رییس‌ قوه قضاییه ایران به برخوردهای اخیر نیروی انتظامی با زنان و جوانان اعتراض کرد.

خبرگزاري انتخاب

طرح مبارزه با بد حجابی که از نخستین روز اردیبهشت ماه از سوی نیروی انتظامی به اجرا در آمده است با مخالفت‌های گسترده‌ای روبرو شده است.

او در اولین گردهمایی استانداران سراسر کشور گفت: "همه مسئولان و دستگاه‌‏ها باید از مدل‌‏های روز دنیا در برخورد با آسیب‌‏های اجتماعی بهره‌‏ گیرند و به دنبال بومی‌‏ کردن این مدل‌‏ها در داخل کشور باشند".

آیت الله شاهرودی خواستار اعتدال دستگاه‌های مسئول شده و افزود: "در برخورد با این آسیب‌‏ها باید نهایت دقت صورت گیرد. ما باید سیاست‌‏ خود در برخورد با این آسیب‌‏ها را پیشگیری از وقوع این آسیب‌‏ها قرار دهیم تا درمان آن. خیلی اوقات برخوردهای شدید جواب عکس می‌‏دهد. هم قضات و هم بخش‌‏های اجرایی به‌‏خصوص نیروی انتظامی باید دقت کنند تا در تب و تاب برخورد، کاری نشود که نتیجه عکس دهد".

هاشمی شاهرودی گفت: "البته باید با برخی جرایم نظیر جرایم سازمان‌‏یافته، اشرار و مافیاها برخورد سخت صورت گیرد اما اگر در مواقعی که می‌‏توان فردی را به کلانتری‌‏ها و پاسگاه‌‏های انتظامی نبرد، نباید پای وی را به کلانتری‌‏ها کشاند. کشاندن پای زنان و جوانان به کلانتری غیر از ضرر اجتماعی منفعتی ندارد".

وی به موضوع و برنامه‌ای كه نیروی انتظامی اخیرا اجرای آن را در دستور كار قرار داده، اشاره كرد و گفت: "موضوع فرهنگ عفاف، قانون كشور است و این قانون كه طرح جامعی است، باید درست و صحیح اعمال شود".

هاشمي شاهرودي، از "تشكيل ستادهاي مشترك ميان نهادهاي مسوول" به عنوان يكي از راهكارهاي برخورد با آسيب‌هاي اجتماعي ياد و تاكيد كرد: در مواردي كه ستادهاي مشترك ايجاد شد، فعاليت‌ها چند برابر شد و رضامندي مردم نيز افزايش يافت.

وي افزود: بدون تشكيل اين ستادهاي مشترك، به اهداف سند چشم‌انداز ‪۲۰‬ ساله كل كشور نخواهيم رسيد.

رييس قوه قضاييه با سخن كه "سياست پيشگيري در علاج آسيب‌هاي اجتماعي بر سياست برخورد با اين گونه آسيب‌ها تقدم دارد"، با ذكر مثالي به تبيين اين موضوع پرداخت.

وي گفت:يكي از قضات در يكي از استان‌هاي كشور، دانش آموز ‪ ۱۷‬ساله‌اي را كه در خانواده‌اي متدين تربيت يافته و جزو شاگردان خوب مدرسه بود، به علت يك درگيري به بازداشتگاه موقت فرستاد و اين جوان دانش‌آموز چند روز در زندان ماند.

هاشمي شاهرودي افزود:برخي از زندانيان در مدت بازداشت آموزش‌هاي لازم را به اين جوان ارائه دادند به گونه‌اي كه وي يك هفته پس از آزادي، دوباره دستگير و روانه بازداشتگاه شد ولي اين بار اتهام او حمل و جا به جايي مواد مخدر بود.

رييس قوه قضاييه تاكيد كرد:اگر سياست پيشگيري بر برخورد مقدم باشد، اين گونه اقدامات خلاف اصل پيشگيري است و بايد از آن اجتناب كرد.

هاشمي شاهرودي گفت: كساني كه حتي پايشان به مراكز انتظامي و زندان باز نشده باشد، حتي‌المقدور نبايد آنها را به اين مراكز كشاند زيرا منجر به آسيب بزرگتر اجتماعي مي‌شود.

وي افزود: بايد از رويه‌هاي مطالعه شده در برخورد با آسيب‌هاي اجتماعي استفاده كنيم و همه جنبه‌ها را در اين مسير در نظر بگيريم و چنانچه به اصلاح قوانين و مقررات نياز باشد، آنها را اصلاح كنيم.

رييس قوه قضاييه گفت: البته قوانين و مقررات قابل اصلاح در اين زمينه وجود دارد و ساختارها نيز بايد اصلاح شود تا نگرش‌هاي مشترك ايجاد شود.

هاشمي شاهرودي افزود: بسياري از مواردي كه در مدارس و مكان‌هاي عمومي وجود دارد از قبيل ورود و خروج كارمندان به ادارات بايد بررسي شود و چنانچه بخواهيم با آسيب‌هاي اجتماعي مبارزه كنيم، بايد در اين موارد تجديد نظر شود، منشاء بسياري از ناهنجاري‌ها، بي‌بندوباري‌هايي است كه دراين بخش‌ها انجام مي‌شود.

وي به موضوع فرهنگ عفاف و برنامه‌اي كه نيروي انتظامي اخيرا اجراي آن را در دستور كار قرار داده، اشاره كرد و گفت: موضوع فرهنگ عفاف، قانون كشور است و اين قانون كه طرح جامعي است، بايد درست و صحيح اعمال شود.

رييس قوه قضاييه همچنين ازطولاني بودن نظام آموزشي در مدارس كشور انتقاد كرد و گفت: چه اصراري وجود دارد كه نظام آموزشي طولاني باشد و دانش آموزان معطل شوند.

هاشمي شاهرودي افزود: در نظام آموزش و پرورش، سنين تحصيلي نقش مهمي در اصلاح جامعه دارد و در برخي از كشورها نيز اين روش اعمال شده است كه جوانان تا سنين ‪ ۲۰‬سال مدرك كارشناسي را بگيرند و آماده كار و ازدواج شوند.

وي گفت: اين سن در كشور ما حدود ‪ ۲۷‬سالگي است و نشان مي‌دهد كه يك جوان ‪ ۱۰‬تا ‪ ۱۵‬سال بهترين دوران عمر خود را محصور است.

وزير كشور نيز در اين مراسم در سخناني بر ضرورت تعامل و همكاري ميان دستگاههاي مختلف براي تحقق سياست‌هاي نظام تاكيد كرد.

Anger at Iran dress restrictions

By Frances Harrison BBC News, Tehran

The crackdown is more serious than in past years

Two thousand young men in Iran have protested against new clothing curbs, reports say, amid growing discontent about a crackdown on un-Islamic dress.

Shiraz university students were angry about new rules banning sleeveless T-shirts, even inside all-male dorms.

The protest came as the judiciary head warned police that an excessively ferocious campaign could backfire.

Police say they stopped more than 1,300 women for dressing immodestly on the first day of the campaign in Tehran.

More than 100 women were arrested on Saturday; half of them had to sign statements promising to improve their clothing, the other half are being referred to court.

The focus of the new campaign is to stop women wearing tight overcoats that reveal the shape of their bodies or showing too much hair from beneath their headscarves.

However, young men have also been arrested for sporting wild hair styles or T-shirts considered immodest.

Local news agency reports say the protesting Shiraz students on Sunday night were calling for the resignation of the university chancellor.

Serious crackdown

There is always a crackdown at the start of summer as women start wearing more skimpy clothes because of the hot weather.

Women are banned from wearing short, figure-hugging outfits

In past years the pressure quickly relaxed - headscarves become perched on the back of heads, while fashionable women in affluent north Tehran wear open-toed sandals, three-quarter length trousers and short skin-hugging overcoats.

The police complain that some young women strut the streets looking like fashion models - and it is not a bad description.

But this year the crackdown seems more serious.

Iranian television has broadcast nightly programmes warning women and young men with sleeveless T-shirts and spiky hair to be more careful about their dress.

The newspapers are full of pictures of women being arrested for their un-Islamic clothing, but foreign journalists have been prevented from filming it.

Backlash

The head of the Iranian judiciary, Ayatollah Shahrudi, has warned that a severe crackdown on un-Islamic dress could have the reverse effect.

Meanwhile, an MP has asked why the police should spend so much time arresting young people and filing court cases against them instead of fighting drug addiction and poverty.

Already taxi drivers say there are fewer women on the streets and it is clear most are dressing more conservatively.

It is not just the young and very fashionable who are being harassed this year, middle aged women and even foreign tourists are being cautioned.

One foreign journalist was stopped and the police complained the photograph in her press card was indecent, even though it was taken by the Ministry of Islamic Guidance.

Iran agrees with constructive dialog

Tue, 24 Apr 2007
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson says the West has never genuinely wanted to negotiate with Iran to resolve disagreements and disputes.

Speaking at a gathering of university students at Tabriz University on Monday, Mohammad Ali Hosseini said;" The West has always wanted to accuse us of something and constantly acts like a claimant."

Hosseini linked Iran's nuclear energy program to national security and underlined that today many countries were looking for alternative energy sources and had taken the necessary measures to replace oil by 2020.

"By 2020, Iran will have a population of over 100 million and they will be looking for job security and other social benefits."

Calling nuclear energy essential to Iran and Iranians he added; "We believe it is wrong to politicize Iran's nuclear program and make it a security issue. Drafting resolutions and introducing sanctions on Iran will not help resolve matters."

He went on to say Iranian officials were interested in holding further negotiations on the dispute if talks were held with 'mutual respect'.

"Imposing sanctions on Iran will not deter our will and we will not suspend our peaceful nuclear program."

Hosseini further noted that the approval and backing of third world countries on Iran's nuclear energy program showed how successful President Ahmadinejad's government has been on the international scene.

"Government officials are trying to convey our peaceful intentions to the international community especially our neighbors."

Hosseini pointed to the bias and unfair policies of the West in the Middle East and said; "In Palestine, the West overlooks the Palestinian people's will to elect a new government and supports the Zionist regime's crimes and injustices against the innocent civilian population."

He underlined that Iran was against how a small number of countries were using their wealth and military might to bully other nations and force their policies on the international community.

"The West, especially Americans have never wanted to accept Iran's independence and power, but Iran's role in the world and the Middle East is a reality which can not be neglected," said Hosseini.

Rice calls on Tehran to attend summit on the future of Iraq

By FT reporters

Published: April 23 2007

Condoleezza Rice is urging Iran to join her at a high-level conference on the future of Iraq next week, signalling that Washington is ready for a serious exchange of views with Tehran after several months of pushing back against Iran's advances in the region.

In an interview with the Financial Times, the US secretary of state said it would be a "missed opportunity" if Manouchehr Mottaki, Iran's foreign minister, did not attend the minister-level meeting to be hosted by Egypt.

Ms Rice denied that the Bush administration's Iran policy had ever been directed at regime change, insisting that the aim was to "have a change in regime behaviour".

Washington's need to secure the right regional environment for an eventual withdrawal from Iraq is growing more acute because its "surge" of troops is failing to contain the violence.

That "hostile forces" would respond to the US security plan was to be expected, Ms Rice said, blaming al-Qaeda, not Iran, for the suicide bombings. She said two more US brigades were still to be deployed, adding the US needed "a little time" to judge the "trend lines".

Ms Rice's attempts to draw Iran into the conference - which will include Iraq's neighbours as well as the permanent members of the UN security council and the G8 industrialised nations - contrasted with her previous resistance to such talks.

Since then there had been a "rebalancing", she said, particularly after a speech by President George W. Bush on January 10 announcing the extra troops and a more aggressive response to Iran's perceived role in arming and training Iraqi Shia militia.

Analysts said it remained to be seen whether the US had achieved what Robert Gates, the defence secretary, said in January was the "leverage" it needed.

Iran says it will decide on its attendance at the May 3-4 conference after meeting Hoshyar Zebari, Iraq's foreign minister, this week. Iran's foreign ministry spokesman yesterday noted a "softening" in Ms Rice's rhetoric. But he added any "shift" should be put into practice.

Reporting by Guy Dinmore, Lionel Barber and Ed Luce in Washington and Najmeh Bozorgmehr in Tehran

Iran keeps the West in a guessing game

Tehran's mixed signals on its nuclear program and other issues only add to the uncertainty about its intentions.

By Ramin Mostaghim and Louise Roug, Special to The Times
April 20, 2007

TEHRAN — Iran's president stood at the dais, scolding his nation's enemies. "The army stands against any aggressor and will cut off its hand," Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared to the television cameras as soldiers and tanks filed by on the avenue before him.

The scene at Tehran's Army Day celebration this week was familiar. But the message was ambiguous.

Was the annual military procession a menacing exhibition of Iran's increasing power in the Middle East or simply a display of the regime's ability to defend itself against any attacker, as Ahmadinejad suggested?

Iran remains inscrutable to Western politicians and analysts who are deeply divided over Tehran's intentions in terms of its nuclear program and relationship with the West.

Mixed signals from Iranian politicians have compounded the problem. And because many Western observers can't be sure who truly wields power in Iran, they have difficulty gauging the significance of the varied rhetoric.

"When there are questions of resuming talks or relations with the U.S., there are contradictory remarks" from Iran, said Mohammed Ismael Hydari, chief editor of Khandani, a political magazine in Tehran. "But the West doesn't understand the real political weight of the people who are making the remarks."

Reading the tea leaves in Tehran might be particularly difficult for the U.S. because it has no diplomatic representation in Iran and only minimal contact with Iranian officials.



Who is speaking for Iran?

"We're sort of flying blind when it comes to decision-making in Iran," said Vali Nasr of the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif. "The U.S. is setting the agenda; most of the assumptions and policies are set by the U.S. But the U.S. has the least amount of contact with Iran. The one country that is in the driving seat happens to know the least."

As a consequence, it's often unclear whether it is Ahmadinejad who speaks for Iran when he thunders from the podium or whether it is Ali Larijani, the powerful but more soft-spoken secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council.

Nor is it clear whether the two Iranians see eye to eye on how to deal with the U.S. and its allies or represent factions vying for power.

Top officials here do appear united in their insistence that Iran has a right to pursue a nuclear program, which they say is aimed solely at generating electricity but which Washington fears will lead to the manufacture of nuclear weapons.

However, statements this week exemplified different political tenors in Tehran.

"No matter how much you cry and no matter what you do, you can't make this nation give up even an iota of its rights," Ahmadinejad told a gathering in Fars province, according to the Fars News Agency, with a dig at the Bush administration: "If you imagine that you can speak to the nations through the language of force and violation of laws, you are making a big mistake, because the era of empires and kingdoms has come to an end."

Larijani and others struck more conciliatory tones, saying Iran has no intention of withdrawing from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and is interested in talks with other nations.

Longtime observers of Iran believe that political fault lines exist between factions represented by Ahmadinejad and Larijani, who both ran for president in 2005, with the former emerging the victor. The two conservatives disagree about how to deal with the West and particularly the U.S., Iran's longtime foe and the leader of international efforts to dissuade Tehran from enriching uranium.

According to this view, Larijani, who previously has talked of rapprochement between the two nations, speaks for a more moderate faction.

"The moderates agree with the radicals that to enhance its influence Iran needs a nuclear weapons capability," Ray Takeyh, a Middle East fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, wrote in Foreign Affairs magazine this month. "But the moderates also believe in restraint…. They hope that by improving Tehran's relationship with Washington they can assuage U.S. concerns about Iran's nuclear development without having to abandon the program."



'Two dialects'

One Iranian observer, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject, said that Larijani had sought to resign several times since Ahmadinejad became president but that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, did not accept his resignation.

The observer, who is closer to Ahmadinejad's faction, criticized Larijani for appearing soft during a recent standoff with Britain. The dispute followed the arrest of 15 British sailors and marines accused by Iran of crossing into its territorial waters. Larijani went on British television to emphasize his nation's desire for a diplomatic solution, and Tehran eventually released the Britons.

However, some observers inside Iran caution against reading too much into the difference in tone of rhetoric or the internal squabbling, arguing that there are no fundamental political differences between Larijani and Ahmadinejad.

"The policies are expressed in two dialects," said Behzad Norfard, another analyst in Tehran. "These two dialects are orchestrated to confuse the West and buy time to achieve the predetermined goals," which could be industrial-scale uranium enrichment, he said.

The assumption is a division of labor among the Iranian politicians: Ahmadinejad is talking to Iranians while Larijani is talking to the West.

"Regarding uranium enrichment, the difference of their wording is clear: Ahmadinejad reiterates in the domestic arena that 'uranium enrichment is our red line and we will never budge or back down,' " said Abulfazl Amoee, a political scientist in Tehran. "But Ali Larijani says, 'Everything is negotiable, even uranium enrichment.' "

Said Hydari: "If sometimes somebody says something defiant or some remarks against the U.S. and its allies, it is for domestic consumption. Except for a very tiny minority, in today's Iran nobody is interested in military confrontation with the West."

Iran cracks down on women's dress

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer Mon Apr 23, 2007

TEHRAN, Iran - With the arrival of spring, Iranian police have launched a crackdown against women accused of not covering up enough, arresting nearly 300 women, some for wearing too tight an overcoat or letting too much hair peek out from under their veil, authorities said Monday.

The campaign in the streets of major cities is the toughest such crackdown in nearly two decades, raising fears that hard-liner President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad intends to re-impose the tough Islamic Revolution-era constraints on women's dress that had loosened in recent years.

The move highlighted the new boldness among hard-liners in Ahmadinejad's government, which has used mounting Western pressure on Tehran over its nuclear program and Iraq as a pretext to put down internal dissent.

But it could bring a backlash at a time when many Iranians resent Ahmadinejad for failing to boost the faltering economy or halt spiraling prices and blame him for isolating Iran with his fiery rhetoric. The two-day-old crackdown was already angering moderates.

"What they do is really insulting. You simply can't tell people what to wear. They don't understand that use of force only brings hatred toward them, not love," said Elham Mohammadi, a 23-year-old student.

Mohammadi's hair was hardly hidden by her white and orange headscarf — an infraction that could bring police attention. Police could be seen Monday stopping and giving warnings to other women who were showing too much hair or even wearing too colorful a headscarf.

Looser dress codes are one of the few surviving gains from the era of Ahmadinejad's predecessor, reformist President Mohammad Khatami, who was in power from 1997 to 2005.

During that time, many women, particularly in cities, shed the dress code imposed after the 1979 revolution — veils completely covering the hair and heavy coats or the black or gray head-to-toe chador hiding the shape of the body.

Now it is common to see women in loose headscarves — some as narrow as a ribbon — that show much of their hair. Many women also wear short, colorful, formfitting jackets that stop at the knee — or even higher — showing jeans underneath. Even under Ahmadinejad in the past two years, women can be seen wearing pants that leave the bottom of their calves bare.

Any of those styles could bring warnings or detention from the anti-vice police in the current sweep, which began Saturday. So far, 278 women have been detained, 231 of whom were released after they signed papers promising they wouldn't appear "inadequately dressed in public," police spokesman Col. Mahi Ahmadi told The Associated Press Monday.

Another 3,548 women have been given "warnings and Islamic guidance," without being detained, Ahmadi said. Twelve men have also been detained for "not observing the proper Islamic dress code" by wearing tight pants or short-sleeve shirts, he said.

Every spring, there are calls by clerics for a crackdown, and the past two years have seen minor, localized sweeps. But this year's campaign is the first since before Khatami's presidency to result in so many arrests and be given such high prominence in the government media, with warnings for women to adhere to Islamic dress.

Ahmadi said the sweep would go on "as long as necessary," but it wasn't clear whether it heralded an all-out, permanent campaign to bar looser dress codes.

One hard-line cleric on Monday warned of a backlash. "In many cases, the use of force in the fight against social harms can backfire," said the head of judiciary, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, according to the state news agency IRNA.

But many conservatives were applauding the crackdown, launched after a call from senior hard-line clerics in the holy city of Qom to tighten the reins.

"All are responsible toward the problem of inadequate dress," Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi, one senior Qom cleric, told newspapers.

Mostafa Pourmohammadi, the interior minister in charge of the campaign, said it would please the people by restoring social stability. "People are unhappy with the social and moral status of the society. They expect that the fight against social insecurity be properly implemented," Pourmohammadi was quoted in the conservative daily Resalat as saying.

A hard-line lawmaker, Mohammad Taqi Rahbar, said the looser dress codes had prompted Iranian women and families "to cry out" for help. "Men see models in the streets and ignore their own wives at home. This weakens the pillars of family," he said.

Ever since Ahmadinejad won the presidency in 2005 elections, Iranians have been fearing a return to the prohibitions on "un-Islamic" dress, music, male and female mixing and the other restrictions from the revolution's heyday.

But criticism of the president has been increasing as prices for basic goods like food and housing have increased in past months — despite his campaign promises to reduce poverty.

"The problem of our country is unemployment, rapid increase in the number of crimes and murders, not women's dress," said Sadeq Rowshani, a bank clerk.

U.S. Criticizes Iran- European Gas Deal

By ANNE GEARAN, AP Diplomatic Writer

WASHINGTON - Irritated by the prospect of a huge European gas development deal with Iran, the Bush administration said Monday it will argue that such transactions undercut international bargaining power over Iran's nuclear program.


Also Monday, the State Department said it has again asked Iran for information about a missing former FBI agent. The United States says it has no information to substantiate reports that Iran may be detaining the man, but spokesmen do not rule out that possibility.

The prospective gas development deal between Iran and an Austrian firm would not violate United Nations sanctions against Tehran, and the United States cannot block it outright.

"We question whether or not this is the right time to be handing the Iranians those kind of, at the very least, public relations victories," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

Austria's OMV energy firm and Iranian officials announced a preliminary agreement to develop Iran's Pars gas fields. The agreement announced over the weekend could also open the way for a deal to build a liquifying plant for Iranian natural gas.

The announcement was the latest sign that European oil companies continue investing in Iran despite U.S. pressure. The United States wants its allies to scrap some arms sales and scale back trade to bolster the U.N. demand that Iran roll back its disputed nuclear program.

"We're going to talk to the Austrian government, talk to the firm involved and raise with them the idea that perhaps this is not the most appropriate time to be making or committing to making large investments in the Iranian oil and gas sector," McCormack said.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad proposed Monday to hold public talks with President Bush on a wide range of issues. The White House said Iran must abandon any nuclear weapon ambitions before talks could ever be held.

"Instead of offering televised debates or a media spectacle, the United States has offered actual discussions if Iran would only agree to what the international community has asked for repeatedly: stop uranium enrichment and reprocessing," Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council at the White House, said Monday. "We're ready whenever they are."

Two recent U.N. sanctions resolutions escalate international pressure on Iran but do not target the oil and gas sector. The Security Council sanctions are intended to coerce Iran to drop nuclear activities that the United States has long claimed are part of a covert weapons program. Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful.

Roughly 80 percent of Iran's revenues come from oil exports, and Tehran's creaky oil industry badly needs foreign investment to keep up production and exports.

The United States also accuses Iran of exporting terrorism and manufacturing roadside bombs used against U.S. forces in Iraq.

U.S. companies are barred from doing business with Iran, and a law passed in 1996 allows Washington to penalize foreign firms that do more than $20 million in business with the Islamic republic. That part of the law, which has never been applied, would bar such foreign firms from doing business in the United States.

McCormack said the United States would examine whether the prospective Austrian deal violates the law.

In the case of missing American Robert Levinson, McCormack said the U.S. renewed its inquiry with Iranian authorities over the weekend.

"There have been a lot of press reports suggesting that he may have been arrested by various factions of the Iranian government, the Iranian security apparatus," McCormack said. "At this point, I can't validate those press reports, but certainly they do raise questions in our mind about where exactly is Mr. Levinson."

The Iranian government told the United States last week that it has no information about Levinson, who has been missing in Iran for more than a month.

The two countries are communicating through Swiss intermediaries. Washington cut diplomatic ties with Iran following the 1979 seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran.

Iran's leader proposes talks with Bush

By NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press Writer

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's hard-line president proposed Monday to hold public talks with President Bush on a wide range of issues, without saying whether that included international suspicions of the Iranian nuclear program or allegations of Iranian meddling in Iraq.

"Last year, I announced readiness for a televised debate over global issues with his excellency Mr. Bush. And now we announce that I am ready to negotiate with him about bilateral issues as well as regional and international issues," Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying on the Web site of Al-Alam, Iran's state-run Arabic satellite television channel.

The Iranian leader did not elaborate on what specifically he was willing to discuss with the U.S. president, but he said the talks "should be held with media present."

It was not immediately clear if Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say in all state matters, supported Ahmadinejad's proposal.

Khamenei has regularly rejected any direct talks between Tehran and Washington because of what he calls U.S. "bullying" of Iran. The two countries have not had diplomatic relations since the 1979 storming of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.

The Bush administration said Iran must abandon any nuclear weapon ambitions before talks could ever be held.

"Instead of offering televised debates or a media spectacle, the United States has offered actual discussions if Iran would only agree to what the international community has asked for repeatedly: stop uranium enrichment and reprocessing," Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council at the White House, said Monday. "We're ready whenever they are."

Ahmadinejad's offer was not his first overture to Bush. Last year, Iran's president proposed holding a televised debate with the American leader, but the White House called the offer "a diversion from the legitimate concerns" about Iran's nuclear program.

He also wrote a letter to Bush last year that Washington dismissed as irrelevant because it did not address suspicions that Iran is trying to develop atomic weapons. Tehran denies doing that, saying the program is for the peaceful use of nuclear reactors to generate electricity.

The United States and others also have accused Tehran of helping Shiite Muslims militias blamed for much of Iraq's sectarian bloodshed — a charge Iran denies.

Ahmadinejad told Al-Alam that he thought the U.S. was "unlikely" to use military force against Iran because of the dispute over the nuclear program. U.S. officials have said Washington has no plans to attack Iran.

"It is unlikely that such a will exists in the United States. I think there are enough wise people in the U.S. administration to prevent such a decision," Al-Alam quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.

The Iranian leader said military means are the wrong approach to solving disputes. "If some think that by resorting to threats they (can) change the world in favor of themselves, they are wrong," he was quoted as saying.

Earlier Monday, Ahmadinejad defended what he said are Iran's peaceful nuclear intentions and called on the European Union to speak for itself during nuclear negotiations.

"If the EU wants to have a role internationally, it needs to act independently," he Spain's state television TVE. "If it wants to translate the words of the United States, for that we already have the United States.

Iran and the EU were to resume talks in Turkey on Wednesday over the Islamic Republic's nuclear program. Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy chief, said he would meet with Iran's top negotiator, Ali Larijani, to see if Tehran can be persuaded to halt uranium enrichment in exchange for negotiations about economic incentives.

The U.N. Security Council has imposed sanctions on Tehran over its refusal to freeze enrichment.

According to a document by the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran has started feeding small amounts of uranium gas into centrifuges that can enrich it to weapons-grade level and is already running more than 1,300 of the machines.

The enrichment process can produce fuel for nuclear reactors or — if taken to a higher degree — the material for atomic bombs.

Russian ex-president Yeltsin dies

Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin has died, Russian media report, citing a Kremlin statement. Yeltsin became Russia's first democratically elected president after Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as Soviet leader in December 1991

Iran wants to stay in nuclear non-proliferation treaty

Mon Apr 23

MADRID (Reuters) -Iran would prefer to remain within the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and resist U.N. sanctions peacefully, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told Spanish television on Monday.

"We don't like to go out of (the framework of) law but we should defend the rights of our nation," Ahmadinejad said in Farsi after being asked by TVE whether Iran could abandon the treaty.

In the live interview from Tehran, Ahmadinejad also indicated that Iran would prefer peaceful resistance to
U.N. Security Council sanctions aimed at its nuclear program.

"We are obliged to defend ourselves. A nation has this logical and legitimate right, on the basis of dialogue and peaceful defense," he said, in comments translated into Spanish by an interpreter.

"There are some countries which want a monopoly of production of nuclear fuel, and I think that's the root of all the problems," he said.

Iran's top negotiator Ali Larijani and
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana will meet in Turkey on Wednesday for talks on Iran's disputed nuclear development program. It will be the first time they have met since more U.N. sanctions were imposed on Iran last month.

Ahmadinejad said Europe should adopt a separate stance to the United States in the talks.

"If the European Union wants to translate the words of the United States, we can go directly to the United States," he said.

Iran, EU nuclear talks set for Turkey

LUXEMBOURG (AFP) - EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana confirmed here Monday that he will meet this week with Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani in Turkey.

Iran on Sunday rejected Western calls for a suspension of its sensitive nuclear activities just days ahead of the crucial talks on its atomic drive.

"I will be meeting Larijani on Wednesday in Turkey," Solana told reporters in Luxembourg ahead of an
European Union foreign ministers meeting, adding that the talks would be held in Ankara.

Solana and Larijani held several rounds of discussions last year which failed to find a solution to the crisis. They last met face-to-face for informal talks on the sidelines of the Munich security conference on February 11.

It remains to be seen what result can come out of Wednesday's meeting, given Iran's insistence on enriching uranium and the EU position that Tehran must freeze the process before full negotiations can begin.

Solana declined to comment when asked what could be expected from the meeting given Iran had already delivered a hard line.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told reporters in Tehran on Sunday that "halting uranium enrichment is definitely deleted from the literature of Iran's nuclear activities."

"I will not talk about that," said Solana. "I expect to have a resumption of the talks that we had some time ago and see if we can move toward negotiations."

The UN Security Council has already imposed two sets of sanctions against Iran for refusing to halt sensitive atomic activities and has threatened to take further punitive action if Tehran's defiance continues.

The EU has been adopting a carrot and stick approach. Solana is expected to renew an offer to Tehran of a major package of political, economic and cooperation in the civil nuclear sector.

At the same time Wednesday's meeting will come half way through a 60-day UN deadline for Iran to cease its enrichment activities with the threat of further Security Council sanctions.

"We remain confident that Javier will be able to assess, to explore the possibilities to come into a prenegociating phase that would eventually lead to negotiations via a package of incentives and positive elements which is still on the table," said Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik.

The United States, which accuses Iran of seeking to make nuclear weapons, has never ruled out the option of military action to bring Tehran to heel. Iran insists its nuclear drive is solely for generating energy.

Iran has shown no sign of yielding in the stand-off, saying that its uranium enrichment operations have reached an industrial level and announcing it wishes to install over 50,000 uranium enriching centrifuges at a plant in Natanz.

Western observers however have said the extent of Iran's progress remains unclear and diplomats at the UN nuclear watchdog in Vienna have said it has installed only 1,300 centrifuges so far.

The prime minister of Iran's arch-foe
Israel, Ehud Olmert, said that Tehran was "far from attaining the technology threshold and this country is not close to getting it, contrary to statements by its leadership."

Iran's first nuclear power station is being built with Russian help in the southern city of Bushehr but its completion has been delayed repeatedly and the nuclear fuel promised by Moscow has yet to arrive.

Iran on Sunday agreed on a plan to resolve a financing dispute with the Russian contractor building the country's first nuclear power plant, Russian news agencies reported, citing the company.

The semi-official Iranian Fars news agency said the EU-Iran meeting could go ahead following work by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

"Erdogan has been in talks with the head of the national security council (Larijani) and the EU foreign policy chief and agreed that the new round of talks on Wednesday will be held in Turkey," the agency said.

We can publish your stories, Iran tells British sailors

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran is ready to "support" the 15 British sailors it captured to publish their stories after London reversed a decision allowing them to receive payments for their accounts, a top presidential advisor said.

"Once we get assurances that the young British naval personnel will not get into trouble with their government and their military, then Iran is prepared to support them in writing and publishing their memoirs," Ali Akbar Javanfekr was quoted as saying by state media.

We will "provide them with photos as well as cassette tapes and video cassettes on their cheerful life during their time in Iran," said Javanfekr, the top media advisor to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

On March 23, 15 British navy and marines were detained by Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards on an accusation of crossing into Iranian territorial waters.

Ahmadinejad subsequently pardoned and released them as a "gift" for the British people. While in Iran, the sailors said they were looked after well but made allegations of maltreatment on their return.

Britain's Defence Secretary Des Browne was then forced to apologise in parliament for a decision to allow sailors to sell their stories which was rapidly replaced by a wholesale ban.

Faye Turney, the only female detainee, reportedly received around 100,000 pounds (147,000 euros, 196,000 dollars) for interviews with The Sun tabloid, and commercial broadcaster ITV.

The youngest detainee, Operator Maintainer Arthur Batchelor, sold his story to the Daily Mirror and caused embarrassment in military ranks by complaining the Iranians never returned his MP3 player.