TEHRAN, June 29 (Reuters) - Iran's leaders have weathered the biggest anti-government protests since the 1979 Islamic revolution, but the tumult over a disputed presidential election has exposed deep splits in the ruling elite.

Iran's top legislative body, the Guardian Council, confirmed on Monday President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's election victory after a partial recount, official media reported.

Here are some questions and answers on possible next steps in the Islamic Republic, the world's fifth biggest oil exporter, whose nuclear programme has alarmed the West and Israel.

WHAT OPTIONS ARE LEFT FOR THE OPPOSITION?

Not many. Riot police and religious Basij militia have quelled mass demonstrations since Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei signalled on June 19 they would not be tolerated.

Even before Monday's final approval of the election result, the Guardian Council had deemed the vote the healthiest since the 1979 Islamic revolution and ruled out any annulment, as demanded by Mirhossein Mousavi, the runner-up in the poll.

The Council said it dismissed most complaints submitted by defeated presidential candidates about the June 12 election.

Hours before the Council's widely-expected announcement, witnesses reported an increased presence of riot police in Tehran, in an apparent measure to counter any renewed protests.

Hundreds of opposition activists, academics, journalists and others have been swept into detention since the disputed election result, leaving protesters leaderless and unable to coordinate any coherent strategy.

It is hard to see scope for more legal challenges, short of attacking the position of the Supreme Leader himself, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a Mousavi ally, chairs the Assembly of Experts, which has the constitutional power to depose Khamenei. It has never tried to do so.

Rafsanjani, seen as a possible mediator in the election row, on Sunday praised Khamenei's decision last week to extend a deadline for the Guardian Council to examine objections by defeated candidates and urged the council to do a thorough job.

Symbolic protests may continue.

After dark, some people are still chanting "Allahu Akbar (God is greatest)" from their rooftops, mimicking tactics used during the 1979 revolution, but the nightly cries are weakening.

There has been talk of other forms of civil disobedience, including strike action, but these have yet to materialise.

HOW CAN THE LEADERSHIP SHORE UP ITS POSITION?

By blaming the West and repressing any more dissent, judging by its recent actions.

Now the street protests have fizzled, Iranian officials have been sowing the message that the unrest was the work of menacing foreign powers, notably the United States and Britain.

Khamenei on Sunday denounced interference by "international ill-wishers", a day after Ahmadinejad vowed to use his second term to make the West rue its meddling in Iran.

The hardline leaders, backed by the elite Revolutionary Guard, could crack down harder on Mousavi, fellow-candidate Mehdi Karoubi and others still contesting the election result.

But this might further harm the legitimacy of Iran's hybrid blend of republican institutions and religious rule, disquieting senior clerics who have stayed mostly on the sidelines.

SO IS IT ALL OVER?

Not really. The crisis over the election could still have far-reaching repercussions. Ahmadinejad has proved one of Iran's most divisive figures. Khamenei's open support for him has eroded the concept of the Supreme Leader as impartial arbiter.

Influential conservative politicians such as ex-police chief Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and parliament speaker Ali Larijani may yet work against Ahmadinejad in the months to come.

A crucial test will come when the president, due to be sworn in between July 26 and August 19, picks his new cabinet. It will need the approval of the conservative-dominated parliament, which has repeatedly rejected some of his past choices.

WHAT ABOUT OBAMA'S HOPES FOR DIALOGUE WITH IRAN?

Down but not out. Immediate prospects for any such dialogue seem dim, but U.S. President Barack Obama's policy still aims at eventual engagement on the nuclear and other issues.

Western governments are in a quandary. They might not like Ahmadinejad, but still share important interests with Iran in promoting stability in neighbouring Afghanistan and Iraq.

And while the world watches the ferment in Iran, the centrifuges enriching uranium are still spinning -- to fuel nuclear power stations, as Iran says, or to acquire the knowhow to make atomic bombs, as the West suspects.

The following are excerpts of some of the international media reporting on Iran on Monday:

Iran 'has arrested 2,000’ in violent crackdown on dissent

The Times

More than 2,000 Iranians have been arrested and hundreds more have disappeared since the regime decided to crush dissent after the disputed presidential election, a leading human rights organisation said yesterday.

“A climate of terror and of fear reigns in Iran today,” the International Federation for Human Rights , an umbrella body for 155 human rights organisations, said as it released the startling figures.

Prominent Iranian actors, actresses, writers and singers are believed to have been seized at the weekend for supporting the demonstrators. Several opposition bloggers have fallen silent, probably because they have been detained. Almost anyone who dares to challenge President Ahmadinejad’s re-election is now considered an enemy of the state.

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An Embassy under Attack

The Times

Iran is trying to stir up a diplomatic storm with Britain. The response should be measured, effective and targeted to hurt Tehran’s own interests

Leading article

The arrest of nine Iranians working for the British Embassy in Tehran takes the abuse and insults heaped on Britain by Iran’s embattled clerical rulers to a new level. The regime has now embarked on a policy of harassment and intimidation. The clear aim is not only to lend spurious veracity to the ridiculous charge of British incitement of the riots on Tehran’s streets; it sets the scene for a diplomatic showdown which, the Iranian Government hopes, will deflect attention from its own repressions and mendacity.

The threat to Britain is clear. Iran’s hardliners, including the bully-boys among the Revolutionary Guard and the Basij militias, would like nothing better than physical violence against Western targets. ... They want a return to the revolutionary zeal of 30 years ago, when they were saluted as heroes for storming the US embassy and seizing the diplomats as hostages. If enough popular anger can be whipped up against the “Little Satan”, the British embassy might once again find itself the target of a mob intent on violence.

Britain’s response must be clear, measured and effective. The first concern must be for British citizens. In the embassy, only essential staff should remain. Businessmen, Iranians holding British passports and visitors should be advised to leave. Britain should then warn Iran that the continued detention of its embassy employees or any further official harassment will be met with reciprocal restrictions on Iranian missions, not just in Britain but, if all 27 EU partners agree, across Europe. A carefully calibrated series of other measures should also be prepared, ranging from further restrictions on trade, including aviation, to the downgrading of diplomatic ties. Iran has already threatened this last step; it is not one that should cause Britain any sleeplessness. If Tehran wishes to pick a quarrel, Britain does not need to stick around to be abused and insulted.

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Miliband rebukes Iran after arrest of British embassy employees

The Daily Telegraph

There is growing evidence of a fierce power struggle at the highest levels of the clerical leadership.

It has emerged that a central figure in the battle for supremacy, Grand Ayatollah Javadi Amoli, has criticised the handling of the election.

Ayatollah Amoli is a leading backer of an overhaul of the system by which Iran has a Supreme Leader. He has been a proponent of a collective leadership to exercise power at the highest level. Hashemi Rafsanjani, another senior power broker who is at odds with Ayatollah Khamenei, the current Supreme Leader, is said to be lobbying for a three-man supreme leadership body that would include Ayatollah Khamenei but dilute his power.

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Protests flare ahead of ruling on Iran vote

The Wall Street Journal

Thousands of protesters clashed with security forces at a mosque Sunday in Tehran -- marking the first major demonstration after a few days of uneasy calm -- as Iran's arrest of local employees of the British Embassy on Saturday escalated tensions with the West.

Meanwhile, Mohamad Mostafaei, a lawyer who represents Iranians under the age of 18 facing the country's death penalty, has also been arrested, the organization Stop Child Executions said.

Several thousand protestors flocked to the Ghoba Mosque in Tehran on Sunday afternoon to commemorate victims of the recent upheavals. Security forces dispersed the crowd using tear gas and attacking them with batons, according to witnesses.

Iran Human Rights, June 29: According to the sources in Iran, Mohammad Mostafaei, lawyer of more than 20 minor on the death row, has been arrested by the Iranian authorities.

According to some sources he was arrested 5 days ago. We have no further details about where he is being kept or why he was arrested.

According to our sources Mr. Mostafei was arrested on Thursday June 25.

Following the last two week’s pro-democracy demonstrations, several known human rights defenders and lawyers such as Abdolfattah Soltani have been arrested in Iran.

Iran Human Rights has earlier issued warning that those arrestyed are at risk of torture and forced confessions.

Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, spokesman of Iran Human Rights, said: "The United Nations should ask Iranian authorities to immediately release all those arrested and send a special envoy to Iran in order to guarantee their safety".

A young man, Mostafa Ahmadi, was killed in Tabriz on Thursday, June 25, at about 19:30 local time, according to obtained reports. The reports are still preliminary, but at the time of the incident the regime’s forces were present on the scene and immediately took the body of Mostafa to an undisclosed location. His family has still not received his body.

A man was flying back to the UK from Iraq on Monday night to face charges over the death of a 20-year-old woman.

Mohammed Saleh Ali, who has been extradited from Iraq, is accused of murdering Banaz Mahmod, an Iraqi Kurd from Mitcham in south London.

He is due before Greenwich magistrates on Tuesday. Ms Mahmod was raped, strangled and buried in a suitcase in a garden in Birmingham in April 2006.

Her father, uncle, and another man were jailed for life over her death in 2007.

1933 treaty

Mr Ali, of no fixed address, is also charged with perverting the course of justice and threatening to kill Ms Mahmod's boyfriend, Rahmat Sulemani.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) was not able to give an age for Mr Ali.

A CPS spokesman said: "The Crown Prosecution Service requested the extradition in accordance with the UK-Iraq treaty of 1933.

"The extradition was ordered by the Iraqi authorities."

Ms Mahmod's father, Mahmod Mahmod, from Mitcham, her uncle Ari Mahmod, and Mohammed Hama were all convicted of murder in July 2008.

BBC

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Police using batons moved to disperse supporters of presidential challenger Mirhossein Mousavi in Tehran who were staging a sit-in to protest against the victory of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in an election, a Reuters witness said.
The witness said police were chasing and arresting some of the demonstrators.

"Police attacked people with batons and at least three people were injured," said the witness.

"We are Iranians too," and " Mousavi is our president," chanted the demonstrators.

The violence broke out after Iran's Interior Minister announced that Ahmadinejad had won Friday's election, gaining 62.6 percent of the vote in an election which Mousavi has criticized for violations.

Up to 2,000 Mousavi supporters that staged a sit-in in the middle of the road, clapped hands and chanted: " Mousavi take back our vote! What happened to our vote?." They also chanted at security forces: "Police, brother, you're one of us."

Police has cordoned the area and traffic has returned to normal.

(Reporting by Parisa Hafezi; Writing by Fredrik Dahl and Dominic Evans; Editing by Samia Nakhoul)

By Parisa Hafezi

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad shook off accusations from moderate opponents of economic mis-management and criticism of his confrontational foreign policy with the West to win a second term as Iranian president.

While his re-election was not a major upset, the scale of his first-round victory stunned his main challenger, Mirhossein Mousavi, whose campaign had drawn tens of thousands onto the streets of Tehran during three weeks of campaigning. Ahmadinejad won twice as many votes as Mousavi.

It was not the first time Ahmadinejad, a blacksmith's son and former Revolutionary Guard, defied predictions. Four years ago the relative unknown stole the show by defeating powerful former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani in a run-off vote.

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TEHRAN (FNA)- According to the latest election results incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has won 23,988,614 votes from a total number of 38,937,011 ballots read from over 45,000 ballot boxes opened so far, showing that he has taken the lead by 29.07 % over his closest rival Mir Hossein Mousavi.

According to the latest figures, from a number of 38,937,011 ballots counted so far, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has collected 23,988,614 votes (61.60%), while his closest rival Mir Hossein Mousavi has won 12,669,341 votes (32.53%).

Principlist politician and former chief commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Mohsen Rezai Mir-Qaed is third with 633,883 votes (1.60%) and former Iranian Parliament Speaker Mehdi Karroubi is last with 321,729 votes (0.82%) cast in his favor.

A number of 45,713 ballot boxes were stationed in 368 cities and 558 districts inside the country while 304 ballot boxes in 32 polling stations gathered the votes of the Iranian expatriates in 130 world countries.

The Iranian interior ministry had announced that the final results of the presidential election would be declared today.

According to presidential election laws, all Iranian nationals above 18 years of age were eligible to vote, meaning that around 46.2 million Iranian citizens could take part in the election.

By VOA News
Iran's Interior Ministry said Saturday hardline incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was heading for a landslide victory in the country's presidential election, but his main moderate challenger alleged irregularities and claimed victory for himself.

Results show that with nearly 80% of Friday's votes counted, Mr. Ahmadinejad has won 65% to about 32% for reformist rival Mir Hossein Mousavi, a former Iranian prime minister.  Final results were expected sometime Saturday.

Iran's state news agency has declared Mr. Ahmadinejad the winner, but Mr. Mousavi also claimed victory late Friday at a news conference in Tehran.  He did not give details to support his claim but said there were problems with the voting due to a shortage of ballots in some areas.

The initial results surprised many analysts who predicted a tight race between the incumbent president and Mr. Mousavi, with voters turning out to the polls in massive numbers Friday.

Officials extended voting hours to accommodate long lines at polling stations.

Election commission chief Kamran Daneshjou said turnout was "unprecedented."  Officials predicted a turnout of 70% or more of Iran's 46 million eligible voters.

Reformist cleric Mehdi Karroubi and conservative former Revolutionary Guards commander Mohsen Rezaei also competed in the poll, in which Iran's economy, nuclear program and foreign relations were said to play a key role.

Mr. Ahmadinejad's rivals have accused him of badly mismanaging the economy and tarnishing Iran's image, further isolating the country from the West.

TEHRAN (AFP) – Hardline incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was set for a landslide victory in Iran's presidential race, officials said on Saturday, crushing his moderate rival and Western hopes of change in the Islamic republic.

"Doctor Ahmadinejad, by getting a majority of the votes, has become the definite winner of the 10th presidential election," state news agency IRNA declared as his jubilant supporters took to the streets in celebration.

Mir Hossein Mousavi, Ahmadinejad's main challenger in the most heated election campaign since the Islamic revolution, also declared himself the victor and protested at voting irregularities, suggesting a tense feud ahead.

Ahmadinejad stormed ahead with 65 percent of the vote, more than double the 32 percent for ex-premier Mousavi, with most ballots counted, election commission chief Kamran Daneshjoo said, highlighting the massive turnout.

The international community has been keenly watching the election for any signs of a shift in policy after four years of hardline rhetoric from the 52-year-old Ahmadinejad and a standoff over Iran's nuclear drive.

Mousavi, who was hoping for a political comeback on a groundswell of support among the nation's youth, complained of irregularities in the vote, including a shortage of ballot papers and attacks on his campaign offices.

"In line with the information we have received, I am the winner of this election by a substantial margin," said Mousavi, who had pledged to ease restrictions particularly on women, and fix Iran's ailing economy.

But as the official results showed Ahmadinejad would be back for a second term, his supporters poured on to the streets of Tehran, honking their horns and waving Iranian flags.

"Where are the greens? -- in a mousehole," the crowds mocked, referring to the campaign colours of Mousavi, whose supporters thronged the streets in mass rallies during the campaign.

"I am happy that my candidate has won -- he helps the poor and he catches the thieves," said sandwich seller Kamra Mohammadi, 22.

The election underscored deep divisions in Iran after four years under Ahmadinejad, who could count on massive support in rural towns and villages, while in the big cities young men and women threw their weight behind Mousavi.

The elite Revolutionary Guards had warned of a crackdown on any "velvet revolution" by supporters of the 67-year-old who was prime minister during the war with neighbouring Iraq in the 1980s.

Iran has long been at loggerheads with the West as Ahmadinejad delivered a succession of fiery tirades against Israel, repeatedly questioned the Holocaust and vowed to press on with nuclear work despite UN sanctions, denying allegations Tehran was seeking the atomic bomb.

Passions ran high during the campaign, with Ahmadinejad and his challengers hurling insults at each other in acrimonious live television debates while their supporters staged massive carnival-like street rallies.

Ahmadinejad, portraying himself as a man of the people, pledged to stamp out corruption and help the poor while his rivals accused him of mismanaging the economy of one of the world's top oil producers and damaging the nation's international standing.

The election was a clear two-horse race, with results showing former Revolutionary Guards chief Mohsen Rezai coming a distant third with 2.5 percent of the vote and ex-parliament speaker Mehdi Karroubi fourth with less than one percent.

Ahmadinejad's campaign manager Mojtaba Samareh Hachemi dismissed the rival camp's claim of victory as a "joke" insisting the incumbent remained "the president of all Iranians."

Daneshjoo said turnout was estimated at a record of between 75 and 82 percent of the 46.2 million electorate, with long queues forming at polling stations across the country.

"Historic Turnout on the Nation's Great Day," was the headline in the state-run Iran newspaper.

US President Barack Obama, who has called for dialogue with Iran after three decades of severed ties, said he saw the "possibility of change" in relations with the regional Shiite powerhouse.

"Whoever ends up winning the election in Iran, the fact that there's been a robust debate hopefully will help advance our ability to engage them in new ways," Obama said.

Even if Mousavi had won, it was doubtful there would be any major shift in Iran's nuclear and foreign policy as all decisions on matters of state rest with all-powerful supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

In the United States, home to the largest Iranian expatriate population, regime opponents condemned the election as a "sham."

The vote has nevertheless highlighted a call for change after 30 years of restrictive clerical rule in a country where 60 percent of the population was born after the revolution.

The economy was also a key election issue, with Iran battling inflation at 24 percent, rising unemployment and plunging income from crude oil exports.

TEHERAN - Iranian police clashed on Saturday with supporters of presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, who is expected to have suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, an AFP correspondent said.

“They have ruined the country and they want to ruin it more over the next four years,” shouted the crowd as policemen beat some protestors with batons outside Mousavi’s campaign office in Tehran.

Some of the former war-time premier’s supporters were also kicked, the correspondent said.

“We are going to stay here. We are going to die here,” they shouted as one woman protestor was struck on her back by policeman’s baton.

“I fear they played with people’s vote,” another woman said, after Mousavi complained of irregularities in Friday’s election, the most hotly contested in the history of the Islamic republic.

According to latest results, Ahmadinejad won 64 percent of the vote, double the 32 percent reported for the moderate Mousavi with a record turnout among the country’s 46 million voters.
AFP

Iranian officials say Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has an unassailable lead in the country's presidential elections, prompting angry claims of vote rigging from his reformist rival Mir Hossein Mousavi and sparking scenes of violence.
By Colin Freeman in Tehran
telegraph.co.ukl

In a statement on Saturday morning, the interior ministry said the incumbent president had won 65 per cent of the votes, with nearly 90 per cent of ballot boxes counted.

That would put him clearly past the 50 per cent margin required to secure outright victory, and deal a devastating blow to the hopes of those who had backed Mr Mousavi, a former prime minister.

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By Leonard Doyle
telegraph.co.uk

The two leading candidates in Iran's election have claimed victory amid widespread allegations of fraud and vote rigging.

Iran's interior ministry said President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had moved into a strong lead with nearly 70 per cent of the votes tallied so far.

But his pro-reform rival, Hossein Mousavi, the former prime minister, said that he had won and warned of voter fraud.

The dispute flared up before the polls closed and heightened tensions across the capital, where emotions have run high in the streets. Mr Mousavi indicated he might challenge the results.

The dramatic claims of victory capped a long day of voting that was extended for six hours to accommodate a huge turnout. During the voting, the government blocked text messages, a key campaigning tool for reformers, as well as some pro-Mousavi websites.

Security officials threatened to crack down on political gatherings or rallies before the final results were known.

Before the polling closed Mr Mousavi declared himself "definitely the winner" based on "all indications from all over Iran." He alleged widespread voting irregularities without giving specifics and hinted he was ready to challenge the final results.

Iran's state news agency responded moments after Mr Mousavi spoke, and reported that Mr Ahmadinejad was the victor. The report by the Islamic Republic News Agency gave no details.

With more than 10 million votes counted, Ahmadinejad had 68.8 percent and Mousavi had 28.8 percent, said Kamran Daneshjoo, a senior official at the Interior Ministry.

TEHRAN (AFP) — Powerful Iranian cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani voiced regret at the supreme leader's silence over controversial remarks against his son by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

In a televised debate with his main challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi a week ago, Ahmadinejad charged that some Mousavi supporters, including sons of Rafsanjani, had received financial privileges in the past.

A furious Rafsanjani fired off a letter of protest to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and said he had also personally told Ahmadinejad to take back the remarks.

"I also asked state television to allocate time to defend those accused according to the law... but these suggestions were not accepted and the (supreme) leader chose to remain silent," Rafsanjani wrote.

"However the young need to know the truth," he said in the letter, which was published in local newspapers.

Iran has been airing a series of almost unprecedented televised debates between candidates ahead of Friday's presidential election, in which Ahmadinejad is bidding for a second four-year term.

Rafsanjani, a former president who was appointed by Khamenei to head the powerful Expediency Council -- Iran's top political arbitration body -- has threatend to sue Ahmadinejad.

"Unfortunately, Mr Ahmadinejad's irresponsible and untruthful remarks in the debate are a reminder of the bitter remarks of monafeghin (hypocrites) and anti-revolutionaries during the early years of the Islamic revolution," the cleric wrote.

Rafsanjani, who was defeated by Ahmadinejad in the 2005 election, urged Khamenei to step in and resolve the spat.

"I ask your eminence, given your position, responsibility and personality, to solve this problem and act in a way you deem right to take effective action in eliminating the mutiny," he said.

Amnesty International

The Iranian presidential elections are to be held this month on 12 June. The candidates are: the incumbent President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; Mohsen Rezaei, a former commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps; Former Prime Minister, Mir Hossein Mousavi (backed by former president, MohammadKhatami); and Mehdi Karroubi, a former parliamentary speaker.

While Amnesty International welcomes pledges from some of the candidates to address the prevailing discrimination against women in the country -- an issue which has been forced to the forefront of the debate by the efforts of women's rights activists - and ethnic minorities and to tackle economic issues to improve the welfare of the population, there are other serious human rights concerns which also need addressing. These include severe curtailments of freedom of expression, arbitrary arrests, torture and other ill-treatment, unfair trials and a high recourse to the death penalty (including against juvenile offenders) as well as incidents of people being stoned to death.

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By JASON STRAZIUSO and AMIR SHAH

KABUL (AP) -- The U.S. military on Wednesday said an airstrike in western Afghanistan killed a militant commander with reported links to Iran's elite military Quds Force. An Afghan official said fighting elsewhere killed 30 Taliban.

The airstrike Tuesday in the western province of Ghor targeted a warlord named Mullah Mustafa, whom the U.S. military said was responsible for attacks on a nearby highway. The military said 16 of Mustafa's men were also killed.

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Reporters Without Borders condemns the lack of balanced and independent electoral coverage in the Iranian media and the fact that at least 15 journalists have been threatened or summoned for questioning in the cities of Machhad, Ahvaz, Sanandaj, Khoram Abad, Khohdasht and Tabriz since the campaign for the 12 June presidential election began on 21 May. They were targeted for criticising President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is running for another term, or for clearly expressing a political opinion in their articles.

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Iran Human Rights, June 7: Two men were hanged in the southeastern Iranian city of Zahedan yesterday morning June 6, reported the Iranian daily Kayhan.

The men who were identified as "Abdolhamid Rigi" and "Reza GhalandarZahi", were convicted of "moharebeh" (at war with God, a term used for those involved in struggle against the authorities) and being members of the Baluchi group of Abdolmalek Rigi.

On May 30, Three men were hanged in public in Zahedan, convicted of belonging to the same group for planning of the recent Zahedan bmbing, less than two days after the bombing.

The group later denied that these three had any connection to the group.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran has started production of a new ground-to-air missile system, Iranian media reported on Saturday, amid persistent speculation that Israel might attack the Islamic Republic's nuclear facilities.

"The range of this defence system (missile) is more than 40 km and it is able to pursue and hit the enemy's airplanes and helicopters on a smart basis and at supersonic speed," Defence Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said, without specifying how the missile compared to previous such weapons.

Najjar was quoted by Iran's Fars News Agency three days after Israel issued contradictory signals on whether it might bomb Iran, with its foreign minister saying there were no such plans and the defence minister saying all options were open.

The missile announcement came less than a week before a June 12 presidential election, in which conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is facing a challenge from moderates advocating a detente in Tehran's international relations.

Fars, a semi-official news agency, said production of the Shahin (hawk) missile defence system was one of the "most important and complex projects" undertaken by Iran's defence industry after the country's 1979 Islamic revolution.

Iran's Press TV said all parts of Shahin were produced in the country, which is under U.N. and U.S. sanctions over its disputed nuclear programme.

The United States and Israel accuse Iran of seeking to develop nuclear bombs, a charge Tehran denies, and have not ruled out military action if diplomacy fails to resolve the row.

Israel, widely believed to be the Middle East's only nuclear power, has repeatedly described Iran's nuclear programme as a threat to its existence.

Iranian leaders often dismiss talk of a possible strike by Israel, saying it is not in a position to threaten Iran, the world's fifth-largest oil exporter. They say Iran would respond to any attack by targeting U.S. interests and Israel.

The Islamic state often makes announcements of advances in its defence capabilities, including production of new weaponry.

Military experts say Iran rarely reveals enough detail about its new military equipment to determine its efficacy but say the Islamic Republic, despite having much less fire-power than U.S. forces, could still cause havoc in the Gulf if it was pushed.

Last month, it said it had tested a missile that defence analysts say could hit Israel and U.S. bases in the Gulf.

In March, Russia's Interfax news agency said Moscow may freeze a reported deal to deliver S-300 air defence systems to Iran. The United States and Israel had watched with unease reports on supplies of Russia's formidable S-300 system to Iran.

The possession of an air defence system as efficient as the S-300 could help Iran fend off potential air strikes by Israel and the United States on its nuclear sites.

By Philippe Alfroy

CAEN, France (AFP) — US President Barack Obama said Saturday that North Korea's nuclear weapon test had been "extraordinarily provocative" and that it would be "profoundly dangerous" for Iran to get a nuclear bomb.

Obama highlighted the separate policies being pursued against the two, with the United States seeking a tougher line on Stalinist North Korea while it has a new start to Iran's hardline Islamic government.

Iran's nuclear programme featured in talks between Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy who condemned what he called "senseless" new remarks by Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad casting doubt on the Holocaust.

Obama was asked about the nuclear threat from the two states at a press conference after the meeting in the northern French city of Caen.

"North Korea's actions over the last couple of months have been extraordinarily provocative," he said.

"They have made no bones about the fact that they are testing nuclear weapons, testing missiles that would potentially have intercontinental capacity. And, in fact, we are not intending to continue a policy of rewarding provocation," he added.

Obama said the UN Security Council is working toward a new resolution on North Korea and he insisted that even China and Russia, the two major powers closest to the North, were taking a tougher approach. "They understand how destabilising North Korea's actions are."

"We are going to take a very hard look at how we move forward," said the US leader. "I don't think there will be an assumption that we will simply continue down the path in which North Korea is constantly destabilising the region" and can expect a "reward" in return.

The United States wants UN sanctions against North Korea but diplomats say there are differences between the key powers over proposals for tougher cargo inspections, a tighter arms embargo, a possible freeze on North Korean assets abroad and denial of access to the international financial services.

Obama said that letting Iran develop a nuclear bomb would be "profoundly dangerous" and would lead other Middle East states to say "we have to go for it as well."

He stressed though that the United States was not taking the same attitude as toward North Korea.

"We are breaking significantly from past approaches. We are willing to have direct negotiations with the Iranians on a whole range of issues without preconditions in an atmosphere of mutual respect and resolve," he said.

"Like President Sarkozy, my view is that Iran in possession of a nuclear weapon would be profoundly dangerous not just for the United States, not just with Israel, but to the entire region and in time to the entire world."

Iran has not yet given a clear response to the US offer, but its supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday, as Obama was giving a landmark speech on the Muslim world, that "the nations in the region hate the United States from the bottom of their hearts."

On the same day President Ahmadinejad, who is seeking a new term in office in an election on June 12, reaffirmed his bitter anti-Israel stance and called the Holocaust a "big deception".

Sarkozy, who met Iran's foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki the same day, said: "I told him first of all that they have to take President Obama's outstretched hand.

"Iran has the right to civilian nuclear power but not a military nuclear capability. And they must understand that.

"If their aims are peaceful they should accept international inspections, but we can't accept the Iranian leader making senseless declarations," said Sarkozy.

"The United States and France are entirely together on this question. Iran is a great country, a great civilisation. We want peace, we want dialogue, we want to help them develop, but we do not want nuclear proliferation."

The New York Times

By WILLIAM J. BROAD and DAVID E. SANGER
Published: June 6, 2009

A week before Iran’s presidential election, atomic inspectors reported Friday that the country has sped up its production of nuclear fuel and increased its number of installed centrifuges to 7,200 — more than enough, weapon experts said, to make fuel for up to two nuclear weapons a year, if the country decided to use its facilities for that purpose.

In its report, the International Atomic Energy Agency said that it had found no evidence that any of the fuel in Iran’s possession had been enriched to the purity needed to make a bomb, a step that would take months.

But it said that the country had blocked its inspectors for more than a year now from visiting a heavy-water reactor capable of being modified to produce plutonium that could be used in weapons. It also said that Tehran had continued to refuse to answer the agency’s questions about reports of Iranian studies obtained by Western intelligence agencies that suggest that its scientists had performed research on the design of a nuclear warhead.

Iran is required under three United Nations Security Council resolutions to cease the enrichment of uranium and to provide answers to those questions. The Iranian authorities have vigorously denied the authenticity of the studies on warhead design.

The report, one of a series made quarterly to the agency’s board, described how the pace of enrichment and the installation of new centrifuges is accelerating at an enormous underground bunker in the desert at Natanz. It said that nearly 4,920 centrifuges were currently enriching uranium, and that 2,300 more were ready to go. That represents an increase of 30 percent in the total number of installed centrifuges since a February report.

Campaigning for re-election next week, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has vowed that he will never bend to demands from the West or the United Nations that Iran halt its uranium enrichment. His political opponents have largely agreed, but have urged a more cooperative attitude.

Meanwhile, Israel is constantly assessing Iran’s capability of producing a nuclear weapon. Last year, it asked the Bush administration for the equipment needed in case it decided to take unilateral military action against Iran. Mr. Bush declined to provide the equipment.

In a separate report released Friday, the agency said it had found new evidence to support the claim that the complex that Israel bombed in the Syrian desert in 2007 was in fact a clandestine nuclear reactor. The clue, it said, was information uncovered on Syria’s procurement of “a large quantity of graphite,” a material that American intelligence officials have said was central to the reactor’s operation.

The agency also reported its discovery of particles of uranium in a Damascus laboratory and their “possible connection” to uranium traces already discovered at the bombed desert site. Firming up that link, it added, would require further analysis.

Significantly, the agency’s Iranian report disclosed an expansion not only in the number of centrifuges, but also in the production of nuclear fuel, said David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, a private group in Washington that tracks nuclear proliferation. “They’re improving the output,” he said. “And they can do better” by feeding uranium into the 2,300 machines that now stand empty.

Gary Milhollin, director of the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control, a research organization in Washington, said Iran’s 7,200 centrifuges, if suitably arranged, could annually produce enough nuclear fuel for up to two bombs. “The facts on the ground continue to change,” he said in an interview, “and not in our favor.”

The report from the International Atomic Energy Agency noted that Iran is refusing not only to let inspectors visit a heavy-water reactor that Tehran has under construction, but also to let them verify design information about the sprawling project, as the agency’s statutes require.

The report also said Tehran had refused to give access to “relevant Iranian authorities” who could address allegations surrounding Iran’s research on the design of nuclear warheads. In the absence of that cooperation and enhanced powers of inspection, the report said, the agency “will not be in a position to provide credible assurance” about nuclear materials and activities.

William J. Broad reported from New York, and David E. Sanger from Washington.

According to reports from the activists in BHRAA, the Islamic Republic of Iran still continues arresting people and spreads terror, horror and fear in Zahedan

According to reports from the activists in BHRAA, the Islamic Republic of Iran still continues arresting people and spreads terror, horror and fear in Zahedan, even several days after Zahedan ��Imam Ali�� mosque bomb attack. Some of local reports[1] suggest that more than 100 persons have been arrested.

The most recent report obtained by our reporters in Zahedan suggests that the security police forces arrested more than 25 baloch in Zahedan on Sunday 31 of may 2009 and transferred them to yet an unknown place. These detainees include people a) who were admitted to the Khatm-ul-ania hospital in Zahedan because they had been beaten by the pro-regime ultra-conservative groups, b) the relatives to the wounded while were visiting them.

Furthermore, the reports suggest that the relatives dare not address any investigation on what happened to their family members, since they fear for their own destiny.

Ali Mohammad Azad, the Sistan and Balochistan county mayor confirmed the mass-arrests, annonced via Isna News Agency [2] and said that certain wahabi and salafi groups in this county who play with the feeling of shiites have been identified or are about to be identfied. Azad announced furthermore that they will be put to the trail after the presidential election.

Bahram Nouroozi ( the deputy general to Rasul-e-akram military center) confirmed the mentioned news in Isna news agency [3] as well and suggested that the persons who were arrested serve as spies for the forign states, and they will be put to trail soon.

Finally, as annonced in the pro-regime news agencies, the regime executed 3 baloch who already had been sentenced, while their executaion was linked to the recent mosque [4] bomb attack.

The official annoncements made by Ali Mohammad Azad and Bahram Nouroozi, taken into account, we in BHRAA have reason to believe that the mentioned detainees are in serious danger, and we fear for their destiny. Therefore we would like to draw all international human rights watch groups and the international society�s attention to our concern and urge you to call the regime for unconditional stop for further violation of human rights in Balochistan.

Balochistan Human Rights Activists Association (BHRAA) / Radio Balochi FM

PARIS (AFP) — French President Nicolas Sarkozy issued Wednesday a strong condemnation of new remarks from Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denying the Holocaust.

"The president of the republic condemned the remarks made today by the Iranian president questioning the reality of the Holocaust," a statement from the Elysee said.

Sarkozy had told Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki during a meeting in Paris that such comments were "unacceptable and profoundly shocking," the statement said.

The hardline Ahmadinejad, who is seeking a second term in office, reiterated on Wednesday his anti-Israel stance and called the Holocaust a "big deception."

He also accused the world's liberal democracies of degrading "human values" with their pro-Israel policies, according to quotes carried by the news website of Iranian state television.

"The identity of the liberal democracy has been exposed to the world by its protection of the most criminal regime in the history of humanity, the Zionist regime, by using the big deception of the Holocaust.

"There is no doubt that the only way to replace the liberal thought is to go back to the teachings of the divine prophets," Ahmadinejad said.

Sarkozy, in his Paris meeting with Mottaki, also voiced France's "serious concern regarding Iran's (nuclear) proliferation programme and reiterated our desire to contribute to a solution," the presidential statement said.

TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is seeking a second term in office, reiterated on Wednesday his anti-Israel stance by calling the Holocaust a "big deception".

Ahmadinejad also said liberal democracies of the world have degraded "human values," the Iranian state television news website quoted him as saying.

"The identity of the liberal democracy has been exposed to the world by its protection of the most criminal regime in the history of humanity, the Zionist regime, by using the big deception of the Holocaust."

"There is no doubt that the only way to replace the liberal thought is to go back to the teachings of the divine prophets," Ahmadinejad said.

"The thoughts and the system of liberal regimes have lowered the benchmarks for human perfection ... The liberal regimes cannot solve the simplest of the political issues in the world," he said.

Ahmadinejad was speaking to a gathering of 600 international scholars who have arrived in Tehran to mark the 20th anniversary of the death of the founder of the Islamic republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, which falls on Thursday.

He hopes to win another four-year term in the June 12 election.

Ahmadinejad's presidency has been marred by anti-Israel tirades.

Soon after he took office in 2005, he said Israel was "doomed to be wiped off the map," a statement that enraged global powers that was followed by another diatribe saying the Holocaust was a "myth."

By Francois Murphy

PARIS (Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy warned Iran on Wednesday that it risked deepening its international isolation if it did not agree to talks with the world's biggest powers on Tehran's nuclear program.

Sarkozy agreed to a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki on Wednesday at which French officials said Mottaki would deliver a message from the "highest Iranian authorities" on the highly disputed nuclear program.

But before Mottaki had left the Elysee Palace, Sarkozy's office issued a statement strongly suggesting no breakthrough was achieved on elusive talks between Iran and the powers -- France, Britain, Germany, the United States, Russia and China.

"Today the president met the Iranian foreign minister ... to discuss the risks to peace caused by Iran's initiatives in the nuclear field," Sarkozy's office said in its statement.

The rare encounter between a senior Iranian politician and the leader of a major power took place nine days before Iran's presidential election, in which incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad faces a challenge from moderates seeking a thaw with the West.

The six powers have offered Iran a package of economic and other incentives in exchange for which they want Iran to stop enriching uranium, a process that can produce fuel for power plants or, potentially, a nuclear weapon.

They have invited Iran to talks and asked that it suspend its uranium enrichment work while initial negotiations take place, but Iran has so far rejected the advances.

"He (Sarkozy) underlined the importance and seriousness of the initiative by the 'six'," the French statement said, urging Iran to accept talks offered by the powers.

"Failing that, Iran will expose itself to constantly growing international pressure on all levels," it added. The U.N. Security Council has passed several rounds of sanctions against Iran for failing to heed calls to suspend uranium enrichment.

The major powers suspect Iran is secretly developing the ability to produce a nuclear weapon, but Iran says it only wants to master atomic technology to generate electricity.

U.S. President Barack Obama has said he is prepared to hold talks with Iran to resolve the dispute, but Washington has not ruled out military action if diplomacy fails.

Sarkozy is due to meet Obama on Saturday in France and Iran is certain to be high on the agenda.

Sarkozy also denounced comments by Ahmadinejad on Wednesday in which he called the Holocaust a "great deception."

"From the outset, the president (Sarkozy) condemned the remarks made on this day by the Iranian president calling into question the reality of the Holocaust," the statement said.

"He highlighted their unacceptable and deeply shocking nature," it added.

(Editing by Louise Ireland)

WASHINGTON- (Reuters) - Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak refused on Wednesday to rule out a military strike on Iran, his comment came just hours after Israel's foreign minister said the Jewish state would not do so.

"I repeat what I have always said, we are not taking any options off the table," Barak said after meetings with officials from U.S. President Barack Obama's administration in Washington.

Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said earlier during a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in Moscow that "Israel is not planning to bomb Iran."

Widely believed to be the Middle East's only nuclear power, Israel has repeatedly described Iran's uranium enrichment as a threat to its existence and has said all options were on the table in preventing Tehran from building atomic weapons.

Barak said Israel "supports the Obama administration's initiative" to try to talk Iran out of trying to build nuclear weapons "but believe this should be limited to a set timeframe."

He added that it would not take long to discover Iran's nuclear aspirations.

"We are talking about a number of months, no more. Whether it is late August, or early or mid September, it should be enough to understand whether the Iranians are serious (about compromise) or whether they are just playing for time," Barak said.

Iran says its nuclear programme is for electricity generation. (Reporting by Dan Williams, Writing by Ori Lewis in Jerusalem; Editing by Matthew Jones)

By Hossein Jaseb and Fredrik Dahl

TEHRAN- (Reuters) - Rebels opened fire on a bus and killed one passenger on Tuesday in southeastern Iran, where police said they had arrested dozens of people after unrest there killed more than 30 in the past week.

The renewed violence occurred ahead of a presidential election on June 12 in which conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who often rails against foreign threats to Iran's security, is pitted against moderates seeking detente with the West.

Two passengers were wounded in the attack on the bus west of the city of Zahedan, a police chief said. A suicide bomber killed 25 people in a Shi'ite mosque in Zahedan last Thursday and another six were killed in unrest there on Sunday.

Zahedan is the capital of Sistan-Baluchestan province, where most people are minority Sunni Muslims and ethnic Baluchis.

Close to Pakistan and Afghanistan, the region has seen frequent clashes between security forces and heavily armed drug smugglers, as well intermittent attacks by Sunni Baluchi rebels.

Deputy police commander Ahmad-Reza Radan said rebels set fire to a vehicle carrying natural gas on the same road near Zahedan but nobody was killed or wounded, the official IRNA news agency said, but it was not clear whether it was a separate incident to the attack on the bus.

STREET DISTURBANCES

Judiciary spokesman Alireza Jamshidi said between 20 and 30 people had been detained over street disturbances in Zahedan in which he said six people were killed this week. A police official said many more had been taken into custody.

State television said clashes between backers and opponents of a Sunni cleric broke out in Zahedan on Sunday, a day after three men convicted of involvement in the mosque bombing were executed in public.

Sectarian violence is relatively rare in the officially Shi'ite Muslim country, whose leaders reject allegations by Western rights groups that the country discriminates against ethnic and religious minorities.

Officials have blamed Thursday's mosque bombing in Zahedan and a separate incident two days later when a bomb was found on a plane on Iran's foes. One said they wanted to "create a security-threat environment" before the presidential election.

A Sunni opposition group named Jundollah (God's Soldiers), which Iran says is part of the Islamist al Qaeda network and backed by the United States, said it was behind the mosque bombing, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television reported last week.

Jamshidi said two people were held over Saturday's plane incident, in which Iranian media said security personnel had defused a homemade bomb found on a domestic flight to Tehran.

Separately, 11 people were detained in the northwestern, mainly ethnic Azeri city of Tabriz on accusations that included "gathering with the intention of committing crimes against national security and keeping firearms", Jamshidi said. He gave no details. (Editing by Jon Hemming)

Iran Human Rights: Five people were hanged in the prison of Kerman, south east of Iran, reported the official news portal of the city of Kerman, south east of Iran.

The men who were all convicted of drug trafficking, were identified as: Saeed B., Ali M., Noreddin K., Manochehr N. and Reza R.

Age of none of those executed was mentioned in the report.

The report didn’t say the exect time of the execution.

Five others, among them a possible woman, were ahnged in the prison of Kerman on May 7.

Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the spokesperson of "Iran Human Rights" said: "At least 52 people have been executed in the month of May 2009 in Iran". He added: "This number is only based on the official reports from the Iranian authorities. But we have reports on at least three other executions that have not been reported by the authorities".

Ms. Ronak Safarzadeh, an imprisoned student and a member of the Cultural and Social Association of Women of Azarmehr in Kurdistan has been subjected to numerous physical assaults by other prison mates.  These assaults have taken place under the strict direction of prison authorities who have encouraged these kinds of brutal attacks on Ms. Safarzadeh.

Ms. Safarzadeh has suffered serious injuries as a result of these attacks.  Further it has been reported that a number of other political and social prisoners have been subjected to the same types of brutal attacks.

Ms. Safarzadeh has been in pre-trial custody for the past 20 months as a result of her social and women’s rights activities.

It has been reported that about a month ago, both male and female political prisoners I the prison of Sanandaj have been transferred to the section of the prison where very dangerous prisoners are being held.  This has been done under the pretence of repairing the wards where political prisoners are being held.

It must be noted that these prisoners (close to 103 of them) had been held in a very small and confined space for three (3) weeks before they were transferred to where the dangerous prisoners are being held.

Report by:  Cultural and Social Association of Women of Azarmehr in Kurdistan

Student Council of Defense of Human Rights in Kurdistan:  A 20 years old woman named “Khoshghadam Saedmuchishi” a resident of the city of “Muchesh” in the Sanandaj area, set herself on fire, and after a number of days in the hospital passed away.

Ms. Saedmuchishi had a two (2) years old child and it is stated that the reason for her suicide was social and psychological pressures.

Student Council of Defense of Human Rights in Kurdistan:  Even though Mr. Shabnam Madadzadeh has been granted a 50 million Toman bail, Judge Hadad refuses to release her.

On May 27^th 2009, even though all conditions for Ms. Madadzadeh’s bail had been met and the 50 millio Toman bail had been turned into court authorities, Judge Hadad refused to grant her release.

According to Ms. Madadzadeh’s lawyer Judge Hadad has charged her with “ Fighting against the Regime” and “propaganda against the Regime”.  Judge Hadad is well known for his mistreatment of student activists.

In the past few weeks Judge Hadad convicted numerous “Amir Kabir” University students on charges of “involvement with opposition groups outside the country”, “organizing events against the upcoming election” and “drinking alcohol”. 

It must be noted that Ms. Madadzadeh and her brother have been in pre-trial custody in the Evin Prison since February 20^th.  Last week they were both allowed a one hour visitation with their family, where they informed their family that their interrogation had been completed and they had been transferred to the common ward in Evin Prison.  Their families are extremely concerned about their health and well being.

Ms. Madadzadeh is a student in Teachers Training Collage in Tehran and also an executive in student organization “Tahkime Vahdat”.  Her brother Mr. Farzad Madadzadeh is a taxi driver in the city of Karaj.

By Hiedeh Farmani

TEHRAN (AFP) — Five people were killed in an arson attack in the southeastern Iranian city of Zahedan on Monday, the second deadly incident there in the run-up to a presidential election this month.

Five employees of the local subsidiary of financial company Mehr Financial and Credit Institution perished "after an arson attack set the building ablaze," the English-language Press TV said.

The attack came after 25 people died in the bombing of a Shiite mosque in Zahedan on Thursday, one of a string of violent incidents ahead of the June 12 election in which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is facing three challengers.

Mehr Financial described itself on its website as a lending society aimed at "improving the welfare of people, especially the Basijis," the hardline militia operating under the Revolutionary Guards.

Iranian police said earlier they had rounded up suspects accused of stoking sectarian violence in Zahedan following reported attacks on a number of public buildings in the city.

"Some rogue elements and agents of the enemy who want to divide Muslim brothers sought to create insecurity in some spots in Zahedan," deputy police chief Ahmad Reza Radan told the Mehr news agency.

Radan said those arrested were "both Sunni and Shiites and they sought a Sunni-Shiite divide," insisting security had been restored on Sunday and a number of people arrested, without giving figures.

Religious leaders from both Sunni and Shiite communities appealed for calm after reports of rioting in Zahedan, which has witnessed a number of attacks in recent years blamed on a shadowy Sunni rebel group.

"After the incidents in Zahedan, the enemies tried to destabilise the situation but no one should allow the wishes of those who are against our independence and progress to materialise," Iran's spiritual guide Ali Khamenei told a gathering in Tehran.

"But our people are alert and will act sensibly," he added, quoted by Fars news agency.

The city is the capital of the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan bordering Afghanistan and Pakistan and has a substantial Baluch minority who adhere to Sunni Islam.

The suicide bombing was reportedly claimed by Jundallah (Soldiers of God), a Sunni rebel group headed by Abdolmalek Rigi which has been blamed for much of the unrest in the province.

Iran has repeatedly blamed US and British agents in neighbouring Iraq and Afghanistan for launching attacks on its border provinces with significant ethnic minority populations.

"We consider Rigi's network linked with some foreign forces in Afghanistan," Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told reporters.

Iranian officials say Jundallah is known to have operated on several occasions from across the border in Pakistan, and Iran summoned the Pakistani envoy to Tehran following the mosque attack.

Mottaki said Iran and Pakistan have joined forces "in combatting insecurity" since Asif Ali Zardari became Pakistani president late last year.

"A number of rebels detained in Pakistan have been extradited to Iran within this new framework," he said, without specifying whether they belonged to Jundallah.

Iran on Saturday hanged three people for their role in the mosque attack.

A Sunni religious leader in Zahedan said the protests throughout the city began after he and his bodyguards came under attack when they visited the bombed mosque to pray for the victims on Sunday.

Molavi Abdol-Hamid Esmail-Zehi issued an appeal for calm, saying his safety was not at risk. The Shiite prayer leader in the city, Ayatollah Abbas-Ali Soleimani, issued a similar plea.

In another incident in Zahedan, gunmen on motorbikes fired at an Ahmadinejad campaign office, wounding two campaign members and a child.

And on Saturday, Iranian security forces defused a bomb found in a toilet on a plane flying from the oil-rich city of Ahvaz to Tehran.

Police also uncovered a cache of homemade weapons and munitions in a house in the northwestern city of Tabriz and arrested three people, the Kayan newspaper said.

Kurdistan region on Monday declared in extraordinary celebration formally begun exporting oil to international markets for the first time.

Workers turned on the pumps at northern Iraq's Taq Taq oil field, sending oil flowing via pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.
Iraqi president Jalal Talabani attended the historic celebration and addressed a speech, in which he highlighted some important points about the nature of Kurdish oil deals and the Kurdish-Arab deals.
The following is the president’s speech:

……I am honored and pleased to be present here in this important historic day. It’s the day of confirming on the Iraqi nation’s will, including Kurdistan people, to invest its national resources in the interests of the whole Iraqi people according to the articles of 111 and 112 of the constitution that was approved by 12 million Iraqis.

I would like to only concentrate on some points, since the fellows who preceded me added us with details.
The first one is that the oil contracts Kurdistan Region Government has signed are in the interests of Iraqi people not just Kurdistan. And the crude oil extracted now from Kurdistan is linked to the pipelines that reach Iraqi oil to Ceyhan to be sold, and the revenues return to the Iraqi budget.

The importance of this step confirms the Kurdish nation’s determination on the Iraqi national unity. It refutes the lies and baseless speeches about the Kurdish separatism intentions and attempts to monopole the region’s revenues for themselves. Here is the crude oil pumped out from Kurdistan by a courageous and wise initiation of the KRG and linked to the pipeline reaches Iraqi oil to the Ceyhan harbor to be sold.

The second point I want to concentrate on is the fact that Kurdish nation stresses on the national unity and coexistence with the Arab brethren in Iraq. All the baseless accusations Scattered in vain on this day, all those rumors burned down by the fire coming out from the fire of the oil produced in Kurdistan, to be mixed with the Iraq’s main national pipeline this year.

Another important point in this historic day is that the Kurdish nation has drafted its oil and gas bill in its freely elected parliament, in order to build the infrastructure of the Kurdish nation that has been deprived from by the consecutive Iraqi regimes for a long time, from industry and an infrastructure that could protect capability for the Kurdish nation to develop economically, socially and culturally. Crude oil production in Kurdistan will provide an important part of that required infrastructure, which KRG should increasingly take care of.

Another fact is that the oil deals signed by the KRG are legal and constitutional. They are constitutional according to the article 112 of Iraqi constitution. They are legal according to the agreement signed between KRG and al Maliki government years ago, in which an article says if Iraqi national assembly failed to approve the oil and gas bill before May 2007, then Kurdistan would be having the right to sign oil and gas deals with the foreign companies.

This is a fact some attempt to deny or picture it in the opposite side to show that KRG sings deals upon its decisions. They ignore that those are facts and was overwhelmingly approved by the government.

Therefore, those contracts are legal and constitutional; God willing they will serve the interests of Iraqi people and we all want the best for the Iraqis and the Kurdish nation is part of the Iraqi people. They have struggled and will struggle for the best of Iraqis; they have given so many sacrifices for liberating Iraq from dictatorship and Kurdish mountains are proud they were once homeland and bases for Iraqi opposition.

I do not think there is an Iraqi ex-opposition and now in power group did not have a base in Kurdistan in the past. Few days ago I was having talks with brethren Nouri al Maliki about his visit to Kurdistan. I told him at least visit your old bases that harbored you once in Kurdistan, and to tell the truth he had a positive response.

Ladies and gentlemen…
Iraqi nation is great; it has huge variety and tremendous powers. Iraq from the side of human resources owns hundreds of thousands of experts, college graduates and literates. From natural resources Iraq is the richest in the world. I heard from one of the experts saying that Iraq’s reserves of crude oil are the biggest in the Middle East. Despite that we have giant gas fields in Kurdistan, Anbar and the southern parts of the country and they could be the source of Iraqi prosperity.

I confirm once again on the strength of the Kurd-Arab fraternity and rooting it deep in to the history and all the attempts made to spoil that brotherhood will go in vein.

kurdsat

The PKK will halt its armed attacks against Turkish targets until July 15, a Kurdish website said.

"The PKK is extending the cease-fire by one and a half months to July 15 in order to allow for a peaceful resolution of the Kurdish problem," Firat News Agency, quoted the PKK as saying in a statement.

The statement came as Turkish officials signaled that work was under way to solve the decades-long Kurdish issue in a democratic and peaceful way.
Turkish military and PKK are in a 25 year long bloody war in which tens of thousands have died, mostly Kurds.

The organization is fighting for greater freedom of the Kurdish nation in Turkey through armed struggle, since it believes that Ankara has so far refused to listen t the demands of Kurdish people and the country’s consecutive governments continued suppressing the Kurds.

The initiative could set the ground for accomplishing the new promises given by President Abdullah Gul and Prime Minister Receb Teyyp Erdogan about necessity of resolving Kurdish issue without further delays.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani arrived at Arbil International Airport Monday morning 1, and he was received by the President of Kurdistan Region Masoud Barzani, Vice-President of Kurdistan Region Kosrat Rasul Ali, Speaker of Kurdistan Parliament Adnan Mufti, and former U.S. ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad and a number of other officials.

The President Talabani's visit to Arbil is to attend in the ceremony of exporting oil in the Kurdistan Region through Khurmala field across to the Turkish port of Ceyhan which is the first move in Kurdish rule history to export oil by its own.

Kurdistan Regional Government and the federal government are in dispute over management of oil fields. But a deal was worked out to allow the Kurds to ship oil through the government's northern pipeline.

10 people has been killed

TEHRAN (AFP) — Iranian police have arrested a group of people accused of instigating sectarian violence in the restive southeastern city of Zahedan, a senior police chief was quoted as saying.

"Some rogue elements and agents of the enemy who want to divide Muslim brothers sought to create insecurity in some spots in Zahedan," deputy police chief Ahmad Reza Radan told the Mehr news agency.

Those arrested "are both Sunni and Shiites and they sought a Sunni-Shiite divide," Radan said.

The city was the scene of a powerful bomb attack on a Shiite mosque on Thursday which killed 25 people, one of a number of violent incidents to shake Iran in the run-up to the June 12 presidential election.

Mehr also said some public places in Zahedan had been damaged by vandals, but gave no further information.

Radan said security had been restored on Sunday and a number of people arrested, without giving figures.

Zahedan is the capital of Sistan-Baluchestan province, which borders Afghanistan and Pakistan and has a sizeable Baluch minority who adhere to Sunni Islam.

Thursday's bombing was reportedly claimed by the shadowy Sunni rebel group Jundallah (Soldiers of God) which is blamed for much of the unrest in the province.

Iran on Saturday hanged three people for their role in the attack.

In another incident in Zahedan, gunmen on motorbikes fired at an election campaign office of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Friday, wounding two campaign members and a child.

And on Saturday, Iranian security forces defused a bomb found in a toilet of a plane flying from the oil-rich city of Ahvaz to Tehran.

Ahmadinejad is running for another four-year term in the June 12 vote but faces challenges from three other candidates.