The government of brutality is all obvious, brutal torture of prisoners, execution, rape, killing the Kurds and Baluchis, medieval torture, supporting terrorism, and much more.
]]>Citing arbitrary arrests, detentions and the disappearance of Iranians exercising their right to freedom following the June 12 presidential election, the General Assembly's human rights committee approved the resolution Friday by a vote of 74-48 with 59 abstentions.
Iran's U.N. Ambassador Mohammad Khazaee called the resolution "politically motivated" and dismissed claims about the election as "entirely misleading and incorrect."
The resolution must now be approved at a plenary session of the 192-member world body where its adoption is virtually certain.
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His name Wafa son of Majid,he was carrying on gasoline.
Annual hundreds of Kurdish by Iranian and Turkish forces on the border are killed, Majority of them are killed by Iranian forces.
]]>In 2003 he was arrested by security forces the charge of enmity with God was sentenced to death.
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But Iran's foreign minister rejected talk of further sanctions, saying the West had learnt from "failed experiences" of the past.
Iran on Wednesday rejected a deal to send enriched uranium abroad for further processing, defying Washington and its allies which had called on Tehran to accept a deal which aimed to delay Iran's potential ability to make bombs by at least a year by divesting the country of most of its enriched uranium.
SEOUL/MANILA-(Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama issued a strong warning to Iran on Thursday of consequences of its failure to respond to the offer of a nuclear deal and could have a package of steps to take "within weeks".
But Iran's foreign minister rejected talk of further sanctions, saying the West had learnt from "failed experiences" of the past.
Iran on Wednesday rejected a deal to send enriched uranium abroad for further processing, defying Washington and its allies which had called on Tehran to accept a deal which aimed to delay Iran's potential ability to make bombs by at least a year by divesting the country of most of its enriched uranium.
The U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), had said Iran should send some 75 percent of its low-enriched uranium to Russia and France, where it would be turned into fuel for a Tehran medical research reactor.
"Iran has taken weeks now and has not shown its willingness to say yes to this proposal ... and so as a consequence we have begun discussions with our international partners about the importance of having consequences," Obama said at a joint news conference with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak during a visit to Seoul.
He said Iran would not be given an unlimited amount of time, likening the Iranian nuclear issue to the years of stop-and-start negotiations with North Korea about its nuclear ambitions.
"We weren't going to duplicate what has happened with North Korea, in which talks just continue forever without any actual resolution to the issue," said Obama, who has advocated a policy of increased engagement, rather than confrontation, on thorny international issues.
"SANCTIONS" OUTDATED - IRAN
In Manila, visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki dismissed the possibility of further sanctions.
"Sanction was the literature of the 60s and 70s," he said at a news conference. "I think they are wise enough not to repeat failed experiences," he said, speaking through an interpreter. "Of course it's totally up to them."
Mottaki said Tehran was willing to discuss the reactor fuel deal but only if the swap of enriched uranium for nuclear fuel took place within Iran.
"Iran raises its readiness in order to have further talks within the framework which is presented," he said.
"It's not our proposal to have a swap," he added. "They raised such a proposal and we described and talked about how it could be operationalised."
Obama said he still hoped Iran would change its mind and that Washington and its allies would consider a package of potential steps to indicate to Iran their seriousness.
"Our expectation is that, over the next several weeks, we will be developing a package of potential steps that we could take, that would indicate our seriousness to Iran," he said.
He said he had confidence in the approach to Iran.
"I continue to hold out the prospect that they may decide to walk through this door. I hope they do," he said.
"But what I'm pleased about is the extraordinary international unity that we've seen. If you think at the beginning of the year, how disjointed international efforts were and how uneven perceptions were about Iran's nuclear programme, and where we are today, I think it's an indication that we've taken the right approach."
Russia and France, which are both also involved in the fuel proposal, also pressed Iran to accept it as is. Tehran faces possible harsher international sanctions and risks even Israeli military action to knock out its nuclear sites.
Iran says it needs nuclear technology to generate power but its history of secrecy and restricting U.N. inspections have raised Western suspicions of a covert quest for atom bombs.
Tehran has repeatedly said it preferred to buy reactor fuel from foreign suppliers rather than part with its low enriched uranium (LEU) -- also bomb material if refined to high purity.
(Additional reporting by Manny Mogato in Manila; Editing by Nick Macfie and Jeremy Laurence)
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But the deployment, announced Saturday in Tehran, could bring closer the prospect of a confrontation with Saudi Arabia, its regional rival, amid rising tension in the Gulf and Red Sea regions, both vital oil arteries.
The Iranian move coincides with a Saudi naval blockade in the Red Sea to intercept arms shipments allegedly sent by Iran and Eritrea to Shiite rebels fighting Saudi forces in northern Yemen.
SANAA, Yemen, Nov. 18 (UPI) -- Iran has sent warships to the Gulf of Aden, ostensibly to combat Somali pirates preying on major shipping lanes.
But the deployment, announced Saturday in Tehran, could bring closer the prospect of a confrontation with Saudi Arabia, its regional rival, amid rising tension in the Gulf and Red Sea regions, both vital oil arteries.
The Iranian move coincides with a Saudi naval blockade in the Red Sea to intercept arms shipments allegedly sent by Iran and Eritrea to Shiite rebels fighting Saudi forces in northern Yemen.
The Yemeni government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh claims the Iranians are arming the Zaidi Shiite rebels who have fought Saleh's forces to a standstill in three months of combat in the mountains of Saada province along the border with Saudi Arabia. Yemen is predominantly Sunni Muslim.
The rebellion began in 2004 but intensified sharply in August, when Saleh launched an all-out offensive dubbed Operation Scorched Earth against the tribesmen.
Two weeks ago the Saudis, in a rare use of Riyadh's military power, joined forces with Saleh's army to fight the rebels after they crossed the 930-mile frontier and killed a Saudi officer.
Since then the Saudis, who see themselves as the guardians of Sunni Islam, have mounted repeated airstrikes against the rebels.
Riyadh also sent ground forces into Saada province to establish a 7-mile-deep cordon sanitaire inside Yemeni territory.
The territorial intrusion was apparently condoned by Saleh's beleaguered regime. It is also grappling with an increasingly violent separatist movement in south Yemen, a socialist state before union with the north in 1990, a resurgent al-Qaida and a collapsing economy that is causing unrest.
The Saudis, who do not want to see Yemen collapse into chaos that al-Qaida could exploit to menace the kingdom, dispatched three warships with marine commandos from its Red Sea base at Yanbu last Thursday to patrol off northern Yemen.
The Sanaa regime claimed its navy intercepted an Iranian-crewed ship laden with weapons in the Red Sea on Oct. 26. Tehran denies it is aiding the rebels.
However, Texas-based security consultancy Stratfor reports that Tehran has also been ferrying veteran fighters from Lebanon's Iranian-backed Shiite Hezbollah movement to Yemen to bolster the insurgents, known as Houthis after the clan that leads them.
The objective of the Saudi blockade is to interdict the alleged Iranian arms route via Eritrea, on the western shore of the Red Sea.
Relations between Eritrea and Yemen have been strained for some time, and border clashes were reported throughout the 1990s.
The regime in Asmara, Eritrea's capital, is one of the most secretive in Africa and is accused by its neighbors of aiding Islamist militants fighting in Somalia.
Stratfor says that since the Saudi blockade began, the Iranians are now using a longer route that starts at Asab, a port in southeastern Eritrea, to move the weapons.
The route curls eastward around the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula into the Gulf of Aden, where Iranian naval vessels are now deploying, to Shaqra on Yemen's southern coast.
From there, Stratfor maintains, the arms are moved north overland to Marib in central Yemen, and then on to the Saada mountains. If that is the case, the Saudis are likely to deploy their own warships in the Gulf of Aden.
Stratfor reported Monday that "Iran appears to be using the naval assets (in the Gulf of Aden) to protect its supply lines to the Houthi rebels …
"It is not yet clear how aggressive Saudi and Iranian rules of engagement are, or how close they are to coming into conflict with one another.
"But with Iranian warships apparently facilitating the smuggling of arms that Riyadh is intent on interdicting, the potential for an incident or conflict at sea is certainly on the rise."
As the proxy war between the two Gulf powers appeared to escalate, Iran's army commander, Maj. Gen. Hassan Firouzabadi, warned Tuesday that Saudi "Wahhabi state terrorism" in Yemen could have consequences across the region.
The official Saudi Press Agency reported that King Abdullah met with U.S. Director of Central Intelligence Leon Panetta in Riyadh Sunday.
In Washington, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates met with Saudi Arabia's visiting deputy defense minister, Prince Khaled bin Sultan, Tuesday to discuss "regional security issues."
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We have millions Ehsan, execution Ehsan started to overthrow the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Anthem partisan
Names of arrested students are as follows:
Leila Mohammadi
Pakhshan Azizi
Serveh Waisi
Ahmad Ismaili
Amanj Rahimi
---
Rawa News
Prosecutors in Iran have confirmed the figures, with the Tehran Justice Department saying those facing the death penalty were members of so-called terrorist or opposition groups.
The prosecutors released a statement on Tuesday to say the cases had been legally done in the presence of defence lawyers.
The statement said, so far, 89 of the detainees had been tried, 81 of whom had received jail terms differing from six months to 15 years.
The jail sentences of three of the detainees had been suspended and three other people had been acquitted.
The disputed presidential election in June sparked mass opposition protests, who insisted the poll had been rigged to ensure the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
At least 30 protesters were killed at the demonstrations with thousands detained and some still behind bars. Agency
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The official cause of death for the physician is heart attack but there is evidence that regime officials drove him to suicide or murdered him because he witnessed the brutality used against opposition detainees after the disputed election in June.
timesonline.co.uk
Dr Pourandarjani, 26, attended a school for gifted children, graduated with distinction from the University of Tabriz and was doing his two-year national service at the Kahrizak detention centre in Tehran during the June protests.
Many detainees were beaten and at least three died of their injuries, including Mohsen Ruholamini, the son of a senior conservative politician. His death provoked such an outcry, even among the regime’s sympathisers, that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader, was forced to close Kahrizak on the pretext that its facilities were sub-standard.
The Supreme Council for National Security set up a special committee to investigate. Its report has not been published but what is purportedly a leaked page has been posted on the internet.
It says that “rape, mental and physical torture, malnourishment and inhuman treatment of the detainees have been confirmed” and it demands that those responsible be punished. The authenticity of the document cannot be confirmed.
Dr Pourandarjani examined many of the detainees, including Mr Ruholamini. Opposition websites claim that Dr Pourandarjani was detained for a week after Kahrizak was closed and forced to state that Mr Ruholamini had died of meningitis. He was released on bail and ordered to say nothing about what he had seen in the centre. He was threatened with imprisonment and the removal of his medical licence.
One reputable website, Mowjcamp, said that Dr Pourandarjani later told MPs on the special committee that he had examined Mr Ruholamini two days before he died. He said: “He was brought to me after being physically and severely tortured. He was in a grave physical condition and I had limited medical supplies, but I did my best to save him. It was then that I was threatened by the authorities of Kahrizak that if I disclose the cause of death and injuries of the detainees, I will cease to live.”
Dr Pourandarjani told friends that he feared for his safety and the authorities’ subsequent conduct has only fuelled their suspicions.
The official line is that Dr Pourandarjani died in his sleep of a heart attack on November 10 but his family has not been given a coroner’s report and his father, Reza Gholi Pourandarjani, says his non-smoking, clean- living son had no health problems.
The authorities washed and shrouded Dr Pourandarjani’s body while his family were absent and sent it to Tabriz, his home city, under strict surveillance. The funeral took place amid tight security and some of Dr Pourandarjani’s closest friends were barred from attending.
Masoud Pezeshkian, a former Minister of Health, heart surgeon and opposition member of the parliamentary health committee, said it was improbable that Dr Pourandarjani had died of a heart attack.
He said: “We will investigate this suspicious death until the precise cause of death is determined.” The reformist website Norooz stated: “There is no way the doctor could have committed suicide given his high spirits, strong religious faith and emotional links to his family and society as well as the talks he had the night before the incident.” His friends concurred.
Tom Porteous, the London director of Human Rights Watch, told The Times: “The circumstances of Pourandarjani’s reported death raise serious concerns. At the very least there’s a need for a full, independent and transparent inquiry.”
Four months after Kahrizak was closed the special committee’s report remains unpublished and no one has been prosecuted. Mowjcamp said that it was being supressed by the men it blamed for the abuses — Saeed Mortazavi, a former prosecutor-general, and General Ahmad-Reza Radan, the police chief.
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According to the report those executed today were: Vahid Sh. (35) convicted of buying and keeping143 grams crack (narcitics), Rasoul T. (age not mentioned) convicted of being involved in keeping 2 kg crack and Begam P. (woman, age not mentioned) onvicted of using narcotics and smugling 500 grams crack in her stomach.
According to the reports gathered by Iran Human Rights, at least 12 people, among them one woman, have been executed during the last two weeks in Iran.
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Clotilde Reiss, who is out of jail on bail and staying at the French embassy, is accused of taking part in a Western plot to destabilise the Iranian government after the June 12 vote in which hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was re-elected.
"Clotilde Reiss appeared this morning before the judge for a hearing ... The judge had a discussion with our compatriot and did not rule out summoning her for a new hearing," Bernard Valero told reporters at a regular news briefing.
"We wish for Clotilde Reiss's innocence to be recognised and for her to return to France," he said, adding that the young woman was now back at the French embassy.
She was accompanied during her hearing by a lawyer, the French ambassador and the first secretary at the embassy.
Speaking before the briefing at the French Foreign Ministry, Tehran's chief prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi was quoted as saying by the semi-official Fars News Agency that Reiss's trial was scheduled to resume on Tuesday.
Reiss was arrested on July 1 and her trial started in August, when she was put in the dock alongside other accused and shown on Iranian television.
Official media quoted her as admitting to "mistakes" and asking for clemency, but French authorities have rejected the charges against her as baseless.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner last week demanded a formal guarantee from Tehran that Reiss would not be jailed again while awaiting a verdict. Iran rejected the demand.
Reiss, 24, was arrested as she prepared to go home after five months spent working at the University of Isfahan.
The turmoil after Iran's presidential election was the worst in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Iranian authorities deny vote-rigging and portrayed the unrest as a foreign-backed bid to undermine the Islamic state.
Reuters
(Reporting by Estelle Shirbon in Paris and Fredrik Dahl in Tehran, editing by Samia Nakhoul)
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's chief of staff has warned Saudi Arabia over its military offensive against Shiite Yemeni rebels, saying it signals the start of "state terrorism" and endangers the entire region.
The official IRNA news agency Tuesday also quoted Gen. Hassan Firouzabadi as saying the actions of Yemen and Saudi Arabia would fuel militancy and spread violence to the rest of the Muslim world.
Shiite Iran is alarmed by the Yemeni and Saudi offensive against the rebels, whom the two Arab nations accuse of receiving arms and money from Iran.
The Saudi offensive began earlier this month, apparently to deny Iran a foothold on its doorsteps.
Yemeni forces have been fighting the rebels in the country's north for five years but the fighting intensified in August.
]]>“If the seat allocation mechanism for provinces is not reconsidered, the people of the Kurdistan region will be obliged not to participate in the elections,” Fouad Hussein, a senior official in the office of Kurdish regional President Massoud al-Barazani, told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
“President Barazani said that it is impossible to accept a seat allocation mechanism that is based on the data contained in ration cards,” Hussein argued.
“This aims to reduce the number of Kurdish parliamentarians in the Iraqi Parliament…,” Hussein noted. PNA
]]>The move was aimed at addressing Council of Europe criticism that Ankara was violating Ocalan’s human rights by keeping him in solitary confinement on Imrali island in the Sea of Marmara, northwestern Turkey.
Justice ministry officials contacted by AFP declined to comment.
The five prisoners transferred to the island were convicted members of Ocalan’s outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which has fought Ankara since 1984, reports said.
Under Turkish law, Ocalan, 61, will be now able to socialise with them in recreational facilities for up to 10 hours per week.
AFP
Iran's ILNA news agency reported that an unspecified number of Kurdish lawmakers addressed their concern in a letter to the chief of the judiciary, Sadeq Larijani.
Their concern comes after an Iranian Kurd, Ehsan Fatahian, was executed despite the intervention of the lawmakers who claim he was earlier given a 10-year jail sentence by a lower court, ILNA said
The letter by the lawmakers says "a number of Kurdish youth have been given death penalties recently which is worrying the Kordestan province," ILNA said quoting the letter.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran must show its divine image in the country and outside... and the government should not act in a way that creates distance between Kurdish people and the regime," the letter added.
"Thus we earnestly ask the judiciary to reconsider issuing such verdicts after taking into consideration the international circumstances."
Last week the reformist website Mowjcamp which is close to Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi said that a Kurdish man Shirkouh Moarefi, 24, is also on a death row after he was convicted of being a "mohareb" (enemy of God), a crime punishable by death in Iran.
London based Amnesty International has asked the Iranian authorities to halt his execution.
The western province of Kordestan is dominated by Sunni Muslims and has seen deadly fighting in recent years between Iranian security forces and Kurdish rebels of the PJAK group operating out of rear-bases in neighbouring Iraq.
PJAK (Party of Free Life of Kurdistan) is closely allied with the Turkish Kurdish rebel group, the Kurdistan Workers' Party.
Kurds make up around seven percent of Iran's 70 million population.
]]>Just a week ago, legislators were celebrating the passage of a key election law needed to carry out the national polls. But the new Kurdish demands coupled with a veto threat earlier in the week by the country’s Sunni vice president could derail the vote.
The Kurds had originally voted in favor of the law last week when it passed parliament, but it was only over the weekend that they found out their provinces were allocated less of parliament’s 323 seats than they were expecting.
The office of Kurdistan Regional President Massoud Barzani said the way seats are distributed after the election law’s passage is unfair to Kurds.
“Unless this seat allocation formula is reconsidered in a just manner, the people of (the) Kurdistan Region will be compelled to boycott the election,” a statement posted on Barzani’s Web site said.
The statement also said the current division of seats is “an attempt to reduce the number of Kurdistan Region representatives in the next Iraqi parliament and diminish their achievements.”
Three northern provinces make up the Kurdish autonomous region, and are represented by their own parliament as well as president.
While Kurds have fought bitter political battles among themselves in their autonomous region in northern Iraq, they have generally presented a strongly united front on the national political scene.
Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish member of Iraq’s national parliament, echoed Barzani’s demands and boycott threat.
“The main point is the allocation of seats,” Othman told The Associated Press. “If no changes are made on this matter then we will not participate in the elections.”
The Kurdish demands follow Sunni Arab Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi’s threat on Sunday to veto the election bill unless voters outside Iraq are guaranteed more seats. Most Iraqis living abroad are believed to be Sunni.
The boycott and veto threats come after lawmakers haggled for weeks over the election legislation before passing it on Nov. 8, much to the relief of the United States and many Iraqi political leaders.
Washington has tied its withdrawal of all combat troops to the national vote. U.S. military officials have said they will begin to draw down forces about 60 days after the election, hoping for assurances by then that Iraq is on stable footing.
Under a plan by President Barack Obama, all U.S. combat personnel must be out of Iraq by the end of August 2010. The rest of the troops, such as trainers and support personnel, must leave by the end of 2011.
Lawmakers and members of Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission were meeting Tuesday with parliamentary leaders to try to hash out a solution to the vice president’s demands, commission member Qassim al-Aboudi said. AP
Barely a week after the long-delayed legislation was passed, the hard-fought deal appears to be hitting a major roadblock, threatening to derail the country's nationwide parliamentary elections and possibly slow U.S. plans to withdraw combat troops from Iraq.
By RYAN LUCAS
Associated Press Writer
The Kurds and Sunnis are unsatisfied with the allocation of seats in the next parliament, and are demanding more spots for their respective constituencies.
The boycott and veto threat come after lawmakers haggled for weeks over the election legislation they finally passed on Nov. 8, much to the relief of Iraqi political leaders and the United States, which lobbied hard for the bill.
"We knew that the Sunnis were unhappy, they made that clear from the beginning," said Joost Hiltermann, Middle East director of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group think tank.
"Nobody knew that the Kurds were unhappy, too."
The Kurds originally supported the election law, voting in favor of it last week in parliament. But they say it was only over the weekend that they found out that their three provinces in northern Iraq had received fewer seats than they believe they deserved.
Under a proposal to expand parliament from 275 to 323 seats to reflect population growth, only three new seats were allocated to the Kurdish provinces, giving them a total of 38, according to the Independent High Electoral Commission's Web site.
Other regions saw a far larger jump in their number of representatives. Ninevah province, for one, which borders the Kurdish region, grew from 19 to 31 seats. Basra province in the south grew from 16 to 24 seats.
The office of Kurdistan Regional President Massoud Barzani said the way seats are distributed under the new election law is unfair to Kurds.
"Unless this seat allocation formula is reconsidered in a just manner, the people of (the) Kurdistan Region will be compelled to boycott the election," a statement posted on Barzani's Web site said.
Mahmoud Othman, a senior Kurdish member of Iraq's national parliament, said the Kurds had been expecting about 17 additional seats.
"The main point is the allocation of seats," Othman told The Associated Press. "If no changes are made on this matter then we will not participate in the elections."
Hiltermann, the analyst, said it's not clear what would be a realistic compromise.
"It's a matter of numbers, and numbers matter in any election anywhere in the world," he said.
The three northern provinces make up the Kurdish autonomous region, which has its own parliament as well as president. While Kurds have fought bitter battles among themselves in their regional politics, they have generally presented a strongly united front on the national political scene.
Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh criticized the Kurdish threat to boycott the election.
"There is a chance to solve this problem and the call to boycott the elections is not appropriate and does not serve democracy and the new Iraq," he told al-Arabiya television.
The Kurdish demands follow Sunni Arab Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi's threat Sunday to veto the election law unless voters outside Iraq are guaranteed more seats. Most Iraqis living abroad are believed to be Sunni.
Dominant for decades under Saddam, Iraq's minority Sunni Arabs have felt politically marginalized since the former dictator's ouster in 2003, boycotting the first post-Saddam national elections in January 2005.
Hiltermann said al-Hashemi's demands stems from Sunni fears of being sidelined once again.
"They need to have a sense that they're not being cut out from power," he said.
Washington has linked its withdrawal of combat troops to the national vote. U.S. military officials have said they will begin to draw down forces about 60 days after the election, hoping for assurances by then that Iraq is on stable footing.
Under a plan by President Barack Obama, all U.S. combat personnel must be out of Iraq by the end of August 2010. The rest of the troops, such as trainers and support personnel, must leave by the end of 2011.
"You have an electoral law that generally the U.S. is desperate to get it through parliament, and so move heaven and Earth behind it," said Toby Dodge, an Iraq expert at Queen Mary college, University of London.
"So the law goes through, and then the big beasts of Baghdad politics start quibbling ... to try to get a better deal for their own sectarian interests."
___
AP writers Rebecca Santana and Yahya Barzanji in Sulaimaniyah, Iraq, contributed to this report.
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The UN atomic watchdog on Monday demanded more information from Iran about the purpose of a previously secret nuclear site and indicated that the Islamic Republic could be hiding other facilities.
Iran has also said that the new site near the holy city of Qom should be operational in 2011, which could heighten fears in the West which has already accused Tehran of seeking a nuclear bomb.
VIENNA (AFP) — The UN atomic watchdog on Monday demanded more information from Iran about the purpose of a previously secret nuclear site and indicated that the Islamic Republic could be hiding other facilities.
Iran has also said that the new site near the holy city of Qom should be operational in 2011, which could heighten fears in the West which has already accused Tehran of seeking a nuclear bomb.
President Barack Obama said before the new International Atomic Energy Agency report was released that Iran was "running out of time" to accept a deal whereby other nations would enrich its uranium.
"Iran's declaration of the new facility reduces the level of confidence in the absence of other nuclear facilities under construction and gives rise to questions about whether there were any other nuclear facilities in Iran which (have) not been declared to the agency," said the new IAEA report.
The UN agency said "Iran's explanation about the purpose of the facility and the chronology of its design and construction requires further clarification."
Iran revealed to the IAEA in September that it had built a second uranium enrichment plant inside a mountain near Qom. It has told the IAEA in a letter that the new plant should be operational by 2011.
The disclosure of its existence triggered new outrage in the West over the nuclear drive, even though Iran denies it is trying to build a bomb.
Uranium is used for fuel for civilian reactors, but in highly enriched form can also make the fissile core of an atomic bomb.
Iran has been enriching uranium for several years at a plant in the central city of Natanz, in defiance of three sets of UN sanctions.
In its first official report since IAEA experts inspected the Qom site last month, the watchdog said that Tehran's delay in disclosure "does not contribute to the building of confidence."
The agency said it had acquired satellite images indicating some sort of construction work had taken place there between 2002 and 2004 and had resumed in 2006.
Iran said the site was planned as a back-up plant should the Natanz plant be bombed, for example, and work on turning it into such a facility began in the second half of 2007.
Even if that was true, the IAEA stated: "Iran's failure to notify the agency of the new facility until September 2009 was inconsistent with its obligations."
During the visit to the Qom site last month, IAEA inspectors verified that the plant "was built to contain 16 cascades with a total of approximately 3,000 (uranium-enriching) centrifuges," the report stated.
The Natanz plant currently has around 8,000 centrifuges installed.
No centrifuges had been installed in Qom, but the plant was "at an advanced stage of construction," the IAEA said, adding that Iran gave the inspectors "access to all areas of the facility."
The IAEA said it has told Iran that it still has "questions about the purpose for which the facility had been intended and how it fit into Iran's nuclear programme."
It has requested access to the plant project manager and those responsible for its design "along with access to original design documentation," so that it could confirm Iran's statements on "the purpose of the facility."
The IAEA declared that Iran is still refusing to suspend its uranium enrichment activities, despite the UN sanctions.
So far, Tehran has amassed 1,763 kilogrammes of low-enriched uranium (LEU) at Natanz, an increase of 255 kilogrammes from the time of the IAEA's last report at end-August, inspectors found.
Earlier in Tehran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reaffirmed that Iran's nuclear rights were "non-negotiable". He said the "enemies" of the nuclear programme had been defeated.
Western powers are awaiting Iran's answer to a UN-brokered plan to supply enriched fuel for a nuclear research reactor in Tehran.
Speaking in Singapore on Sunday, US President Barack Obama said: "Unfortunately, so far at least, Iran has been unable to say yes" to the proposal. We now are running out of time with respect to that approach."
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MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia announced the latest delay to Iran's first nuclear power station on Monday, saying that technical issues would prevent its engineers from starting up the reactor at the Bushehr plant by the year-end.
Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko stressed that politics had nothing to do with the decision, although the United States is seeking Moscow's help in pushing Tehran to allay Western fears about its nuclear program.
"The launch will not happen by the end of the year," Shmatko told reporters when asked if the station in southwest Iran would start up by the end of 2009, as previously scheduled.
"The engineers have to reach their findings," he said. "The building of the Bushehr station is defined absolutely 100 percent by technological conditions."
Russia's nuclear chief Sergei Kiriyenko, who heads the state holding company which controls the builder of the plant, said in February that the Bushehr launch was scheduled for 2009.
Moscow agreed to build the station in 1995 on the site of a plant begun in the 1970s by German firm Siemens. This project was disrupted by Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution and the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.
Diplomats say Russia uses Bushehr -- and major arms contracts -- as a lever in relations with Tehran, which is suspected by the United States and other Western powers of seeking to build a nuclear weapon.
Iran, the world's fourth-largest crude oil producer, rejects allegations that it is seeking to build an atomic bomb and says its nuclear program is aimed at generating electricity.
IRAN'S NUCLEAR PROGRAMME
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Sunday after meeting U.S. leader Barack Obama in Singapore that Moscow was not completely happy about the pace of dialogue between Iran and the international community over Tehran's nuclear program.
Obama said time was running out for diplomacy after Iran failed to give a clear answer on a U.N.-drafted proposal to send low-enriched uranium to Russia and France, where it would be turned into fuel for a Tehran medical research reactor.
Russia started deliveries of nuclear fuel for Bushehr in late 2007, a step both Washington and Moscow said removed any need for Iran to have its own uranium enrichment program.
The contract to build the plant is a state secret, though it is estimated to be worth about $1 billion.
Russia says the plant is purely civilian and cannot be used for any weapons program as it will come under International Atomic Energy Agency supervision. Iran will have to return all spent fuel rods to Russia.
(Writing by Guy Faulconbridge, editing by David Stamp)
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RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Saudi Arabia's most senior cleric accused Iran on Monday of supporting Shiite rebels whose war with the government of neighboring Yemen has spilled across the border and drawn in Saudi firepower.
Yemen and the Saudis have accused Iran of sending money and weapons to the rebels to aid their fight against government forces — a sporadic five-year battle that has intensified dramatically since August. Iran denies the charge.
The rebels prompted the intervention of Saudi warplanes and artillery at the start of this month by attacking a Saudi patrol across the border.
The fighting has raised concerns of another proxy war in the Middle East between the region's dominant Shiite power, Iran, and Sunni rival Saudi Arabia, a key Arab ally of the United States.
The Saudi cleric, Sheik Abdul-Aziz Al Sheikh, said the purported collaboration between Iran and the rebels was one of "sin and aggression," according to Al-Watan newspaper.
Al Sheikh said the kingdom has the right to defend itself against the rebels.
According to the report, the cleric urged the rebels to "repent ... and know that their actions are wrong."
The rebels, known as Hawthis after the name of their leader, say they are fighting Yemen's government because it has neglected the needs of their religious community in the north of Yemen, the most impoverished nation in the Middle East.
Members of their community are from a sect of Shiite Islam and are known as Zaydis. The rebels accuse Yemen's government of allying with hard-line Sunni fundamentalists who view the Zaydis as heretics.
Yemen's weak central government, which has little control outside the capital, San'a, is also fighting a separatist movement in the south and struggling to confront a lingering threat from al-Qaida militants.
]]>Them a few months ago charged with Kurdish parties were arrested.
Their names are as follows:
Hemen Fatehi 2 years
Hiwa Azari 1 year
Atta Ardangi 1 year
Khaled Azizpour 1 year
Dawod Riahi 1 year
SINGAPORE (AFP) — President Barack Obama on Sunday won the strongest backing yet from Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev on the Iranian nuclear crisis as the US leader warned that Tehran was "running out of time".
Obama expressed frustration with Iran's failure to give an answer three weeks after it received a UN-brokered offer aimed at defusing the stand-off, while Medvedev suggested that even Russian patience was now wearing thin.
"Unfortunately, so far at least, Iran has been unable to say yes" to the proposal, Obama said after talks with Medvedev at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Singapore.
"We now are running out of time with respect to that approach," said Obama.
Russia, which has the strongest ties with Tehran of any big power, has traditionally been unwilling to punish Iran with tough measures. But Medvedev said that Tehran risked sanctions if the crisis continued.
He said Moscow was "not completely happy about the pace" of efforts to resolve the crisis.
"In case we fail, the other options remain on the table, in order to move the process in a different direction," he said in a reference to new UN sanctions against Tehran.
"As reasonable politicians, we understand that any process should have a final point. The process of talks exists not for the pleasure of talking but for achieving practical goals."
Russia, like the United States, is a veto-wielding UN Security Council permanent member, and its support is crucial if US warnings of tough sanctions against Tehran are to carry weight.
China is another permanent council member, and US officials say Iran is likely to figure in discussions this week between Obama and President Hu Jintao in Beijing.
Russia also has unmatched leverage as it is building Iran's first nuclear power plant in the southern city of Bushehr, and has an as-yet unfulfilled contract to deliver advanced air defence missiles to Tehran.
Medvedev's comments were stronger than his most recent statement on the nuclear crisis when he told the German magazine Der Spiegel earlier this month that sanctions could not be excluded.
Obama described as "fair" the proposal offered to Iran, which would see states -- including Russia -- help Tehran to further enrich Iranian uranium for delivery to a research reactor.
Referring to sanctions, he said that "we will begin to discuss and prepare for these other pathways" as Tehran could not be counted on to fulfil its international obligations.
The US president exchanged a warm handshake with Medvedev at the conclusion of the talks, their fourth meeting since Obama came to power.
"I have found, as always, President Medvedev frank, constructive and thoughtful," he said.
"The reset button has worked," he said, using an administration slogan used to symbolise the revival of US-Russian ties after years of mutual distrust under George W. Bush.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs hailed the meeting with Medvedev, saying: "We are in a position with our partners all working together in a way that we have not previously been."
The West suspects Tehran is trying to develop a nuclear weapon under cover of its civilian nuclear energy programme. Iran vehemently denies the claims while Russia has said there is no evidence to support the accusations.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner also voiced frustration at Iran's slowness to respond to the UN-brokered deal, in an interview with Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot.
"In practice, the answer has almost been given and it is negative. That is a shame, a shame, a shame," Kouchner said.
"None of those meetings were particularly successful. We are waiting. It isn't good, and it is very dangerous."
France has suggested that Tehran has until December to show progress before sanctions are examined. But top White House Russia adviser Mike McFaul said there was no discussion of "specific timetables" in the Medvedev meeting.
"We're exactly on the same page with the Russians in terms of what we're doing in one track and what we may need to do in the other track," he said.
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Clotilde Reiss, who is out of jail on bail, has been staying in the French embassy in Tehran since her trial started on August 16. ISNA cited a statement from Tehran's Revolutionary Court for its report on the new trial session, but did not give details.
(Reporting by Reza Derakhshi; Writing by Fredrik Dahl; Editing by Jon Hemming)
]]>Erdogan began his tour in Malatya, a province in eastern Turkey consisting of a combination of Turkish and Kurdish citizens, to promote his initiative.
The controversial initiative, launched last July, has been facing fierce opposition by nationalist and secular parties. The only Kurdish party in the parliament voiced reservations over the initiative.
Addressing locals in Malatya, Erdogan said his government would exert efforts to explain the "road map" for the Turkish people to put an end to the bloody conflict which claimed lives of over 40,000 people.
He said conferences, seminars and dialogue sessions will be held nationwide to explain the initiative.
The initiative, added Erdogan, aims at granting the Kurdish minority cultural rights and freedoms in a bid to stop bloodshed "which was sparked by the Kurdish rebelion in 1984." The conflict with outlawed Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) has costed Turkey around USD 300 billion from taxpayers money, said Erdogan. "Has this money been saved, we could have built more than 100 schools and improve health and social services for citizens," he added.
The Prime Minister slamed at the opposition for refusing the peaceful solutions with the PKK rebels, and said the opposition wanted the bloodshed to continue so their own commercial business would flourish. "There are groups (which he did not mention) who do not want this vicious circle (conflict with PKK) to end." The Republican People's Party, the opposition biggest parties, said the government's initiative was dangerous and partition the country.
It said the initiative threatened the national unity of the Turkish people.
Erdogan officially launched his "Democratic Openness" initiative before the parliament last Friday. His initiative is backed by Europe and neighboring countries namely Syria and Iraq.
KUNA
Mustafa Jomaa Bakr, Mohammed Saeed Hussein Omar and Saadoun Mahmoud were found guilty of being members of the banned Azadi Kurdish party and for having “fuelled racial dissension,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The three were also accused of “having undermined the dignity of the state and having weakened national sentiment,” a statement by the London-based rights watchdog said.
The men were all convicted of being senior members of Azadi. Bakr had been arrested in January while the other two were seized in October 2008.
The verdict against them came exactly a week after another Syrian court sentenced four Kurds to six-year prison terms each for belonging to the banned Kurdish Democratic Union Party, according to the Syrian Observatory.
The Syrian authorities routinely accuse clandestine Kurdish parties of separatism even when they campaign for Kurdish cultural and linguistic rights within Syrian borders.
More than 1.5 million Kurds live in Syria, comprising nine percent of the population. They have long sought official recognition of the Kurdish language and culture.
AFP
Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan-PKK
Koma Civaken Kurdistan - KCK
The continuation of political and military operations while talking about resolution and peace renders the statements of Turkish state and government doubtful. It is absolutely essential to cease these political and military operations in order to eliminate this doubt. The Kurdish issue can be resolved not through some limited amendments in law and regulations, but only on the basis of real constitutional changes. This requires Turkey to create the conditions in which free and equal coexistence of the identity of Kurdish people should be constitutionally guaranteed as part of the democratic peoples of Turkey.
The greatest question of the Turkish Republic in its 87th year, which is the Kurdish question, has entered the process of resolution. Both the internal and external conditions, which will transform the question into a genuinely permanent and just peace, are available. The unilateral ceasefire decided upon by our movement, the road-map that was prepared by our leader and our peoples’ call for peace, demonstrate the commitment of our movement and people to peace and a democratic resolution.
The internal and external conditions in which the policy of denial of the Kurdish people perpetrated by the Turkish state could be carried out no longer exist thanks to the struggle of the people of Kurdistan for freedom, democracy and peace led by Leader Apo. In the face of the powerful insistence on freedom demonstrated by our Movement and people, the Turkish state is trying to legitimate its existence in Kurdistan by restoring its system of denial and annihilation. The main purpose is to overtly apply the policies of assimilation, dissolution and annihilation, by exterminating the Kurdistan freedom movement and enslaving the people of Kurdistan. It is for this reason that especially the president, prime minister and the minister of internal affairs, have not taken any practical steps for the resolution of the question while uttering statements that merely sound positive. They aim at annihilation instead of reconciliation. On the other hand, the MHP-CHP and Turkish Chief of General Staff continue with their traditional insistence on siding with the policy of denial-annihilation.
The policy, which was initially characterised as openness to the resolution of Kurdish issue, and transformed today into a project carried out under the name of national unity, has acquired the name of annihilation of the guerrilla and the PKK following the recent statements of the authorities. Discussions that the ministry of internal affairs is engaged in with some sections, diplomatic relations that the ministry of foreign affairs is working on, as well as the meetings of the prime minister with US authorities, are not focused on the resolution of the Kurdish question, but targeting the annihilation of the PKK.
In the meantime, the annihilation operations against the guerrilla for the liberation of Kurdistan, which are carried out in spite of the unilateral ceasefire announced by our movement on 13th April, operations against the institutions in the political and social arena, the reactivated extrajudicial killings and massacre of Kurdish children, are all continuing without losing momentum.
In the face of the activities of the AKP government and state to frustrate our peoples’ endeavours for a resolution, our Leadership has demonstrated its clear commitment by deciding to send three peace groups to Turkey from Kandil, Maxmur, and Europe in order to unblock the peace process. However, the MHP, CHP, president, prime minister, ministry of internal affairs and the Chief of General Staff have all provoked the racist and chauvinist sections, by evaluating the meeting of our people with the peace envoys as a public provocation, in order to pre-empt the steps taken by our movement to eliminate the obstacles before the resolution of the question. However, sending the peace envoys and their meeting with our people are the expressions of the insistent and determined stance of our Leadership, movement and people on peace. But they did not tolerate this.
The AKP government has put the resolution of Kurdish question on the agenda of the parliament, although with delay. The discussion of the issue in the right and democratic manner is as important as its appearance before the parliament, in terms of Turkish history. The reason for this is that the question has never been correctly defined and evaluated in the light of correct solutions. Analysing the Kurdish Question as terrorism, calling on Kurdish guerrillas to surrender, to ban the rights of people to exercise their culture including education in mother tongue allowing Kurdish language as an optional subject of study in education and refusal to recognise the position of our leader Abdullah Ocalan are not ‘new initiatives’ for democratisation. Just as no issue can be resolved without an authority, there has never been a discussion, dialogue or agreement that has not been carried out without the free will of all the parties who are in conflict.
More importantly, the fact that the AKP government gives priority to the surrender of the guerrilla instead of dialogue and reconciliation seeks to undermine the guerrilla resistance either by failing to understand or pretending not to understand. Such an imposition means firstly to disregard the will of Kurdish people and insisting on turning a blind eye to the reality.
The AKP still evaluates the issue as a matter of power and AKP policy. It wants to develop a definition of the Kurdish question and a resolution that suits its own purposes. This is the basis on which it wants to render its power permanent. For this, it is taking a step back considering the approaching general elections, in the face of the racist-chauvinist pressures of the CHP and MHP. This requires the status of the issue to be disregarded, hence its incorrect evaluation.
The manner in which the Kurdish issue is approached is the expression of the approach to the existence of Turkey and the shape of its future. The Kurdish question cannot also be evaluated in accordance with a simplistic and tactical perspective. The issue cannot be resolved by encouraging the powers in the south to put political and military pressure on the PKK.
It is possible to resolve the Kurdish issue only within the framework of equal and free fraternity of Turkish and Kurdish peoples and with democratic autonomy, without infringing the borders of Turkey. It is known how the similar problems have been resolved in Turkey. This firstly requires dialogue and negotiation. Recognition of Leader Apo, the PKK and the legal political movement as the interlocutors is an issue that needs to be discussed and clarified. This should be seen as the natural aspect of the issue at hand, by keeping it out of every discussion. Unless this is done, it would be impossible to make progress in the resolution of the issue.
On the other hand, constructing scenarios, evaluating the number of people, who may arrive from Maxmur etc and sending some people to Turkey, who are outside the process and not party to the issue, will not contribute to its resolution. This attitude does not mean anything other than deceiving the public and pursuing narrow political purposes. The issue can never be resolved in this manner.
The fact that the ROAD MAP that has been prepared by Kurdish Leader Abdullah Ocalan in association with the peaceful and democratic political solution of the Kurdish question has not been presented to the public is a serious mistake. It is imperative to rectify the mistake and present the Road Map to the public.
The continuation of political and military operations while talking about resolution and peace renders the statements of Turkish state and government doubtful. It is absolutely essential to cease these political and military operations in order to eliminate this doubt. The Kurdish issue can be resolved not through some limited amendments in law and regulations, but only on the basis of real constitutional changes. This requires Turkey to create the conditions in which free and equal coexistence of the identity of Kurdish people should be constitutionally guaranteed as part of the democratic peoples of Turkey.
At this stage, restrictions on the Kurdish language, which is one of the oldest and deep-rooted languages of the world, or granting it the mere status of a course or study option, will not help the resolution of the issue. Kurdish should be the language of education from primary school to university. Its use and development, and experiencing its historical value, culture, art and geographical roots, should be seen as part of these rights.
It is necessary to take concrete steps towards the development of the organisation of Kurdish society, engagement in democratic politics, and the right to free speech. As an expression of the sincerity of the Turkish state towards peace and a democratic resolution, special military powers should be withdrawn from the village, town and cities of Kurdistan, and the system of village guards should be abolished. Conditions should be created to allow the people of Kurdistan to live free from police oppression, and establish and develop their lives in security with sufficient opportunities.
Discussion of the Kurdish issue in the Turkish parliament is an opportunity. The parliament should be able to discuss the development of a permanent resolution, but not through narrow political calculations and threats. They should make the decision to take serious steps towards peace for the resolution of this issue,www.ekurd.netwhich has been a matter of controversy since 1925. The parliament can demonstrate positive approach if they can discuss the matter within this framework. If this occurs, the Kurdish Liberation Movement would also fulfil their own responsibilities. It should be clearly understood that an approach based on hostility and narrow political interests will not serve the resolution of the issue in any way.
The Chairman Of the Executive Council of the KCK - 9th of November, 2009
Murat Karayilan is the acting commander of the Turkey's Kurdistan Workers Party (Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan - PKK) and chairman of the executive council of the Kurdish Democratic Confederation (Koma Civaken Kurdistan - KCK).
ANKARA (AFP) – Turkey's plan to expand language rights for Kurds and prevent discrimination is unlikely to persuade armed rebels to lay down arms and risks heightening nationalist anger at the government for caving in to "terrorists", analysts said Saturday.
In a tumultuous parliamentary session on Friday, Interior Minister Besir Atalay gave the first concrete details of a government project to grant country's estimated 12 million Kurds wider rights with the hope of ending a 25-year separatist campaign by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
Among the measures were allowing Kurdish-majority towns to use their old Kurdish names, lifting restrictions on Kurdish to be used in political campaigning and allowing convicts to speak in Kurdish with visiting relatives.
The government will also create independent commissions to prevent discrimination and torture, Atalay said.
The announcement proved to be an anti-climax to the high expectations the government has been building for months with vague talk of "courageous steps", political commentator Murat Yetkin wrote in the liberal Radikal daily.
"If what Atalay announced are indeed steps that will develop (democratic) standards, these are good... but the PKK will not come down from its mountain stronghold just because there is an independent human rights commission and people can use their mother tongue in prisons."
The PKK, which has been fighting for self-rule in Turkey's southeast since 1984 in a conflict that has claimed some 45,000 lives, on Saturday criticized the measures as "superficial" and "claptrap".
"The Kurdish question cannot be resolved without recognizing the will of the Kurdish people and holding dialogue with its interlocutors," the group said in a statement carried by the pro-Kurdish Firat news agency.
The PKK has long called on Ankara to halt military operations and agree to negotiations for a solution, which it says should include official recognition of the country's Kurds in the constitution.
The government categorically rejects dialogue with a group it labels a terrorist organization and says it will not let up on the military campaign against the rebels.
And even though Atalay underlined the need for a new, more liberal constitution, he ruled out any change to crucial articles that define Turkey as a unitarian state with Turkish as its language.
"This is the breaking point of the government initiative," Guneri Civaoglu said in the popular Milliyet daily.
"Kurdish activists have already said that the recent measures are not enough and a constitutional change, and in fact a new constitution, is in order to achieve more," he added.
Even though the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has a comfortable parliamentary majority, it does not have the necessary 367 votes in the 550-seat parliament to change the constitution and is unlikely to get opposition support.
In Friday's parliamentary session, Devlet Bahceli, the leader of the opposition Nationalist Action Party, charged that the government was negotiating with "terrorists" while main opposition leader Deniz Baykal accused Erdogan of planning "to destroy and break Turkey up."
"The government is facing a psychological wall that will be very difficult to overcome. Public reaction to the planned measure are on the rise," Civaoglu said
Erdogan's government has been left alone in its Kurdish opening and is undertaking a huge risk as nationalist Turks raise their voices against the government project, Husnu Mahalli said in the popular Aksam daily.
"While Kurds might be happy about the Kurdish opening, nationalist Turks will become very angry at the government... and provoke the already tense atmosphere in the country," he said.
"Prime Minister Erdogan will be forced into making a choice between" Kurds and nationalist voters, he added.
]]>Prime Minister Erdogan informed parliamentarians about the government's democratic move process and its content in the parliamentary general assembly which convened to debate "Democratic Move" in Ankara.
For the past four months, we have made efforts to explain the process to the opposition with political politeness and wanted to receive their agreement on the matter, Erdogan said.
I do not wish to break the hearts of anyone or hurt emotions. We have in our hands an historical opportunity. Our nation and their prayers are with us. Our path is the one of the nations, Erdogan said.
It is our greatest dream to see the government and nation blend with each other and to see that all citizens feel this in their hearts, Erdogan said.
Everyone should be confident that Turkey is progressing in this direction in an atmosphere of security, Erdogan also said.
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