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Friday, 22 October 2004 |
 AFP: Iran still has room for diplomatic maneuvering and will certainly wait until after the November 2 US elections to respond to a European offer to avoid possible UN sanctions and receive nuclear technology by indefinitely suspending uranium enrichment, analysts said Friday. |
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Friday, 22 October 2004 |
 AP: Iran is unlikely to accept European incentives aimed at getting it to suspend uranium enrichment, diplomats said today, raising the likelihood of a showdown with the UN nuclear watchdog agency next month. Envoys from Britain, France and Germany offered civilian nuclear technology and a trade deal to the Iranians in a private meeting at the French mission to international organisations in Vienna. But Western diplomats said they doubt the Tehran regime will back down easily. |
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Friday, 22 October 2004 |
 Washington Times: The Bush administration has imposed sanctions on two Indian scientists for selling nuclear technology to Iran and is planning additional arms-related sanctions, U.S. officials said.
The two scientists were identified by the Bush administration as Shri Ch. Surendar and Y. Sivaraman Prasad, both former directors of the Nuclear Power Corp. of India, the state-run utility. |
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Friday, 22 October 2004 |
 The Guardian - Leader Article: No one knows exactly how Iran will react to the latest European proposals for reining in its nuclear ambitions and no one should underestimate the importance of its response. |
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Friday, 22 October 2004 |
 New York Times - EDITORIAL: One of the most serious questions raised by the debacle in Iraq is whether it has crippled the ability of the world's leading powers to contain dangerous states. Iran's nuclear program is a prime case in point: so far, neither threats nor inducements have persuaded its leaders to suspend their uranium enrichment program.
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Thursday, 21 October 2004 |
 Iran Focus: Tehran, Oct. 21 - At least 14 people have been killed and 24 others left injured in a road accident in Iran, state-run television reported. The incident occurred when two buses had a head on collision on the road between Ahwaz and Khoramabad, about 520 km south-west of the Iranian capital, Tehran. |
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Thursday, 21 October 2004 |
 Iran Focus: Tehran, Oct. 21 – A fist-fight broke out yesterday between a current and a former member of Iran’s parliament (Majlis), ILNA news agency reported. Mayhem prevailed in the Majlis building as deputies, staff members and journalists crowded the corridor where the fighting was taking place. |
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Thursday, 21 October 2004 |
 Time Magazine: While Tehran's unprecedented "endorsement" of President Bush raised some eyebrows this week, Iran hasn’t been much of an issue in the Presidential campaign. But as international efforts to confront the Islamic Republic's nuclear program enter a critical phase, there's little doubt Iran will be at the top of a new administration's agenda. And as the exchange between President Bush and Senator Kerry in the first presidential debate showed, there are not many good options.
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Thursday, 21 October 2004 |
 The Guardian: The Iranian government carried out a missile test yesterday, 24 hours before a make-or-break meeting with Britain, France and Germany on its suspected nuclear weapons programme. The test may have been intended as a warning to the US, Israel and the Europeans on the eve of the meeting in Vienna with the European troika.
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Thursday, 21 October 2004 |
 Los Angeles Times: Iran has made steady progress toward producing nuclear fuel and could make significant quantities
of enriched uranium in less than a year, according to new estimates by diplomats, scientists and intelligence officials.
Mastering enrichment will move Tehran a big step closer to being able to build an atomic bomb. Iran's progress already has intensified its confrontation with the United States and other countries that fear it is trying to develop nuclear weapons. |
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Wednesday, 20 October 2004 |
 UPI: Iranian President Mohammed Khatami charged Wednesday that President George Bush and his election rival Sen. John Kerry are both hostile to Iran.
The Iranian News Agency, IRNA, quoted Khatami as saying "Kerry and Bush are both wrong if they think they can deprive Iran of its legitimate right to acquire nuclear technology." |
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Wednesday, 20 October 2004 |
 Iran Focus: London, Oct. 20 – Several members of Britain’s House of Commons strongly criticized Tony Blair’s government yesterday for its economic ties with Iran, at a time of growing concern over the clerical state’s human rights violations and nuclear program. |
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Wednesday, 20 October 2004 |
 AFP: The United States said it would be "concerned" by Iran's acquisition of any new nuclear technology, signalling opposition to a reported European offer to give Tehran a light-water reactor it proves it is not secretly developing atomic weapons. The State Department said the transfer of such technology would be problematic given Iran's past ... |
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Wednesday, 20 October 2004 |
 Iran Focus: Paris, Oct 20. - According to the latest report released by Transparency International shows that corruption among Iranian government officials has increased.
Iran now ranks 88 in the Corruption Perceptions Index compared to 78 last year. The figures reflect the increasing economical haul that is plaguing Iran. |
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Wednesday, 20 October 2004 |
 Iran Focus: Tehran, Oct. 20 - The secretary of the student
union of Azad University in Iran’s Central province was sentenced to 40 lashes, one year in prison and fined one million rials in the town of Arak.
Soroush Farhadian was charged with ‘spreading false propaganda’ against the regime. |
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Wednesday, 20 October 2004 |
 Iran Focus: Tehran, Oct. 20 – Four men were hanged in the town of Sari in the northern province of Mazandaran on
charges of armed violence. The men, identified only by their first names, Mohammad-Reza, Hamid-Reza, Hassan and Reza, were executed after the Supreme Islamic Court upheld the original judge’s verdict.
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Wednesday, 20 October 2004 |
 Reuters: Iran is ready to prove to the world it is not producing atomic weapons provided the West recognizes the Islamic Republic's right to peaceful nuclear technology, President Mohammad Khatami said Wednesday. Iranian officials are
due to meet senior diplomats from Britain, Germany and France in Vienna Thursday to receive a proposal giving ... |
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Wednesday, 20 October 2004 |
 Associated Press: The head of Iran's security council said Tuesday that the re-election of President Bush was in
Tehran's best interests, despite the administration's "axis of evil" label, accusations that Iran harbors al-Qaida terrorists
and threats of sanctions for the country's nuclear ambitions.
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Wednesday, 20 October 2004 |
 AFP: Iran warned Wednesday it would reject a European proposal aimed at defusing a nuclear standoff if it does not respect Tehran's rights to master nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. "Any proposal must recognise our legitimate rights," Iranian Atomic Energy Organization (IAEO) chief Gholamreza Aghazadeh said. |
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Wednesday, 20 October 2004 |
 AFP: Europe's three main nations are ready to promise Iran nuclear technology, including supplying a light-water nuclear reactor, if Tehran takes steps to show it is not secretly trying to make atomic weapons, according to a confidential document obtained by AFP Tuesday. "We would support the acquisition
by Iran of a light water research reactor," said the seven-page document presented by Britain, France and Germany ... |
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Wednesday, 20 October 2004 |
 The Times: BRITAIN and Germany gave Iran a final chance yesterday to co-operate over its nuclear programme — or face the prospect of sanctions. |
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Wednesday, 20 October 2004 |
 Reuters: Iran said it test fired on Wednesday a more accurate version of its Shahab-3 missile, already believed capable of hitting Israel and U.S. bases in the Gulf.
Iran has previously announced that it has increased the missile's range to 1,250 miles, an upgrade from a range pencilled in at 800 miles by military experts.
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Tuesday, 19 October 2004 |
 Iran Focus: Tehran, Oct. 19 - Clashes erupted between motorcyclists and Iranian security forces in Yazd (central Iran) following reports of harassment of cyclists by local police.
Police set up patrols in Karkard Square in Yazd yesterday morning and arrested a number of motorcyclists. Ensuing clashes between some 300 cyclists and security forces left a number of people wounded. |
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Tuesday, 19 October 2004 |
 Iran Focus: Tehran, Oct. 19 - Students of Iran’s Azad University in the town of Meybod demonstrated against new measures to force female students to wear the ‘Chador’ (an Islamic veil that covers women from head to toe). The students also released a statement condemning the new ‘suppressive regulations’. |
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Tuesday, 19 October 2004 |
 Iran Focus: Tehran, Oct. 19 - The student newspaper ‘Az Shanbeh ta Shanbeh’ (From Saturday to Saturday) published
in the town of Shahre-Kord (central Iran) has been suspended for a period of 6 months.
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Tuesday, 19 October 2004 |
 AFP: A top Iranian nuclear official reiterated Tuesday his government's assertion that it wants to enrich uranium to provide fuel for its future nuclear power plants.
"We are not saying we are refusing Westerners offers to provide us with nuclear fuel, but we want also to produce our own nuclear fuel... as well as buying what we lack from the West," Iranian Atomic Energy Organization (IAEO) chief ... |
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Tuesday, 19 October 2004 |
 AFP: It makes no real difference to Iran whether US President George W. Bush or Democrat contender John Kerry wins the presidential elections, a senior Iranian official said Tuesday.
"It makes no difference for us which of the two parties wins the elections," Iran's top national security official Hassan Rowhani said in an interview on state television. |
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Tuesday, 19 October 2004 |
 PA News: Britain and Germany today warned Iran to comply with international demands over its suspected nuclear weapons programme. Tehran has yet to honour a deal it agreed a year ago with the UK, France and Germany – acting on behalf of the EU – to suspend its uranium enrichment programme and comply with International Atomic Energy Agency inspections. |
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IRIN: Twenty European news websites have expressed their concern at the recent imprisonment of five Iranian online journalists. They made their stand in a Reporters Without Borders (RSF) appeal over the crackdown against online media in Iran. "We are always concerned when there are negative effects on journalists when they do their jobs," ... 
