URGENT ACTION

Iran: Arbitrary arrest/prisoner of conscience/ fear of torture and ill-treatment: Sayed Ali Akbar Mousavi-Kho'ini (m)
PUBLIC AI Index: MDE 13/075/2006
30 June 2006

UA 181/06 Arbitrary arrest/prisoner of conscience/ fear of torture and
ill-treatment

IRAN Sayed Ali Akbar Mousavi-Kho’ini (m), Human rights defender

Sayed Ali Akbar Mousavi-Kho’ini was reportedly arrested during a peaceful
demonstration in the capital, Tehran, which called for legal reforms to end
discrimination against women in Iran. At least 69 other people were arrested,
but all except Ali Akbar Mousavi-Kho’ini have since been released. Amnesty
International believes him to be a prisoner of conscience, held solely on
account of the peaceful exercise of his internationally recognized right to
freedom of expression and association, and he is at risk of torture or
ill-treatment.

Ali Akbar Mousavi-Kho’ini, a former student leader and former member of the
Islamic Consultative Assembly, the Majles (Iran’s parliament), is also the Head
of the Alumni Association of Iran (Sazman-e Danesh Amukhtegan-e Iran-e Eslami
[Advar-e Tahkim-e Vahdat]), which he helped found in 2000. This organization,
whose membership is open to graduates of Iranian universities, has been active
in promoting democracy and human rights in Iran. During his term in parliament
he was an active advocate of human rights, and highlighted the cases of
imprisoned students and political prisoners, including by inspecting prisons
and illegal detention centres.

Ali Akbar Mousavi-Kho’ini is reportedly held in section 209 of Tehran's Evin
Prison, run by the Ministry of Intelligence. Security officials were alleged to
have beaten him when he was arrested, and further reports have suggested that
he has been beaten while held in detention.

Fourteen days after his arrest he was reportedly allowed visits from his family
and one of his lawyers. The lawyer reportedly said that the charges against his
client included making a statement to the Mehr news agency based in Tehran, the
details of which were not specified. Other reports have suggested that he is
accused of "spreading lies". According to reports, prior to his participation
in the women’s rights demonstration, security officers had contacted Ali Akbar
Mousavi-Kho’ini by telephone and warned him against supporting and
participating in the protest.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
On 12 June 2006 the Iranian security forces forcibly broke up a peaceful
demonstration by women and men advocating an end to legal discrimination
against women in Iran. The demonstrators had gathered in the "Seventh of Tir"
Square in Tehran to call, among other things, for changes in the law to give a
woman's testimony in court equal value to that of a man; and for married women
to be allowed to choose their employment and to travel freely without obtaining
the prior permission of their husband.

Police officers, including a large unit of policewomen, reportedly moved in as
soon as the demonstration began and forced the protesters to disperse,
including by beating some with batons. Scores of protesters were detained; on
13 June 2006, Minister of Justice and Spokesman for the Judiciary Jamal
Karimi-Rad stated that 42 women and 28 men had been arrested for participating
in what he alleged was an illegal demonstration. When questioned about the
reports of beatings by police, he said, "If there was any beating, it will be
reviewed".

http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE130752006

ISTANBUL, June 30 (KUNA) -- Two Turkish soldiers were killed and five injured in a landmine explosion in southeast of Turkey, in an attack attributed to the Kurdish rebels, Ihlas news agency reported Friday.

Ihlas quoted security sources as saying an army patrol stepped on the landmine in the Bungol province.

A group of Kurdish rebels attacked last night a security forces center in Bungol and exchanged fire with the government troops.

The Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) began an armed campaign against the Ankara government in 1984 to establish a separate state in the southeast of Turkey. Hostilities between both sides claimed lives of over 37,000 people.

Ministers warned of terrorism threat from Iran

Press Association, London - The intelligence agencies have warned ministers that Iran could launch terrorist attacks against British targets if the row over its controversial nuclear programme escalates, it was disclosed today.

The parliamentary intelligence and security committee - which oversees the work of the agencies - said the possibility of Iranian state-sponsored terrorism was now considered one of the main threats facing the UK.

"There is increasing international tension over Iran's nuclear programme and backing of groups such as Lebanese Hezbollah," the committee said in its annual report.

"There is a possibility of an increased threat to UK interests from Iranian state-sponsored terrorism should the diplomatic situation deteriorate."

Ministers have previously claimed that sophisticated roadside bombs used in a series of deadly attacks on British troops in Iraq have been supplied through Iran, although they have not blamed the regime directly.

The committee - which is made up of senior MPs and peers - took evidence from the heads of MI6, MI5, GCHQ and the defence intelligence staff in drawing up its report.

It said that Britain continued to face a "serious and sustained threat" from international terrorism - most significantly from al Qaida and associated networks.

Other security threats included the activities of dissident groups in Northern Ireland - which continued to pose a threat in the province and on the British mainland - and the international spread of weapons of mass destruction.

Asked about the perceived threat from Iran, Tony Blair's official spokesman said: "I don't want to give a piecemeal response to the ISC report. I think it's better we respond in terms of the government as a whole."

He said the cabinet this morning, at its regular weekly meeting, "reviewed the whole counter-terrorism strategy and approach but, in terms of the particular aspects of the ISC report, I think it's better we give our collective response".

That would probably be in about six months' time, added the spokesman.

He went on: "The terrorism threat remains very active and very real. Our commitment is that, if there is a specific threat the public need to know about, then we will tell them."

The report also revealed that MI5, the security service, was expanding so rapidly in order to meet the threat of terrorism in the UK that it had outgrown its London headquarters building.

Thames House at Westminster is expected to have exhausted its capacity by October. The committee said another building had been found to provide additional accommodation - but its identity was censored out on security grounds.

MI5 staff numbers are now expected to grow by over 50% over the next three years, with over half its resources now devoted to counter-terrorism.

The committee welcomed the expansion but warned that the risks involved in taking on large numbers of inexperienced staff would have to be carefully managed.

"This growth carries a series of risks that the service will need to manage over the next few years, including the need to maintain standards in operational capability and service to customers in spite of the increased proportion of new and inexperienced staff," it said.

It said that the expansion had been accompanied by an acceleration of MI5's regionalisation programme in the wake of the July 7 bombings, with the opening of a number of regional stations around the country.

The committee said that with the overall budget for the intelligence agencies due to rise to more than £1.5bn, it was essential to have proper financial controls in place.

"The significant additional funding made available since 9/11 has generally been accepted as essential for building capacity across the intelligence community to counter threats from international terrorism and to provide an enhanced standard of coverage and assurance," it said.

"Given that this represents an unprecedented level of new funding for the agencies, it is important, the committees view, that mechanisms are in place and functioning to ensure that money is well spent, appropriately controlled and monitored, and serves as a driver for increased efficiency."

Source:NCRI

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The United States reaffirmed on Friday it expected Iran to give a formal reply to a package of incentives to curb its nuclear activities at a meeting between its chief negotiator and European officials on July 5.

"We expect and hope that (Ali) Larijani will give us the answer," UnderSecretary of State Nicholas Burns told a news briefing, referring to Iran's chief nuclear negotiator.

"We always said that this is a process of weeks not months," he said, adding that the offer put to Iran was "quite straightforward".

He said the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, plus Germany, would discuss whether Iran gave a clear response at a meeting scheduled for July 12.

Burns said the major powers would look to take some "essential decisions" at the G8 summit in St Petersburg, Russia, on July 15.

Reuters

MOSCOW, 30 June 2006 — The Group of Eight industrialized nations told Iran yesterday to give a “clear and substantive response” next week to an offer by major powers over its nuclear program.

Expressing disappointment that Iran had not replied to a June 6 offer of incentives to stop enriching uranium, G-8 foreign ministers meeting in Moscow set a deadline of July 5 for Tehran to respond but did not say where a negative reply would lead.

That is when Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, is scheduled to meet European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana somewhere in Europe, possibly Brussels.

The United States has accused Iran of having a secret program to build nuclear weapons. Iran says it wants only to generate atomic power.

In an effort to break a diplomatic deadlock, the five permanent United Nations Security Council members — the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia — and Germany offered Tehran incentives if it stops enriching uranium.

Iran said it will reply in August. Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said his nation had questions about the proposal that needed to be settled in talks early next month with Solana. “The Islamic Republic of Iran is seriously and carefully reviewing the proposed package,” he said. “I’ve said that such response will be in August.”

A senior State Department official traveling with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters that the six big powers would review progress on July 12, just before a summit of G-8 leaders in Russia on July 15.

This would allow the six “to make a basic decision about which way this is going,” the official said, adding the July 12 meeting was a “signal to the Iranians that they have to make a choice.”

Despite the show of unity by the G-8 in Moscow — partly backed by a Chinese statement calling for an Iranian response soon — a “no” from Tehran would be likely to divide the powers. Both China and Russia have said they oppose sanctions.

Asked whether a negative reply would split the powers, British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett told reporters: “Nobody wants to get into this conversation because everybody hopes we will get a positive response from Iran and no one wishes to say anything which might jeopardize receiving this positive response.”

The joint statement issued by the G-8 foreign ministers said: “We are disappointed by the absence of an official Iranian response to this positive proposal.

“We expect to hear a clear and substantive response to these proposals at the planned meeting of Javier Solana...and Ali Larijani on July 5 and to bring these discussions to a rapid conclusion,” it added.

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Jiang Yu, also urged Iran to respond “as soon as possible” to the offer.

KDPI Public Relation in an statement demands the Austrian government to accomplish its moral obligation towards Kurdish people and all Iranian freedom fighters bring to justice the leader and implementer of the 13th July 1989 terrorist attack.

The press release published a day before cycle campaign of KDPI members from Helsinki to Wine.

“On 13th July 1989, Dr. Abdulrahman Ghasemlou the General Secretary of Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI), Mr. Abdollah Ghaderi Azer the representative of KDPI and Professor Fazel Rasul were assassinated in Vienna capital of Austria.

Although the role of the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran in this political murder was evident the Austrian police because of economical and trade interests of the country not only did not accused the two suspected of murder to the court but also it helped them to return Iran freely. Now after 16 years there has been little happened in the prosecution process of Kurdish leader murder.

According to The Austrian Green party’s spokesman on security, Peter Pilz Mr. Peter Pilz, and an Iranian witness who was a close journalist to the Iran intelligence agency before he fleeing to abroad the current Iranian leaders including: Hashemi Rafsanjani – former president and chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council, Mr. Mohsen Rezai – chief officer of Revolutionary Army of Islamic Republic of Iran (SEPAH), and Mahmoud Ahmadi Nejad – the hard-line president of Islamic Republic of Iran, had direct link with the assassination of Kurdish leaders.

If during last 17 years due to economical and political interests it has been hard for Austria to implement the justice against this crime, today the Austrian government face a historical challenge to recompense last injustice towards Kurdish people and KDPI.

It is time to demand International community and specially government of Austria to:

slam the systematic and programmed human rights violation of Islamic Republic of Iran

We condemn all kind of terror and terrorism all over the World

We demand the Austrian government to accomplish its moral obligation towards Kurdish people and all Iranian freedom fighters bring to justice the leader and implementer of the 13th July 1989 terrorist attack

We insist the compensation for family of the victims and KDPI“

Source:kurdistanmedia

14 year old boy arrested, flogged and imprisoned for "demonstrating"

Mahabad – Kurdistan: According to reports from the Organization of Defense of Human Rights in Iranian Kurdistan, the recent series of arrests in the township of Mahabad continues.

14-year-old Shahou Hasanpour and his brother Houshiar are two of the most recent detainees. They were arrested and charged with taking part in the summer 2005 series of demonstrations in Mahabad.
Neither one of the brothers had the benefit of being represented by a lawyer in court. Houshiar was sentenced to 4 months in prison and 50 lashes.

By Saul Hudson and Oleg Shchedrov

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Group of Eight industrialized nations told Iran on Thursday to give a "clear and substantive response" next week to an offer by major powers over its nuclear plans, but Tehran said that was unlikely.

Expressing disappointment that Iran had not replied to a June 6 offer of incentives to stop enriching uranium, G8 foreign ministers meeting in Moscow set a deadline of July 5 for Tehran to respond, but did not say where a negative reply would lead.

That is when Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, is scheduled to meet European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana somewhere in Europe, possibly Brussels.

But in Tehran, two Iranian officials said it was unlikely to happen. Iran has previously said it will answer by August 22.

"We need more time to discuss the offer," an Iranian diplomat told Reuters.

The United States has accused Iran of having a secret program to build nuclear weapons. Iran says it wants only to enrich uranium to a level suitable for use in generating electricity.

In an effort to break a diplomatic deadlock, the five permanent United Nations Security Council members -- the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia -- and Germany offered Tehran incentives if it stops enriching uranium.

The G8 ministers did not say what consequences would arise if Iran failed to deliver a reply next Wednesday or if it rejected the package.

A senior State Department official traveling with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters the six major powers would review progress on July 12, just before a summit of G8 leaders in St Petersburg, Russia, on July 15.

This would allow the six "to make a basic decision about which way this is going," the official said, adding the July 12 meeting was a "signal to the Iranians that they have to make a choice."

Despite the show of unity by the G8 in Moscow -- partly backed by a Chinese statement calling for an Iranian response soon -- a "no" from Tehran would be likely to divide the powers. Both China and Russia have said they oppose sanctions.

WHERE NEXT?

The joint statement issued by the G8 foreign ministers said: "We are disappointed by the absence of an official Iranian response to this positive proposal.

"We expect to hear a clear and substantive response to these proposals at the planned meeting ... on July 5 and to bring these discussions to a rapid conclusion," it added.

China's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Jiang Yu, also urged Iran on Thursday to respond "as soon as possible" to the offer.

The G8 statement followed talks between Rice and foreign ministers from Russia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Britain who were in Moscow before next month's G8 summit.

Talks on the incentives package are conditional on Iran freezing uranium enrichment and answering questions about its program. Iran, the world's fourth largest oil exporter, has refused to suspend its enrichment work.

The Moscow talks focused on Iran, but the G8 also expressed concern about the arrest of 64 Hamas officials by Israeli forces who were preparing to widen an offensive in the Gaza Strip aimed at freeing an abducted soldier.

(Additional reporting by Richard Balmforth and Moscow bureau)

One Turkish soldier was killed on Wednesday in a clash between the Turkish army and militants of the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) in the southeastern region, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported.

The clash occurred on Wednesday morning when the PKK militants attacked a military patrol in Isikli village of Cukurca town in Hakkari province, in which 20-year-old Mevlut Tekiroglu was killed.

Military operations were underway to manhunt the PKK militants who fled after the clash.

The PKK, labeled a terrorist group by Ankara, has been fighting for an ethnic homeland in the Kurdish-dominated southeastern Turkey since 1984.

Decades of strife has claimed more than 30,000 lives.

The rebels, many based in northern Iraq, have stepped up attacks in the southeastern region in recent months while Turkish security forces have amassed along the border in a major offensive.

Source: Xinhua

A political prisoner was hanged in city of Orumieh after serving 10 years behind bars, Kurdistan Human Rights Organization reported on Monday.

The man, identified as Saleh Mahmoudi Gouilani, was hanged in a prison in the north-western city of Orumieh on Saturday, according to the reports.

Gouilani along with two other individuals were accused of killing an agent of the security forces during an armed clash in the nearby town of Sardasht.

Gouilani’s two alleged accomplices were identified as Aziz Kholkani and Masoud Shokeh. The report said that they were both executed several months ago after serving nine years in prison.

MOSCOW (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Moscow, where she is to discuss the Iran nuclear crisis and Middle East peace process with Group of Eight (G8) foreign ministers.

"We'll talk about the Iranian situation, I'm certain," Rice told CNN news earlier in the Afghan capital Kabul before leaving for Russia.

Iran has still not formally responded to an international offer of incentives and multilateral talks if it agrees to temporarily halt the enrichment of uranium, which can be used to produce nuclear fuel or atomic bombs.

"We'll talk about the Middle East, how to encourage the Hamas Government to accept the Quartet principles so that we can get back on a road toward a negotiation toward two states," Rice said, referring to international diplomatic efforts to forge peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

The United States earlier offered support for Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip on Wednesday. Washington blamed Hamas for the incursion and urged the Palestinian militant group to free an Israeli soldier whose capture provoked the assault.

Rice arrived in Moscow at 6:30 pm (1430 GMT) and was due to have dinner with her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov later on Wednesday.

She flew to Moscow after a lightning trip to Pakistan and Afghanistan, whom she urged to cooperate to stamp out extremists operating either side of their common border. Rice met the Afghan President Hamid Karzai during the visit.

She also said the G8 delegates would discuss support for Afghanistan, where a stepped-up Taliban insurgency is among the problems facing a NATO-led peacekeeping force, and the situation in violence-plagued Iraq.

"We'll talk about how the international community can support the new Iraqi Government, the first democratically elected government in Iraq, that... now has asked the international community for its support " Rice told CNN.

"I think the G8 can make a firm statement about that."

"We should also talk about democracy," she added, expressing a desire for Russia to "enhance its commitment to democratic development", as well as citing Belarus and other "places that have yet to see a democratic future".

"It's a broad and important agenda. I look forward to meeting with my foreign minister colleagues," she said.

The New York times
By HADI GHAEMI

Beirut, Lebanon

LAST week Iranians woke up to a startling piece of news: their government had dispatched Tehran's notorious prosecutor general, Saeed Mortazavi, to Geneva as a member of Iran's delegation to the opening session of the new United Nations Human Rights Council.

Iranians weren't sure whether to laugh or cry. Mr. Mortazavi is one of the country's highest profile rights violators. Human Rights Watch urged Iran to remove him at once and asked other governments not to meet the Iranian delegation while Mr. Mortazavi remained a part of it.

Well-known and widely despised in Iran, Mr. Mortazavi personifies most of the ills affecting Iran's judicial system: lack of accountability, rampant impunity, disregard for fundamental constitutional rights, manipulation of the law to promote a political agenda, systematic use of torture, and above all, abuse of judicial powers to repress peaceful expressions of dissent and criticism.

Iranians refer to Mr. Mortazavi as "the butcher of the press." In 2000, Mr. Mortazavi, then a judge, closed more than a dozen newspapers in one month alone, invoking an obscure law from the 1950's on "ensuring public safety." The law was originally enacted to keep criminal gangs from intimidating members of the public. Since then he has shut more than 100 newspapers and journals.

Mr. Mortazavi was promoted to prosecutor general of Tehran in 2003. As such, he has prosecuted scores of Iranian human rights defenders, journalists, dissidents, students and activists, and he is alleged to be implicated directly in acts of murder, torture, arbitrary detention and coercing false confessions.

In June 2003, Iranian authorities arrested Zahra Kazemi, a Canadian-Iranian photojournalist, as she photographed Evin prison in Tehran. According to an investigation by the Iranian Parliament, Mr. Mortazavi personally took custody of her, accusing her of being a spy. Lawyers for Ms. Kazemi's family say that her body showed signs of torture, and that Mr. Mortazavi took part in an interrogation session where she received a severe blow to the head. A few days later, Ms. Kazemi fell into a coma and died. The Iranian authorities have not held anyone responsible for her murder.

In another case documented by Human Rights Watch, Mr. Mortazavi ordered the arbitrary detention of more than 20 bloggers and Internet journalists in 2004. The detainees were taken to a secret prison, held in solitary confinement and interrogated by Mr. Mortazavi's underlings. The interrogators tortured the detainees so that they would falsely implicate their colleagues in immoral acts and confess that they were foreign agents.

As a condition for their release, the interrogators coerced four of them to write false confession letters. The bloggers report that by threatening to harm their families, Mr. Mortazavi personally coerced them to appear on Iran's state-controlled television saying that their jailors treated them as "gently as flowers." One former detainee told me that Mr. Mortazavi's voice still rings in his ears, and that he fears for his young children.

So what was the Iranian government thinking? Perhaps it was still stung by its failure to be elected to the council, which aimed to exclude the most blatant abusers. Or maybe this was the regime's shock and awe strategy: shock the Iranian people with how little their government cares about human rights, and awe them with its utter impunity.

If Mr. Mortazavi were removed from office and prosecuted, as he should be, there would be no shortage of witnesses to testify. But because this is unlikely, many Iranians hope the new council will develop international mechanisms to bring men like him to justice, rather than facing him as a delegate at its sessions.

As a first step, the council should support the appointment of a United Nations special rapporteur on Iran to monitor and report publicly on human rights abuses and to see that the government's present lack of accountability does not translate into an even more extensive crackdown on political dissent and social freedoms.

Further, the members of the Security Council and Germany, which are engaged in nuclear negotiations with Iran, should include human rights concerns on their agenda. As a confidence-building measure, they should demand that Iran improve its human rights record — and that it cease protecting violators like Mr. Morta- zavi.

Hadi Ghaemi is the Iran researcher for Human Rights Watch.

Reuters

AMMAN,(Reuters) - Two of the 198 Iranian-Kurdish refugees stranded on the Jordan-Iraq border since January 2005 started a 'permanent' hunger strike on Sunday. The move was intended to put more pressure on the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, to resettle them all in a third country, according to Khabat Mohammadi, the refugees' spokesperson.

This came a week after the entire group of refugees - including women and children - went on a one-day hunger strike on World Refugee Day (20 June) to draw international attention to their request.

The refugees' latest action will once again highlight the difficulties faced by UNHCR's office in Amman in providing medical assistance to the group. According to the agency, the refugees are in an area that is officially neither on Iraqi nor Jordanian territory.

Additionally, because of a lack of security along the Jordan-Iraq border, "access by UNHCR and assistance to the refugees has been sporadic and unreliable", according to a statement released on Monday by UNHCR's office in Jordan.

UNHCR sources said the agency was negotiating with different entities to find the most expedient manner to assist the refugees, especially in terms of providing medical assistance to the two refugees on hunger strike. The agency continued to insist that "resettlement is not a right" and can only be possible in a third country if there is a clear need, no alternative solution in the country of asylum and [is] dependent on an offer from a country willing to resettle the refugees.

The refugees recently rejected an offer by UNHCR to facilitate their return to Iran, their country of origin, because they claim to be political opponents of the government in Tehran. The Jordanian government continues to deny entry to the refugees for fear of a flood of other potential refugees.

The Iranian-Kurdish refugees arrived at the Karama border crossing between Jordan and Iraq after fleeing al-Tash refugee camp in Iraq's western Anbar governorate, following clashes there between insurgents and US forces in January 2005. They remain on the Iraqi side of the border, an area prone to harsh weather conditions.

NCRI- More than 480 demonstrations, strikes, protests, and clashes were recorded in June, according to People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran.

Demonstrations, strikes, and protests took place in Tehran, Karaj, Qazvin, Rasht, Saveh, Qom, Kerman, Jahrom, and Yazd (central Iran), Tabriz, Zanjan, Meshkin-Shahr, Ardebil, Naqadeh, Bokan, and Orumieh (north), Mashhad (northeast), Shahr-Kurd, Dezful, Ahwaz and Abadan (southwest), and Chahbahar (southeast). In many cases they led to clashes with State Security Forces.

Sixty of the protest actions involved workers, and 136 cases involved students and faculties of the universities.

In the first three months of the Iranian calendar, starting March 21, more than 1250 cases of demonstrations, protests and uprisings by the Iranian people have been recorded.

In June, 35 death sentences were handed down by the mullahs’ judiciary, and 27 have been carried out. Among the victims, five women and two 18-year-old youths were reported. According to the official count in the same period, there were 5800 arrests made on bogus charges.

The growth in number of uprisings in the Azeri provinces was such that hundreds of thousands of people poured into the streets. The situation in other provinces was not any different; the situation in Sistan and Baluchistan, Kurdistan, Khuzestan, and Kerman are very critical and the leaders of the Iranian regime from top to bottom are introducing different measures to combat the threats.

by Emsie Ferreira

BERLIN (AFP) - The World Jewish Congress (WJC) has called on the international community to force Iran to forego any nuclear ambitions and the radical Palestinian Hamas movement to renounce violence.

"Iran is a danger for the whole world," WJC chairman Israel Singer told reporters after a one-day meeting of the US-based organisation.

Secretary general Stephen Herbits said the WJC supported efforts by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany to negotiate with Tehran, but believed there was no solution in sight yet.

"It is a very difficult process. Things are fluid. People have a sense of direction, but there is no clear path," he told a press conference.

"They must stay together and act in concert in their approach to Iran."

Herbits said the international community must deal not only with Tehran's perceived nuclear drive, but with its hardline policies on a whole.

"Firstly there is the nuclear issue. But secondly we have to make Iran grow as part of the world community in that it restrains its activities and engages with world organisations," he said.

The WJC leaders said they would have meetings with Jewish communities around the world and with international policymakers to help to shape efforts on the Middle East.

But the organisation, which met to inaugurate a new policy council on Wednesday, ruled out any direct talks with Tehran.

Charlotte Knobloch, a vice president of the WJC and leader of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said the Islamic republic must be isolated and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad forced to retract repeated calls for Israel to be wiped off the map.

"Only when Iran has been isolated and that has proven successful will we see real progress," she told a press conference.

"What he has said about Israel is considered a punishable offense here and there can be no discussion until that has been retracted."

The WJC leaders deplored the escalation of tension in the Middle East and said the only solution would be to bring Hamas to reject violence so that a safe Palestinian state could arise alongside Israel.

"We need a two-state solution but unfortunately this has become more difficult to achieve now than six months ago," Herbits said, adding that the main Palestinian political movement must therefore "renounce violence and terror".

"If you have no viable state next to Israel, then Israel's ability to be a stable durable state is in danger," he said.

Hamas, which controls the government in the Palestinian territories, on Wednesday took a key step towards recognising Israel after reaching a deal with rivals Fatah on a crisis-solving plan.

Wednesday's meeting was attended by prominent non-WJC members and non-Jewish figures, including former German foreign minister Joschka Fischer, former Austrian chancellor Franz Vranitzky and and retired French politician and Holocaust survivor Simone Veil.

Patrick Desbois, the secretary general of France's Catholic Bishops Committee for Relations with Jews, said the meeting marked the first time that the Jewish community had called on public figures from all beliefs to help it formulate policies.

"It is without precedent," he told AFP.

Singer said it had agreed to have a range of meetings with people it considered allies to search for ways to shape international policy on issues like Iran.

"The most important issues for Jews are perhaps also at the moment the most important issues for the world. We have allies and friends because we have people who have the same problems," he said.

By Michael Steen

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Foreign ministers from the Group of Eight industrialized nations meet in Moscow on Thursday to decide how best to nudge Iran to give a clear answer to proposals aimed at ending the standoff over its nuclear plans.

Iran has yet to reply to the June 6 offer of incentives from six world powers to persuade it to stop enriching uranium without oversight by international atomic energy monitors.

The West fears Iran has a secret nuclear weapons program but Tehran says the enrichment is for atomic power generation.

The European Union and United States have called for an Iranian reply in "weeks, not months" after Iran said it would not reply until late August. They indicated they would like it before a summit of G8 leaders on July 15-17.

Russia, which has signed up to the incentive package but has supported Iran's nuclear energy program, is pushing energy security as the main topic of the summit being held in the second city of St Petersburg. It is unlikely to want to see the main event overshadowed by Iran, a G8 source said.

EU External Relations Commission Benita Ferrero-Waldner told reporters in Moscow on Wednesday that Iran's response to the incentive package would be discussed by the foreign ministers.

"Of course we will speak again about our offer," she said. "We do hope that very soon the Iranians will very soon come back with an answer ... I think it is important that the Vienna package gets a wider endorsement at the meeting tomorrow."

A meeting between EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani has been postponed until after the ministers meet, an EU diplomat in Brussels said.

The G8 source said the Moscow meeting was likely to discuss how best to persuade Iran to respond.

The European Union, the United States, Russia and China have warned Iran that the U.N. Security Council will act against it if it does not suspend uranium enrichment. But they have also set no deadline and Moscow and Beijing oppose sanctions.

DIVISIONS

The six powers -- the five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany -- had said they wanted all uranium enrichment to halt as a condition for further talks.

But in a sign of possible divisions between Western powers, German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung told Reuters Iran should be allowed to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes and under close monitoring by U.N. inspectors.

Russia and China have signaled they would tolerate small-scale enrichment while the United States and Britain have argued for long-term suspension of enrichment. It was not clear if Germany's view had been agreed among all Western powers.

Thursday's meeting in Moscow will be attended by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the foreign ministers of Russia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Britain.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has indicated he wants a smooth summit to showcase Russia's revived global role.

But Western suspicions that Putin is rolling back democracy at home and using energy sources to dictate its will to its neighbors could spring unpleasant surprises.

Russia has also made clear that it wants to avoid talking about democracy in Belarus and breakaway regions of Georgia at the summit, while Western officials want to see the former Soviet Union's "frozen conflicts" on the agenda.

irr.org.uk
By Tim Cleary

On 22 June, political comedian Mark Thomas, members of CAMPACC and other groups and individuals were given police permission to demonstrate in support of a proscribed political organisation and against the new 'glorification of terrorism' clause.

The Metropolitan Police approved the demonstration in Parliament Square, which was called 'to support the PKK's [Kurdistan Workers' Party] objectives of human and cultural rights for Kurds in Turkey' and highlight inconsistencies in UK anti-terror legislation, including the offence of 'glorifying terrorism', which has been in effect since April this year.

Wearing T-shirts pronouncing 'I am the PKK', many of those present at the demonstration waved flags showing the organisation's jailed leader Abdullah Öcalan - acts which might be construed as illegal under anti-terrorism legislation for the reason that the PKK is a proscribed organisation in the UK.

Expressing the contradiction in the police's approval of a demonstration in support of a banned organisation, Mark Thomas voiced his concern that the validity of the legislation was dubious and its definition hazy.

Independent.co.uk
Rupert Cornwell

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, has in effect rejected talks with the US on his country's nuclear programme, saying Iran had nothing to gain from them, and that the country had an inalienable right to develop its own nuclear technology.

The ayatollah's remarks, reported by Iranian state television, fall short of a categorical "no" to the package of incentives and sanctions offered by the West this month, in return for a long-term suspension of uranium enrichment by Tehran. But they contrast with the moderately positive reaction of other top Iranian officials, including even President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad. "Negotiations with the United States would have no benefit for us, and we do not need them," Ayatollah Khamenei told the visiting Senegalese President, Abdoulaye Wade.

The latest incentives, presented on 6 June by the European Union, were backed by a promise from Washington that if Iran accepted them, and agreed to halt enrichment activities, it would join the EU in negotiations for an overarching nuclear deal with Iran. Such direct talks would have been the first of their kind since the 1979 hostage crisis at the US embassy in Tehran. But the sticking point remains Iran's insistence on its right to enrich its own uranium - enrichment for purely peaceful purposes, its says, but which the US and its allies suspect is part of a clandestine programme to build nuclear weapons.

"We do not negotiate with anybody on achieving and exploiting nuclear technology," Ayatollah Khamenei was quoted as saying. "But if they recognise our nuclear rights, we are ready to negotiate about controls, supervisions and international guarantees."

The initial reaction from the Bush administration was measured. The ayatollah's statement was not the last word in the matter, Tony Snow, the White House press secretary, said. The US expected Iran's formal reply to be delivered by Ali Larijani, Tehran's chief nuclear negotiator, to his counterpart Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy chief.

"The position has always been the same, which is when Mr Larijani communicates with Javier Solana, that is how we expect to have an answer to the proposal," Mr Snow said.

There was always "a pattern of differing voices coming out of Iran", he added, reflecting the uncertainties here over the true balance of power in Tehran.

Indeed, some analysts speculated yesterday that the ayatollah was in fact attempting to deflect pressure from even more hardline elements within the regime, who reject all contacts whatever with the US.

Washington and Tehran did have informal contacts over Afghanistan during the 2001 war to topple the Taliban. Last year the US put out feelers for similar talks, this time dealing with the Iraq crisis, but the initiative came to nothing.

Nonetheless, yesterday's developments threaten to expose divisions over Iraq within the G8 group of leading powers whose foreign ministers are meeting in Moscow ahead of the summit in St Petersburg.

One purpose of the incentives package was to get around the opposition of Russia and China, both veto-wielding members of the UN Security Council, to punitive UN sanctions against Iran if it continued its enrichment activities. If the Khamenei statement does prove the last word, then those divisions are likely to re-emerge.

Iran is plainly determined to spin out the process as long as possible. President Ahmedinejad now says Iran will only give its considered reply in mid-August, stretching to the limit the "weeks, not months" deadline laid down by the US. President George Bush has already made clear he thinks a reply should come far sooner.

By Caren Bohan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Tuesday said it did not view skepticism from Iran's supreme leader as the final word on a U.S. offer to join direct talks with Iran if it agrees to halt sensitive nuclear activity.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was quoted on Iranian state television as saying that Iran would not benefit from discussions with the United States.

"The comments are ambiguous," White House spokesman Tony Snow said.

Washington's offer to participate in the European Union's talks with Iran was part of a package aimed at persuading the country to stop nuclear enrichment work. That offer was seen as a major policy change for the United States, which has not had diplomatic ties with Tehran since 1980.

Snow said the Bush administration expects the official reaction to be delivered to the United States through EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana from Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani.

"The position has always been the same, which is when Mr. Larijani communicates with Javier Solana, that is how we expect to have an answer to the proposal," Snow said. He added that there is a pattern of "differing voices coming out of Iran."

"We're going to let different factions within the Iranian government publicly and privately figure out how they're going to respond," Snow said. "We expect a formal response to come through the channel by which it was transmitted originally."

If Iran rejects the package offered by the six powers -- the United States, France, Russia, China, Britain and Germany, it could face U.N. Security Council sanctions.

The United States and some of its Western allies suspect Iran is seeking to develop a nuclear bomb. But Iran says it is pursuing atomic technology for peaceful purposes of providing electricity.

Tehran has said it would respond to the international package by August 22.

State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said, however, that Iran has weeks, not months to reply.

"There is a good and positive offer on the table. We think that it is time for Iran to respond positively to that offer," Ereli said.

(Additional reporting by Sue Pleming)

A woman and a teenager were among the victims

NCRI - The mullahs’ regime hanged three people and sentenced another 10 to death in three days.

The state-run daily, Khorassan, June 25, reported that three men identified as Nasser, Saeed and Mohsen, were hanged in public in the southern city of Shiraz. The 22-year-old Mohsen was hanged in Azadi Square in the city.

The state-run daily, Jomhuri Islami, June 25, reported that a man, named Morteza, was sentenced to death by the mullahs’ judiciary in Tehran.

According to the state-run daily, Aftab-e Yazd, a woman was sentenced to death in Tehran and another four people were sentenced to death on the charge of waging war against God in the southwestern city of Ahwaz.

The state-run daily, Javan, 26 June, reported that the 18-year-old Hossein was sentenced to death in Tehran.

Two men, Morteza and Afrasiab-N and another unidentified man were sentenced to death in Tehran and Gilan, northern Iran.

The dramatic rise in the number of executions since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took office is a direct result of the international community's silence and inaction towards the atrocities perpetrated by the theocratic dictatorship ruling Iran.

The Iranian Resistance calls on international human rights organizations to condemn the vicious wave of executions in Iran and urges the referral of the regime’s horrific human rights file to the United Nations Security Council.

NCRI - In a show of protest and defiance against the State Security forces' (SSF) insult and harassment of a female classmate, angry students of the Azadi-Ashtian University attacked state owned banks and buildings inflicting damages on government properties.

The ultra-conservative daily, Jomhouri wrote: Male and female students of Ashtian University in Tehran hurled stones and broke tree branches to inflict damages on the windows and buildings belonging to the government.

The daily also noted that during the unrest, dozens of ravaged students clashed with the State Security Forces.

The demonstration started at 6:45 PM and extended through midnight.