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Tuesday, January 14, 1997

* Britain blocked Rushdie deal?
* Khatami to run for president?
* Happy Birthday
* Afkhami on the Taliban
* Extra $2.67 billion in oil sales
* Pressure on China on uranium plant
* Turkish-Iranian to sign defence pact
* Stealing antiques
* Politics... sheer nonesense

Iranian FM: Rushdie Deal Blocked

Thursday, January 9, 1997
10:41 pm EST

MILAN, Italy (AP) -- Iran was near an agreement that would have suspended the death threat against British author Salman Rushdie, but a European country blocked it, Iran's foreign minister was quoted Thursday as saying.

Ali Abkar Velayati's interview with Milan's Corriere della Sera did not identify the European country or give any details of the agreement.

The newspaper suggested Velayati was referring to Britain, but did not give any evidence of that...

Velayati said that during negotiations with the European Union over the past two years ``we were very close to a solution of the so-called Rushdie case.''

``Fourteen of the 15 European countries had reached an agreement with us. In both cases, the 15th country blocked everything at the last minute,'' Velayati was quoted as saying...

***

To see full text, go to:

//wp1.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19970109/V000168-010997-idx.html

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Here are selected stories from recent issues of Theran's Hamshahri daily online newspaper. You need Persian fonts to see the news in Persian. If you have not installed it, go to these sites for free download and installation instructions:

//www.neda.net/hamshahri

or:

//www.payvand.com/persian

ARTICLES

-- [Former Islamic Guidance Minister Mohammad?] Khatami may run for president on pro-Rafsanjani ticket:

//www.neda.net/hamshahri/751019/siasi35.htm

-- Goudarz Eftekhar Jahrimi to head "Press Oversight Board":

//www.neda.net/hamshahri/751020/shahr42.htm

-- Ayatollah Haeri Shirazi promoting "temporary marriage" to discourage "secret, forbidden relationships" among youth:

//www.neda.net/hamshahri/751020/shahr24.htm

-- Spending $700 million to drill in two gas fields:

//www.neda.net/hamshahri/751020/eqtes30.htm

-- A review of the 1996 box office hit, "Independence Day":

//www.neda.net/hamshahri/751020/adabh11.htm

-- How to protect your health while working on the computer:

//www.neda.net/hamshahri/751020/elmfa2.htm

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From: Reza F. Bourghani <davood@ix.netcom.com>

Tehran police raid teenage birthday parties in anti-West drive

From Wire services
01/08/97

Tehran police raid teenage birthday parties in anti-West drive

TEHRAN, Jan 8 - Police arrested 130 teenagers in raids on three birthday parties and apprehended a man for taking pictures of young girls as part of its drive to eradicate Western influences, a judicial official said Wednesday.

Mohammad Kazemi, the head of Shahid Ghodusi court, which specializes in fighting signs of Western culture in Tehran, said the raids on the parties took place on Thursday and Friday nights, the week-end in Iran.

He told the conservative Resalat newspaper that they also had arrested a man who ran private English classes from his home to "lure" young girls and photograph them for "clothing publications in foreign countries."

During the past two months, the police also have smashed "dozens of fun houses" and arrested as many people for "misleading and seducing young girls and boys."

The arrests were part of a campaign against the "decadent" Western culture, which the authorities have been trying to eliminate since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

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Stand by Your Women

By Norma Boustani
The Washington Post

Mehnaz [Mahnaz] Afkhami, executive director of the Washington-based Sisterhood Is Global Institute, said her organization was one of 60 human rights groups working to call attention to the plight of women in Afghanistan following the takeover of the country's capital last fall by the Taliban Islamic militia.

"For me, the Afghanistan situation was amazing," Afkhami said. "It was the first time women used e-mail on such a massive scale to network and to influence the foreign policy community. We are in touch with groups in Pakistan who are in contact with women in Afghanistan by telephone and other means..."

***

To see full text, go to the middle section of the article at this site:

//www.washingtonpost.com/cgi-bin/displaySearch?WPlate+45289+%28Nora%26Boustany%29%3Abyline%26and%2619961227%3Cevent%5Fdate

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From: Reza F. Bourghani <davood@ix.netcom.com>

Price of Iranian crude reaches 22.50 dollars a barrel: official

From Wire services
01/08/97

TEHRAN, Jan 8 - The average price of a barrel of Iranian crude oil has risen to 22.50 dollars, a senior oil official was quoted as saying Wednesday.

Hojatollah Ghanimifard, the head of the National Iranian Oil Company's international department, also said Iran had earned 2.67 billion dollars more than forecasted from exports of crude and oil-related products in the past nine months.

He did not give total earnings from such sales between March to December, but said the figure was a 22.3 percent increase over what was predicted in the budget.

Ghanimifard, quoted by the Tehran Times daily, predicted however that oil prices would decline with the end of severe cold weather in Europe and North America and the return of Iraq to the oil market.

Iran's budget and planning organisation said last month it had anticipated an average of 17.50 dollars to be earned from the sale of each barrel of crude for the Iranian year starting on March 20, 1997.

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From: Reza F. Bourghani <davood@ix.netcom.com>

USA leaning on China to stop Iran uranium plant

From Wire services
01/08/97

The USA is continuing to press China to abandon its plan to build a uranium hexaflouride conversion plant in Iran. Iran had been seeking the technology allegedly for its commercial nuclear powerplant programme.

However, US officials say the conversion plant is part of a larger Iranian attempt to develop nuclear weapons.

The plant would convert uranium oxide to a gaseous state so that it can be enriched to fuel-grade material, either through diffusion or centrifuge technology, if the Iranians can gain access to that part of the fuel cycle process.

The Chinese have not given the USA specific assurances that they will abandon the project, although some officials believe the project is on hold.

However, the USA plans to raise the matter in upcoming talks. The Chinese have told the USA that if they proceed, the plant will be built under the safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

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From: Reza F. Bourghani <davood@ix.netcom.com>

Turkey to detail pact with Iran

From Wire services
01/08/97

More details of a controversial defence industry accord between Iran and Turkey were expected to emerge as Jane's Defence Weekly closed for press.

The Turkish coalition government's pro-Islamist Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan has said that Turkey planned to enter into a defence industry co-operation agreement with Iran.

Sermet Atacanli, deputy spokesperson of the Turkish Foreign Ministry, said details of the agreement would be released shortly.

Atacanli referred to the visit of Iranian President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani to Ankara last month, during which the agreement was expected to be worked out.

A western diplomat in Ankara said: "We are waiting for the result of the visit of Rafsanjani to Turkey and whether defence industry co-operation will be taken up. Then we will make our own decisions in reaction to such co-operation between the NATO ally and Iran."

Iran has sought a defence industry co-operation agreement with Turkey for some time. It was an idea that received little response from Ankara's previous government.

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From: Reza F. Bourghani <davood@ix.netcom.com>

Four arrested in Tehran for stealing antiques from shrines

From wire services
01/09/97

TEHRAN, Jan 9 - Police in Tehran have arrested three men and a woman for stealing antiques and historial artifacts from mausoleums throughout Iran, a newspaper reported Thursday.

Detectives disguised as antique smugglers infiltrated the ring and arrested its members as they tried to destroy a tomb belonging to a 19th century prince and steal the "precious stones" it was made of, Resalat daily said.

The ring leader, Alborz Rastin, later confessed to several acts of robbery from historical sites, and said he had intended to rob such revered places as Shah-Abdolazim shrine in a southern Tehran suburb and Sangi mosque.

"Hundreds" of pieces of antiques dating back to the pre-Islamic periods were seized, including gold and silver vessels and paintings on gazelle hide.

Guilded and hand-written copies of the Moslem holy book, the Koran, and statues were also discovered. Eighteen other people were arrested for illegally trading in antiques with the ring.

Meanwhile, an official of Iran's cultural heritage organisation said it had taken custody of around 80,000 pieces of antiques and historical art pieces, some of them dating back to 500 B.C.

The objects had been seized seven years ago by intelligence agents, when 200 smugglers were arrested, Naser Pasuki said, quoted by newspapers.

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Where Is Jaafar?

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
The New York Times
January 8, 1997

WASHINGTON -- What's going on in Syria? On Dec. 31 a bomb exploded on a bus in the heart of Damascus, killing 11 people and wounding 42 others. An official Syrian statement accused Israel of plotting the attack. But the Syrians offered no proof for such a wild allegation, which Israel denied as "sheer nonsense."

The fact that the Syrians accused Israel of this bombing, a very serious allegation, reflects a nervousness in Damascus that things are just not going Syria's way...

... the Syrian allegation against Israel... might be designed to divert attention from a suspicious trail that leads through Damascus right back to the June 25 bombing of the U.S. barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, in which 19 Americans were killed. According to Arab press reports and other sources, one of the suspects sought by Saudi Arabia in the bombing, Jaafar Chueikhat, "committed suicide" while in Syrian hands. Indeed, Mr. Chueikhat's movements have become part of a behind-the-scenes drama involving Saudi Arabia, Syria and Iran.

A Saudi Shiite, Mr. Chueikhat is suspected by the Saudis of being involved in the transport from the Syrian-controlled Bekaa Valley in Lebanon to Saudi Arabia of explosives used in the bombing. Following the Dhahran incident, the Saudis tracked Mr. Chueikhat from Kuwait to Cairo to Syria. When the Saudis approached the Syrians to arrest him, the Syrians reportedly told the Saudis he had already fled to Iran. The Syrians apparently even gave the Saudi Interior Minister, Prince Nayef bin Abdel Aziz, a letter stating that Mr. Chueikhat had gone to Iran. Sources say that when the Saudis confronted the Iranians with this letter, the Iranians insisted that Mr. Chueikhat had never come to Teheran, and the Iranians were furious with Syria for suggesting as much...

***

To see full text, search it at:

//www.nytimes.com

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