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Thursday, 04 November 2004 |
 AFP: The European Union's Dutch presidency dismissed Thursday speculation about a US military strike on Iran to force the Islamic republic to abandon its nuclear drive.
Referring to suggestions that some in the United States wanted to attack Iran, labelled part of an "axis of evil" by the re-elected President George W. Bush, Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot said "not all people in Washington" endorsed this. |
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Thursday, 04 November 2004 |
 The New York Times: James Billington, the librarian of Congress, is in Iran this week on the first visit by a notable U.S. government official to that country in 18 years, administration officials said. The unannounced visit was confirmed by the Library of Congress on Wednesday after it was disclosed by the Federation of American Scientists, an independent policy group in Washington. |
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Thursday, 04 November 2004 |
 Reuters: Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing, deeply involved in efforts to end the North Korean nuclear standoff, will visit Iran later this week and discuss the Islamic republic's own nuclear crisis.
The United States accuses Iran of seeking to build nuclear bombs. It wants the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to report it at a Nov. 25 meeting to the U.N. Security Council for defying the watchdog's demands to halt uranium enrichment. |
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Thursday, 04 November 2004 |
 AFP: The Iranian press on Thursday derided US President George W. Bush's re-election as a victory for violence on the 25th anniversary of the storming of the former American embassy in Tehran. |
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Thursday, 04 November 2004 |
 AFP: Iran and the EU continue last-chance talks in Paris Friday with both sides seeking compromise over Europe's call for the Islamic Republic to suspend uranium enrichment in order to allay US-led concerns it is secretly developing nuclear weapons. The European Union is no longer explicitly calling
for an indefinite suspension of Iran's uranium enrichment ... |
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Thursday, 04 November 2004 |
 AFP: British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said on Thursday it was "inconceivable" that the United States would attack Iran over its nuclear programme and that the world would back such action. "I don't see any circumstances in which military action would be justified against Iran full stop," Straw told BBC radio. |
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Wednesday, 03 November 2004 |
 Washington Post: George Bush may have triumphed at home, but he was burned in effigy again and again in Iran Wednesday. Officially, the angry street demonstration marked the 25th anniversary of the student takeover of the old U.S. Embassy, when 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days. But
unlike past commemorations, this one focused just as much on the future -- and the potential for another showdown with
the United States during Bush's second term.
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Wednesday, 03 November 2004 |
 Associated Press: Students burned American flags and
effigies of President George W. Bush on Wednesday to mark the 25th anniversary of the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, while a top Iranian official accused Washington of undermining his country's goodwill gestures. |
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Wednesday, 03 November 2004 |
 AFP: Iran has the capacity to produce nuclear weapons but does not intend doing so, a senior Iranian official said here Wednesday. "We do not intend making nuclear weapons,"
said Ali Akbar Soltan, deputy director-general of Iran's foreign ministry political department. |
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Wednesday, 03 November 2004 |
 AFP: Leading state-run refiner Indian Oil Corp (IOC) said Wednesday it has signed an agreement to put forward a joint proposal to develop a gasfield in Iran, a project estimated to cost three billion dollars. The memorandum of understanding was signed Monday with Petropars, a unit of the National Iranian Oil Co (NIOC), said an IOC spokesman. The two firms will draw up a joint proposal for exploiting the gasfield and setting up liquefied natural gas liquefaction facilities. |
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Wednesday, 03 November 2004 |
 The Jerusalem Post: While the world is busy contemplating
the appropriate response to the looming Iranian nuclear threat – be it a European grand bargain, a covert operation, or a sophisticated military assault – life in Teheran appears to be running its normal course: celebrating uranium enrichment, developing a longer-range Shihab-3 missile and, of course, promoting the rule of law. |
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Wednesday, 03 November 2004 |
 AFP: The European Union is no longer explicitly calling for an indefinite suspension of Iran's uranium enrichment, diplomats said here Tuesday, outlining a compromise proposal ahead
of a crucial meeting with the Iranians on their nuclear programme. The diplomats said ambassadors from Britain, France and Germany were Tuesday to hand over in Tehran the EU's written offer, ahead of a scheduled meeting with Iran in Paris on Friday on Europe's request for Iran to halt uranium enrichment, which can be used to make nuclear weapons. |
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Wednesday, 03 November 2004 |
 AFP: French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier called Tuesday for Iran to produce a "lasting" halt to its uranium enrichment activities, as signs emerged of a compromise deal between Iran and the EU. "We are in an extremely intensive phase of discussions with the Tehran government and we are entering into this final phase of discussions with a certain optimism," Barnier told reporters at a European Union meeting here. |
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Tuesday, 02 November 2004 |
Iran Focus:
 Iraqi Defence Minster: Proof of Iran's meddling shatters reinforced concrete
2 young men to be executed
Woman, 74, two sisters commit suicide
Iraq tightening border security with Iran
Ironmongers protest government takeover of shops
New security apparatus set up in Qom
Unemployment on the rise in Khorassan province |
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Tuesday, 02 November 2004 |
 AFP: Iran is prepared to suspend uranium enrichment for a maximum of six months during negotiations with European countries, but will never agree to permanently halt the practice, one of its top nuclear negotiators said on Tuesday.
"We have told them (the Europeans) that an indefinite suspension is unacceptable," Hossein Mousavian told AFP. |
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Tuesday, 02 November 2004 |
 Xinhuanet: Iranian Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani said Tuesday that Iran was to upgrade its deterrent defense capability to ward off foreign threats, the official IRNA news agency reported. Shamkhani made the comments in a message on the sixth anniversary of the founding of Iran's Organization of Aerospace Industries due on Wednesday.
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Tuesday, 02 November 2004 |
 Bloomberg: Iran may face a "very serious" showdown with the United Nations should the Islamic country fail to dispel suspicions that it is building a nuclear-weapons program,
said German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer. Germany, France and Britain are leading European Union efforts to
reach an agreement that would ensure Iran's nuclear-power program is peaceful. Iran has reneged on a 2003 pledge ... |
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Tuesday, 02 November 2004 |
AFP: European Union foreign ministers gathered Tuesday ahead of an EU leaders' summit this week to tackle aid for Iraq and Iran's nuclear drive.
With the outcome of the US presidential election and crisis at the European Commission at home to tackle, the EU leaders have plenty to discuss when they convene on Thursday and Friday. |
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Tuesday, 02 November 2004 |
 Xinhuanet: Iranian President Mohammad Khatami on
Tuesday categorically rejected the European demand of unlimited suspension of uranium enrichment.
"The Iranian nation must not be deprived of its rights on
nuclear technology," Khatami told reporters. |
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Tuesday, 02 November 2004 |
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Los Angeles Times: Diplomatic efforts to prevent Iran from building an atomic bomb may fail, U.S. officials and foreign diplomats say, leaving the winner of today's presidential election with the threat of an Islamic fundamentalist, nuclear-armed regime in Tehran. The debate over Iran will probably strain a White House that is already preoccupied with Iraq no matter who wins today's presidential election. |
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Tuesday, 02 November 2004 |
 Iran Focus:
Drug addiction an ever-growing problem
Clampdown in Shiraz enters second week
Oil exported to Iraq on black-market
Students complain over lack of books
New ‘national costume’ on display
Aeronautics students demonstrate for rights
Flogging in public |
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Monday, 01 November 2004 |
 Reuters: Iran could agree to freeze uranium enrichment for six months at most and only provided the European Union abandons its demand that Tehran scrap enrichment for good,
a senior Iranian security official said on Monday. Tehran risks being reported to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions if it does not freeze enrichment before the ... |
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Monday, 01 November 2004 |
 AP: U.N. nuclear chief Mohamed ElBaradei urged Iran on Monday to suspend uranium enrichment and called on North Korea to dismantle its weapons program or at least allow inspectors to ensure it is "exclusively peaceful."
In his annual report to the U.N. General Assembly and in comments to a few reporters, he said Iran and North Korea ... |
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Monday, 01 November 2004 |
 AFP: Iran's hardline judiciary ordered the conservative-run news website Baztab to close after receiving complaints that the site was "publishing false news," contrary to Iran's security guidelines, student news agency ISNA reported on Monday. |
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Monday, 01 November 2004 |
 BBC: Thirteen-year-old Sudabeh and her sisters sit glued to the television watching a Hindi pop star tossing her long silken hair around in time to the gyrating music.
It's the middle of the day and their Iranian friends are at school but as Afghan refugees they have to pay for education this year for the first time.
That meant only one child in the family could go to school and predictably Sudabeh's brother Khusrow was chosen. |
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Monday, 01 November 2004 |
 AFP: A top aide to Iran's supreme leader declared on Monday that Tehran did not fear being taken to the Security Council over its nuclear programme and warned that if the UN imposed an oil embargo world prices would go above 100 dollars a barrel.
Ali Akbar Nateq-Nuri, one of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's closest advisors, dismissed as "ridiculous" some suggestions from Europe aimed at persuading Tehran to end uranium enrichment to avoid being summoned by the Security Council.
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Monday, 01 November 2004 |
 AFP: Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawar accused Iran of orchestrating attacks in his country and declared his
opposition to a threatened assault on the rebel hotbed of Fallujah, in an interview published Monday.
"Iran is playing a negative role in Iraq. It is behind the assassination of more than 18 Iraqi intelligence officers. It is also playing a negative role in southern Iraq," Yawar told Kuwait's Al-Qabas newspaper. |
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Monday, 01 November 2004 |
 New York Times: The hard-line Iranian Parliament unanimously approved a bill on Sunday supporting the resumption of uranium enrichment. The vote comes as talks with European countries over Iran's nuclear activities have so far failed to produce an agreement.
The measure was supported by all 247 lawmakers who were present
in the 290-member body, with some chanting "Death to America" and "God is great." The session was carried live on the national radio. |
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USA TODAY: Of all the foreign policy challenges facing President Bush in his second term, none — apart from Iraq — looms larger than Iran. Twenty-five years after Iranian students seized U.S. diplomats as hostages, Iran and the United States are at the brink of a potentially more serious confrontation over Iran's apparent determination to develop a nuclear bomb.
