Iran hangs under-18 adolescent in public
- 19 July 2005
Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Jul. 19 - A young man and a minor were hanged in public on Tuesday in Irans second largest city, a government-funded news agency reported. The two, only identified by their initials M.A and A.M., were convicted of sexual assault on a 13-year-old boy by the Islamic Tribunal of Mashad, according to ISNA news agency.
Khatami says Iran will not bargain on nuclear enrichment
- 19 July 2005
AFP: Iran's outgoing President Mohammad Khatami said Tuesday that Tehran would not bargain on its right to enrich uranium during talks with Europe on its nuclear activities. "Iran's admission to the World Trade Organisation and the mastering of the fuel cycle are the rights of the Iranian people... and are not negotiable," Khatami was quoted as saying by state television.
British government protests at Iran claims over London bombings
- 19 July 2005
AFP: Britain protested furiously on Tuesday to Iran over comments by a leading Iranian politician that the London bombings might have been deliberately carried out by the British government. One possible reason for the July 7 attacks, in which at least 56 people died, "is that the British government itself created this situation", Ahmad Janati, a cleric who chairs the powerful Guardians Council, said Friday in a nationally broadcast sermon.
Irans Rafsanjani renews firestorm over election fraud
- 18 July 2005
Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Jul. 19 The losing candidate in Irans recent presidential elections, Ayatollah Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, strongly condemned the way ballots were swapped and the gross irregularities in the recent elections in this weeks meeting of a top arbitration body that he heads, according to Iranian officials. Rafsanjanis comments first surfaced in an article by Mohammad-Ali Abtahi, a cleric who was outgoing President Mohammad Khatamis deputy for legislative affairs before he resigned in October.
Iran rejects reports on jailed dissident as "propaganda"
- 18 July 2005
Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Jul. 19 Irans Majlis (Parliament) Speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad Adel on Monday rejected propagandist reports on the failing conditions of Akbar Ganji, a dissident journalist currently on day 39 of a hunger strike hoping to gain his freedom from a six-year prison sentence which he is currently serving in Evin Prison. Haddad Adel told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar in the Iranian capital that Ganjis case was unlikely to turn into a plight and reach the point that satellite networks and Mr. Bush are talking about.
Iraq's dangerous new friend
- 18 July 2005
Los Angeles Times: On sunday, George W. Bush's war against terror was turned upside down and this time the president might even notice. That's because when "our guys"
in Iraq start firmly allying with an "axis of evil" nation, its got to ring some warning bells, no? I am referring to the joint declaration issued in Tehran by the leaders of Iraq and Iran ...
Iran leader tells Iraq PM US troops harming his country
- 18 July 2005
AFP: Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari Monday that US troops were harming his country, in a reminder of Tehran's opposition to the foreign military presence in its former foe. It was the first time that US military support for Jaafari's government had been brought up since his arrival on Saturday amid clear efforts by both Iran and Iraq to turn the page on their devastating 1980-88 war.
Iran says will act quickly if unhappy with EU nuclear offer
- 17 July 2005
AFP: Iran warned Monday it would decide quickly on any resumption of sensitive nuclear activities if it is not satisfied with EU proposals aimed at resolving the standoff. "(The European proposals) will be unacceptable if they do not acknowledge Iran's right to (uranium) enrichment and Iran will not wait long before taking other decisions," foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said.
Iranian dissident hospitalised after hunger strike
- 17 July 2005
AFP: Jailed dissident Iranian writer Akbar Ganji has been admitted to hospital after being on hunger strike for more than a month, his wife said on Monday.
Ganji was taken to a hospital outside his Tehran prison on Sunday, the 37th day of his hunger strike, said Massoumeh Shafiie.
Qods Force commander slain in Iran capital
- 17 July 2005
Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Jul. 18 A colonel in the elite Qods (Jerusalem) Force of Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps was killed in a fashionable neighbourhood of Tehran on Thursday, according to the state-sponsored website Baztab. Colonel Morteza Moinfar was a commander in the Qods Force, the extraterritorial arm of the Revolutionary Guards whose stated mission is to export the Islamicrevolution to other Muslim countries.
Labour discontent, protests spread across Iran
- 17 July 2005
Iran Focus: London, Jul. 18 More than 50,000 workers took to the streets of cities across on Saturday to protest against the governments labour policies. The largest protest was in the western city of Ilam, where 17,000 workers took part in a rally. At least 20,000 workers also rallied in two separate towns of Pakdasht and Varamin near Tehran.
Senior commander killed in Iran clashes
- 17 July 2005
Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Jul. 17 A senior paramilitary police commander was killed last night in the course of clashes between anti-government demonstrators and security forces in Irans Kurdish town of Mahabad, the state-run television reported on Sunday.
Iran arrests dozens of restive Kurds
- 17 July 2005
Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Jul. 17 Irans security forces have arrested dozens of Kurds in the town of Bukan, northwest Iran, in clashes that have been going on for three days, residents said. Two of those arrested are believed to be Hassan Amanollah and Kamal Parvizian, according to residents who were reached by telephone.
Terrorist Attacks in London: A Viewpoint
- 17 July 2005
Arab News - Amir Taheri: To classical historians nothing could be said to have happened unless someone took enough notice to narrate it. To modern semiologists, however, an event could be regarded as having really happened only when someone interprets it. Last week's terrorist attack in London qualifies as a real event by both definitions.
Iran ups ante ahead of nuclear talks with Europeans
- 17 July 2005
Iran Focus: Paris, Jul. 17 Iran paraded its senior officials over the weekend to hammer a tough message to the European Union ahead of the next round of nuclear talks expected to take place in August. Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi told the official Iranian news agency in Tehran on Sunday that his government would reject any proposal by the European Unions trio Britain, Germany and France - that does not enshrine uranium enrichment.
Iran protestor dies in police detention - report
- 16 July 2005
Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Jul. 17 An Iranian man arrested for taking part in an anti-government demonstration in Tehran on Tuesday died as he was trying to escape from his torturers at a police station, a government source in the Iranian capital told Iran Focus. Ehsan Karavi was arrested during a protest by thousands of people in support of political prisoners outside Tehran University on Tuesday.
Kurds, Iranian Opposition Report Anti-Kurd Violence in Northern Iran
- 16 July 2005
VOA News: Kurdish and Iranian opposition reports from northern Iran say thousands of Kurds have rallied this week in the Iranian city Mahabad, to protest the killing of a Kurdish activist by Iranian para-militaries. The reports are displayed on Kurdish web sites and in the opposition Iran Focus.
Iran says US and Israel snaring its atomic experts
- 16 July 2005
Reuters: Iran on Sunday accused U.S. and Israeli agents of tricking Iranian nuclear scientists abroad into giving away crucial information, newspapers reported. The comments by Intelligence Minister Ali Yunesi came days after an Iranian defector identified as Alireza Assar told the Iran Focus Website Tehran was close to getting an atom bomb.
Iran police chief authorises use of bullets
- 16 July 2005
Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Jul. 16 Irans new police chief today called on the forces under his command to deal decisively with criminals and use live bullets if necessary. When a policeman is sent on a mission, his mind must be focused entirely on getting the job done, Brigadier General Ismail Ahmadi Moghaddam said in the first flag-raising ceremony he attended after moving to his new command last week.
Minibus collides with lorry in north Iran, 17 dead
- 16 July 2005
Reuters: Seventeen people were killed on Saturday when a minibus slammed head-on into a truck in northern Iran, a senior police officer said. Mohammad Rouyanian, head of Iran's road police, told state television the vehicles collided
after the minibus tried to overtake a tractor near Firouzkouh,
130 km east of Tehran.
100 arrested, 60 buses damaged in Iran city protests
- 16 July 2005
Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Jul. 16 At least 100 demonstrators were arrested and 60 buses damaged in clashes that erupted Saturday after a football match in Irans second largest city. Security forces and young people clashed over a large area of the city of Mashad after a football match between Saba Battery and Abu-Moslem football clubs.
Iran election watchdog says result stands
- 16 July 2005
AFP: Iran's hardline poll watchdog insisted Saturday that the outcome of last month's presidential election was final after reformist Interior Minister Abdolvahed Moussavi-Lari said he was ready to order a partial recount. "The election is a finished matter," Guardians Council spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham told the student news agency ISNA.
Iran warns scientists against US, Israeli 'traps'
- 16 July 2005
AFP: Iran's spy chief on Saturday warned the country's nuclear scientists against "traps" laid by Israeli and American intelligence agencies.
"Iranian scientists must beware of enemy plots," Intelligence Minister Ali Yunessi was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency. "Americans and Israelis are trying to approach (them) through different means."
Iran tells EU it will hold firm on nuclear fuel
- 15 July 2005
Reuters: Iran warned the European Union on Saturday it would never surrender its right to nuclear fuel, talking tough only two weeks before EU diplomats are due to present final proposals to break Iran's atomic impasse.
No incentive will make Iran drop nuclear fuel programme
- 15 July 2005
DPA: No incentive would make Iran drop its nuclear fuel programme, the spokesman for Iran's Supreme National Security Council said Saturday. "Even if the West provided us with all economic, political and security incentives, Iran would not drop its nuclear fuel programme," Ali Aqamohammadi told the Iranian Students' News Agency.
