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| FarsiNet News Archive
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November 2000, Week 4 |
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Weather
forcast of 50 cities in Iran
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China Escapes US Arms Sanctions, Iran,pakistan Hit
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said Tuesday it was waiving sanctions against China for past missile technology transfers to Iran and Pakistan but imposing them on these two states for receiving the equipment. "The U.S. side has decided to waive sanctions under U.S. law for past Chinese assistance to missile programs in Pakistan and Iran, and to resume certain commercial space interactions with China," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said. "Sanctions have been imposed upon Pakistani and Iranian recipients of the Chinese assistance," he added. China was liable for sanctions because of the transfers of technology including whole missiles, in Pakistan's case, or in Iran's, of components to make them, Boucher said. But President Clinton, who leaves office in January, had granted a waiver because China's foreign ministry had pledged to clean up its act on arms technology exports. A senior State Department official said that in the case of Iran, China's pledge to control exports "can certainly make a big impact in terms of slowing down developments". He said the shorter the range of missile, the less Iran's dependence on foreign technology. "If they want an advanced missile capability, the horse is not yet out of the barn."
CHINESE RECOVERY, SLOW IRANIAN THAW Boucher said existing sanctions also spelled limited impact on Pakistan, but that the new ones sent "a strong signal that the United States opposes these countries' missiles programs." India and Pakistan are subject to U.S. sanctions because of their tit-for-tat nuclear tests of 1998. Iran remains among seven nations labeled by the U.S. as state sponsors of terrorism for its opposition to the Middle East peace process, a designation which robs it of much U.S. aid. What the United States calls Iran's desire for weapons of mass destruction also boosted arguments in the United States for a missile defense shield which would cost tens of billions of dollars to build but Clinton has deferred to his successor. Boucher said the waiver meant the United States could resume processing licenses for commercial space cooperation with Chinese companies, and talks on extending a 1995 deal on international trade and commercial launch services. But the U.S. government would impose a two-year ban on export licenses for commerce- and state-controlled items in all new U.S. government contracts on several entities in Iran and Pakistan, and their subunits and successor bodies. In Iran, the Defense Industries Organization, defense ministry and Armed Forces Logistics Command were affected. In Pakistan, the affected bodies were the defense ministry and Space and Upper-Atmosphere Research Commission. Boucher said Beijing's foreign ministry had given a clear policy commitment not to help other states to develop ballistic missiles that could be used to deliver nuclear weapons. It also pledged to improve its export control system, including publishing at an early date a full list of missile-related items, including dual-use ones, Boucher added. He said the waiver depended on Beijing keeping its promise. "In that connection, while the United States is waiving sanctions that would otherwise be imposed for past transfers to missile programs in Pakistan and Iran, the waiver does not apply to any transfers that might occur in the future." He added, "We're confident that the next administration will follow this question closely." |
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Top Iranian Reformist Summoned to Court Over Unrest
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TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran's hard-line judiciary has summoned a key ally of reformist President Mohammad Khatami to court for his alleged role in riots in August, a newspaper reported Monday. Mostafa Tajzadeh, a deputy interior minister, has been summoned to appear in court Tuesday by a judge investigating several days of riots in the western city of Khorramabad that left a policeman dead and two dozen students injured, according to the daily Hambastegi. Judicial officials were not available for comment. The summons comes days after Interior Minister Abdolvahed Mousavi Lari appointed Tajzadeh to supervise next year's presidential vote and legislative by-elections. Hard-liners condemned the appointment, accusing Tajzadeh of seeking to tamper with the vote, a charge rejected by reformists. The riots in Khorramabad, 300 miles southwest of Tehran, broke out after vigilantes stormed the city's airport and prevented two leading liberals from attending a seminar on democracy organized by Iran's largest pro-reform student group. The attacks forced the student group to end the conference two days early. In September, the State Inspectorate Organization -- a body controlled by the judiciary -- blamed reformists, including Tajzadeh, for the riots. Hard-liners criticized Tajzadeh for issuing permits for the conference and for describing those who objected to it as "fascists." Two subsequent investigations -- one in September by the State Security Council and one this month by parliament blamed hard-liners for the riots, including members of the Revolutionary Guards and a representative of the country's supreme leader.
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Iran's Leading Satirist Apologizes for His Writings
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TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- In testimony as funny as it was serious, Iran's leading satirist pleaded guilty Wednesday to a charge of insulting government officials and apologized for lampooning them in his writings. Ever the comic, Ebrahim Nabavi cracked a joke at the expense of his own lawyer that provoked guffaws of laughter around the courtroom. When the lawyer questioned the legality of a trial without a jury, Nabavi intervened to say he had no objection. "My lawyer is trying to create more charges against me by questioning the competency of the court. He may soon need his own laywer if this continues," Nabavi said. Nabavi pleaded innocent to a charge of having fabricated lies. His trial is part of a crackdown on the liberal press that the judiciary began earlier this year. "I say freely that I went to irresponsible extremes. I was not under duress in prison. I accept the charges of insulting the authorities and apologize to all those offended by my work. I will now distance myself from politics," said Nabavi, dressed in a gray prisoner's uniform. The judge, Saeed Mortazavi, said Nabavi's remorse would be taken into consideration. The verdict is expected next week. Nabavi was detained for a month in September 1998 for his popular satirical writings. He was released and detained again later. The hard-line judiciary has closed down some 30 publications, nearly all pro-reform, and detained more than two dozen journalists and political activists since April. The crackdown is believed to be in response to the humiliating defeat of hard-line candidates in the February legislative elections. The judiciary has become an important tool in the hands of those who seek to stifle the reform movement launched by President Mohammad Khatami since taking office in 1997. Hard-liners run the judiciary, military and the broadcasting network.
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Khatami Says Sanctions Will Hurt the U.S. More than Iran
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DOHA, Qatar (AP) -- U.S. sanctions against Iran will be more harmful to America's economy in the long run than Iran's, Iranian President Mohammad Khatami said Monday.
In an interview with The Associated Press on the sidelines of the Organization of the Islamic Conference summit in Qatar, Khatami said European and Asian companies would continue to take advantage of the American business void in Iran.
"Naturally, these sanctions can have a more immediate effect on the lives of Iranians, but in the long run it is not we who will be hurt by them," Khatami said. "These sanctions will force us more and more to look elsewhere for what we need." Formal ties between the two countries were severed after the 1979 seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran by Islamic militants. The United States imposed economic sanctions on Iran that year. In 1998, the reform-minded Khatami proposed that the two countries try to break the "wall of mistrust" between them by people-to-people contacts and cultural and sports exchanges. The United States, which accuses Iran of sponsoring international terrorism, took steps earlier this year to improve ties, lifting a ban on U.S. imports of Iranian luxury goods and calling for a "new relationship" with Iran. However, on Thursday President Clinton renewed the 1979 sanctions for another year. "More and more, U.S. firms and financial institutions will fall behind their competitors in Europe and Asia, and eventually we believe it will be the pressure of big business that will force the United States to change its policy toward Iran," Khatami said. Washington has banned U.S. businesses from selling everything from Coca-Cola to Boeing airliners in Iran. European and Asian firms have been cashing in by filling multibillion-dollar orders from Tehran and winning contracts to rebuild Iran's oil industry and strategic facilities. Earlier this week, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zangeneh told the AP that U.S. businesses were bidding for large contracts in Iran despite the sanctions. He did not identify the firms.
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Continuation of Iran Emergency
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M2 Communications - On November 14, 1979, by Executive Order 12170, the President declared a national emergency to deal with the threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States constituted by the situation in Iran. Since that time, notices of the continuation of this national emergency have been transmitted annually by the President to the Congress and published in the Federal Register. The most recent notice appeared in the Federal Register on November 5, 1999. Because our relations with Iran have not yet returned to normal, and the process of implementing the January 19, 1981, agreements with Iran is still underway, the national emergency declared on November 14, 1979, must continue in effect beyond November 14, 2000. Therefore, in accordance with section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)), I am continuing the national emergency with respect to Iran for 1 year. This notice shall be published in the Federal Register and transmitted to the Congress.
WILLIAM J. CLINTON |
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Iranian FM Urges U.S. to Change Hostile Policy
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DOHA -XINHUA - Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi here on Saturday urged the United States to change its policy towards Iran to open up chances for improvement of bilateral ties.
Speaking to reporters, Kharrazi said there was no change in U.S. relations with Iran over the past years, and "it depends on the new U.S. president who comes to the White House if he is interested in developing relations with Iran." He said that before talking about any development in relations between Tehran and Washington, "the U.S. certainly has to change its policy it maintains towards Iran." Kharrazi is here to attend the summit of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) due to start Sunday. He opened the OIC foreign ministers meeting on November 9-10, which prepared the agenda for the summit. Iran and the U.S. severed diplomatic relations in 1980 following the seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran by radical Iranian students in the heyday of the 1979 Islamic revolution.!! After Iran's moderate President Mohammad Khatami came to power in 1997 calling for "people-to-people" relations with the Americans, senior U.S. officials have repeatedly called for "unconditional talks" with Iran. However, Iran stresses that talks with the U.S. will be useless if Washington refuses to change its hostile policy and continues its sanctions against Iran. Washington accused Tehran of supporting international terrorism, seeking weapons of mass destruction and opposing the Middle East peace process.
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