their activities monitored.

In Tehran, analysts said American officials were misreading Iran's intentions. The fact that the government has not heeded U.S. demands to turn over Al Qaeda suspects should come as no surprise given the state of relations between the two countries, said Nasser Hadian, a political analyst at Tehran University.

"They won't. Why should they" without receiving something in return? he said.

Some of the suspects have been indicted in the United States in connection with terrorist attacks, including the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa, but Iran has refused to extradite them.

Among them is Saif Adel, believed to be one of the highest-ranking members of Al Qaeda, behind Osama bin Laden and Ayman Zawahiri. Whatever restrictions might be placed on the network's activities within Iran, Adel — who has a $5-million U.S. bounty on his head — was able last year to post a lengthy dispatch about Al Qaeda activities in Iran and Iraq that was widely circulated on the Internet. U.S. intelligence officials consider the posting authentic.

In the dispatch, Adel said he had used hide-outs in Iran to plot with Abu Musab Zarqawi to make Iraq the new battleground in the group's war against the United States. Iran had detained many of Zarqawi's men, Adel wrote, but they ultimately slipped into Iraq and began attacking U.S. forces.

U.S. officials say intelligence suggests that Al Qaeda operatives have engaged in at least some terrorist planning from Iran, including Adel's alleged orchestration of suicide bombings in Saudi Arabia in May 2003 and the masterminding of several attacks in Europe.

For several years, the U.S. counter-terrorism official said, satellite feeds have helped officials monitor some of the day-to-day activities and movements of Adel and other senior Al Qaeda operatives in Iran. The intelligence suggests that the Al Qaeda leaders have been monitored by Iranian authorities but could move and communicate somewhat, the official said.

U.S. officials also said that other senior Al Qaeda figures — including Zarqawi, now the group's point man in Iraq — had moved in and out of Iran with the possible knowledge or complicity of Iranian officials.

The Al Qaeda members in Iran include three of Bin Laden's sons. Some of his wives and other relatives are suspected of being there as well, as is Al Qaeda spokesman Sulaiman abu Ghaith, U.S. officials say.

Of special concern, they said, is the number of Al Qaeda operatives in Iran who are of Egyptian descent and loyal to Zawahiri, the Cairo-born physician who merged his Egyptian Islamic Jihad with Al Qaeda in the years before the Sept. 11 attacks.

Adel is a former Egyptian police official. In addition, U.S. officials confirmed intelligence showing that three other Al Qaeda operatives with Egyptian roots — Abdallah Mohammed Rajab Masri, also known as Abu Khayer; Abdel Aziz Masri; and Abu Mohamed Masri — are in Iran. Authorities believe them to be, respectively, the head of Al Qaeda's leadership council, a biological weapons expert who heads the network's effort to develop weapons of mass destruction; and its top explosives expert and training camp chief.

The U.S. counter-terrorism official said the Egyptians' presence was troubling because Tehran for more than a decade has supported Egypt's two largest militant groups — Egyptian Islamic Jihad and Gamaa al Islamiya — in their violent campaign to topple the Cairo government.

Though the Sunni-Shiite divide has prompted Tehran in the past to say it had "no affinity" with Al Qaeda, U.S. officials believe there is a history of cooperation between Iran and some Sunni militant groups, including Al Qaeda. Iran nurtures such ties, they say, to enhance its regional influence and punish Arab political foes through intimidation and violence.

Bin Laden sent Adel and others to Iran and Lebanon in the early 1990s to learn bomb making from Iranian intelligence and Hezbollah, the Iran-affiliated militant group, U.S. officials say. They fear he and other Egyptians may still have ties with Iran's military and intelligence services.

The Sept. 11 commission concluded that Iran had harbored Al Qaeda operatives wanted in the U.S. embassy bombings in East Africa and other terrorist attacks.

It quoted one top Al Qaeda official as saying Iran had made a "concerted effort to strengthen relations with Al Qaeda" after the 2000 attack on the U.S. warship Cole in Yemen.

Imprisoned top Al Qaeda operatives also have told U.S. officials that Iran let Islamic militants traveling to and from Afghanistan and Pakistan pass freely across its borders without passport stamps — including at least eight of the 19 future Sept. 11 hijackers, the nowdisbanded commission said.

The panel strongly urged the Bush administration and Congress to investigate the ties between Iran and Al Qaeda. Recently, commission member Timothy Roemer said in an interview that Washington still had not adequately addressed those ties.

U.S. and allied intelligence agencies say that, more recently, they have picked up indications of closer cooperation. The intelligence includes European wiretaps of militants discussing how Iranian officials would help them or look the other way.

U.S. officials fear Ahmadinejad may be strengthening ties with Al Qaeda with the help of Iranian intelligence and military agencies, particularly the Revolutionary Guards.

The intelligence official and others noted that Ahmadinejad himself rose through the ranks of the guards, an elite military unit. U.S. government officials have accused the guards of financing and orchestrating terrorist acts in the region by groups including Hezbollah, which is suspected of blowing up U.S. military facilities and embassies in the 1980s and killing hundreds of Americans.

Rep. Brad Sherman of Sherman Oaks, the ranking Democrat on the House International Relations subcommittee on terrorism and nuclear proliferation, who receives classified briefings on Iran, said U.S. intelligence indicated that Tehran was engaged in some kind of collaboration with Al Qaeda leaders.

"The cooperation is substantial," Sherman said. "Key operatives of the most successful terrorist organization in history are spending their time in the No. 1 state sponsor of terrorism…. That is of massive concern."

U.S. officials fear that an Iranian hard-line faction or even a rogue official could conspire with Al Qaeda or provide access to the country's military arsenal.

Despite the mutual antipathy between Sunnis and Shiites, some U.S. officials argue that the Iranian regime and Al Qaeda share a common enemy — the United States — and that both oppose the establishment of a pro-Western democracy in Iraq.

John D. Negroponte, the director of national intelligence, told Congress on Feb. 2 that Iran was engaged in a broad campaign "to disrupt the operations and reinforcement of United States forces based in the region, potentially intimidating regional allies into withholding support for United States policy toward Iran and raising the costs of our regional presence" for the U.S. and its allies.

KurdishMedia.com

Final Communiqué of the Syrian Kurdish Meeting on Democracy and Freedom in Syria – Washington, D.C. – on March 12, 2006

In the Conference that was called by the Kurdish Front for Promoting Democracy and Freedom in Syria, which was held on March 12, 2006 in Washington D.C., and was attended by representatives of Kurdish political parties, movements, personalities and intellectuals from Syria, adopted the following principles and positions, after discussing, analyzing and reviewing the future of Syria:

1- The Kurdish people in Syria live on their historical lands and are an indigenous people of the country.

2- We demand that the New Constitution of a Future Democratic Syria be a Secular one that contains specific articles concerning the status of the Kurds as an essential national group along the lines of the Arabs of Syria, and that recognizes their national rights on the basis of the “Rights of Peoples to Self-determination”. Furthermore, that the Syrian Constitution be a pluralistic one that recognizes the rights of other national groups in Syria as well.

3- The Kurds support the process of democratic change and the abolishment of the dictatorial regime in Syria. We, further, demand free and fair democratic elections in the country, and the elimination of all the traces and consequences of national oppression practiced against the Kurds. We also demand that the victims of such policies be compensated.

4- Cooperation with all the Democratic Opposition Forces in Syria, and advancement of joint efforts for change, based on the principles of mutual respect and recognition of mutual rights.

5- Cooperation in combating terrorism, regionally and internationally, and developing cooperative relations with forces of Democracy and Freedom in these efforts.

6- Working for introducing deep and comprehensive societal changes in Syria, including respect for freedom of religion and beliefs, as well as the right of women.

7- Supporting the People of Lebanon and their current democratic movement that aims at achieving independence and liberating themselves from Syrian hegemony.

8- Supporting the political process in Iraq for achieving democracy and strengthening their people’s will in establishing federation and pluralism. In addition to supporting the Democratic system in Iraqi Kurdistan.

9- We demand that the New Syria commits itself to respect all international treaties and documents adopted by the international community, especially the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

10- We present our special thanks to the Organization of Syrian Kurds in the United States and Canada for arranging these meetings and emphasize the necessity of future cooperation.

11- The Conference proposed and recommended, to the political parties, movements, intellectuals, civil society groups and women organizations in Syrian Kurdistan, the necessity of achieving a common platform for the national rights of the Kurdish People and the general democratic rights of the country. It further emphasized the necessity of formation of a common representative structure, by the Syrian Kurds inside and outside the country that can express and represent the national rights and demands of the Kurdish people.

12- The Conference salutes the Second Anniversary of the Kurdish uprising in Syria and express our esteem to the memory of all the martyrs, especially Sheikh Mashooq Al-Khaznawy.

13- The Conference positively appraised and welcomed President Bush’s Initiative for Democratic Change in the Greater Middle East Region.

The New York Times
By MICHAEL SLACKMAN

ISFAHAN, Iran, March 19 — All day and all night, the main street of this city was packed over the weekend with shoppers jockeying to buy last-minute gifts and sweets as they hurried to get ready for the celebration of the Iranian New Year, called Nowruz. Behind his cluttered desk inside an antique shop, Sayed Ali Zargabashi watched with great satisfaction as the crowds spilled off the sidewalks.

"People are not listening to the regime," said Mr. Zargabashi, 63. "They are emphasizing and embracing the traditional celebrations. People want the best they can get. Their eyes are open now."

After the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the ruling ayatollahs sought to stamp out many traditions, like Nowruz, a celebration with some Zoroastrian links that stretches back thousands of years to the pre-Islamic era, to mark the arrival of spring. The celebration is considered by many here the most Iranian of holidays.

The ayatollahs tried, and failed.

Now, nearly three decades later, some people say the increasingly enthusiastic embrace of Nowruz and other ancient traditions represents a resistance against the country's more conservative religious rulers.

A few days before Nowruz, for example, Iranians poured out of their homes to celebrate Chahar Shanbeh Suri, igniting fireworks and jumping over small fires set in the streets, a traditional practice intended to bring good health in the new year. Several years ago, the government decided it could not stop the practice, and set up special parks where the fires could be set.

This year's celebration — a time for family gatherings — has proved especially vexing for the religious leadership as it occurs on Monday, the same day the faithful are expected to mourn the death of Imam Hussein, a figure whose defeat in battle centuries ago became a defining moment in Shiism, the dominant Islamic sect in Iran.

Some clerics said in interviews that it was acceptable to observe the new year, but because the celebration was occurring on the 40th day after the anniversary of Imam Hussein's death, people should not show joy — which in itself prompted giggles from some as they hurried to get ready.

"I think these days, there is a silent resistance in Iran, especially among the middle class," said Hamidreza Jalaipour, a sociologist. "They are resisting not politically, but socially and culturally."

Like most conflicts in a society as complex and layered as this one, the contemporary story of Nowruz is not one-sided or exclusively about resistance. It is also about accommodation. While Iran's religious leaders have followed a policy of confrontation with the West over their nation's nuclear program, they have, however grudgingly, ceded to the public's insistence on retaining, even bolstering, traditions not founded in Shiism.

While it was the reformist government of former President Mohammad Khatami that decided to establish parks to hold the fire-jumping festivities, for example, the practice was continued this year after the election of the ideologically conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

That Iran's religious leaders have accepted Nowruz, and other prerevolution traditions like Chahar Shanbeh Suri, also demonstrates a growing degree of stability, as the country's leadership has tried to reconcile the bookends of Iranian national identity — faith and culture, experts here said.

At last week's Friday Prayer service, held in the sprawling open-air arena at Tehran University and broadcast nationwide, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, among Iran's chief enforcers of strict Islamic doctrine as head of the Guardian Council, did not mention Chahar Shanbeh Suri. He also did not mention Nowruz, though he acknowledged that recreation was good, as long as people continued to observe the laws of the Islamic republic.

"In this new year," Ayatollah Jannati said from a podium high above the crowd, "God's kindness and affection should be on you. We should always observe piety and all laws decided by God. You can neither commit sin in happiness or sadness."

There still exists a battlefield between those on the extremes of the debate, the ultrareligious who would like to erase elements of Iranian identity not explicitly Islamic, and others, including many in the expatriate community, who try to undermine the credibility of the Islamic government by appealing to Iranian nationalism through such traditions as Char Shanbeh Suri.

"What is interesting is that it is not clear why the opposition is trying to benefit from setting fire to little thorn bushes and firecrackers, which has mistakenly turned into a tradition, and interpret it as opposition to the Islamic republic," Hussein Shariatmadari, editor in chief of the conservative daily newspaper Kayhan, wrote on Thursday.

The exact beginning of Nowruz — the name means "New Day" — is unclear, although its origin has been traced back thousands of years. In Iran, it is closely associated with the Zoroastrian faith, a monotheistic religion in which worshipers perform prayers and rituals in the presence of fire — a symbol of order, truth and righteousness. Zoroastrians are said to have made the Nowruz tradition formal.

Tooran Shahriari, a senior member of the Zoroastrian community in Tehran, said that the ancient calendar was divided in 12 months of 30 days each. At the end of the year, she said, the five days left over became "special days" and the basis for the celebration.

In practical terms, the holiday signifies the end of winter and the start of the new growing season, and resembles a blend of New Year's Eve and Thanksgiving. In advance of the holiday, Iranians conduct an intense spring cleaning.

The holiday begins at the exact moment of spring, and so on Monday Iranian families will gather in their homes at about 10 p.m. around tables set with seven symbolic dishes, each beginning with the letter S in Persian, including items like vinegar, dried fruit, garlic and sprouting seeds, which represent renewal. The holiday ends on the 13th day with an event called Sizdah Bedar, when everyone is supposed to go out into nature, hold picnics and enjoy the early spring.

In Isfahan, there was a rush to get ready for the holiday. One tradition is to buy new clothing, and tailors were busy trying to meet holiday orders. In one shop, a tailor named Akbar said that nearly half his annual business was conducted in the month before the holiday. He said he was certain Nowruz was so popular because people were rebelling against the government and its strict social codes of behavior.

"They really tried to take away Nowruz from people," Akbar said as he fitted a customer with a new suit. "People are turning away from religion altogether. They are not listening to what the government is saying." He is not being completely identified to protect him from possible reprisal over his comments about religion, which is often considered a red line in this country.

Not everyone shared the tailor's view. Instead, some people who identified themselves as religious said they saw no conflict with Iran's culture.

"Iranians have both tradition and religion, and they both get respected in return," said Jaafar Hemmassian, 40, a baker in the center of the city as he sold piles of cream puffs and cases of confections. "All of the traditions of Nowruz are accepted by Islam."

A few days earlier, as people gathered in a small park in Tehran to set fires and celebrate Chahar Shanbeh Suri, held on the last Wednesday of the year, many people said they were pleased that the government had finally relented — and even helped to organize the occasion.

"This is an important night for us, especially because this regime has finally realized that it should respect peoples' demand and let them celebrate it," said Manijeh Emadi, 54, a high-school teacher. "They wanted to take away Nowruz and its traditions for 27 years. Finally they learned that this tradition has survived for hundreds of years, and it will survive them as well."

Nazila Fathi contributed reporting from Tehran for this article.

Iran Focus– Eight people were killed during a gun-battle with Iran’s paramilitary police in the eastern province of Khorassan Razavi, state television reported on Sunday.

The eight rebels were killed after armed clashes broke out in the border town of Taybad, the report quoted Brigadier General Radan, the commander of State Security Forces in the province, as having said.

Details were sketchy but the report said that the incident took place near the Sorkh well in the town and that all eight rebels who were involved in the clashes were killed.

They had entered to create “insecurity” and “trouble”, the report said, without identifying them further.

Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Mar. 18 – Iran’s Interior Minister pointed the finger at Britain and the United States on Saturday for an armed attack in the south-eastern province of Sistan-va-Baluchistan in the town of Zabol which left 22 Iranian officials dead in the early hours of Friday morning.

Radical Shiite cleric Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi also claimed the people behind the attack were the same as those behind a spate of bombings in Iran’s south-western province of Khuzestan earlier this year and in 2005.

“What is clear about the recent events in Zabol and Khuzistan is that those behind the assailants were the same”, Pour-Mohammadi told the state-run news agency ISNA.

“According to reports received, certain American and British security officials have had meetings with certain leaders of bandits and have encouraged them to carry out terrorist attacks [in Iran]”, he said.

Twenty-two Iranian government and provincial officials were killed and at least seven, including the governor of the nearby city of Zahedan, were critically wounded in the ambush as their convoy was returning from a gathering in Zabol to Zahedan.

The Interior Minister’s comments mirrored remarks Friday by Iran’s paramilitary police chief, Brigadier General Ismaeil Ahmadi-Moqaddam, on state television that there was evidence the assailants had held meetings with British intelligence officers.

Sistan-va-Baluchistan Province is home to Baluchis, a predominantly Sunni Muslim ethnic minority. Iran has witnessed escalating unrest in recent months in areas populated by Baluchis, who complain of discriminatory and repressive policies by the theocratic regime.

By Tim Cleary

Two new events have been organised as part of a campaign to defend Iranian asylum seekers in the UK and prevent their deportation to a country they deem unsafe.
As part of the 'Life Without Fear' campaign launched in January, the UK branch of the International Federation of Iranian Refugees (IFIR) is organising a public meeting on the evening of 21 March 2006 to explore the right to asylum in relation to people who have fled the Islamic Republic of Iran. (See 'Life Without Fear' campaign: public meeting) A week later, between 27 and 29 March, the group plans to protest in London to demonstrate its opposition to the UK government's policy of detention and deportation of Iranian asylum seekers.

Home Office statistics [1] reveal that Iranians currently represent the largest group of asylum seekers in the UK, with 820 of the 6,165 applicants in the last quarter of 2005 having fled Iran (up from 750 in the third quarter of 2005). Of a total 700 initial decisions made in relation to Iranians during this period, 595 people were refused asylum, and 'returns' to Iran in the last quarter of 2005 numbered 145 out of a total of 3,525.

Despairing Iranians who have had their asylum claims refused have, on many occasions, resorted to hunger strikes and even suicide due to a fear of being deported. Such action has been documented widely. (See, for example, IRR News stories Another asylum seeker takes own life, Inquest finds asylum refusal was motive for gay Iranian's suicide and Asylum seeker suicide: 'depressed and preoccupied')

Imprisonment, torture, execution
IFIR's secretary in the UK, Siamak Amjadi, told IRR News that 'many asylum seekers flee Iran because of the situation there, but the Home Office just does not believe them. They are in an uncertain situation, but they cannot and do not want to go back. By denying asylum seekers the right to a just process and sending them back, the Home Office is putting their lives in danger'.

In the campaign literature, Siamak Amjadi mentions the threat of imprisonment, torture and execution for people seen to be out of line with the ruling regime in Iran, such as political opponents, homosexuals and labour activists. A statement released on 24 January asserts that 'to flee such conditions is the basic right of people, and many have already done so and continue to do so' and that the UK government is 'in clear breach of its obligations under international conventions on the rights of persons fleeing persecution'.

Against detention and deportation
In reaction to the British government's policy of detaining and deporting thousands of Iranian asylum seekers 'back to their persecutors', IFIR's aims are threefold:

That no Iranian asylum seeker be deported to Iran, which is deemed unsafe;
That there be an immediate stop to all detentions of Iranian asylum seekers and that those currently detained whilst seeking asylum be freed;
That the British government change its policy towards asylum seekers and grant them refuge.
Read on:
www.irr.org.uk/2006/march/tc000023.html
www.irr.org.uk/2006/march/tc000022.html
www.irr.org.uk/2005/april/ha000014.html
www.irr.org.uk/2005/october/ha000040.html
www.irr.org.uk/2004/may/ha000013.html

Footnote: [1] Home Office Asylum Statistics: 4th Quarter 2005, United Kingdom. For further information phone Siamak Amjadi on: 07946 752 534 or 07931 866 985 or email: ifiruk@yahoo.com.
The Institute of Race Relations is precluded from expressing a corporate view: any opinions expressed are therefore those of the authors.

Agence France Presse - The Security Council is inching toward agreeing a revised Franco-British draft urging Iran to suspend uranium enrichment, diplomats said as China suggested that Tehran be given up to six weeks to do so.

The 15-member council met for over one hour Friday to review the revised text, which incorporated comments made by members after a series of informal sessions earlier this week. Members agreed to meet again Tuesday after getting reactions from their capitals.

"The response we got from our colleagues today suggests that we are pretty close to where they wanted us to be," Britain's UN envoy Emyr Jones Parry told reporters.

"Our wish remains that the council should act expeditiously on this text and send the clearest possible signal (to Tehran) ... to reinforce the activities of the (International Atomic Energy Agency) Agency," he added.

French Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere also said he was "encouraged by the reaction" to the revised text, which he noted was "getting a lot of support."

"We are not very far now from the end of the discussion," the French envoy said, adding that the co-sponsors were awaiting reactions from their capitals to the text. "I hope the reactions will be positive."

Elements of the revised draft released Friday said the UN nuclear watchdog would report "to the Security Council as well as to the IAEA board of governors, in (14) days on Iranian compliance with the requirements set out by the IAEA board".

These include suspending immediately all uranium enrichment activities and resuming implementation of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty's Additional Protocol that allows for wider inspections of a country's nuclear facilities.

But speaking before the meeting, Chinese ambassador Wang Guangya said the 14-day deadline was too short.

"We must leave sufficient time for diplomacy and for the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) to work ... at least four weeks to six weeks," he noted.

The US ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, responded: "I don't think there's really been much support to go beyond a month," adding, however, that there was some flexibility on the US side on this point.

"The main intent here is to get the Iranians to reconsider the mistake that they've made these last 18 years, trying to pursue nuclear weapons, so the sooner we get that message out and the sooner we hear their response I think the better," Bolton added.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in an interview with The Financial Times on Friday, also dismissed the 14-day period as "not very feasible".

Lavrov said he saw "a parallel" between the current Iranian crisis and the run-up to the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 when the Security Council intervened before UN inspectors had done their job.

"We would not like to see the situation where the value of the professional agencies would be underestimated ... at the expense of us getting to the bottom of the facts," Lavrov said.

Russia's UN envoy Andrei Denisov welcomed the Franco-British draft's reference to the need for IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei to send his report on Iranian compliance to both the Security Council and the IAEA board of governors.

"This is movement in the right direction but we think it is not enough," he said. "We still think the IAEA should play the leading role."

"It would be logical that ElBaradei report be reviewed by the (IAEA) board first and then sent to the Security Council," Denisov said, stressing that the IAEA was the proper place to assess technical aspects of the nuclear dossier.

Tehran rejects Western charges that it is trying to acquire nuclear weapons and insists it has a right as a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty to conduct uranium enrichment.

Meanwhile Wang said a meeting of senior foreign ministry officials of the Security Council's five permanent members and Germany in New York Monday aimed to "consider the next step of activities by the IAEA".

US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Nicholas Burns, and his counterparts from China, France, Russia and Britain, which are permanent members of the Security Council and have veto-wielding power, plus Germany, will attend the meeting, a State Department official said Thursday.

Germany is one of three European powers -- along with France and Britain -- which have pursued three years of inconclusive negotiations to persuade Tehran to renounce plans to seek nuclear weapons in exchange for economic incentives.

London (KurdishMedia.com) 18 March 2005: The PUK arrested the correspondent of the Kurdish weekly Hawlati in the Kurdish town of Koysanjaq on Friday.
According to Hawlati their correspondent, Hawez Hawezi, was arrested as a result of writing a report in Hawlati, which was critical of the Kurdistan’s administration. Hawezi was arrested on Friday by the PUK Asayish in Koysanjaq and transferred to the PUK Asayish [security Services] prison in Sulemani on the same day.
It was also revealed that Omar Fatah, the head of the PUK authorities, ordered the arrest of the Hawlati correspondent Hawzi.
Hawlati is one of the rear independent papers in Kurdistan.

Iran Focus– A prominent dissident journalist has been released from prison in Iran after serving a six-year term since 2000 for writing a book in which he exposed the role of a number of senior officials of the clerical regime in the murder of dissidents throughout the country.

Akbar Ganji’s release was confirmed by his lawyer. Ganji went on hunger strike for a brief period last year to gain an earlier release date.

The official state news agency quoted the Deputy Prosecutor General in Tehran as saying that Ganji’s sentence officially ends on March 30 and that he was being given prison leave because of the Persian New Year, which falls on March 21.

Top American and European officials and a number of international human rights organisations had called on Tehran to release him.

In a series of articles beginning in 1998, Ganji revealed that the macabre killing of a number of dissidents in Iran had been carried out by the country’s dreaded secret police, the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS).

Among the extrajudicial killings that Ganji revealed to have been carried out by MOIS agents was the murder of two Anglican bishops and a pastor in Iran in 1994 and 1995. The government initially blamed the opposition People’s Mojahedin (or Mojahedin-e Khalq, MeK) for the killings and set up a show trial of three alleged MeK members, but Ganji later revealed that the Christian priests were killed by MOIS agents in a bid to tarnish the image of the Islamic regime’s opponents.

Ganji also unveiled “insider information” showing that the secret police was behind the bombing of the most revered Shiite shrine in Iran in 1994, in another disinformation exercise designed to discredit the dissident MeK.

He was also convicted of harming “national security” for taking part in a conference in Berlin in April 2000 on the political situation in Iran.

Ganji was an officer in the Revolutionary Guards and later spent a brief spell in Turkey as Iran’s cultural attaché, before turning into an investigative journalist and dissident.

Washington Post
Editorial

IT'S EASY to see the potential advantage to Iran of opening negotiations with the United States on Iraq. The sudden announcement by Iran's national security chief Thursday that Tehran would accept an offer of dialogue made months ago by the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad came as members of the U.N. Security Council were meeting to discuss a council statement about the Iranian nuclear program.

That statement could be the first in an escalating series of steps to force Tehran to give up the enrichment of uranium and fully cooperate with international inspectors. Preventing such diplomatic action has been Iran's main aim since its illegal nuclear program was discovered in 2004; the failure to stop the issue from reaching the Security Council has prompted some visible handwringing and backbiting among the mullahs.

By drawing the Bush administration into talks about Iraq, the Iranians give themselves a shot at splintering or distracting the fragile coalition that may be forming in New York. Already Iranian officials are speaking openly about the possibility that any discussions would expand into the broader security dialogue that Tehran has long coveted with the United States. In Iraq -- where American soldiers are dying from Iranian-supplied roadside bombs and sectarian violence by Iranian-supported militias is steadily mounting -- the Islamic regime has a tacit and sinister offer to make: Back down in New York, and the carnage in Baghdad might just drop off. Even the appearance that the Bush administration might be considering such a trade-off would worsen the situation in Iraq and wreck a year of careful and mostly effective anti-proliferation diplomacy.

The right response to the Iranian initiative is to limit any discussions to short-term U.S. priorities in Iraq and to ensure that the exchange is as open as possible. In theory, the United States and Iran share an interest in preventing an all-out Iraqi civil war, and thus in the establishment of a government that could rein in both the Sunni insurgency and the Shiite militias. But Iran's other objectives in Iraq are mostly inimical: It has promoted the creation of a Shiite ministate in southern Iraq that would control the country's largest oil fields and be dominated by Iran's allies; it hopes that the Sunni insurgency will meanwhile bleed American troops and exhaust U.S. willpower.

The U.S. goal of a broad and cohesive Iraqi government that would fairly balance Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish interests and be defended by a national Iraqi army would, if achieved, check Iranian ambitions. If Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad can advance that cause through talks with Iran, good. But it will be worth bearing in mind that Tehran has agreed to sit down with him for entirely different reasons.

iranpressnews-According to received reports, Prisoner of Conscience, Mehran Kowsari who last year was imprisoned for being Bahaii, was released on Wednesday, March 15th at 17:30 p.m. Tehran time.

Also, Mr. Mohsen Dastkar and Ms. Elham Afroutan, two prisoners from the editorial staff of Tamaddon'eh Hormozgan publication whose cases were being handled by the regimes authorities are now having their cases investigated by the revolutionary court in Tehran for a final decision.

UNITED NATIONS – AP- U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said Thursday the U.N. Security Council appears determined to send a "strong and clear signal" to Tehran about its suspect nuclear program, after a meeting of the powerful U.N. body that he described as the best so far.

In an informal gathering of the 15 council members, diplomats agreed to hold the first formal Security Council consultations on Friday a sign that a split between Britain, France and the United States on the one hand, and China and Russia on the other, may have closed somewhat.

In addition, senior officials from six key countries involved in negotiations over Iran's nuclear program will convene Monday to try to hammer out a final deal and discuss what the council ought to do after it makes its first statement on Iran.

"I would describe today's meetings as the best we've had so far," Bolton said after the talks, the full council's second informal meeting on Iran. "The mood of the discussion is certainly in the direction of a strong and clear signal to Iran on the part of the Security Council."

Members of the council have grappled with the issue for a week, since the board of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, sent a report on Iran to the Security Council. The board said it lacked confidence in Tehran's nuclear intentions and accused Iran of violating the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

Britain, France and the United States want the Security Council to call on Iran to abandon uranium enrichment and comply with other demands by the IAEA to clear up suspicions about its program. They suspect Iran is trying to build a nuclear bomb.

Russia and China, which are allies of Iran, are not as skeptical of Tehran's intentions, and have said in the past that tough council action could spark an Iranian withdrawal from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and expulsion of inspectors from the IAEA. They also fear a chain reaction of council action that could lead to tougher measures later on, such as sanctions.

Uranium enrichment can be used either in electricity generation or to make nuclear weapons. Iran insists its program is to produce nuclear energy not weapons but the International Atomic Energy Agency has raised concerns that Tehran might be seeking nuclear arms.

Bolton and the ambassadors from France and Britain refused to discuss what progress had been made.

But diplomats said that Britain and France, who have taken the lead on crafting a council response, planned to draw up a text and present it to the rest of the council at Friday's closed-door discussion.

"We moved forward," France's U.N. Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere said.

China's U.N. Ambassador Wang Guangya was more equivocal in brief remarks to the press.

"I think the differences are still there," he said. "There are some common points but there are also some differences."

It's unlikely the council will come to a final decision before Monday, when senior officials from the council's five veto-wielding nations the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China and Germany will meet in New York.

That meeting would bring together the most senior foreign affairs officials from those nations since a London gathering on Jan. 30.

Bolton told reporters that the top diplomats would talk about what to do after the first council action. He described those talks as separate from the issue of the text discussed Thursday.

The diplomats will try to come up with a "clear strategy" on what happens next, Russia's Deputy U.N. Ambassador Konstantin Dolgov told The Associated Press. "We need to have an agreed way ahead within the IAEA, in the Security Council."

Iran Focus
Twenty-two Iranian government and provincial officials were killed in an ambush in the south-eastern province of Sistan-va-Baluchistan in the early hours of Friday morning, the government-owned news agency Fars reported.
The incident occurred at 1:20 am as a convoy packed with officials was returning from a gathering in Zabol to the city of Zahedan.
Unidentified gunmen opened fire on the convoy close to Shileh Bridge killing 22 and injuring seven officials, the report said.
Among those injured in the attack was believed to be the governor of Zahedan, Hossein-Ali Nouri. The report said that he was shot five times and is in critical condition. The head of security of the Zahedan governorate also died in the attack.
The report quoted an “informed source” in a hospital in Zabol as saying that 50 individuals were killed or injured in the attack.
Sistan-va-Baluchistan Province is home to Baluchis, a predominantly Sunni Muslim ethnic minority. Iran has witnessed escalating unrest in recent months in areas populated by Baluchis, who complain of discriminatory and repressive policies by the Shiite clerics who rule the country.

Lisa Söderlindh

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 16 (IPS) - The total number of arrests following a gathering of hundreds of women's rights defenders who had made their way from Tehran's Daneshjoo Park to Laleh Park on Mar. 8 remains uncertain, as is the fate of those arrested by security forces, which reportedly used harsh tactics to disperse the peaceful demonstration.

According to Human Rights Watch, police dumped cans of garbage on the heads of women who were seated before charging into the group and beating them with batons to compel them to leave the park.

Mehri Amiri of the Society for Defence of Women's Rights in Iran reported that three women from her organisation had been released over the weekend, but that four others remained in the Evin Prison in Tehran. She said that many more are likely still being held but that her group cannot get in contact with any of them since the phone lines are being controlled by the government.

On the eve of International Women's Day, the Women Rights Association of Iran had prepared a resolution calling for an end to gender discrimination and demanding the social and legal rights of all Iranian women.

Under current Sharia laws, women are barred from running for president, lack equal rights to divorce, and after divorce can have custody of their children only up until the age of seven years, and "blood money" for a murdered woman is half that for a man.

Many of the women who handed out some 2,000 copies of the resolution were arrested "and unfortunately I think their verdicts will be execution", said Zolal Habibi of the U.S.-based group Women's Freedom Forum at a panel discussion here to assess the role of women in combating Islamic fundamentalism.

"Despite knowing what would happen to them, women came to the streets in commemoration of International Women's Day," said Habibi.

"And tens of thousands of great women have sacrificed their life for the ideal of equality and humanity," she continued. "But history has failed to acknowledge them because of the male-dominated culture we live in."

Following Iran's Islamic Revolution in 1979, the monarchy was overthrown and an Islamic republic was created, in which religious clerics, headed by Ayatollah Seyyed Ruhollah Khomeini, wielded ultimate political control.

Under Iran's current President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who took office in August 2005, the pattern of abuses has not been alleviated, and "the human rights situation in Iran remains dire", notes Amnesty International in a February report on the country.

"For the last 27 years, Iran has been the only country that has had a fundamentalist regime in power, and which has actually turned its views and abuses into the laws of the country," said Habibi, pointing to harsh punishments such as stoning, a sentence that can be handed down for adultery.

"If you are able to escape from the hole when you are being stoned to death, you will be spared," Habibi said. "[But] while men are buried to their waist, women are buried to their neck."

Still, women have persisted in their fight for equality, Habibi said, recalling 13-year-old Fatemeh Mesbah, who was arrested when selling newspapers and executed the following day, in 1981; Mother Zakeri, executed at the age of 70 for supporting the Iranian Islamist opposition group, the People's Mujahedin of Iran; and Mujahedin leader Ashraf Rajavi, executed by the Iranian regime in 1982.

"Those are just some of the thousands of women who paid with their lives for their ideals," Habibi noted.

Since 1991, over 120,000 political opponents have been executed in Iran, according to the Iranian opposition group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). A report compiled by Iranian human rights activists in commemoration of International Women's Day says that four women were executed this year, all under the age of 30.

Another 1,372 women have been arrested since the start of 2006, the group says. And according to Human Rights Watch, security forces have repeatedly resorted to violence to suppress peaceful gatherings.

"The list of people who have sacrificed their lives goes on and on, crossing all ages," said Habibi, "but the good thing is that women have not sat down and taken this, they are still standing up strong against the injustices."

Despite frequent crackdowns on public dissent by government security forces, the Mar. 8 women's day rally drew twice as many participants as last year, according to the non-profit news service Iran Focus.

Habibi said the gathering sent a clear message that the Iranian people are fed up with the regime, "and this resistance, coming from all directions, serves as pressure which will eventually build up to a complete regime change".

"This growing force of women in the resistance inspires women in Iranian society on a large scale to aspire to democratic change and transform them into major force to liberate Iran," said Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the Paris-based NCRI, in a speech presented as a video installation at the U.N. panel.

"The Iranian Resistance has the necessary political and social capacity to realise democratic change in Iran," she went on. "But the spirit that transforms these underlying potentials into reality is women's leadership."

The way to defeat Islamic fundamentalism is to "eliminate the male-dominated culture as an inhumane culture, through women's leadership", Rajavi noted. Because "the establishment of democracy without the active role of women in society's leadership is impossible".

Let us not forget halabja 16/03/1988

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, on Wednesday compared the threat from Iran's nuclear programs to the September 11 terror attacks on the United States.

"Just like September 11, only with nuclear weapons this time, that's the threat. I think that is the threat," Bolton told ABC News' Nightline program.

"I think it's just facing reality. It's not a happy reality, but it's reality and if you don't deal with it, it will become even more unpleasant."

Bolton ratcheted up the rhetoric as the five veto-holding members of the U.N. Security Council failed again to reach agreement on how to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions after a fifth round of negotiations.

Russia and China are resisting proposals from Britain, France and the United States for a council statement that would express "serious concern" about Iran's nuclear program and asks it to comply with demands from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The statement does not threaten sanctions.

At the same time foreign ministry officials from the five powers and Germany are considering meeting in New York on Monday to review strategy, diplomats said. Russia had previously proposed such talks in Vienna, seat of the IAEA.

China's U.N. ambassador, Wang Guangya, said his country and Russia still had problems with a proposal that the IAEA be asked to report to the Security Council within 14 days on any progress Iran has made towards meeting the U.N. nuclear watchdog's demands.

Russia and China view the reporting requirement as shifting the focus of the Iran dossier from the IAEA to the Security Council, which has the power to impose sanctions. They would like any report on Iran's compliance to go directly to the 35-nation IAEA governing board.

"We are still discussing," Wang told Reuters after the hour-long session at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, adding that he did not consider the talks deadlocked.

The negotiations shift to the full Security Council on Thursday when all 15 of its members are to meet for a second time to discuss the draft drawn up by France and Britain.

STATEMENT OR RESOLUTION?

The draft statement also calls on Iran "to re-establish full and sustained suspension of all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities, including research and development" that the IAEA would verify.

It asks Iran to reconsider building a heavy-water nuclear reactor in Arak, which is more suitable for producing fuel for nuclear weapons than a light-water reactor.

A council statement needs to be approved by all 15 members, while a resolution requires nine votes in favour and no veto from any of the permanent members. If the impasse continues, the West could try to force Russia and China into the uncomfortable position of having to consider a resolution.

"Whether it is a statement or a resolution we haven't decided," Bolton said.

"We're trying to hold the permanent five together first but reality is reality and time is an important factor, given that the Iranians continue to progress towards overcoming their technological difficulties in enriching uranium."

The 10 nonpermanent members of the Security Council, which rotate for two-year terms, are: Argentina, Denmark, Greece, Japan, Tanzania, Congo Republic, Ghana, Peru, Qatar and Slovakia.

The Islamic regime officially fired and issued the termination of services to 46 of the employees of the greater Tehran bus drivers company who had taken part in the recent protests and demonstrations. Among the 46 several were also members of the board of directors of the bus drivers union who had been involved in organizing the demonstrations.

The New York Times
Michael Slackman

TEHRAN -- Just weeks ago, the Iranian government's combative approach toward building a nuclear program produced rare public displays of unity here. Now, while the top leaders remain resolute in their course, cracks are opening both inside and outside the circles of power over the issue.

Some people in powerful positions have begun to insist that the confrontational tactics of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have been backfiring, making it harder instead of easier for Iran to develop a nuclear program.

This week, the United Nations Security Council is meeting to take up the Iranian nuclear program. That referral and, perhaps more important, Iran's inability so far to win Russia's unequivocal support for its plans have empowered critics of Mr. Ahmadinejad, according to political analysts with close ties to the government.

One senior Iranian official, who asked to remain anonymous because of the delicate nature of the issue, said: "I tell you, if what they were doing was working, we would say, 'Good.' " But, he added: "For 27 years after the revolution, America wanted to get Iran to the Security Council and America failed. In less than six months, Ahmadinejad did that."

One month ago, the same official had said with a laugh that those who thought the hard-line approach was a bad choice were staying silent because it appeared to be succeeding.

As usual in Iran, there are mixed signals, and the government does not always speak with the same voice.

On Tuesday, both Mr. Ahmadinejad and the nation's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, insisted in public speeches that their country would never back down. At the same time, Iranian negotiators arrived in Moscow to resume talks — at Iran's request — just days after Iran had rejected a Russian proposal to resolve the standoff.

Average Iranians do not seem uniformly confident at the prospect of being hit with United Nations sanctions.

From the streets of Tehran to the ski slopes outside the city, some people have begun to joke about the catch phrase of the government — flippantly saying, "Nuclear energy is our irrefutable right."

Reformers, whose political clout as a movement vanished after the last election, have also begun to speak out. And people with close ties to the government said high-ranking clerics had begun to give criticism of Iran's position to Ayatollah Khamenei, which the political elite sees as a seismic jolt.

"There has been no sign that they will back down," said Ahmad Zeidabady, a political analyst and journalist. "At least Mr. Khamenei has said nothing that we can interpret that there will be change in the policies."

But, he said, "There is more criticism as it is becoming more clear that this policy is not working, especially by those who were in the previous negotiating team."

There are also signs that negotiators are starting to back away, however slightly, from a bare-knuckle strategy and that those who had initially opposed the president's style — but remained silent — are beginning to feel vindicated and are starting to speak up.

A former president, Mohammad Khatami, recently publicly criticized the aggressive approach and called a return to his government's strategy of confidence-building with the west.

"The previous team now feels they were vindicated," said Nasser Hadian, a political science professor at Tehran University who is close to many members of the government. "The new team feels they have to justify their actions."

Ayatollah Khamenei, who has the final say, issued a strong defense of Iran's position on Tuesday.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran considers retreat over the nuclear issue, which is the demand of the Iranian people, as breaking the country's independence that will impose huge costs on the Iranian nation," he said.

"Peaceful use of nuclear technology is a must and is necessary for scientific growth in all fields," Ayatollah Khamenei said. "Any kind of retreat will bring a series of pressures and retreats. So, this is an irreversible path and our foreign diplomacy should defend this right courageously."

In a speech in northern Iran, Mr. Ahmadinejad called on the people to "be angry" at the pressure being put on Iran.

"Listen well," the president said to a crowd chanting "die" as they punched the air with their fists. "A nuclear program is our irrefutable right."

When Mr. Ahmadinejad took office, he embraced a decision already made by the top leadership to move toward confrontation with the West about the nuclear program. From the sidelines, Mr. Ahmadinejad's opponents remained largely silent as his political capital grew.

Iran's ability to begin uranium enrichment, and to remove the seals in January at least three nuclear facilities without any immediate consequences, was initially seen as a validation of the get-tough approach.

But one political scientist who speaks regularly with members of the Foreign Ministry said that Iran had hinged much of its strategy on winning Russia's support. The political scientist asked not to be identified so as not to compromise his relationship with people in the government.

The political scientist said some negotiators believed that by being hostile to the West they would be able to entice Moscow into making Tehran its stronghold in the Middle East. "They thought the turn east was the way forward," the person said. "That was a belief and a vision."

The person added, "They thought, 99 percent, Russia would seize the opportunity and back the Iranian leaders."

The route forward remains unclear as Iran tries to regain a sense of momentum.

There is a consensus here that Iran has many cards to play — from its influence with the Shiites in Iraq to its closer ties to Hezbollah in Lebanon, to the prospect of using oil as a weapon. But the uncertainty of appearing before the Security Council, and the prospect of sanctions, has led some here to begin to rethink the wisdom of fighting the West head-on, analysts said.

Professor Hadian said he believed that for Iran to fundamentally change course the situation for Iran would have to first grow much worse.

"There are concerns to keep the situation calm," said Mr. Zeidabady, the journalist. "We have received orders not even to have headlines saying the case has been sent to the Security Council. Although the situation is very critical, they want to pretend that everything is normal. They do not want to show the country is coming under pressure and lose their supporters."

Nazila Fathi contributed reporting for this article.

The Times
James Bone

Britain unveiled a proposal at the United Nations last night to give Iran 14 days to suspend all work linked to uranium enrichment, but stopped short of specifying any punishment.

The joint British-French text was circulated to the full 15-nation Security Council, despite continuing resistance from two veto-bearing powers, Russia and China. The draft, obtained by The Times, expresses “serious concern” about Iran’s nuclear programme and asks Tehran to comply with requirements set out by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Specifically, it calls on Iran “to re-establish full and sustained suspension of all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities, including research and development”. It also asks it to “reconsider” the construction of its heavy-water nuclear reactor at Arak.

The most controversial paragraph requests the IAEA director-general to report back to the Security Council in 14 days on Iranian compliance — a provision some delegations view as an artificial deadline.

But Jean-Marc de La Sablière, the French Ambassador, said that the 14 days could be extended. If Iran does not comply within the deadline, British diplomats plan a mandatory resolution that could open the way for targeted sanctions.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The five veto-holding U.N. Security Council powers faced another struggle on Wednesday to come up with a text aimed at reining in Iran's nuclear ambitions without threatening sanctions or other punitive measures.

Russia and China are resisting a proposal from the United States, Britain and France for a council statement that would express "serious concern" about Iran's nuclear program and urge it to abide by resolutions from the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA.

France and Britain, in an informal meeting of all 15 council members on Tuesday, distributed "elements" for a statement that would call on Iran to suspend uranium enrichment efforts, which the West believes are a cover for bomb making.

The decision to involve the full council followed several days of inconclusive talks among the permanent five members. The permanent members meet for the fifth time on Wednesday.

The full council resumes discussions on Thursday and on Friday, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said.

One point of contention is a provision requesting Mohamed ElBaradei, the IAEA director general, to report back to the Security Council in a short period of time on Iranian compliance.

Britain had proposed a report in 14 days but that time frame was seen as a negotiating point and would probably be lengthened.

Russia and China, wary of involvement by the Security Council, which has the power to impose sanctions, wants ElBaradei's report to go to the 35-nation IAEA board.

China's U.N. ambassador, Wang Guangya, told reporters he preferred a simple statement that would leave sufficient room for diplomatic efforts. "We have some difficulty with the elements," Wang said.

FULL AND SUSTAINED SUSPENSION

The draft also calls on Iran "to re-establish full and sustained suspension of all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities, including research and development" that the IAEA would verify.

It asks Iran to reconsider building a heavy-water nuclear reactor in Arak, which is more prone to producing fuel for nuclear weapons than its light-water reactor equivalent.

Greece's U.N. ambassador, Adamantios Vassilakis, said he saw no problem with the proposals as they were similar to those adopted by the IAEA governing board.

"Most of the elements are from the text of the resolution adopted by the governing board, which we already voted for," Vassilakis said after Tuesday's discussions.

A council statement needs to be approved by all 15 members, while a resolution requires nine votes in favor and no veto from any of the permanent members. The West could try to force Russia and China into a veto if the impasse continue.

"Whether it is a statement or a resolution we haven't decided," Bolton said earlier.

"We're trying to hold the permanent five together first but reality is reality and time is an important factor, given that the Iranians continue to progress toward overcoming their technological difficulties in enriching uranium," he said.

In addition to the five permanent council members, the other 10 nations, which rotate for two-year terms, are: Argentina, Denmark, Greece, Japan, Tanzania, Congo Republic, Ghana, Peru, Qatar and the Slovak Republic.

Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Mar. 14 – Young people set fire to pictures of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and former leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in Tehran, according to dissidents in the Iranian capital who sent a photo of their activities to Iran Focus.

Protestors gathered and burned down posters of Iranian leaders hung on lampposts in Mirdamad Street in Tehran.

Despite a massive crackdown to prevent this year’s “fire festival” from turning into scenes of anti-governments protests, young people have taken to the streets across Iran to defy the government ban and celebrate the last Tuesday of the Persian year with a big bang.

During the festival, known as ‘chaharshanbeh souri’ – literally, Feast of Wednesday – people jump over bonfires to “drive away evil”. Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, however, Iran’s theocratic leaders have made strenuous efforts to stamp out the festivities, but to no avail. In recent years, there have been extensive clashes between festive crowds and the security forces deployed to prevent street celebrations. This year the event falls on March 14.

Iran’s main opposition group, the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MeK), has issued an appeal to people across the country to take part in the celebrations on the night and turn it into an anti-government protest.

Already steps have been taken to prevent widespread protests from flaring during the traditional Persian festival celebrated by Iranians for over 2,500 years.

Iran Focus
Tehran, Iran, Mar. 14 – Furious people set on fire posters of hard-line Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and former Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini during extensive demonstrations in the western city of Khorramabad as “fire” festivals across the country continued well into the night.

The following is a photo obtained by Iran Focus from activists inside Khorramabad.

During the traditional Persian fire festival, known as ‘chaharshanbeh souri’ – literally, Feast of Wednesday – people jump over bonfires to “drive away evil”. Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, however, Iran’s theocratic leaders have made strenuous efforts to stamp out the festivities, but to no avail. In recent years, there have been extensive clashes between festive crowds and the security forces deployed to prevent street celebrations.

KDPI
Clashes between protesters and security forces in Piranshahr leave casualties: Hundreds of protesters arrested, dozen injured

Several thousands of Kurdish population of the city of Piranshahr (Iranian Kurdistan) protested against the killing of Fayegh Rajabi a Kurdish toiler by security forces of Iran.

Thousands of Kurdish residents of the city of Piranshahr in West Azerbayjan province, Iranian Kurdistan, protested over the killing of a Kurdish toiler by security forces on Saturday, March 11, 2006.

Security forces opened fire to control the demonstration, which resulted in the injury of dozens of protesters. Reliable sources from the city stated that the conditions of some of those injured are critical, as they are in hiding fear of persecution by the security forces. Furthermore, over 200 people are arrested by the security forces. Angry protesters set fire to the authorities’ vehicles and stoned government buildings. The Gharz al Hasane bank of government was set on fire by the protesters.

Piranshahr has been under Marshal Law since Saturday.

Since July 2005, over 50 Kurds have been killed by the Special Forces of the Islamic Republic during numerous demonstrations in the Kurdish cities and towns. To date, approximately two thousand people have been arrested and over 500 people have been injured. In a single incident, the security forces killed at least 10 Kurdish demonstrators in the city of Maku on February 15th, 2006.

The ongoing human rights violation in Iranian Kurdistan is not isolated incidents. It is rather a result of persistence and systematic oppressive policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran against Kurdish people and the people of Iran in general.

PDKI urges the International community, in particular EU, United States and members of Security Council to take the human rights situation of the Kurdish people of Iranian Kurdistan very seriously. Condemning the human rights violation against Kurds by the Iranian regime is the minimum that the Kurdish people expect from the International community.

Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan
Public relations
Paris, March 12, 2006

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's president on Tuesday struck a defiant tone on the threat of political sanctions against Tehran, quipping that a lack of "wise politicians" in the West makes travel there unattractive.

Iran has been reported to the U.N. Security Council for failing to convince the international community that its atomic scientists are working exclusively on power stations rather than branching into nuclear warheads.

Diplomats have said Iran is more likely to face political sanctions, such as travel bans on politicians, rather than economic embargoes.

But President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a crowd in the northeastern city of Gorgan that he would welcome not having to travel abroad and meet Western leaders.

"They say 'We will not let Ahmadinejad travel to some Western countries if the Iranian people do not stop their path of seeking peaceful nuclear technology'," he said in a speech broadcast live on state television.

"But I tell them I do not even want to set eyes on their faces," he added.

"I used to believe there could be wise politicians in the West. But in the few months that I have been meeting them face-to-face, unfortunately I have seen the only things you would struggle to find in the West are wise politicians."

ChoSun

On the day I arrived in Irbil, Iraq from Kuwait wearing my bulletproof jacket, Korean troops dispatched there were carrying out a civil operations named “Green Angel” in an elementary school there.

Kites flew high in the sky and the town was crowded with people of all ages wearing traditional costume. War, in the end, is about the life of individuals. Watching a mother and her daughter bake wheat cakes in a yard, I asked myself why it is so difficult to live as peacefully as they seemed to.

It was a strange emotion watching people dance and sing there. My eyes misted over as Iraqi children sang Korean songs they had learned from soldiers in the Zaytun Unit - it was so reminiscent of my own childhood, when I danced hand in hand with soldiers celebrating the end of the Korean War. How could I explain to these Iraqi children how it came about that most of the Turkish troops who came to Korea during the war to help us were Kurds? There are 260 million Kurds scattered around the world, and 4.1 million live in Iraq. In Irbil, 98 percent of the population are Kurds.

The Korean troops in Irbil, among these people who have been for centuries dispersed around the world without a country to call their own, believe that reconstruction and rehabilitation of the city mean more than just reconstructing damaged buildings or repairing roads. They see it as their mission to comfort people who have been hurt badly by the events of history.
A beautiful ancient fortress stands in the middle of the city. The fortress, by the river Tigris, contains traces of the royal tombs of the Parthian and Medians mentioned in the Bible and has been designated a World Cultural Heritage Site by UNESCO. Looking around the maze of crumbling walls made from caked loam and sand, I thought how grand it still looked in its decay.

In a way, all of us still live in an ancient, crumbling fortress built on sand. When will we be able to forsake the violence of this world and live in a truly civilized society, where there are more musical instruments than deadly weapons?

The poet Mun Jeong-hui was in Irbil, northern Iraq from Feb. 27 until March 4, meeting Korean troops, reading from her poetry and talking to academics at Saladin University there.

Uneasy About Tehran's Nuclear Plans, Bush Administration Tries to Build Opposition to Theocracy

By Peter Baker and Glenn Kessler

The Washington Post - As the dispute over its nuclear program arrives at the U.N. Security Council today, Iran has vaulted to the front of the U.S. national security agenda amid Bush administration plans for a sustained campaign against the ayatollahs of Tehran.

President Bush and his team have been huddling in closed-door meetings on Iran, summoning scholars for advice, investing in opposition activities, creating an Iran office in Washington and opening listening posts abroad dedicated to the efforts against Tehran.

The internal administration debate that raged in the first term between those who advocated more engagement with Iran and those who preferred more confrontation appears in the second term to be largely settled in favor of the latter. Although administration officials do not use the term "regime change" in public, that in effect is the goal they outline as they aim to build resistance to the theocracy.

"We may face no greater challenge from a single country than from Iran," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in Senate testimony last week. "We do not have a problem with the Iranian people. We want the Iranian people to be free. Our problem is with the Iranian regime."

In private meetings, Bush and his advisers have been more explicit. Members of the Hoover Institution's board of overseers who met with Bush, Vice President Cheney and national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley two weeks ago emerged with the impression that the administration has shifted to a more robust policy aimed at the Iranian government.

"The message that we received is that they are in favor of separating the Iranian people from the regime," said Esmail Amid-Hozour, an Iranian American businessman who serves on the Hoover board.
"The upper hand is with those who are pushing regime change rather than those who are advocating more diplomacy," said Richard N. Haass, who as State Department policy planning director in Bush's first term was among those pushing for engagement.

But as the administration gears up, the struggle with Iran remains shadowed by Iraq. The botched intelligence on Saddam Hussein's weapons has left a credibility challenge in convincing the public and the world that the administration is right this time about Iran. After alienating European allies in the rush to war in Iraq, the administration is following a slower, multilateral approach. And with U.S. forces stretched, analysts wonder how feasible a military option would be if it came to that.

The focus on Iran inside the administration lately has been striking. Bush, according to aides, has been spending more time on the issue, and advisers have invited 30 to 40 specialists for consultations in recent months.

In the past week, the State Department created an Iran desk. Last year, only two people in the department worked full time on Iran; now there will be 10. The department is launching more training in the Farsi language and is planning an Iranian career track, which has been difficult without an embassy there.

Undersecretary of State R. Nicholas Burns said in an interview that the department will also add staff in Dubai, which is part of the United Arab Emirates, as well as at other embassies in the vicinity of Iran, all assigned to watch Tehran. He called the new Dubai outpost the "21st century equivalent" of the Riga station in Latvia that monitored the Soviet Union in the 1930s when the United States had no embassy in Moscow.

The administration also has launched a $75 million program to advance democracy in Iran by expanding broadcasting into the country, funding nongovernmental organizations and promoting cultural exchanges. Voice of America broadcasts one hour a day into Iran; by April, that will grow to four hours a day, and the administration plans to go to 24 hours a day. But the administration suffered a setback last week when lawmakers slashed $19 million, mainly from broadcast operations.

LONDON (Reuters) - The government will call on Monday for an expansion of global broadcasting in Iran and more material in Farsi published on the Internet in an effort to support Iranians' aspirations for greater freedom.

At a time when Iran is locked in a dispute with the international community over its nuclear programme, Foreign Minister Jack Straw will say in a speech, extracts of which were obtained by Reuters, that the Islamic state is heading in the wrong direction.

He will urge world organisations to boost the information flow to Iranians who may have little access to outside news.

"Iran is going in the wrong direction, chances are being squandered, Iran and the Iranian people deserve better," Straw will say in a major speech which could be interpreted by some as an attempt to interfere in Iran's domestic affairs.

"We in European countries need to communicate better with the Iranian people," he will say.

His speech, at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, will come a month after the United States outlined plans to expand television broadcasts to Iran and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asked Congress for $75 million (43 million pounds) to help open up its tightly controlled society.

While cautioning that Britain has no interest in taking part in internal debates, Straw will say Europe should not look the other way when Iran fails to embrace human rights.

"We should not stop standing up for principles for human rights and fundamental freedoms which we hold dear to ourselves and which so many Iranians aspire to," he will say.

HIGH TENSION

He will draw attention to cases where Iranian authorities have cracked down on the media and will call on European colleagues to talk more to Iranian journalists.

"I encourage international organisations and non-governmental organisations to make reports on Iranian affairs available in Farsi on the Internet."

"And we need to think about whether there is more we can do to ensure reliable and trusted news services are able to broadcast in Farsi to the Iranians."

Straw will avoid targeting the current Iranian government alone by saying that Iranians have struggled for a century to secure the freedoms many western countries enjoy.

Tensions between Iran and Britain are running high.

Britain, along with the United States and many other countries, suspects Iran wants to develop nuclear technology to build a bomb, a charge the Islamic state denies.

The issue is now with the United Nations Security Council which could eventually introduce sanctions against Iran.

Britain, along with most of the world, has voiced shock at President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's call for Israel to be "wiped off the map".

"Reaction and repression at home is matched by confrontation abroad," Straw will say, noting that Iran is alone in opposing a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Having the nuclear issue in the UN Security Council marks a new phase in diplomatic efforts, not an end of diplomacy, Straw will say, adding that the West does not want to stop Iran generating nuclear power.

It is up to Iran to build confidence by resuming a suspension of sensitive nuclear work and cooperating with the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, Straw will say.

BANDAR ABBAS, Iran, March 12, 2006 (AFP) - An appeals court in southern Iran on Sunday began hearing the case of a German and Frenchman sentenced to 18 months in jail for illegally entering Iranian waters in a fishing boat.

The new hearing in the town of Bandar Abbas comes after German Donald Klein and an unnamed Frenchman working as his skipper were arrested after straying while on a fishing trip from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in November.

Both men are being represented by Iranian lawyers.
A court in the same town sentenced the men to 18 months in prison on January 24 after the pair argued they entered Iranian waters by accident.

Several areas in the waters between Iran and the UAE are disputed, notably the island of Abu Mussa close to where the two were detained. The two men said they had mistakenly used Emirati maps that did not show the current maritime boundaries.

Their disappearance was first reported on November 29 by Klein's wife when he failed to return from a fishing trip. The German man had been on holiday in the UAE, which lies across the Gulf from Iran.

Banks, police cars, and government buildings were set on fire as violent clashes erupted on Saturday between security forces and angry residents in the north-western Iranian town of Piranshahr, according to eye-witnesses contacted by telephone.

Protests began after agents of the State Security Forces (SSF) shot and killed a young man in his car at a stop-and-search point.

At least five police vehicles were set on fire during the clashes between young protesters and security agents.

Reports from the Kurdish city of Mahabad in north-western Iran said that widespread clashes had broken out on Friday between residents and security forces after a detained man was shot at point blank by security agents.

Agence France Presse
An appeals court in southern Iran began hearing the case of a German and Frenchman sentenced to 18 months in jail for illegally entering Iranian waters in a fishing boat. The new hearing Sunday in the town of Bandar Abbas comes after German Donald Klein and an unnamed Frenchman working as his skipper were arrested after straying while on a fishing trip from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in November.

Both men are being represented by Iranian lawyers.

A court in the same town sentenced the men to 18 months in prison on January 24 after the pair argued they entered Iranian waters by accident.

Several areas in the waters between Iran and the UAE are disputed, notably the island of Abu Mussa close to where the two were detained. The two men said they had mistakenly used Emirati maps that did not show the current maritime boundaries.

Their disappearance was first reported on November 29 by Klein's wife when he failed to return from a fishing trip. The German man had been on holiday in the UAE, which lies across the [Persian] Gulf from Iran.

The Sunday Telegraph
By Philip Sherwell in Washington

Iran's leaders have built a secret underground emergency command centre in Teheran as they prepare for a confrontation with the West over their illicit nuclear programme, the Sunday Telegraph has been told.

The complex of rooms and offices beneath the Abbas Abad district in the north of the capital is designed to serve as a bolthole and headquarters for the country's rulers as military tensions mount.

The recently completed command centre is connected by tunnels to other government compounds near the Mossala prayer ground, one of the city's most important religious sites.

Offices of the state security forces, the energy department and the Organisation of Islamic Culture and Communications are all located in the same area.

The construction of the complex is part of the regime's plan to move more of its operations beneath ground. The Revolutionary Guard has overseen the development of subterranean chambers and tunnels - some more than half a mile long and an estimated 35ft high and wide - at sites across the country for research and development work on nuclear and rocket programmes.

The opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) learnt about the complex from its contacts within the regime. The same network revealed in 2002 that Iran had been operating a secret nuclear programme for 18 years.

The underground strategy is partly designed to hide activities from satellite view and international inspections but also reflects a growing belief in Teheran that its showdown with the international community could end in air strikes by America or Israel. "Iran's leaders are clearly preparing for a confrontation by going underground," said Alireza Jafarzadeh, the NCRI official who made the 2002 announcement.

America and Europe believe that Iran is secretly trying to acquire an atomic bomb, although the regime insists that its nuclear programme is for civilian energy purposes.

As the United Nations Security Council prepares to discuss Iran's nuclear operations this week, Teheran has been stepping up plans for confrontation. Its chief delegate on nuclear talks last week threatened that Iran would inflict "harm and pain" on America if censured by the Security Council.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the hardline president who has called for Israel to be "wiped off the map", also said that the West would "suffer" if it tried to thwart Iran's nuclear ambitions. As the war of words intensified, President George W Bush said that Teheran represents a "grave national security concern" for America.

In Iraq, which Mr Ahmadinejad hopes will develop into a fellow Shia Islamic state, Iran is already using its proxy militia to attack British and American forces, often with Iranian-made bombs and weapons. As tensions grow, Teheran could order Hizbollah - the Lebanese-based terror faction that it created and arms - to attack targets in Israel.

The regime is also reviewing its contingency plans to attack tankers and American naval forces in the Persian Gulf and to mine the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 15 million barrels of oil (about 20 per cent of world production) passes each day. Any action in the Gulf would send oil prices soaring - a weapon that Iran has often threatened to wield.

The Pentagon's strategic planning is focused on the danger that Iran might try to mine the strait and deploy explosive-packed suicide boats against its warships. In May, American vessels in the Gulf will take part in the Arabian Gauntlet training exercise that deals with clearing mines from the strait, which has a navigable channel just two miles wide.

The naval wing of the Revolutionary Guard has in recent years practised "swarming" raids, using its flotilla of small rapid-attack boats to simulate assaults on commercial vessels and United States warships, according to Ken Timmerman, an American expert on Iran.

The Pentagon is particularly sensitive to the dangers of such attacks after al-Qaeda hit the USS Cole off the Yemen with a suicide boat in 2000, killing 17 American sailors. Last month the White House listed two foiled al-Qaeda plots to attack ships in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.

US intelligence believes that if Iranian nuclear facilities were attacked by either America or Israel, then Teheran would respond by trying to close the Strait of Hormuz with naval forces, mines and anti-ship cruise missiles.

"When these systems become fully operational, they will significantly enhance Iran's defensive capabilities and ability to deny access to the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz," Michael Maples, the director of the Defence Intelligence Agency testified before the Senate armed services committee last month.

A senior American intelligence officer said that the US navy would be able to reopen the strait but that it would be militarily costly. Hamid Reza Zakeri, a former Iranian intelligence officer, recently told Mr Timmerman that the Iranian navy's Strategic Studies Centre has produced an updated battle plan for the strait.

Its most devastating options would be to use its long-range Shahab-3 missiles to attack Israeli or American bases in the region or to deploy suicide bombers in Western cities under its strategy of "asymmetric" response.

"The price to the West for standing up to Iran is clear," Gen Moshe Ya'alon, the former Israeli defence chief said last month in Washington. "It includes terror attacks, economic hardship… and consequences resulting from fluctuations in Iranian oil production. Indeed, the regime believes that the West - including Israel - is afraid to deal with it."

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran said on Sunday it was no longer considering a Russian compromise deal intended to defuse an international dispute over whether Tehran is seeking to build an atomic bomb.

Russia had proposed that it make nuclear fuel on Iran's behalf in order to ensure uranium was enriched only to the low level needed for power stations and not to the higher weapons-grade needed for warheads.

However, Iran was unwilling to surrender its right to enrich uranium on its own soil.

The failure of the Russian compromise helped send Iran's case to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said Tehran was not considering reprising the Russian plan.

"Now the situation has changed, the Russian proposal is not on the agenda," he told reporters at a conference on energy and security in Tehran.

EU diplomats had initially been concerned Russia would shy away from taking a firm line with Iran because of its energy interests in the Islamic Republic.

However, they said Russia's delegation at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, which reported Iran to the Security Council, showed little inclination to defend Tehran after the failure of the compromise deal.

"Unfortunately, what happened in Vienna proved the prediction that the meeting would be totally political," Asefi added.

Asefi reiterated that Iran had no immediate plans to pull out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) because of being reported to the world body in New York.

"Opting out of the NPT is not on the agenda," he said.

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki reiterated Iran's official position, voiced by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last month, that Iran could reconsider its stance if it felt it was being unfairly pressured.

But he too stressed this would be an extreme resort.

"We prefer to use existing mechanisms and to have our rights from our more than 30-year membership of the NPT," he said.

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Public Statement
AI Index: MDE 13/024/2006 (Public)
News Service No: 060
10 March 2006

Amnesty International condemns the violent action taken by Iranian police, Revolutionary Guards and others on 8 March to forcibly disperse about 1,000 women who had gathered peacefully in Tehran to commemorate International Women’s Day. Scores of women are reported to have been beaten by the police and those assisting them.

The women had gathered in Daneshjoo (Students) park, where they began a peaceful sit-in and displayed banners with slogans such as ‘discrimination against women is an abuse of human rights’, ‘women demand their human rights’, and ‘Iranian women demand peace’. Initially, there were about 100 police present but as the protest continued busloads more police and also members of the plain clothes Basij militia, and special anti-riot forces belonging to the Revolutionary Guards, arrived at the park. They filmed and photographed the women protestors and then ordered them to disperse, on the grounds that the gathering had not been officially authorized.

However, the protestors did not do so and at 4.20pm, after one of them read out a statement calling for greater rights for women, the security forces charged them and began assaulting them. Many were beaten with batons, some by teams of security men. For example, Simin Behbehani, an elderly feminist poet with poor sight, was beaten with a baton and kicked repeatedly by security forces. Journalists present at the protest who had filmed the event were reportedly arrested, only released from custody after their film and photographs were confiscated.

Amnesty International is calling on the Iranian government to undertake an immediate investigation into this excessive use of force by police and other security forces and to ensure that those responsible for the assaults and violence against demonstrators are brought to justice promptly and fairly. The organization is also calling on the Iranian authorities to respect the right to freedom of assembly and expression, in accordance with Iran’s obligations under international law.

The organization reminds the Iranian authorities of Article 12 of the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. This states that “Everyone has the right…to participate in peaceful activities against violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms.” The Declaration requires states to “take all necessary measures to ensure the protection…against any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a consequence of his or her legitimate exercise of the rights referred to in the present Declaration.”

Background information

As reflected in the recent report of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women Yakin Ertuk, women in Iran are discriminated against in law; by discriminatory provisions in the Civil and Penal Code; and by flaws in the administration of justice. Women are currently barred from running for Presidential office, they do not have equal rights to divorce, after divorce they can have custody of their children only up until the age of seven years, and blood money for a murdered woman is half that of a man. Under the previous parliament, women parliamentarians pushed for reform of discriminatory law, and introduced 33 bills, many of which were rejected by the Council of Guardians on the grounds that they were incompatible with Shari’a law, including a proposal to ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

Human rights defenders in Iran face severe limitations on their work. Iranian legislation severely restricts freedom of expression and association and human rights defenders often face reprisals for their work in the form of harassment, intimidation, attacks, detention, imprisonment and torture. Many are subject to travel bans that prevent them from leaving the country. The registration process for independent non-governmental organizations (NGOs), including human rights organizations such as the Centre for the Defence of Human Rights run by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Shirin Ebadi, is complex and registration is frequently denied, leaving NGOs at risk of enforced closure.

For further information please see Iran: New government fails to address dire human rights situation (AI Index MDE 13/010/2006, February 2006)
www.amnestyusa.org/news/document.do?id=ENGMDE130242006

Iran Focus– Iran’s State Security Forces have arrested ten people in Tehran for distribution of fireworks days before Iranians celebrate a traditional “fire” festival which dates back to 500 B.C. Persia. The festival is barely tolerated by the authorities in the Islamic Republic, who object to it on the grounds that it is “un-Islamic”.

Greater Tehran’s police chief, confirming the arrests, announced that people caught distributing fireworks and sonic-booms would be identified and dealt with severely, the hard-line daily Kayhan reported on Saturday.

Brigadier General Morteza Talai said that quantities of fireworks were discovered and confiscated.

During the festival, known as ‘chaharshanbeh souri’ – literally, Feast of Wednesday – people jump over bonfires to “drive away evil”. Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, however, Iran’s theocratic leaders have made strenuous efforts to stamp out the festivities, but to no avail. In recent years, there have been extensive clashes between festive crowds and the security forces deployed to prevent street celebrations. This year the event falls on March 14.

Meanwhile, Iran’s main opposition group, the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MeK), has issued an appeal to people across the country to take part in the celebrations on the night and turn it into an anti-government protest.

Last year, despite the general ban Iranians across the country came out into the streets using the celebration as a pretext to express their anger towards the ruling theocracy. In several districts of Tehran effigies of Iran’s leaders such as Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei were burnt.

Arutz Sheva
Ezra HaLevi

England's Foreign Minister Jack Straw says that the world should worry about disabling Israel's nuclear capabilities as much as it is concerned with preventing Iran from going nuclear.

Straw said Thursday that Britain is seeking a "nuclear-free Middle East." He said that Iran and Israel were the only two countries left that posed "potential threats" now that Iraq and Libya's nuclear aspirations have been neutralized.

The foreign minister, who has made headlines in the past criticizing the Jewish state, conceded that removing the Iranian threat was indeed more urgent than the Israeli one. "If you want to see a nuclear-free Middle East, you've got to remove that threat from Iran, including the rhetorical threat to wipe Israel off the face of the map," Straw told British Channel 4 television. "Once you've done that, then we can get on to work in respect of Israel."

Former Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon faced criticism from defense officials in Israel over the weekend after he spoke at the Washington D.C. Hudson Institute, saying the military option against Iran's nuclear project was viable. He responded to the criticism on Israeli television Friday. "I spoke about the West's military option," he said. "Whether it is U.S. forces, NATO or the Israeli army that deal with the Iranian capability - there is a military capability that would set back the program for many years.”

Meanwhile, Iran threatened Saturday to use its oil as a weapon if the UN Security Council imposes sanctions over its nuclear program. "If they politicize our nuclear case, we will use any means. We are rich in energy resources. We have control over the biggest and the most sensitive energy route of the world," Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi said, according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency.

Iran is the second largest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and has partial control over the narrow Strait of Hormuz, at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, through which crude oil is transported from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Iraq to the world market.

FOX News

WASHINGTON -- Playing down predictions that Iraq is headed toward civil war, President Bush said Saturday that he's optimistic a new government will unify the nation. He denounced any moves by Iran or Syria to interfere in Iraq's effort to build a democracy.

"I'm optimistic that the leadership recognizes that sectarian violence will undermine the capacity for them to self-govern," Bush said. "I believe we'll have a unity government in place that will help move the process forward."

The president's hopeful words came a day after Iraqi President Jalal Talabani called the new parliament into session March 19 for the first time since it was elected nearly three months ago. Talabani said he feared "catastrophe" and "civil war" if politicians could not put aside their differences.

Also on Friday, the State Department announced the discovery of the body of Tom Fox, 54, of Clear Brook, Va., one of four Christian Peacemakers activists kidnapped last year in Iraq.

"I fully recognize that the nature of the enemy is such that they want to convince the world that we cannot succeed in Iraq," Bush said Saturday about the continuing violence in Iraq. "I know we're going to succeed if we don't lose our will."

(Story continues below)

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The president also said that while Iraq's security forces need more training, they performed well after the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite mosque, which led to the deaths of hundreds and pushed the country to the brink of civil war.

"There are some people trying to, obviously, foment sectarian violence — some have called it civil war — but it didn't work," Bush said. "Secondly, I'm optimistic that the Iraqi security forces performed — in most cases — really well to provide security. All but two provinces after the blowing up of the mosque were settled."

Bush spoke in the Roosevelt Room at the White House after receiving a briefing about the remote-controlled, homemade bombs that Iraqi insurgents conceal in cars or set off along roads. The devices are the leading killer of U.S. troops in Iraq.

Joining the president were Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Montgomery Meigs, a retired Army general who is leading the effort to find ways to counter the devices.

The United States alleges that the Syrians are aiding the insurgency by allowing foreign fighters to cross their border into western Iraq. Washington also claims the Iranians are encouraging radicalism among Iraq's Shiites and permitting bomb-making materials to cross its border

"If the Iranians are trying to influence the outcome of the political process, or the outcome of the security situation there, we're letting them know our displeasure," Bush said. "Our call is for those in the neighborhood to allow Iraq to develop a democracy, and that includes our call to Iran as well as to Syria."

By: Human Rights Watch
Published: Mar 10, 2006 at 07:20

Iranian police and plainclothes agents yesterday charged a peaceful assembly of women's rights activists in Tehran and beat hundreds of women and men who had gathered to commemorate International Women's Day, Human Rights Watch said today.

The attack took place shortly after participants in the celebration assembled at Tehran's Daneshjoo Park at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, March 8.

"The Iranian authorities marked International Women's Day by attacking hundreds of people who had peacefully assembled to honor women's rights," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "Once again, Iran's government has signaled that it is ready to use violence to suppress peaceful public assembly of any sort."

Eyewitnesses told Human Rights Watch that plainclothes agents, anti-riot police and Revolutionary Guards surrounded the park where hundreds of activists gathered to mark International Women's Day.

"This was a completely peaceful gathering with no political overtones or slogans," one participant told Human Rights Watch. "We just held up signs in solidarity with the international women's rights movement."

Within minutes, after agents photographed and videotaped the gathering, the police told the crowd to disperse. In response, the participants staged a sit-in and started to sing the anthem of the women's rights movement, one participant told Human Rights Watch.

The security forces then dumped cans of garbage on the heads of women who were seated before charging into the group and beating them with batons to compel them to leave the park.

"As we started to run away and seek shelter, they followed us and continued to beat us. I was beaten several times on my arm, below the waist, and on my wrist," an activist said.

The commander of security forces at the scene, Ghodratollah Mahmoudi, told the Iranian Labor News Agency that "this gathering was held without an official permit. The response by the security forces prevented the gathering to take on a political dimension."

Among those present at the gathering was Simin Behbahani, a renowned Iranian poet. According to an eyewitness, "Behbahani was beaten with a baton, and when people protested that she is in her 70s and she can barely see, the security officer kicked her several times and continued to hit her with his baton."

The security forces also took several foreign journalists into custody and confiscated their photographic equipment and video footage before releasing them.

On the previous day, March 7, the Iranian interior ministry summoned several women's rights activists and warned them to cancel the gathering. The activists responded that the event is an annual celebration by many women's rights groups and that they were not organizing the event.

The attack on women's rights activists highlights the Iranian government's consistent policy of suppressing freedom of association and assembly, Human Rights Watch said.

Since Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took office in August, security forces have repeatedly resorted to violence to suppress peaceful gatherings. In January, security forces in Tehran attacked and arrested hundreds of striking bus drivers who were protesting working conditions.

In February, security forces in the city of Qom used excessive force and tear gas to detain hundreds of Sufi followers who had gathered in front of their house of worship to prevent its destruction by the authorities.

The newly formed UK Kurdish Studies and Students Organisation invites you to share in celebrating its foundation with a:

NEWROZ CELEBRATION
(Kurdish new year)

Thursday 23rd March, 2006
6pm onwards
At: Institute Of Education Student Union Bar
Thornhaugh Street
London, WC1 0XG
(Nearest tube: Russell Square)
I.O.E Union bar is Opposite SOAS university main door

We are proud of our accomplishments so far and delighted with the positive response from across the UK.
Please join us for this special event as we introduce our organisation to the London student community.

Live music

Kurdish food

Learn about this traditional Mesopotamian festival and share the joy of the Kurdish new year

FREE ENTRY – ALL WELCOME

UKKSSO was established late last year in response to a growing desire among young Kurdish people for a forum where culture, heritage, education and research could be explored. By organising political and cultural activities with an educational focus, it aims to cooperate with other organisations, and those in and outside the Kurdish community to encourage dialogue. It works with university communities throughout the UK, focussing on social, political, and cultural issues facing Kurdish populations can be addressed through research, education, social interaction and awareness raising.

For more information on this event or other UKKSSO activities please contact:
Tel: 07958647705 Fax: 0208 7487917
Email : sk43@kent.ac.uk
www.ksso.org.uk

Released by U.S. State Department, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor

On March 8, 2006, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice delivered opening remarks on the release of the State Department's 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. Under Secretary Paula Dobriansky and Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Barry F. Lowenkron also gave remarks at the special press briefing and answered questions.

The report entitled "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices" is submitted to the Congress by the Department of State in compliance with sections 116(d) and 502B(b) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (FAA), as amended, and section 504 of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended. The law provides that the Secretary of State shall transmit to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate, by February 25 "a full and complete report regarding the status of internationally recognized human rights, within the meaning of subsection (A) in countries that receive assistance under this part, and B in all other foreign countries which are members of the United Nations and which are not otherwise the subject of a human rights report under this Act." We have also included reports on several countries that do not fall into the categories established by these statutes and that thus are not covered by the congressional requirement.

In April two Kurdish journalists, Ejlal Qavami and Said Saedi, had a hearing in the revolutionary court on charges including undermining national security by calling for an election boycott, insulting the leadership, and portraying the system as ineffective. Between July 28 and August 2, authorities detained both again, along with two Kurdish human rights activists, Roya Tolui and Madeh Ahmadi. In October the public prosecutor in Sanandaj accused Qavami, Saedi, and Tolui of acting against national security and referred their cases to the revolutionary court. At year's end Ahmadi, Tolui, and Qavami were released on bail; Saedi's situation was unknown.
Read on http://payvand.com/news/06/mar/1077.html
OR www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/index.htm

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia, one of the countries which ignored the United Nations to join the U.S.-led war in Iraq, said on Friday the Iran nuclear standoff would be an important test for the world body to show what it could do.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who alongside U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair committed forces to the Iraq war, said he supported the U.N. Security Council decision to intervene on Iran.

"This will be an interesting test for the United Nations," Howard told Australian radio.

"People who were critical of George Bush, myself and Tony Blair and others over Iraq because we didn't endlessly keep going back to the United Nations in 2003 now have an opportunity to see how effectively the United Nations will work," he said.

The U.N. Security Council is to take up the issue of Iran's nuclear research, which the West suspects is designed to give the country atomic bomb technology. Iran says its nuclear programme is for civilian use only.

The United States says Iran is now its number one challenge, but says it has no plans to go to war in Iran.

Opponents of the Iraq war said the United Nations should have been given more time to solve the crisis over Iraq's suspected weapons of mass destruction before the U.S.-led military campaign to oust former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

No weapons of mass destruction have ever been found.

Howard said the Iran nuclear standoff was a "huge worry", and he fully supported the matter going to the U.N Security Council. Australia is a founding member of the United Nations but is not a member of the Security Council.

"I'm in favour of this matter going to the United Nations, I'm in favour of the United Nations exercising all the influence it can to bring about a change in Iran, and let's hope that it works," he said.

PARIS (Reuters) - France is looking for a political solution to the dispute over Iran's nuclear ambitions rather than seeking to punish Tehran, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said on French radio on Friday.

"Our goal is political, not at all punitive," he told RTL radio when asked whether France backed U.S. demands that the U.N. Security Council consider sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme.

Referring to a recent meeting with Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, Douste-Blazy said "we made proposals, the hand (of compromise) is extended, negotiations are possible."

On Wednesday, Douste-Blazy criticised Iran for spurning chances to find a solution to the crisis and said France would assume its responsibilities as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council.

Most diplomats expect the 15-national Security Council, which can impose sanctions, to issue a statement first urging Iran to comply with resolutions by the International Atomic Energy Agency's board (IAEA) that it halt all uranium enrichment activities.

Iran, which concealed its nuclear activities from the IAEA for 18 years, denies it is seeking to build a nuclear bomb and says it is being singled out unfairly over its nuclear activities compared to India, Pakistan and Israel.

Tehran says it wants civilian nuclear power to meet the needs of its booming economy.

Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Mar. 09 – Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared on Thursday that the Islamic Republic would push ahead with its nuclear program like “steel” despite having been referred to the United Nations Security Council, state media reported.

Khamenei was addressing members of the Assembly of Experts, an exclusively clerical body that designates the country’s all-powerful Supreme Leader.

“Presently, the people and the officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran will strive with more strength than ever before like steel in the face of pressures and plots and, while putting their faith in God, using their brains and wisdom, and keeping unity, they will continue to move in the direction of advanced technologies including nuclear energy”.

“America knows very well that because of the strategic depth of the spiritual leadership of Imam [Ruhollah] Khomeini and the appeal of the Islamic Republic in the Islamic world, today when there are elections in any Islamic country, just like in Iraq and Egypt, the vote of the people will be in favour of Islamic groups. It is this reality that has made the existence of the Islamic regime unbearable for them”.

He said that Washington had waged a “psychological war” against Tehran, adding that the Islamic Republic could not retreat it its nuclear drive or else it would fall in a cycle where “further new demands” would be made by the United States.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The dispute over Iran's nuclear program moved to the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday where the five permanent members met for the first time in search of a plan for Iran to shelve its nuclear ambitions.

Most diplomats agree the 15-nation council would issue a statement urging Iran to comply with resolutions taken by the 35-member board of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

But the statement's contents are still in dispute and the five nations with veto power -- the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France -- intend to meet again on Friday before the issue is referred to the full council next week.

In Vienna, the IAEA board ended a meeting on Iran's nuclear program that opened the way for Security Council action. IAEA director Mohamed ElBaradei then sent a Feb. 27 report on Iran to council members.

But Russia seemed to rule out tough council measures. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said sanctions against Iran would be ineffective and military action was not a solution.

"I don't think sanctions as a means to solve a crisis have ever achieved a goal in the recent history," Lavrov told reporters after meeting U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Russia is generally opposed to using Security Council mandates to punish Iraq. "We should all strive for a solution which would not endanger the ability of the IAEA to continue its work in Iran, while of course making sure that there is no danger for the nonproliferation regime," Lavrov said.

In Beijing, China's Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing called for more negotiations, saying, "There is still room for cooperation" and "we support the European Union and Russian engagement with Iran." China is known to oppose sanctions.

Germany, Britain and France, the European negotiators with Iran, agree that diplomacy is not finished. But in a statement in Vienna they made clear that Iran's lack of cooperation with the IAEA "has made Security Council action inevitable."

BRITISH PROPOSALS

Britain suggested the council should ask for a report from the IAEA within 14 days on whether Iran had made any progress in complying with its requests, diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

IAEA demands include that Iran suspend all uranium enrichment-related activities, which Western nations fear is a cover for bomb-making.

But Russia's U.N. Ambassador Andrei Denisov said 14 days was too short and warned that the controversy should not "spin out of control of the IAEA."

In New York, Britain's U.N. Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry would not give any details and said his country and France wanted "an incremental approach."

France's U.N. Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere said the council would follow a "gradual approach" that would be "reversible if Iran goes back to suspension."

U.S. Ambassador John Bolton, who chaired the meeting, told reporters, "We talked about the role and reaction of the Security Council to the continued Iranian violation of the (nuclear) Nonproliferation Treaty."

"It has been a core element of our position since I have been working on this that Iran has to cease enrichment activities. And I think what comes next is the word 'period,'" Bolton said.

In Washington, Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns told a congressional committee that the United States wanted a binding Security Council condemning Iran as well as sanctions if Tehran did not comply.

He also indicated that if action failed in the Security Council the United States would look elsewhere.

"It's going to be incumbent upon our allies around the world, and interested countries, to show that they are willing to act, should the words and resolutions of the United Nations not suffice," Burns said.

Iran's reaction in Vienna was fierce. It blamed the United States for its insistence on Security Council action.

"The United States may have the power to cause harm and pain," Javad Vaeedi, a senior Iranian nuclear negotiator, told reporters. "But it is also susceptible to harm and pain.

"So if the United States wants to pursue that path, let the ball roll," he said.

Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Mar. 08 – A young man was hanged in public in the western city of Qazvin, a state-run daily reported on Wednesday.

The daily Iran, which also carried a photograph of the man moments prior to the execution, only identified him as 28-year-old Habib.

The execution took place in public in a town square Tuesday morning in the presence of the judge who had issued the execution sentence.

Habib was accused or armed robbery.

International Woman's day
Sanandaj City march 8
Iranian Kurdistan

The Washington Times
By Xin Li

Despite Interna tional Women's Day celebrations today, women in Iran still struggle for basic rights. The country's conservative authorities forbid women from simple activities such as watching the World Cup qualifying soccer game live in a stadium.

More prominent are restrictions on their legal and civil rights.

Women in Iran can inherit only half as much of their parents' wealth as their brothers.

Their husbands can marry more than one woman, and automatically get custody of children after a divorce. Women can be jailed or hanged for defying the dress code, and they can be stoned to death for adultery.

Since the 1979 overthrow of the Shah, the fundamentalist governments dominated by clerics have stressed the traditional role of women and restricted their civil rights and participation in political activities.

"The changes of women's conditions are very minor, only about surface things. But the limitations on basic rights and the legislation infrastructure haven't been changed at all," said Mahnaz Afkhami, president of Women's Learning Partnership for Rights, Development and Peace, a nongovernmental organization based in Washington.

Iranian women are better-educated and more politically sophisticated than many of their Muslim neighbors. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization reports that the literacy rate of Iranian women is 70 percent, compared with an average 46.2 percent in the Middle East.

A large number of Iranian women hold professional jobs in journalism, medicine or law, or become human-rights activists. Up to 70 percent of university students in Iran are female, said Swanee Hunt, director of the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.

Squelched opportunities

Women's active engagement in society, however, has been met with increasing oppression from the regime.

In June, Iran's Guardian Council, a conservative constitutional watchdog, barred all 81 female presidential candidates on the basis of their sex. Women are beaten or jailed for wearing clothes or makeup regarded as insufficiently modest, the State Department said in a 2004 human-rights report.

Islamic countries have various interpretations of religious law, resulting in different levels of sex disparities, but the authority of Islamic law cannot be changed easily. Eleven countries have Islam as a source of legislation, and 21 others have religious clauses in their laws, said Mohamed Mattar, a law professor at Johns Hopkins University.

Much has changed within the Islamic framework, Mr. Mattar said. "There might be some gender inequalities by international-rights standard, but it's up to interpretation. You can interpret it in a way to protect women's rights."

The marriageable age for Iranian women can be a barometer of progress toward equal rights.

The pro-Western Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran, instituted the Family Protection Law in 1967 that raised the marriageable age of women to 18.

Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini overthrew the Shah in 1979, ending more than 2,500 years of Persian monarchy. He canceled the law, announced that women no longer could be judges, and segregated beaches and sports by sex. The marriageable age was reduced to 9.

In 1997, massive support from women made Mohammed Khatami, a moderate clergyman and reformist, president, said Azar Nafisi, a writer and literary scholar at Johns Hopkins University.

Reforms that were carried out included raising the marriageable age of girls to 13 and referring divorces to the court system. But Mr. Khatami was unable to challenge the religious power, and his reforms fell short of the expectations of many Iranians and encountered a setback with the presidential election victory of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last year.

Politically active

Mr. Ahmadinejad proposed to separate the sexes in universities and public places, the local press reported. In January, the government shut down a newspaper that ran a picture of women dressed in insufficiently Islamic garments and closed a women's publication.

"The change of regimes, from Khomeini to Khatami or Ahmadinejad, brought differences only on social and cultural ramifications. The infrastructural legislation hasn't changed at all," Mrs. Afkhami said.

Sex segregation, however, is partly responsible for the high education rate of women in Iran. Mrs. Afkhami said the need to have professional women in all segregated fields increased female university enrollments.

Iranian women gained constitutional recognition of equal rights in 1906, and the right to vote in 1962. Since then, the massive movements made them "active, articulate and very capable" of political involvement, Mrs. Afkhami said. "Their consciousness and eagerness for equal rights can hardly be pushed back."

The reversal of basic rights in 1979 increased the political activity of Iranian women.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi lost her job as Iran's first female judge after the revolution, because conservative clerics insisted that Islam forbids the judgments of women. She turned to the practice of law, defending liberal and dissident causes in the courts.

The political scene, however, remains dominated by men. Only 0.1 percent of ministry-level jobs and 4.1 percent of parliament seats are held by women, the U.N. Development Program reported.

"Women are most negatively affected by the fundamentalist regime, and they are most eager for social and cultural changes," Mrs. Afkhami said. "They are the most important population to bring changes to Iran and to increase democracy in the country."

Demand for U.S. efforts

Although the U.S. State Department has sponsored programs on women's civil and political rights in neighboring Iraq and Afghanistan, similar efforts are absent in Iran.

Sanctions prevented U.S.-based nongovernmental organizations from engaging with Iran's civil groups. Agencies such as the International Republican Institute and the National Democracy Institute, which specialize in promoting democracy in foreign countries, do not operate in Iran.

Meanwhile, the Iranian government's hostility toward nongovernmental organizations, though briefly interrupted by Mr. Khatami's efforts to liberalize society, has largely barred international activities in Iran.

"The U.S. should give voice to what's happening in Iran and cultivate more people-to-people exchange," Mrs. Nafisi said. "When people take part, the change is much more powerful than working from outside."

Mrs. Nafisi said the international community should promote in Iran the same nonviolent democratic changes that succeeded in South Africa and Eastern Europe.

During the nuclear stalemate, the United States is focusing on civilians in Iran. At a congressional hearing in February, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pledged $75 million to empower Iranian civil movements. Without spelling out who would receive the money, Miss Rice said it would be allocated to opposition parties, free press, the Internet and international exchange.

"A portion of this funding should be directed toward efforts to break down barriers to women's participation," Ms. Hunt said.

"If the United States is serious about promoting democracy in the Middle East, it must put women's rights at the center of any dialogue," she added.

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called on the U.N. nuclear agency to compensate Iran for suspending its nuclear activities since 2003, state television reported Tuesday.

Ahmadinejad made the call shortly before the International Atomic Energy Agency began a second day of talks in Vienna that will include Iran's nuclear program.

``The IAEA now has to compensate Iran for causing damage to the development of its science, technology and economy'' due to the suspension of nuclear activities, the television quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.

Under heavy pressure from the West, Iran suspended its enrichment of uranium and related activities in 2003 and began negotiating with the three big European powers to reach an agreed framework for its nuclear development.

But the talks foundered last yea