Red Tape Blocking US Food Sales to Iran Senator

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - For the second time in two days, a senator has called on the Clinton administration to ease its new rules for making food sales to Iran. The requests follow Iran's decision to bypass the U.S. market this week and purchase more than 1 million tons of wheat from Canada. In a statement Thursday, Sen. Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat, urged President Clinton to tell the Treasury Department to revise its new regulations. "The president needs to intervene," Dorgan said. "He needs to insist that the Treasury Department come up with regulations that allow his policy to work." The new rules, issued earlier this month, stem from a U.S. policy change in April to exempt food, medicine and medical equipment from economic sanctions on Iran, Sudan and Libya. But grain firms complain the Treasury Department rules still make sales difficult because of a prohibition on U.S. exporters dealing directly with banks in the three countries. Dorgan blamed the bank ban for the Government Trading Corp. of Iran's failure to follow-through on an order it placed with Niki Trading Co. last fall for 3.55 million tons of U.S. food products, including 2 million tons of wheat. "This is a huge potential sale, sorely needed by U.S. producers who are fighting to survive collapsed prices," Dorgan said. "The president's policy is that such sales should be made. Government red tape shouldn't block it." Sen. Pat Roberts, a Kansas Republican, blasted the Clinton administration on Wednesday for banning the use of U.S. export credit guarantees to help finance food sales to Iran. U.S. wheat can't compete with wheat from Canada or Europe without financing assistance, Roberts said. Banning the use of export credits on sales to Iran makes the administration's policy change a "sham," Roberts said. Despite the shortcomings cited by Dorgan and Roberts, U.S. exporters have managed to sell 50,000 tons of corn to Iran since the new regulations were issued, according to the Agriculture Department. However, some Iranian officials have denied the purchase.

New top cop in Teheran

BBC- The authorities in Iran have appointed a new head of police in the capital, Teheran. Brigadier-General Mohsen Ansari takes over from Farhad Nazari, who was strongly criticised in a government inquiry report into a police raid on a student dormitory last month. The raid sparked the worst street violence in Teheran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The students had been protesting about a ban on a liberal newspaper.

Iranian Softens Stance on Dancing

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- Dancing just for the fun of it is a no-no in Iran these days. But sword dancing elevates the mind, Iran's minister of culture and Islamic guidance was quoted as saying Monday. ``Folk dances such as the dance of the swords are among the arts which elevate the thought of mankind, so dancing should not be always known as an indecent act,'' the Farsi daily Neshat quoted Reformist Minister Ataollah Mohajerani as saying. Mohajerani made the comment at the end of a cultural and arts festival in Iran's eastern province of Sistan Baluchestan, said the liberal newspaper monitored in Dubai. Social dancing had been among the most popular entertainment for Iranians before the 1979 Islamic revolution, but afterward it was virtually banned. Still, many Iranians indulge at parties in their homes.