Iran will react if ships inspected: Ahmadinejad

July 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment

(Reuters) – Iran will react swiftly if its commercial shipping or aviation are subjected to inspection, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday.

A U.N. Security Council resolution on June 9 imposed restrictions on Iranian shipping and other sectors to try to persuade Tehran to curb its nuclear enrichment activities.

Under the latest sanctions, countries would have the authority to inspect cargo ships heading to or from Iran.

“You should know whoever takes a decision against the Iranian nation, such as the so-called inspection of the Iranian ships or so-and-so toward its aircraft, will immediately receive Iran’s reaction,” told a conference in a speech broadcast live on radio.

Earlier this month, the European Union banned more planes operated by Iran Air from flying into the airspace of the 27-country bloc on safety grounds.

It denied reports there was a ban on Iranian commercial airliners refueling in Germany and Britain as a result of U.S. sanctions. However, some oil companies have stopped jet fuel supplies to Iranian aircraft outside Iran.

Restating that the Islamic state did not seek hostility with any country, Ahmadinejad said: “We are in favor of friendship and logic.”

Iran, the world’s fifth largest oil producer, has been the subject of four rounds of U.N. sanctions over its defiance to suspend its uranium enrichment activities.

Iran says its nuclear program is designed to produce electricity and sanctions will not bring about any change.

(Writing by Hashem Kalantari, Editing by Andrew Dobbie)

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Timeline: Missing Iranian nuclear scientist surfaces

July 15, 2010 By Leave a Comment

June 2009 – Shahram Amiri, a university researcher working for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, goes missing during a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia. Iran’s Press TV said Amiri was a researcher at Tehran’s Malek Ashtar University.

September 2009 – The IAEA says Iran, three months after Amiri’s disappearance, disclosed the existence of its second uranium enrichment site, near the central holy Shi’ite city of Qom, further heightening tension over the Islamic state’s atomic activities. Construction of the plant began in 2006.

October 2009 – Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki says Iran has found documents that prove U.S. involvement in the disappearance.

December 2009 – Iran accuses Saudi Arabia of handing over the scientist to the United States.

March 2010 – Media reports that Amiri defected as part of a long-planned operation to get him to leave Iran and resettle in the United States.

– An ABC report says Amiri has been extensively debriefed since his defection and says he helped to confirm U.S. intelligence assessments about the Iranian nuclear programme.

June 2010 – Iran’s state television shows a video of what it says is the missing nuclear scientist declaring he was kidnapped and taken to the United States where he was “tortured.”

– “I was kidnapped from Medina in a joint operation by the American intelligence service … and Saudi Arabia,” Amiri says, speaking in Farsi, in footage which showed him sitting behind a computer wearing headphones. Amiri says in the video he is in Arizona and that the footage was taken on April 5.

– Shortly after that footage, a second video appears on the Internet, also purporting to be Amiri, in which he says he is actually studying in the United States.

– Iran summons the Swiss ambassador in Tehran and hands over documents which it says shows the missing scientist has been kidnapped by the United States.

– On June 29, in a third video, a man describing himself as Amiri said he had fled from U.S. “agents” and was in hiding, urging human rights groups to help him to return to Iran.

July 2010 – Iran has sent to U.S. authorities more documents about the disappearance of the scientist, demanding his release, the foreign ministry says on July 3.

– “The documents about Shahram Amiri’s abduction by the CIA have been delivered to the Swiss embassy as the preservers of America’s interests,” according to Iran’s IRNA.

– The scientist has taken refuge in the Iranian interests section of Pakistan’s embassy in Washington, a Pakistan foreign ministry official says.

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Saudi writers find new voice, depictions of closed society

June 23, 2010 By Leave a Comment

DUBAI, June 21 (Reuters) – Islamists in Saudi Arabia depict them as a pampered liberal elite while the authorities in this conservative Islamic state throw up obstacles in their path.

Despite the odds, novelists in closed, controlled Saudi Arabia have come into their own in recent years, publishing a growing body of work that has attracted attention not only in the kingdom but beyond for the creative representations of an opaque, troubled society.

Saudi novelist Abdo Khal this year won the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, known as the Arabic Booker, a departure from previous years when winners hailed from Egypt, the traditional centre of Arabic literature. The success was taken by many as a sign that the Saudi novel had come of age.

“Saudi Arabia and the Gulf have been regarded as marginal countries in the cultural scene, but now they have a major presence,” said Saudi novelist Yousef al-Mohaimeed, whose 2003 novel Wolves of the Crescent Moon painted a striking picture of a merciless society.

“Output has increased steadily over the last 7 years and now there are more than 50 novels published by Saudis each year.”

For decades a society largely closed to outsiders, tightly controlled by state-backed religious and security services, Saudi Arabia has witnessed immense change in recent years.

The September 11 attacks forced the clique of princes running the world’s top oil producer to reconsider engagement with the world. High oil prices since 2002 have been another factor, allowing ordinary Saudis to access the information revolution seen as a threat by many in the ruling elite.

Young Saudis especially, who make up a majority of the country’s population of 18 million, turned to writing blogs and novels in an outpouring of expression.

Political activity is a practical impossibility in Saudi Arabia, where the royal family dominates governance and clerics of the puritanical Wahhabi sect to enforce a rigid moral system.

Most women are unable to drive and mix with unrelated men.

The 2005 novel Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea, though dismissed by critics as lightweight, was a sign of the times: three affluent young women reveal their trials and tribulations in finding the perfect mate through a series of email exchanges. It was a surprise success, translated into many languages.

The late author Abdelrahman Munif was stripped of his Saudi nationality for his insolence after publishing books in the 1980s that showed how oil wealth enabled the rise of tribal kleptocracies in traditional Gulf Arab society.

But the new generation of writers have managed to develop a local audience and gain recognition in Saudi Arabia.

CHALLENGES

“There is censorship, which is sometimes eased, sometimes tightened, and there are the Islamists who are still strong and suffocating,” says novelist Badriya Al-Bisher, whose 2005 book Hind wa al-Askar (Hind and the Soldiers) annoyed conservatives by arguing that after years of living under Islamic tradition, the Saudi woman represses herself.

Abdo Khal’s winning novel Tarmi Bi-Sharar — a Quranic reference to hell, meaning “throwing sparks” — came to market with a non-Saudi publisher and was briefly withdrawn at this year’s Riyadh International Book Fair. His books have in the past been difficult to find in Saudi bookshops.

Mainstream television gives little attention to writers. Saudi state media and the pan-Arab news and entertainment networks presided over by Saudi princes and tycoons have virtually closed off Arab air space to literati.

Even al-Jazeera — the most popular channel in the region, currently on good terms with Riyadh — has reduced its cultural coverage to a minimum for the entire Arab region.

Yet the novel is one of the few areas of artistic production that has not been co-opted by state actors, largely because the powerful have paid it little attention.

Billionaire prince Alwaleed bin Talal has monopolised much of Arabic film and music production through his Rotana network. Critics have noted that Saudi funding of drama in Egypt and Syria involves a subtle conformism with conservative mores.

The biggest selling books in Saudi Arabia itself invariably concern religion — the Quran, works central to Wahhabism and self-help books such as preacher Ayedh al-Qarni’s La Tahzan (Don’t Be Sad) .

Mohaimeed says some Lebanese publishers, despite a new interest in Saudi literature, are reticent about Saudi writers for fear of being cut out of the Saudi market, where purchasing power is high.

Khal speaks to some of these distorted dimensions of power relations in Saudi society in his prize-winning book that depicts the moral dangers brought on by the recent oil boom.

An unnamed, faceless tycoon figure in the city of Jeddah has built himself a palace in the vicinity of a poor neighbourhood, which is able to provide individuals desperate enough to work as virtual slaves performing acts of sexual torture on those who have had the misfortune to stand in his way.

“It looks at the humiliation of the human being and suffering,” says Taleb Alrefai, a Kuwaiti novelist who headed the committee that awarded the prize. “It’s about how an individual tries to escape the social and economic chains that are taking away from his dignity.”

“The space for art and culture is very small, and not only in Arab media,” he said, adding: “The novel is the effort of one individual and that’s what gives it its freedom.”

(Editing by Missy Ryan)

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Iran executes leader of Sunni rebel group

June 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

(Reuters) – Iran hanged the convicted leader of a Sunni Muslim rebel group on Sunday for his involvement in deadly attacks in the Islamic state, state television reported.

World

Predominantly Shi’ite Muslim Iran arrested Abdolmalek Rigi in February, four months after his Jundollah (God’s soldiers) group claimed a bombing which killed dozens of people, including senior officers of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards.

“Abdolmalek Rigi was hanged at dawn today…he was convicted for many crimes like being behind many deadly attacks…and killing dozens of innocent people,” state television said.

Iran grapples with ethnic and religious tension in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan where authorities have responded to attacks by Sunni rebels with a spate of hangings. Rights groups and the West have condemned the hangings.

A Tehran Revolutionary court sentenced Rigi to death and the Supreme Court upheld the sentence, the semi-official Fars news agency said, adding that Rigi was executed inside Tehran’s Evin prison in the presence of “the families of some of the victims.”

“Abdolmalek Rigi’s charges also included armed robbery, kidnapping, drug trafficking and the formation and leading of the terrorist Jundollah group,” Fars reported.

Iran says the Sunni group has links to Sunni Islamist al Qaeda and accuses Pakistan, Britain and the United States of backing Jundollah to create instability in southeast Iran, where many Sunni minority live. The three countries deny the claim.

“Jundollah was linked to members of foreign intelligence services, including members from America and the Zionist regime’s (Israel) intelligence services under the cover of NATO,” the official IRNA news agency quoted a court statement as saying.

“DISGRACEFUL STIGMA”

Iran is at odds with the West over its nuclear programme, which it insists is aimed at generating power and not building bombs as the U.S., its European allies and Israel suspect.

“The hanging showed Iran will not let its territory to be used by criminals…With the execution of Abdolmalek, the disgraceful stigma of our tribe was eliminated,” Bashir Ahmad Rigi, the chief of Rigi’s tribe, was quoted by IRNA as saying.

A leading lawmaker said Iran planned to file a lawsuit at relevant international courts against Britain and the United states for supporting Rigi.

“Based on Rigi’s confessions, America and Britain were backing terrorist acts committed by him in Iran,” said lawmaker Parviz Sorouri, the ILNA news agency reported.

Sistan-Baluchestan is a poor area near Pakistan and Afghanistan. Bombings and clashes between security forces, ethnic Baluch Sunni insurgents and drug traffickers have increased in recent years.

Iranian leaders reject claims by Western human rights groups that the Islamic Republic discriminates against ethnic and religious minorities.

Ethnic Baluch, many with tribal links to their restive kin in neighboring Pakistan and Afghanistan, make up an estimated one to three percent of Iran’s 70 million population.

(Writing by Parisa Hafezi, Editing by Diana Abdallah)

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Iran executes leader of Sunni rebel group – TV

June 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

TEHRAN, June 20 (Reuters) – Iran hanged the convicted leader of a Sunni Muslim rebel group on Sunday for his involvement in deadly attacks in the Islamic state, state television reported.

Predominantly Shi’ite Muslim Iran arrested Abdolmalek Rigi in February, four months after his Jundollah (God’s soldiers) group claimed a bombing which killed dozens of people, including senior officers of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards.

“Abdolmalek Rigi was hanged at dawn today…he was convicted for many crimes like being behind many deadly attacks…and killing dozens of innocent people,” state television said.

Iran grapples with ethnic and religious tension in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan where authorities have responded to attacks by Sunni rebels with a spate of hangings. Rights groups and the West have condemned the hangings.

A Tehran Revolutionary court sentenced Rigi to death and the Supreme Court upheld the sentence, the semi-official Fars news agency said, adding that Rigi was executed inside Tehran’s Evin prison in the presence of “the families of some of the victims”.

“Abdolmalek Rigi’s charges also included armed robbery, kidnapping, drug trafficking and the formation and leading of the terrorist Jundollah group,” Fars reported.

Iran says the Sunni group has links to Sunni Islamist al Qaeda and accuses Pakistan, Britain and the United States of backing Jundollah to create instability in southeast Iran, where many Sunni minority live. The three countries deny the claim.

“Jundollah was linked to members of foreign intelligence services, including members from America and the Zionist regime’s (Israel) intelligence services under the cover of NATO,” the official IRNA news agency quoted a court statement as saying.

“DISGRACEFUL STIGMA”

Iran is at odds with the West over its nuclear programme, which it insists is aimed at generating power and not building bombs as the U.S., its European allies and Israel suspect.

“The hanging showed Iran will not let its territory to be used by criminals…With the execution of Abdolmalek, the disgraceful stigma of our tribe was eliminated,” Bashir Ahmad Rigi, the chief of Rigi’s tribe, was quoted by IRNA as saying.

A leading lawmaker said Iran planned to file a lawsuit at relevant international courts against Britain and the United states for supporting Rigi.

“Based on Rigi’s confessions, America and Britain were backing terrorist acts committed by him in Iran,” said lawmaker Parviz Sorouri, the ILNA news agency reported.

Sistan-Baluchestan is a poor area near Pakistan and Afghanistan. Bombings and clashes between security forces, ethnic Baluch Sunni insurgents and drug traffickers have increased in recent years.

Iranian leaders reject claims by Western human rights groups that the Islamic Republic discriminates against ethnic and religious minorities.

Ethnic Baluch, many with tribal links to their restive kin in neighbouring Pakistan and Afghanistan, make up an estimated one to three percent of Iran’s 70 million population.

(Writing by Parisa Hafezi, Editing by Diana Abdallah)

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Iran hangs head of Sunni Muslim rebel group -TV

June 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

June 20 (Reuters) – Iran hanged the convicted leader of a Sunni Muslim rebel group on Sunday for his involvement in “terrorist” attacks in the Islamic state, state television reported.

“Abdolmalek Rigi was hanged at dawn today … he was convicted for many crimes like being behind many deadly attacks … and killing dozens of innocent people,” state television said.

(Writing by Parisa Hafezi, Editing by Michael Roddy)

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Iran arrests 13 terrorist group members: report

June 14, 2010 By Leave a Comment

(Reuters) – Iran said on Sunday it had arrested 13 members of a terrorist group that authorities in the Islamic state say carried out attacks on minority Sunnis, state television reported.

World

The armed group was linked to the Islamic state’s “foreign enemies,” state television said, using a phrase that usually refers to the United States and Israel.

“The group was directly involved in last year’s assassination of a Sunni Friday prayer leader … a Sunni member of an influential clerical body … and a Sunni religious leader,” an Intelligence Ministry statement said, television reported.

The ministry did not identify the group nor say whether those detained were Sunni rebels in southern Iran or Kurdish separatists based in mountainous areas close to the borders with Iraq and Turkey.

According to state television, Intelligence Ministry agents who detained the 13 suspects at locations around the country, also seized 10 bombs and 500 kg of explosives from the group, which had planned more attacks.

Sectarian violence is relatively rare in Iran, whose Shi’ite leaders reject allegations by Western rights groups that it discriminates against ethnic and religious minorities.

Many Sunnis live in southeastern Iran, which has seen an increase in bombings and clashes between security forces, ethnic Baluch Sunni insurgents and drug traffickers.

Iranian officials often accuse the United States and Israel of supporting terrorists. The both dismiss such allegations.

Washington and its European allies accuse Iran of trying to build a nuclear bomb under cover of a civilian programme. Iran denies any such intention.

(Reporting by Hossein Jaseb, Writing by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Jon Boyle)

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Iran arrests 13 terrorist group members-state TV

June 14, 2010 By Leave a Comment

June 13 (Reuters) – Iran said on Sunday it had arrested 13 members of a terrorist group that authorities in the Islamic state say carried out attacks on minority Sunnis, state television reported.

The armed group was linked to the Islamic state’s “foreign enemies”, state television said, using a phrase that usually refers to the United States and Israel.

“The group was directly involved in last year’s assassination of a Sunni Friday prayer leader … a Sunni member of an influential clerical body … and a Sunni religious leader,” an Intelligence Ministry statement said, television reported.

The ministry did not identify the group nor say whether those detained were Sunni rebels in southern Iran or Kurdish separatists based in mountainous areas close to the borders with Iraq and Turkey.

According to state television, Intelligence Ministry agents who detained the 13 suspects at locations around the country, also seized 10 bombs and 500 kg of explosives from the group, which had planned more attacks.

Sectarian violence is relatively rare in Iran, whose Shi’ite leaders reject allegations by Western rights groups that it discriminates against ethnic and religious minorities.

Many Sunnis live in southeastern Iran, which has seen an increase in bombings and clashes between security forces, ethnic Baluch Sunni insurgents and drug traffickers.

Iranian officials often accuse the United States and Israel of supporting terrorists. The both dismiss such allegations.

Washington and its European allies accuse Iran of trying to build a nuclear bomb under cover of a civilian programme. Iran denies any such intention. (Reporting by Hossein Jaseb, Writing by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Jon Boyle)

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Q+A – Why did Russia fall out with Iran?

May 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Iran’s tirade against Russia on Wednesday for supporting fresh U.N. sanctions showed how the former allies have now publicly fallen out.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad issued a rare public rebuke to his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev, telling him he should “act more cautiously” and “think more”. The Kremlin replied that Ahmadinejad should refrain from “political demagoguery”.

Below are some questions and answers on why and how Moscow has shifted its position on Iran:

WEREN’T IRAN AND RUSSIA ALLIES?

Russia is a significant trading partner with Iran. Bilateral trade reached $3 billion last year, with Moscow selling the Islamic Republic nuclear technology, aircraft and other goods.

Iran and Russia are also among the world’s top oil and gas producers and have cooperated in this area.

In the diplomatic arena, Russia had resisted in 2008 and early 2009 fresh U.N. sanctions against Tehran and played down suggestions Iran was using its nuclear programme to build bombs.

HAS RUSSIA OPPOSED AN IRANIAN BOMB?

Russian officials have always insisted Moscow — which has a big problem of its own with Islamist terrorism — does not want to see a powerful Islamic state near its troubled southern borders acquire nuclear weapons. But until last year, Russia didn’t believe American assessments that it was likely to happen.

DIDN’T PUTIN DISMISS ANY NUCLEAR THREAT FROM IRAN?

In October 2007 while still president, Vladimir Putin became the first Kremlin leader to visit Iran since Stalin, delivering smiling support to Ahmadinejad, warning the United States against any military action and upholding Iran’s right to pursue a civilian nuclear programme.

DID RUSSIA BELIEVE IRAN WAS PURSUING A BOMB?

U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates recounted a meeting he had in 2007 with Putin:

“When I first met with President Putin and talked about this, he basically dismissed the idea that the Iranians would have a missile that would have the range to reach much of Western Europe and much of Russia before 2020 or so,” he said in testimony to the U.S. Senate last year.

“And he showed me a map that his intelligence guys had prepared. And I told him he needed a new intelligence service.”

WHEN DID THIS START TO CHANGE?

In the two years after that meeting, Russia started to change its assessment of the Iranian programme. However, in June 2009 Moscow was still happy to welcome Ahmadinejad to a summit of BRIC nations in Siberia and congratulate him on his disputed re-election. The real shift in policy towards Iran appears to have started over the course of last summer in Moscow.

DID OBAMA’S ELECTION ALTER ANYTHING?

When President Obama came to power in January 2009, he vowed to “reset” relations with Russia. This meant concessions to Moscow such as scaling back Bush-era missile defence plans in eastern Europe and accepting Russian influence in the former Soviet Union, in return for Moscow’s help on tackling international problems such as the Iranian nuclear programme and Afghanistan. Ties between the two nations improved dramatically.

BUT WASN’T RUSSIA RESISTING SANCTIONS ONLY LAST YEAR?

Despite headlines from Russian officials apparently resisting Western pressure on Iran, Western ambassadors in Moscow were talking confidently last year about how helpful and supportive Russia had been on Iran. It appears that Moscow was giving private assurances of support to the West on Iran some time before it changed its public position.

The West’s announcement in September that it had discovered a new secret Iranian nuclear fuel plant near the Muslim holy city of Qom further undermined Moscow’s confidence in Iran. Russia said the plant violated U.N. Security Council decisions and was a “source of serious concern”. In November 2009, Moscow supported an IAEA resolution condemning the move.

DID MEDVEDEV MAKE A DIFFERENCE?

Medvedev’s strong personal relationship with Obama has made it easier for the two leaders to agree a common position on Iran. The Russian president first started talking of fresh sanctions against Iran last September and mentioned them again during a visit to the United State the same month.

After signing a nuclear arms reduction treaty with Obama last month, Medvedev said he regretted that Iran was not reacting to constructive proposals on its nuclear programme. Iran has complained that Russia is caving in to U.S. pressure.

ISN’T RUSSIA STILL PROVIDING NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY TO IRAN?

Moscow has a $1 billion contract with Tehran to build and start up a nuclear power plant at Bushehr. The plant is planned to start up in August after numerous delays — which a senior Iranian lawmaker said were the result of Russia using Iran as a pawn in dealings with other powers such as the United States.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton complained about Bushehr’s planned summer start-up when she visited Moscow in March, but Western diplomats say privately Russia has offered satisfactory safeguards against the plant being used for military purposes.

AND WASN’T RUSSIA GOING TO SELL IRAN AN AIR DEFENCE SYSTEM?

Moscow signed a contract in 2007 to sell Iran the S-300, a modern surface-to-air missile system that can be used to shoot down multiple hostile rockets and aircraft. However Russia has not yet fulfilled the contract and Western envoys say they have private assurances from Moscow that it will not do so.

WHAT MADE RUSSIA AGREE TO SANCTIONS AGAINST IRAN THIS TIME?

A senior Kremlin official said earlier this month that if Washington wanted Moscow’s support for fresh sanctions against Iran, it needed to drop U.S. bans on trade with four Russian arms companies. Washington dropped the bans on Friday last week, though U.S. officials continue to deny any direct linkage with the Iran sanctions issue.

(Editing by Ralph Boulton)

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Iran aims to become gasoline exporter – official

May 24, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Iran seeks to become self-sufficient in gasoline in two years’ time and then to start exporting the fuel, an official said on Sunday, as some traders and international oil firms cease sales to the Islamic state.

The world’s fifth-largest crude exporter imports at least 30 percent of its gasoline needs but says the construction of new refineries will boost domestic output and make it less vulnerable to any future sanctions targeting such trade.

“By building new refineries we will become a gasoline exporter,” ISNA news agency quoted Ali Reza Zeighami, managing director of the National Iranian Refining and Oil Products Distribution Company, as saying.

“The plan is to become self-sufficient in two years’ time … by implementing the scheme to increase gasoline production in refineries,” Zeighami said.

Officials also hope a plan to phase out energy subsidies will slow gasoline demand from Iranians now enjoying some of the world’s cheapest fuel, at 1,000 rials (10 U.S. cents) a litre.

In the 2009-10 year, Iran produced 44.6 million litres of gasoline every day but consumed 64.9 million litres, forcing it to import the difference, according to official figures.

U.S. politicians are working on legislation to penalise fuel suppliers to Iran in an effort to pressure Tehran to stop uranium enrichment.

The West says Iran is using its atomic programme to develop a nuclear bomb, while Iran insists it is for electricity.

Asia-based industry sources said earlier this month that Iran’s gasoline imports in May were expected to drop by about 20 percent versus the previous month.

In April, senior management at Russia’s No.2 oil company, LUKOIL, verbally instructed traders involved in gasoline sales to Iran to cease business activity with Tehran.

Malaysia’s state oil company also said it had ceased sales to Iran.

But last month state-run ChinaOil sold two gasoline cargoes to Iran, the first known direct sales to the OPEC member. Previously sales from China were mostly done via third parties.

Separately on Sunday, Iran’s ILNA news agency said an Iranian state energy firm would on June 3 launch a new 250 million euro bond offering to help finance development of the giant South Pars natural gas field in the Gulf.

Part of a one-billion euro bond sale, the first two tranches were offered in March and early May, Iranian media reported. It represents a rare bid by Iran, under U.N. and U.S. sanctions over its nuclear work, to raise capital in this way.

(Reporting by Ramin Mostafavi and Hashem Kalantari; writing by Fredrik Dahl; editing by Louise Heavens)

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French woman to be cleared of spying-Iran lawyer

May 15, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The lawyer for a French teaching assistant who was arrested on spying charges after Iran’s disputed June election said on Saturday she would be acquitted by Sunday.

“The case of Clotilde Reiss is finished. The court will acquit my client of charges by Sunday,” Mohammad Ali Mahdavi-Sabet told Reuters.

Reiss, who has been out of jail on bail and staying at the French embassy, was accused of taking part in a Western plot to destabilise the Iranian government after the June 12 vote in which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was re-elected.

Her case has raised tensions between France and Iran, already at odds over Tehran’s nuclear programme. France says Reiss is innocent and has demanded her immediate release.

She was arrested in Tehran in July when preparing to leave the Islamic state after a five-month stint working at the University of Isfahan.

She was among thousands of people detained over widespread post-election unrest. Most of them have been freed.

Defeated moderate candidates say the election was rigged to secure Ahmadinejad’s re-election. The authorities deny this.

(Reporting by Hossein Jaseb, Writing by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Charles Dick)

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Iran says it warned off U.S. plane near manoeuvres

May 11, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Iran’s military warned off a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft trying to approach Iranian naval manoeuvres, Fars News Agency reported on Tuesday.

The incident involving the two old foes happened on Monday, the semi-official news agency quoted the armed forces chief as saying.

Iran’s navy last week launched eight days of exercises in the Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, in a region crucial for global oil supplies.

“A U.S. reconnaissance aircraft which had intended to approach our operational war games left … upon the timely warning of our air defence forces,” Fars quoted army commander Ataollah Salehi as saying.

He was speaking to reporters as the military test-fired two surface-to-sea missiles in the Gulf of Oman, it added.

There was no immediate U.S. comment on the report.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said last week Iran was challenging U.S. naval power in the Middle East with an array of offensive and defensive weapons.

Salehi said: “It’s past the epoch when America would change the regime in a country by just dispatching a warship.”

Iran’s latest manoeuvres coincide with rising tension between Iran and the West, which says Tehran’s nuclear work is aimed at making bombs. Iran denies this.

The United States is pushing for a fourth round of U.N. sanctions on the Islamic state over its refusal to halt sensitive nuclear activities as demanded by the U.N. Security Council.

Iran often announces advances in its military capabilities and tests weaponry in an apparent attempt to show its readiness for any strikes by Israel or the United States.

REVOLUTIONARY GUARDS

In exercises held in the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz between April 22 and 25, official media said the elite Revolutionary Guards tested missiles and a new speedboat capable of destroying enemy ships.

The Pentagon last month said U.S. military action against Iran remained an option even as Washington pursues diplomacy and sanctions to halt the country’s atomic activities.

Israel, widely believed to have the Middle East’s only atomic arsenal, has described Iran’s nuclear programme as a threat to its existence and has not ruled out military action.

Iran, a predominantly Shi’ite Muslim state, has said it would respond to any attack by targeting U.S. interests in the region and Israel, as well as closing the Strait of Hormuz.

About 40 percent of the world’s traded oil leaves the Gulf region through the strategic narrows.

Salehi said foreign forces had received the message sent by the manoeuvres, saying this was shown by the fact that their war ships kept a distance of about 300-400 km from the drills. He did not specify whether he was referring to U.S. vessels.

Iran was “very serious about the protection of its interests,” the armed forces chief added.

(Additional reporting by Hossein Jaseb; writing by Fredrik Dahl; Editing by Charles Dick)

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Iran welcomes Turkish, Brazilian nuclear fuel ideas

May 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Iran gave an upbeat assessment of Turkish and Brazilian mediation efforts in its nuclear dispute with the West, welcoming “in principle” ideas aimed at reviving a stalled U.N.-backed atom fuel swap deal with major powers.

“New formulas have been raised about the exchange of fuel … I think we can arrive at practical agreements on these formulas,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said in remarks published by the Iran daily on Saturday.

“That is why we welcomed the proposals in principle … and left the details for more examination.” He did not elaborate on the content of the proposals.

His comments appeared part of an Iranian attempt to avert a possible new round of U.N. sanctions on the Islamic state over a nuclear programme the West fears is designed to develop bombs.

Turkey and Brazil are currently non-permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.

Analysts say Iran may be trying to buy time and to split the six world powers — the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China — which are discussing additional punitive measures against the Islamic Republic.

Iran, the world’s fifth-largest crude exporter, says it only seeks to generate electricity and has repeatedly refused to bow to international demands to halt sensitive atomic activity.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad earlier this week agreed “in principle” to Brazilian mediation on the proposed fuel swap exchange, Iranian media reported.

The powers see the plan as a way to remove much of Iran’s low-enriched uranium stockpile to minimise the risk of this being used for atomic bombs, while Iran would get specially processed fuel to keep its nuclear medicine programme running.

But the proposal broke down over Iran’s insistence on doing the swap only on its territory, rather than shipping its LEU abroad in advance, and in smaller, phased amounts, meaning no meaningful cut in a stockpile which grows day by day.

“ULTIMATELY POSITIVE”

Turkey and Brazil have been trying to revive the fuel deal in a bid to stave off further sanctions. Iran has also put forward a counterproposal, dismissed by Western officials.

The United States is lobbying U.N. Security Council members to back sanctions including proposed measures targeting Iranian banks, shipping and the country’s all-important energy sector.

But Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim told Reuters on Friday his country saw a window of opportunity and a willingness by Iran to reach a negotiated solution over its nuclear programme. He met Ahmadinejad in Tehran last week.

Russia and China, veto-wielding members of the Security Council which have significant commercial links with Iran, have said they are willing to give Turkey and Brazil more time to resuscitate the fuel proposal.

Brazil favours a mooted compromise in which Iran could export its uranium to another country in return for higher-enriched fuel for a Tehran research reactor. Iran has so far insisted the exchange must take place on its territory.

“The framework set out by the countries (Turkey and Brazil), alongside our own country’s recent proposal, has the potential from the perspective of Iran for arriving at a final common point and becoming operational,” Mehmanparast said.

“At any rate, we believe the efforts being undertaken by friendly countries, such as Turkey and Brazil, can ultimately be positive,” he added.

(Writing by Fredrik Dahl; editing by Matthew Jones)

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Iran says sanctions not to stop nuclear work-agency

April 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment

TEHRAN, April 2 (Reuters) – International sanctions will not prevent Iran from pursuing its nuclear activities, said the country’s top nuclear negotiator on Friday, the official IRNA news agency reported.

“Iranians are familiar with sanctions … We consider sanctions as opportunities … We will continue our (nuclear) path more decisively,” Saeed Jalili was quoted by IRNA as saying in China.

The West accuses Iran of covertly trying to build nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear power is aimed at generating electricity.

The United States and its European allies want to curb the Islamic state’s nuclear activities and are pushing for new U.N.-backed sanctions against Tehran.

China, a veto-wielding member of the United Nations Security Council, has for months fended off the calls to back sanctions.

Jalili flew to Beijing on Thursday to hold talks with Chinese officials. Iran is a major oil supplier to China. (Writing by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Jon Boyle)

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No caning sentence for beer-drinking Malaysia woman

April 1, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Malaysia has dropped a caning sentence imposed on a woman for drinking beer, a case that has raised concerns of intolerance in the mainly Muslim country. Shukarno Mutalib, the father of the 32-year-old woman, told Reuters he had received a letter from Islamic authorities indicating the caning has been replaced by another penalty, but few details had been given.

“I have also been asked to present my daughter before the religious authorities on Friday for her to undergo a ‘three week’ punishment, but we do not know yet whether it will be community service or detention,” he said.

Islamic affairs officials could not be immediately contacted.

The woman, Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, was sentenced to six strokes of the cane and a fine after she was caught drinking beer by Islamic enforcement officials two years ago at a hotel lounge in the central state of Pahang.

In February, three Muslim women were caned for the first time under Islamic laws for having sex out of wedlock.

Malaysia practises a dual-track legal system, with Islamic criminal and family law applicable to Muslims. Non-Muslims, who make up about 45 percent of Malaysia’s 28 million residents, are subject to civil law.

The canings reflect growing conservatism in a country long portraying itself as a moderate Islamic state and have begun to concern investors.

Since taking office in April last year, Prime Minister Najib has pledged political and economic reforms to woo investments and reverse his ruling coalition’s historic election losses in 2008.

But ethnic and religious tensions have worsened following a row sparked after a court in December last year allowed Christians to use the word “Allah”.

Political uncertainties in Malaysia since the 2008 election has hit net portfolio and direct investment outflows to the tune of $61 billion in 2008 and 2009, according to official data.

(Reporting by Razak Ahmad; Editing by Ron Popeski)

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No caning sentence for beer-drinking Malaysia woman

April 1, 2010 By Leave a Comment

(Reuters) – Malaysia has dropped a caning sentence imposed on a woman for drinking beer, a case that has raised concerns of intolerance in the mainly Muslim country. Shukarno Mutalib, the father of the 32-year-old woman, told Reuters he had received a letter from Islamic authorities indicating the caning has been replaced by another penalty, but few details had been given.

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“I have also been asked to present my daughter before the religious authorities on Friday for her to undergo a ‘three week’ punishment, but we do not know yet whether it will be community service or detention,” he said.

Islamic affairs officials could not be immediately contacted.

The woman, Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, was sentenced to six strokes of the cane and a fine after she was caught drinking beer by Islamic enforcement officials two years ago at a hotel lounge in the central state of Pahang.

In February, three Muslim women were caned for the first time under Islamic laws for having sex out of wedlock.

Malaysia practices a dual-track legal system, with Islamic criminal and family law applicable to Muslims. Non-Muslims, who make up about 45 percent of Malaysia’s 28 million residents, are subject to civil law.

The canings reflect growing conservatism in a country long portraying itself as a moderate Islamic state and have begun to concern investors.

Since taking office in April last year, Prime Minister Najib has pledged political and economic reforms to woo investments and reverse his ruling coalition’s historic election losses in 2008.

But ethnic and religious tensions have worsened following a row sparked after a court in December last year allowed Christians to use the word “Allah.”

Political uncertainties in Malaysia since the 2008 election has hit net portfolio and direct investment outflows to the tune of $61 billion in 2008 and 2009, according to official data.

(Reporting by Razak Ahmad; Editing by Ron Popeski)

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Iraq “90 per cent secure” says security minister

May 24, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Baghdad – Iraq is a much safer country than three years ago, the country’s national security minister said Sunday, despite a wave of bomb and gun attacks this week.

“Iraq is now 90-per-cent secure,” Sherwan al-Waeli, Iraq’s minister of national security, told the German Press Agency dpa.

His comments came after a spate of bombings in Baghdad and the northern city of Kirkuk left 74 people dead over the course of Wednesday night and Thursday.

Shortly after al-Waeli spoke to dpa on Sunday, gunmen shot a militiaman from a “Sahwa” or “Awakening” Sunni militia aligned with the government at a checkpoint in Hilla, roughly 100 kilometres south of Baghdad, police said.

Al-Waeli said that the attacks were isolated incidents, and did not compare to the kind of violence Iraq saw in the year 2006, when some 13,000 people were killed in sectarian attacks.

“But,” he acknowledged, “The latest wave of bombings in Baghdad and elsewhere made us reconsider our calculations, re-assess the distribution of our security units, their performance, and the reasons for any shortcomings.”

April was the bloodiest month this year in Iraq. More than 300 people, mostly Shiite Muslims in the capital, were killed in a series of deadly bomb blasts over the course of the month.

Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman Abdel-Karim Khalaf told dpa on Sunday that Iraqi security forces had arrested “all the perpetrators” of the April bombings, “in an extraordinary and exceptional effort that would send a clear message to all criminals who are thinking of sabotaging the country’s security.”

Khalaf said that despite some “unsystematic” attacks in various places in Iraq, the crime rate in the country had dropped back to normal.

Yassin Majid, a spokesman for Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, told dpa he thought the latest wave of attacks had come in response to Iraqi police officials’ claim to have arrested Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the purported leader of the Islamic State in Iraq, an umbrella insurgent group that includes al-Qaeda in Iraq.

“We might witness an increase in terrorist attacks following the detention and news about his confessions,” Majid said. “This is a reaction. His group is trying to save face, to prove that they are still capable of operating.”

“But these attacks are totally insignificant in the longterm,” he insisted. (dpa)

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Two militiamen killed in attack in southern Philippines

April 18, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Cotabato City, Philippines – Two pro-government militiamen were killed in an attack by suspected Muslim secessionist rebels in the southern Philippines, a regional army spokesman said Thursday.

Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Ponce said the victims were aboard a trishaw when suspected Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels fired at them in Datu Saudi Ampatuan town in Maguindanao province, 930 kilometres south of Manila, on Wednesday.

Two other militiamen were wounded in the attack, Ponce said.

Ponce added that the attackers were suspected to be followers of Commander Umbra Kato, an MILF leader who led attacks on towns and villages in nearby provinces in August last year.

Nearly 300 people were killed and more than 500,000 displaced in the attacks and subsequent fighting between MILF rebels and government troops.

The rebel attacks were triggered by a decision of the Supreme Court to stop the signing of a key territory deal that would have expanded an existing Muslim autonomous region on the southern island of Mindanao.

The 12,000-strong MILF has been fighting for an independent Islamic state in Mindanao since 1978. It entered into peace negotiations with the government in 1997.(dpa)

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Eight militants caught with arms, explosives in Dhaka

April 14, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Dhaka, April 13 (IANS) Eight Islamist militants, including three who were trained to be suicide bombers, have been nabbed in the Bangladesh capital and huge quantities of arms, ammunition, explosives and propaganda material were seized from them, authorities said.

This is the second major haul in a month after a madrassa (Islamic seminary) funded by a British NGO was found to house similar material on Bhola island in the south.

The eight militants belong to the banned Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB). The haul in Khilkhet locality by the elite paramilitary Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) yielded bomb detonators, batteries and books and CDs on jihad, The Daily Star newspaper said Monday.

RAB claimed three of the militants have been trained to be suicide bombers. The fourth, Abdul Matin alias Zakir had been coordinating efforts to reorganise JMB that was left in ruins after the execution of its six top brass in February 2007.

He is brother of Salahuddin, a JMB Majlish-e-Shura (highest policy-making body) member now on death row.

Back in 1998, Matin helped JMB supremo Shaikh Abdur Rahman set up the JMB and sent funds from Saudi Arabia. He returned after Rahman and five others were executed for killing two judges.

Sunday’s recovery includes 10,000 lithium batteries, 10 detonators, and five packets of high power gel explosives.

The government and the media have been targeted in the literature found during the raid.

The seized JMB leaflet reads: ‘Here comes the Jihadi Kafila (caravan). It will destroy the enemies of Allah and his Prophet. It will bury the tyrants, exploiters and the dishonest leaders to bring about an Islamic state.’

‘Christian-controlled media gives a distorted view of the Mujahideen’s noble campaign to free the country from the unbelievers’.

Security analysts say Islamist militancy has been on the rise in Bangladesh and received a boost during the 2001-06 regime of Khaleda Zia, who shared power with Islamist parties.

The existence and activities of Islamist groups was denied till there was outcry at home and in international media and the US Congress threatened economic sanctions in 2004.

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Four killed in clash in southern Philippines

April 14, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Cotabato City, Philippines – Three Muslim separatist rebels and one government militiaman were killed in a clash in the southern Philippines, an army spokesman said Sunday. The firefight erupted when 25 Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels stormed an outpost of government militiamen in Mamasapano town in Maguindanao province, 930 kilometres south of Manila, on Saturday.

Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Ponce said the militiamen fought the rebels until soldiers arrived in armoured personnel carriers.

Ponce said one militiaman was killed in the fighting, while the bodies of the three slain rebels were recovered along with three M-16 rifles.

Rebel spokesman Eid Kabalu denied the rebel group initiated the fighting and claimed that the government militiamen attacked the village of Tapikan, where many guerrillas lived with their families.

“Our forces were forced to retaliate,” he said.

The MILF is the largest Muslim rebel group fighting for an independent Islamic state in the southern region of Mindanao.

Peace talks between the MILF and the Philippine government have been suspended since August 2008 when the rebels launched a series of attacks in Mindanao, triggering fierce fighting with the military.

Nearly 300 people were killed in the attack and subsequent fighting, while more than 500,000 civilians were displaced by the violence.

The hostilities erupted after the Supreme Court stopped the signing of a key agreement between the MILF and the government that would have expanded a Muslim autonomous region in Mindanao. (dpa)

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