Author: Tambiyan Samvel

Iran bans Da Vinci Code book after 8 editions

CBC Canada
June 26 2006

Iran has stopped publication of the bestselling novel The Da Vinci
Code after protests about the book from three Christian clerics.

The Persian translation of Dan Brown’s thriller is in its eighth
edition in Iran, and books already on the market will not be removed
from shelves.

But Iran’s culture ministry announced Wednesday that it would not
allow another edition to be published.

"Based on the request of three Christian clerics, yesterday we decided
to ban its republication," said an official at the Ministry of Culture
and Islamic Guidance, according to Reuters.

Iranian Christians, numbering about 100,000, are a small minority in
a country of 69 million Muslims.

However, there are two seats in Iran’s parliament for the mainly
Christian Armenian community and one for the tiny Assyrian Christian
community.

Christian groups around the world have objected to The Da Vinci Code,
because it suggests that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and the
couple had a child, whose bloodlines survive to this day.

The book, first published in 2003, has sold more than 60 million
copies worldwide and been made into a film starring Tom Hanks.

The film has not been permitted into Iran, but is available in
pirated DVDs.

Egypt, Pakistan and some states in India have also banned The Da
Vinci Code.

9 REPRESENTATIVES OF ARMENIA INCLUDED IN COMMISSIONS OF EUROPEAN BOXING UNION

YEREVAN, JULY 25, NOYAN TAPAN. The sitting of the European Boxing
Union (EBU) Executive Committee took place on July 24. Thanks to
organizations Vice-Chairman Derenik Gabrielian for the first time a
great number, 9, Armenians were included in the acting commissions. And
D.Gabrielian also became First Deputy Chairman of the Commission
of Judges.

ZNet | Israel/Palestine

Lebanon between Truth and Justice

by Khatchig Mouradian; July 24, 2006

I’m for truth, no matter who tells it.
I’m for justice, no matter who it’s for or against.
Malcolm X

On July 12 2006, fighters from the armed wing of the Lebanese political
party Hizbollah launched a cross-border attack on Israel killing and
injuring a number of Israeli soldiers and capturing two. The operation was
dubbed `True Promise’; months ago, Hizbollah had promised in public to
capture Israeli soldiers to exchange them with Lebanese prisoners
languishing in Israeli jails, some for more than 25 years.

The very day the soldiers were captured, Sayyed Hassan Nasralla, the
secretary-general of Hizbollah, declared that there was no intention on his
part to start a full-scale confrontation, and that the only way to free the
Israeli soldiers was through indirect negotiations leading to an exchange.
Israel, however, immediately launched a wide-scale military campaign, dubbed
`Just Reward,’ to free the two soldiers. Hizbollah first retaliated by
shelling military positions in Israel’s north and, eventually, as the
Israeli Army started bombing Lebanese infrastructure and targeting
civilians, Hizbollah started shelling civilian targets as well.

Israel has thus far `justly rewarded’ the three runways and fuel depots of
Beirut International Airport, all its seaports, most highways and roads
connecting various parts of the country as well as those leading to Syria,
tens of bridges in Lebanon’s south and east, factories, trucks, ambulances,
TV transmission installations, thousands of buildings and houses. More than
360 civilians have been, again, `justly rewarded’ by getting slaughtered,
and more than a thousand received lesser `rewards’ by being sent to
hospitals and some 700 thousand (an estimated 15 percent of the country’s
population) have been `rewarded’ with refugee status. President Bush said
that Israel had the right to defend itself and, to date, the US has blocked
all attempts by the international community to put a ceasefire in place.
Hizbollah, in turn, has tried to impose what the Arab media and experts are
calling a `balance of terror’ by bombing northern Israel –most notably the
port city of Haifa– and causing a number of deaths and injuries among
Israeli soldiers and civilians.

While United Nations relief coordinator Jan Egeland was saying that Lebanon
was suffering a `major’ humanitarian crisis and that Israel was violating
`international humanitarian law,’ the US Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice, heading to the region on July 23, did not seem to be in a rush. `We
have to be certain that we are pushing forward to the new Middle East, not
going back to the old one,’ she said.

What started as an operation to liberate the 2 Israeli soldiers (if one is
naïve enough to believe that) is now a US supported war to forge a `new
Middle East.’ If this renovation is anything in the same breath as the
`Greater Middle-East’ plans that are being implemented from Afghanistan to
Iraq to the Palestinian territories, then Lebanon has just started to walk
down the long road that the Bush administration sees as that of freedom,
democracy, and security, and, if the country is lucky enough, three years
from now, it will be as free, democratic and safe as, say, Iraq and
Afghanistan are today.

What needs to be done? Attempts to wipe out, or even defeat Hizbollah, are
in all probability doomed to fail. With the degree of `pinpoint accuracy’
the Israeli army is displaying, the entire Lebanese people will be cleansed
much before the rooting out of Hizbollah.

Implementing UN Security Council resolution 1559 and disarming Hizbollah by
force are doomed to fail as well. Whether the US administration, the West in
general, some `moderate’ Arab states, and even many in Lebanon like it or
not, Hizbollah has a broad grassroots support not only among the Shiites,
the largest minority in Lebanon, but also among some Christian, Druze, and
Sunni Muslim political circles, who are extremely angry at Washington’s
overall pro-Israeli bias, and at the fact that the Bush administration is
ignoring the UN Security Council resolutions 242 and 338, which were
declared to be at the core of the international initiative launched in
Madrid in 1991.

Any initiative to solve the immediate crisis in Lebanon must involve an
exchange of prisoners between Lebanon and Israel (and probably in the
Palestinian territories as well), Israel’s handing down of the maps of
landmines that the Israeli army had planted in southern Lebanon before its
withdrawal in 2000, and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Shebaa farms–
which, according to the Lebanese government and Hizbollah, is Lebanese soil.
Even after all that, it is an illusion to believe that a comprehensive and
lasting solution can be achieved without finding a true and just solution to
the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Khatchig Mouradian is a Lebanese-Armenian writer, translator, and
journalist. He is an editor of the daily newspaper Aztag, published in
Beirut. He can be contacted at [email protected]

A few lessons of the Lebanon crisis in the context of Karabagh

Yerkir.am
July 21, 2006

By Gayane Movsessian

The tragic developments in Lebanon obviously show the helplessness
of international organizations and the international community in
general in countering global crises including those that arise in
the course of regional conflicts.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union a situation emerged whereby
international mechanisms were distorted and no new system had been
formed. In this situation a number of regional conflicts reached a
deadlock, as experts note. This does not refer only to the Middle
East. It refers to Iraq, Iran, China and a number of other countries.

There are varying opinions as to who is to blame for the war
in Lebanon. And no one knows what to do about it. Therefore,
the statements made by the international community are rather
declarative. The aggravation of the situation in the Middle East showed
to what attempts of distorting solution of conflicts and unbalanced
approach to such solutions can lead.

Particularly, Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in
2005 and from the Southern territories of Lebanon in 2000 did not
lead to the settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict but to a new
phase in the confrontation, which as experts estimate, can push back
the situation in the Middle East for twenty years.

When observing the developments in the Middle East one cannot help
drawing parallels with the Karabagh conflict, more specifically, with
the scheme of the settlement recently publicized by the international
mediators.

The situation in Lebanon confirms our repeatedly voiced concern over
the proposal of withdrawal of Armenian troops from the territories
adjacent to Nagorno Karabagh and postponement of determination of
Nagorno Karabagh’s legal status.

The mediators do not want to see these concerns and are again trying
to distort the settlement process. The leaders of 9 countries stressed
the necessity of "speedy agreement over the main principles of peaceful
settlement of the Karabagh conflict this year". They called on Armenia
and Azerbaijan to exert political will to reach an agreement and
prepare their peoples for peace rather than for war.

This has been repeated for many times over many years. What is
the result? Are the people in Azerbaijan being prepared for
peace? Meanwhile, the governments in Armenia and Nagorno Karabagh
Republic consistently convince their populations of the necessity for
a compromise. It should be noted that we are talking about mutual
compromise. However, no one wants to notice this difference in the
behavior of Yerevan and Baku.

The mediators prefer to stick to the balanced approach: in any
situation both sides are either right or wrong. In such a situation,
why would the Armenian public trust the fair approach of the
international mediators and the possibility of implementation of a
peace agreement? The public in Karabagh cannot even be mentioned since
the three "co-judges" of the OSCE Minsk Group seem to have completely
forgotten about one of the true and internationally recognized sides
of the conflict – Nagorno Karabagh.

Meanwhile, it was Karabagh that suffered most because of Azerbaijan’s
aggression in 1991-1994. It is Karabagh that is the least interested
in restarting the war as opposed to Azerbaijan.

It is Karabagh that is ready to support any of the mediators’
initiatives aimed at consolidation of the ceasefire regime and
conflict settlement. " Nagorno Karabagh has always supported the
peaceful settlement of the conflict and is ready to exert all efforts
to reach an arrangement for sustainable peace in the region.

Unfortunately, not everything depends on the mediators. Taking into
consideration Azerbaijan’s destructive position that denies any contact
with Nagorno Karabagh, an acceptable and fair settlement seems to
be very hard to achieve. The President of the Russian Federation
correctly pointed out that Russia is not planning to impose any
settlement on the conflicting sides and that compromise should be
achieved by the peoples.

Taking into consideration the Russian Federation’s readiness to be a
guarantor for the implementation of the reached agreement we would
like to remind once again that only with participation of legally
elected authorities of Nagorno Karabagh Republic, the main party
of the conflict that suffered most, is achievement of a settlement
related to the future of our people possible," Foreign Minister of
Nagorno Karabagh Republic Georgi Petrossian stated commenting on the
statement made by G-9 leaders.

Azerbaijan was alerted by the statement of the G-9 leaders stressing
the importance of preparing peoples for peace rather than for war. "If
the statements that other solutions to the conflict are possible are
referred to by this call, it is necessary to take into consideration
the peculiarities of Azerbaijan’s situation.

We are not in a position to afford conducting negotiations for the sake
of it," Head of the Information Department of Azerbaijan’s Foreign
Ministry Tair Tagizade stated. Having rejected any settlement based
on mutual consensus Baku is still hoping to get everything with the
assistance of the mediators.

Azerbaijan’s hopes lie with the new American Co-Chair Mathew Bryza. The
latter, according to the Azeri Foreign Minister Elmar Mamedyarov,
is planning to visit Yerevan and Baku on July 31 – August 1 with the
purpose to discuss " some new elements" of the Karabagh settlement.

According to Mamedyarov, if the Azeri side sees an opportunity for
progress in Bryza’s proposals it might agree for a meeting of the
Armenian and Azeri foreign ministers.

Meanwhile, the Armenian President Robert Kocharian and his Azeri
counterpart Ilham Aliyev will have an opportunity to meet the Russian
President Vladimir Putin in the framework of the informal CIS summit.

One can hardly expect that Russia will come up with any new initiatives
on Karabagh settlement during this meeting. However, we believe that
the Russian president sends some messages to the Armenian and Azeri
presidents, messages that are not intended for publicity.

The problem is that Azerbaijan’s denial of Nagorno Karabagh’s right for
self-determination as well as the continuing anti-Armenian propaganda
make it impossible to for such meetings and messages to achieve any
progress in the settlement process.

Armenia Interested in Strengthening State Ties with Iran

PanARMENIAN.Net
21.07.2006 15:24 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ No relations can substitute for the Armenian-Iranian
ones and Armenia is interested in further strengthening state ties with
Iran, Head of Hay Dat Office, ARF Dashnaktsutyun Bureau Responsible
for Foreign Policy Affairs Kiro Manoyan stated in Yerevan. In his
words, Armenia has diplomatic relations in the region only with Iran
and Georgia, which is also a friendly state.

"Armenia’s relations with those two countries should be arranged
to a degree to replace the absence of relations with Azerbaijan and
Turkey. If the international community applies sanctions against Iran,
Armenia will not support these," the ARF Dashnaktsutyun representative
said.

US Garabagh mediator urges Azeri, Armenian ‘independent decisions’

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
July 14 2006

Baku, July 13, AssA-Irada — The US co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group
brokering settlement to the Armenia-Azerbaijan Upper (Nagorno)
Garabagh dispute has called on the two countries’ presidents to
"prepare their people for compromises".

"If I were them, I would prepare the public for compromises to settle
the conflict. First of all, military action is out of the question.

Secondly, no one [neither side] can gain everything," Matthew Bryza
told a local TV channel.

Bryza reiterated that he believes the sides should make independent
decisions, saying that preparing the parties for concessions is
outside the co-chairmen’s authority.

With regard to possible concessions of the Azerbaijani side, he said
the country’s territorial integrity should not be violated under
any circumstances.

"We [the co-chairs] assumed the responsibility for peace talks and
have now reached a stage that enables the presidents and the community
to make decisions.

Bryza stated that the mediators excelled in mediating the peace process
and developed a suitable "framework agreement", and it is now up to
the presidents to make suggestions on how to improve the document.

Bryza reiterated that he binds great hope for reaching a solution to
the Garabagh conflict in 2006.

The American intermediary is expected to visit the region in August.

He is due to hold talks in Baku and then in Yerevan.*

Day of French Films to be Held within Golden Apricot Festival

PanARMENIAN.Net
14.07.2006 13:51 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Day of French Films will be held at Golden
Apricot festival July 14, on the Bastille Day. The program includes
French films "Swindlers" by Frederik Baleghjian, "Crystal Man" by
Michel Isnasco and "Return" by Serge Avedikian. Presented in Fiction
Film nomination, "Return to Armenia" shot by French director Rober
Gedikian will be shown for the first time.

A concert of French song will also take place in the Charles Aznavour
Square on occasion of the French national holiday, reported the
festival’s communication unit.

Kasparov makes his first political move on Putin
By Emma Cowing

The Scotsman – United Kingdom; Jul 14, 2006

MOSCOW in March is not a welcoming place. The temperature hovers
around the -4C mark, the sun sets before 5pm, and a filthy slush coats
the darkened streets. So it is unsurprising that in this cold, dark
month Marina Litvinovich, a pretty blonde 31-year-old PR specialist,
was hurrying to get to her car after a late night at work. Leaving her
office about 9pm, she started to make her way down the city’s Makarenko
Street. She had almost reached her car when, without warning, she felt
a blow to her head from behind. Although she was immediately knocked
out cold, her attackers continued to beat her. She lay unconscious on
the freezing ground for around 20 minutes and, drowsily coming round,
knew what she had to do. She picked up her mobile phone and called
not the police, but her boss: Garry Kasparov, the world’s greatest
chess player.

The brutal attack on Litvinovich – two of her teeth were knocked out,
she suffered injuries to her face and ribs, but escaped lasting damage
– is merely one incident in a catalogue of intimidation toward Kasparov
and his staff since he made the surprising announcement last March
that he intended to retire from the international chess circuit to
enter Russian politics – a move that prompted one chess fan to hit
him over the head with a chessboard and shout: "I admired you as a
chess player, but you gave that up for politics!"

A long-time critic of the Putin regime, Kasparov means business. He
has his own political organisation, the United Civil Front, bodyguards
that would put George Bush’s to shame and plans to run for the Russian
presidency in 2008. In the West, he hit the headlines this week for
organising an alternative G8 summit in Moscow, just days before the
real summit goes ahead in Putin’s native St Petersburg.

The alternative summit has been a publicity coup for Kasparov.

Scheduled in order to cause maximum embarrassment to the Kremlin,
he attracted the likes of Anthony Brenton, the British ambassador,
who gave a speech at one of its forums, and Daniel Fried, the US
assistant secretary of state, who defended his appearance, saying
"if Russian officials attended a summit organised by the Democrats –
the American opposition – we wouldn’t regard it as anything other than
[them] doing their job". But while some of the summit’s attendees from
the West may have been coy about their real reasons for showing up,
Kasparov was in no doubt that the meeting was a chance to attack the
Russian president. "Democracy is not a bargaining chip," he railed
during a speech. "This is a fundamental issue. The West should not
pretend Mr Putin is a member of this club [the G8]".

KASPAROV COULD BE playing with fire. He claims more than 20 of his
supporters have been attacked over the past few weeks, while Kasparov
himself was apparently roughed up by Interior Ministry troops last
May. Venues where he has been scheduled to speak have suddenly lost
electrical power or been pronounced "full"; he has had ketchup-covered
eggs thrown at him, and police have dogged his every move. Others have
fared far worse: oil executive Mikhail Khodorkovsky is currently in
prison for fraud and tax evasion, though many suspect this is because
he was planning on financing the opposition.

"It stands to reason that all this is orchestrated by those who
don’t want us in politics," Kasparov said recently. "That means the
authorities."

Kasparov and his team have been putting their noses where they are
not wanted. It is believed the attack on Litvinovich was motivated
by investigations she had been doing on the 2004 siege of Beslan. She
edits a website entitled The Truth about Beslan, which makes a number
of allegations as to how the government and the army handled the
siege and its aftermath, and includes testimonies from parents and
victims alleging that they were not protected by their country.

"There are new and interesting facts that are serious enough and
important," she told a Russian radio station after the attack. "It
seems to me most regrettable that this upsets some people."

In a country where chess is viewed in much the same way as professional
tennis is in the US, Kasparov is an A-List celebrity.

Broodingly handsome, with salt-and-pepper hair and dark soulful eyes,
he is one of Russia’s most recognisable figures. A child prodigy,
he was born in Azerbaijan on 16 April 1963 to an Armenian mother and
a Jewish father. His father died when he was just seven, and by eight
he was training at world-champion Mikhail Botvinnik’s chess school.

>From there it was a heady tumble into celebrity chess stardom. At 13 he
won the Soviet junior championship and started playing in tournaments
worldwide. By 15 he was a chess master. At 17 he won the world junior
championship. Part of Kasparov’s unblinkered view of Russia comes
from that early life on the chess circuit. Travelling the world as
a teenager, he saw the West as it really was, rather than the myth
spun by "invincible Mother Russia".

AS A CHESS PLAYER, Kasparov’s career remains unparalleled. Named world
number one a record 23 times, he has won every major chess tournament
and achieved the highest ever official chess rating.

Perhaps his most famous encounter was with IBM’s Deep Blue, a computer
that defeated Kasparov in 1996, at the height of his career.

A year later Kasparov ordered a rematch, and won. He is not, it seems,
a man easily beaten. His decision to end his chess career last year
confounded the chess community, but few realised how seriously he
took his devotion to politics.

Politically, he has been described as a revolutionary. He has watched
with admiration the domino effect of revolutions in former Soviet
states such as Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine and Georgia, and feels something
similar must happen in Russia. His United Civic Front is a group of
around 2,000 oppositionists, including Communists, Putin defectors
and members of nationalist parties, and is lead by his Committee 2008:
Free Choice, a group 32 with differing politics.

Kasparov is keen to bring his message – that there must be change,
that Putin must not be allowed to win a third term, that Russia must
do more to embrace democracy – to those outside Russia’s political
and economic hubs, Moscow and St Petersburg.

Unlike many Russian politicians, he travels: not abroad, but within
his own country. He trundles up and down the Soviet highways attending
meetings, giving speeches, hammering home his message in the most
far-flung corners of the country.

This is partly because, as an opposition politician, the state-friendly
TV channels are unlikely to give him much time. But he also stated
in an interview with Atlantic Monthly in December last year that
the experience is like going to university. "I want to shift the
centre of political gravity from Moscow to the regions," he told
the magazine. "To bring big politics down to the molecular level,
to show people how it affects them and how we can change policy to
change our lives."

But Kasparov’s persona is not all sunshine and good political works.

For years there were rumours on the chess circuit of his overbearing
manner, and British grandmaster Nigel Short famously described
him as "a hairy ape". He is known to be difficult and demanding,
and his private life is messy and complex. His first wife, Masha,
who lives in New Jersey with their 12-year-old daughter, won a court
order forbidding the child visiting Kasparov in Moscow, fearing if
she did she would not return to the US. He divorced his second wife,
Yulia, with whom he has a son, last year. He is currently dating a
beautiful young business graduate, Daria Tarasova.

So can the grandmaster turn president? He compares himself on the
political scale to Arnold Schwarzenegger – "economically conservative
but socially liberal" – although the celebrity comparison also rings
true. The only difference is that, while it has taken Schwarzenegger
years of political campaigning and donations to get to his current
position of Governor of California, Kasparov has caught serious
political attention in the West, has the highest political profile of
any Russian politician except Putin, and a good shot at the Russian
presidency come 2008, all within 18 months.

Perhaps we should not expect anything less from the man who has
dominated his sport for two decades. And perhaps politics has been
informing his chess for longer than we realised.

He is nothing if not determined. As he told an interviewer last year:
"I will stay in my country to fight for it; it is my country as much
as Mr Putin’s."

THEY KNOW WHO GAVE THE ORDER

Lragir.am
13 July 06

The members of the CP Committee of Yerevan gave a press conference
July 13 to answer the statements of their former fellow members of
the Communist Party on Armenian channels. The CP Committee of Yerevan
even made a special statement on this occasion.

"Khoren Sargsyan, Sanatruk Sahakyan and several others, who have
recently been dismissed from the party, introduce themselves as
communists on TV channels, especially on Kentron and Shant. We
know who orders these speeches. And there is no need to call fake
communists those people who were dismissed from the CP," runs the
statement of the CP, signed by the first secretary of the Yerevan
Committee Tachat Sargsyan. He says they do not have a purpose and
the right to criticize or direct the mass media.

"However, we are surprised and worried by the fact why a person
dismissed from the Communist Party appears on TV for several times, and
are referred to as "communists". Everyone knows that Khoren Sargsyan
was dismissed on the decision of the Plenum of the Central Committee
of the Communist Party. Sanatruk Sahakyan is not a communist, he was
dismissed on the decision of the Plenum of the CP Central Committee,
but they keep referring to them as Communist this and Communist that,"
says Tachat Sargsyan. According to him, these people deviated from
the ideas of communism, especially that they announce on TV that they
have nothing to do with Marxism and Leninism.

The communists emphasize in their statement that they know who ordered
the TV speeches of their former fellow communists, nevertheless
the first secretary of the Yerevan Committee of the CP declines to
specify the names of these people, adding that it may not have been
a definite order but what happened fits in the logic of order.

RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
_________________________________________ ____________________
RFE/RL Iran Report
Vol. 9, No. 25, 12 July 2006

A Review of Developments in Iran Prepared by the Regional Specialists
of RFE/RL’s Newsline Team

******************************************** ****************
HEADLINES
* NEW ANTI-ISRAEL CAMPAIGN IN IRAN
* IRANIAN NUCLEAR DECISION NOT FORTHCOMING
* IRAN DEVELOPS NEW LINE OF MISSILES
* ARMENIAN PRESIDENT AND IRAQI SPEAKER OF PARLIAMENT VISIT IRAN
* IRANIANS AMONG CASUALTIES IN IRAQI SUICIDE BOMBING
* IRAN ATTACKS KURDS IN IRAQ
* TEHRAN ATTRIBUTES ETHNIC STRIFE TO FOREIGN INVOLVEMENT
* IRANIAN MINORITIES EXPERIENCE HOUSING DIFFICULTIES
* UNPAID WORKERS PROTEST IN NORTHWEST IRAN
* TRUCK CRASH SHAKES SHIRAZ
* INTELLECTUAL LABELED U.S. AGENT
* JOURNALIST THREATENS MASS HUNGER STRIKE TO FREE POLITICAL PRISONERS
**************************************** ********************

NEW ANTI-ISRAEL CAMPAIGN IN IRAN. The Students’ Justice-Seeking
Movement and the Students’ Headquarters for the Support of
Palestine will raise funds in Tehran for Israel’s annihilation,
Fars News Agency reported on July 6. The first collection will take
place after the Friday Prayers on July 7. On July 8, according to
Fars, "Global Slumber and the Need to Support Palestine" will be
shown at the Kosar Hall next to the Mellat Bank in Tehran.
In Isfahan, fundraising has commenced at 80 local Basij
Resistance Force bases and 92 student Basij bases, provincial
television reported on July 5. Colonel Moradi, commander of the Basij
in the town of Shahreza, said he expects the fundraising drive —
called Labayk Ya Khamenei (We are ready to give a positive response
to your call O’ Khamenei) — to raise some $55,000.
A July 5 statement from the Isfahan Province Islamic
Publicity Coordination Council called on people to participate in
anti-U.S. and anti-Israel rallies after the July 7 Friday Prayers,
Isfahan Provincial television reported. According to the statement,
"Usurper Israel has realized its own futility and worthlessness and,
supported by criminal America, it has increased the fire of its
grudge and bloodthirstiness to maximum and is continuing its
indiscriminate murder of the oppressed people of Palestine." (Bill
Samii)

IRANIAN NUCLEAR DECISION NOT FORTHCOMING. The visit to Brussels of
Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, which was scheduled for July 5,
was postponed for a day for security reasons, according to Iranian
news agencies. Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali
Larijani was scheduled to meet with EU High Representative for Common
Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana, and an anonymous "informed
source" said the presence of Israeli assassins in Brussels led to the
delay, Mehr News Agency reported. An unnamed Iranian "security
official" said the alleged hit teams were backed by Israel and
"certain European states," the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA)
reported. Iranian Speaker of Parliament Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel gave a
less precise explanation, telling state television, "A technical
reason, rather than a political issue, has been behind the
postponement of the visit."
Larijani attended a dinner with Solana in Brussels on July 6,
AFP reported. Larijani said Iran will not respond right away to the
international community’s proposal that purportedly calls on Iran
to suspend its uranium-enrichment activities in exchange for various
incentives until international inspectors confirm that the
country’s nuclear program has no military applications. Solana
delivered the proposal to Tehran in early June. Larijani said the
response would not come either at that evening’s dinner or on
July 11, when talks with officials from the countries behind the
proposal are scheduled to take place. Tehran has said repeatedly that
it must consider the proposal carefully, but also has said that the
proposal is vague in some key areas.
Tehran’s slow response to the international nuclear
proposal has led to calls for it to act with greater haste.
International Atomic Energy Agency chief Muhammad el-Baradei said on
July 6 in Ankara, "We hope that Iran will respond promptly and
positively, we hope, to the offer that was made by the six
countries," Radio Farda reported. He added, "we need to get the
parties to start the negotiations, and the earlier we get the parties
to the negotiating table the better for everybody…. I hope that
Iran also understands that the international community is getting
somewhat impatient, and the earlier they can provide an answer the
better for everybody."
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said on July 6
in Paris, "We call on the Iranians to give a rapid response to our
offer. It is important that we receive rapid, concrete answers," AFP
reported.
European Commission spokeswoman Emma Udwin said on July 5 in
Brussels that there is "disappointment" in "Iran’s slowness,"
Radio Farda reported.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on July 4 in London,
"What I’d like is a response [to the international offer of
incentives] as soon as possible because I don’t really see what
more there is to talk about," Radio Farda reported. Blair voiced
concern that Tehran might harbor the false hope that it can "divide
the international community." (Bill Samii)

IRAN DEVELOPS NEW LINE OF MISSILES. Defense and Armed Forces
Logistics Minister Mohammad Mustafa Najjar said on June 28 in Tehran
that Iran is among the top six countries in the production of
armor-piercing missiles, IRNA reported. He went on to say that
country’s defense industries are part of national development
plans for the next two decades. (Bill Samii)

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT AND IRAQI SPEAKER OF PARLIAMENT VISIT IRAN.
Armenian President Robert Kocharian on July 6 concluded a two-day
visit to Iran during which he met with his counterpart, President
Mahmud Ahmadinejad, international news agencies reported. Kocharian
was accompanied by Energy Minister Armen Movsisian, Foreign Minister
Vartan Oskanian, and Deputy Foreign Minister Armen Kirakosian. The
Iranian and Armenian sides signed seven memorandums of understanding;
most related to energy issues, but several dealt with legal matters
and cultural preservation. Noyan Tapan and the Armenian "Lragir"
newspaper reported on July 6 that the most important topic of
discussion was the construction of a natural-gas pipeline connecting
the two countries. RFE/RL’s Armenian Service reported on July 6
that another important topic was connection of the two countries’
electricity grids.
Mahmud al-Mashhadani, speaker of the Iraqi parliament, met
with Ayatollah Abbas Vaez-Tabasi, head of the Imam Reza Shrine
Foundation and the provincial representative of Iran’s Supreme
Leader, during a visit to the western Iranian city of Mashhad on July
6, IRNA reported. During the meeting, al-Mashhadani said the United
States is occupying Iraq because it wants to create a "Greater
Israel," IRNA reported. Al-Mashhadani added that the United States
and Israel are working against stability in Iraq, and he attributed
the rule of the former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to the United
States, saying, "Saddam was appointed in Iraq by the United States
itself to help it materialize its arrogant goals." Al-Mashhadani
called for a greater Iranian role in his country’s
reconstruction. Al-Mashhadani arrived in Iran on July 3 at the
invitation of his Iranian counterpart, Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel. (Bill
Samii)

IRANIANS AMONG CASUALTIES IN IRAQI SUICIDE BOMBING. Thirteen people
were killed and another 41 were wounded on 6 July when a suicide
bomber’s vehicle exploded between two buses carrying Iranian
pilgrims in the city of Al-Kufah, which is north of Al-Najaf,
Al-Sharqiyah Television and Reuters reported. Munther al-Athari, the
head of Najaf’s health service, said eight of the dead were
Iranians, Reuters reported. Islamic Republic of Iran News Network
Television reported that five Iranian pilgrims lost their lives and
22 others were wounded.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Assefi
condemned the incident and blamed the U.S., Islamic Republic of Iran
News Network Television reported. He described this as a barbaric act
that only benefits Iraq’s enemies. He added, "The wrong policy of
the American occupiers and their refusal to accept responsibility in
Iraq have led to the growth of terrorism and ruthless behavior in
that country; and the terrorists by counting on America’s
erroneous approach, continue their crimes." (Bill Samii)

IRAN ATTACKS KURDS IN IRAQ. An Iranian army spokesman announced on
July 1 that Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) forces sustained heavy
losses when Iranians attacked their positions in the northern Iraqi
town of Sidikan, Iran’s Arabic-language Al-Alam television
reported. The spokesman said the attack was in response to PKK
activities near the Iranian city of Salmas. The next day, a statement
from the PKK-affiliated People’s Defense Forces (HPG) said
Iranian and Turkish armed forces suffered great losses during clashes
with the HPG, Roj Television reported. The HPG statement claimed that
18 Iranian soldiers and two local militiamen were killed near the
Iranian towns of Marivan and Baneh on June 28. Turkish personnel
reportedly were killed on June 29. Two HPG members lost their lives
as well, it claimed. (Bill Samii)

TEHRAN ATTRIBUTES ETHNIC STRIFE TO FOREIGN INVOLVEMENT. Minister of
Intelligence and Security Hojatoleslam Gholam-Hussein Mohseni-Ejei
said on July 2 in Tehran that his agency has countered many
conspiracies by Iran’s enemies over the last 10 months, state
television reported. He said the United States has the greatest
motivation to act against Iran, Mehr News Agency reported, and he
indicated that the U.S. intervention is motivated by Iran’s gains
in military power. Mohseni-Ejei also mentioned the funds for
democracy legislation requested by U.S. Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice in February, and added that, in fact, much more
money than that has been spent by Washington to destabilize Iran.
Mohseni-Ejei claimed that the United States has dispatched many spies
to Iran since the election of President Mahmud Ahmadinejad in June
2005. Referring to the continuing ethnic disturbances in the
northwest, southwest, and southeastern parts of Iran, Mohseni-Ejei
said ethnic groups in these areas deserve more attention because the
United States is trying to exploit them.
On July 1, in Mahabad, legislator Alaedin Borujerdi said
government investigations show that the United States and Britain are
behind unrest in the Khuzestan and Sistan va Baluchistan provinces,
IRNA reported. (Bill Samii)

IRANIAN MINORITIES EXPERIENCE HOUSING DIFFICULTIES. UN special
rapporteur Miloon Kothari released a report on housing on June 29,
and part of that document focused on Iran. According to the report,
Kothari visited neighborhoods in and around Tehran, as well as the
Boyerahmad va Kohkiluyeh, Fars, Kerman, Kermanshah, and Khuzestan
provinces, and he heard testimony relating to Ilam and Sistan va
Baluchistan provinces. Rural land is being expropriated and its
inhabitants evacuated to make way for agricultural and petrochemical
projects, the report notes. "In some regions, these expropriations
seem to have targeted disproportionately property and land of
religious and ethnic minorities, such as Baha’i cemeteries, but
also houses" — some 640 Baha’i properties, including cemeteries
and shrines, have been confiscated since 1980. People are not fairly
compensated. There are "allegations of procedural irregularities and
bias against ethnic and religious minorities" in cases of
expropriation. Minorities face "disproportionately poor living
conditions" — for example, Arabs, Kurds, and Muslim Sufis have
"extremely unsatisfactory" living conditions in Kermanshah and
Khuzestan. Laws relating to inheritance are harmful to minorities,
according to the report, and favor Muslims. (Bill Samii)

UNPAID WORKERS PROTEST IN NORTHWEST IRAN. Employees of a china and
porcelain factory in the northwestern city of Tabriz staged a protest
on June 27 against five-months of wage arrears, the Iranian Labor
News Agency (ILNA) reported. During that time, workers told ILNA,
they only received a onetime payment of 500,000 rials (roughly $57).
The factory’s managing director told ILNA he would pay the
employees as soon as he can, but there has been a slump in demand for
the products. (Bill Samii)

TRUCK CRASH SHAKES SHIRAZ. A truck carrying 8,000 liters of gasoline
crashed into a high-voltage electricity pole in the city of Shiraz on
June 26, and fuel that leaked into the sewage system exploded, state
radio reported. Gholam-Hussein Monshi, an official with the city
sanitation department, stressed that the underground sewage system
was not damaged because the gas leaked into surface canals only, IRNA
reported. Fars Province Governor-General Ebrahim Azizi said the blast
killed one person and injured four others, IRNA reported. More than
20 cars were reported damaged. The Shiraz emergency hospital reported
that six people who fell into the canal received immediate medical
treatment.
In eastern Iran on June 26, 22 people lost their lives when a
bus and a truck crashed head-on, Reuters reported. The accident took
place on the highway connecting Birjand and Nahbandan. (Bill Samii)

INTELLECTUAL LABELED U.S. AGENT. Minister of Intelligence and
Security Hojatoleslam Gholam-Hussein Mohseni-Ejei discussed the cases
of jailed intellectual Ramin Jahanbegloo and former Tehran
parliamentary representative and student activist Ali Akbar
Musavi-Khoeni on July 2, Radio Farda reported. Mohseni-Ejei said
Jahanbegloo was trying, at U.S. instigation, to bring about a
nonviolent, "Velvet-type" revolution in Iran. The investigation into
Jahanbegloo’s case is continuing, Mohseni-Ejei added, and he
claimed that the United States is training members of NGOs at
overseas locations. Turning to Musavi-Khoeni, Mohseni-Ejei said the
former legislator’s participation in a women’s rights rally
on June 12 was illegal and that is why he was arrested, Radio Farda
reported. Most other people arrested then have been released, but
Mohseni-Ejei did not explain this inconsistency. (Bill Samii)

JOURNALIST THREATENS MASS HUNGER STRIKE TO FREE POLITICAL PRISONERS.
Dissident Iranian journalist Akbar Ganji has threatened to organize a
hunger-strike "movement" in several Western cities if the government
does not release three Iranian political prisoners as soon as
possible and unconditionally. The most prominent of the three is
noted scholar and author Ramin Jahanbegloo, who is accused of working
with the United States to bring down Iran’s Islamic regime
through a nonviolent revolution. Former reformist legislator and the
head of the alumni association of Iran’s main reformist student
group, Ali Akbar Musavi-Khoeni, and bus-driver union leader Mansur
Osanlu are the others.
Akbar Ganji reiterated his call for Iranian officials to
release Ramin Jahanbegloo, Mansur Osanlu, and Ali Akbar Musavi-Khoeni
during an interview with Radio Farda on June 30 while he was in
Germany.
Ganji said that Osanlu and Musavi-Khoeni represent Iran’s
intellectual, workers’, and student movements whose members, he
says, have been under pressure.
He said they should be freed and he has called on all
freedom-loving Iranians and human rights defenders to join him.
"We’ve called on the regime to free these three prisoners
immediately," he said. "If they will not be freed soon, I have
planned with some friends a hunger strike against the Iranian regime
in England, in France, in Germany, in the U.S. and across the world
to bring the world’s attention to the vast human rights
violations in the Islamic Republic of Iran."
Ganji — one of Iran’s most prominent investigative
journalists — was freed in March after spending more than five years
in prison because of his critical articles.
During his jail term he remained defiant and on at least two
occasions he went on a long hunger strike to protest his conditions.
Ganji has been on a European tour for the last month and has
condemned human rights abuses in Iran wherever he speaks.
"Iran’s Islamic regime is continuing its political
repression and human rights violations like before," he said. "One of
the tools for political repression is arbitrary and illegal arrests.
They arrest people because of their opinions and because of dissent."

Ganji noted that many human rights activists and
intellectuals have called for the release of Jahanbegloo,
Musavi-Khoeni, and Osanlu.
He added that since Iranian authorities have not paid
attention to these calls, a general hunger strike seems to be the
only way to press for their release.
In recent weeks several separate statements have been issued
by activists and intellectuals in protest of the detentions of the
three men.
In the case of Jahanbegloo, personalities such as Nobel Peace
Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, Nobel Literature Prize winner J.M.
Coetzee, acclaimed Italian writer Umberto Eco, and prominent
historian and author Timothy Garton Ash have joined the call for his
release.
Jahanbegloo is a well-known philosopher who has published
several books in French, English, and Persian on issues as ranging as
intellectual thought in Iran and Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi and his
nonviolent resistance.
He has been detained since April 27 without access to a
lawyer.
Minister of Intelligence and Security Hojatoleslam
Gholam-Hussein Mohseni-Ejei said on July 2 that Jahanbegloo is one of
the people who was arrested "in line with the U.S. effort to
instigate a velvet [or] soft revolution in Iran."
Some of Jahanbegloo’s colleagues and friends have
expressed concern that he could be under pressure to make forced
confessions.
This method has been used — though largely unsuccessfully —
by Iran in the past to discredit critics.
There is also growing concern about Musavi-Khoeni, who was
arrested in Tehran during a June 12 women’s rights gathering.
Seventy men and women were arrested for attending the protest
against legal gender discrimination. All have been freed except for
Musavi-Khoeni.
Former legislator Fatemeh Haghighatjoo tells RFE/RL that
Musavi-Khoeni’s case is being reviewed by the hard-line
revolutionary court.
"This is a matter of concern because it is possible that they
will bring new charges against him such as espionage or toppling the
regime," he said. "During his term in the parliament he worked hard
for the closure of secret and illegal prisons; he also defended the
rights of political prisoners. These are among issues that can lead
to new cases against him especially because he has been a defender of
student rights and also the rights of women and workers."
Human rights activists are also worried about the fate
Osanlu, the president of the Syndicate of Workers of the Tehran Bus
Company.
He has been in jail since last December on unspecified
charges. He reportedly helped organize demonstrations against bus
drivers’ work conditions.
On June 30, the student website advarnews.com reported that
student leader Abdullah Momeni welcomes Ganji’s call for the
release of Osanlu and other prisoners.
Momeni is quoted as saying that Ganji’s resistance while
imprisoned provides a lesson for all Iranians who are longing for a
change.
He added: "I think students and those close to the students
have the capacity to express their readiness for a protest."
Iran’s most prominent living poet, Simin Behbehani, has
also expressed support for Ganji’s initiative.
Behbehani told Radio Farda that any action that would lead to
the release of Iran’s political prisoners is "necessary." (By
Golnaz Esfandiari; Radio Farda correspondent Nazi Azima contributed
to this report.)

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Copyright (c) 2006. RFE/RL, Inc. All rights reserved.

The "RFE/RL Iran Report" is a weekly prepared by A. William Samii on
the basis of materials from RFE/RL broadcast services, RFE/RL
Newsline, and other news services. It is distributed every Monday.

Direct comments to A. William Samii at [email protected].
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