News
June 28 - July 2, 1999 / Tir 7-11, 1378
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Today
* MKO say launch mortar attacks in Iran
* Iran says kills three MKO after blasts
* Oil market rally solid at 18-month highs
* Rafsanjani says U.S. overtures 'fortunate'
* Charges against Jews rejected by State Department
* French parliament head warns Iran not to hang Jews
* Greece reassures United States on Iranian ties
Previous
* Members of Congress criticize U.S.
Iran policy
* Rules on sales to Iran weeks away-State Department
* Rafsanjani will reportedly compete in forthcoming
Majlis elections
* Iran urges West to help it fight drug smugglers
* Khatami greets Saddam on Prophet's birthday-Ina
* Iran minister slams bid to curb press freedom
* New British ambassador presents credentials to Iranian
FM
* French assembly speaker calls charges against Iran Jews
"barbaric"
* Iran allows banks to use rial floating rate-papers
* New protests held in France for release of 13 Iranian
Jews
* Italian bank agrees to extend billion dollar credit line
to Iran
* Russia, Iran Sign Memorandum on Measures Against Drugs
* Iran, Greece see defence cooperation deal soon
* Khatami demands justice for the press
* Kharrazi says arrested Jews passed
on military secrets
* Court keeps MKO on State Department's
terrorist list
* Iran building its own fighters -
Jane's
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Friday
July 2, 1999
* MKO say launch mortar attacks in Iran
DUBAI, July 2 (Reuters) - Iraq-based Iranian rebels said on Friday they
had launched mortar attacks against military and security police sites
in western Iran, inflicting heavy casualties and damage. The Mujahideen
Khalq armed opposition group, in statements faxed to Reuters in Dubai,
said its forces inside Iran attacked the Revolutionary Guards' headquarters
in Ahvaz, and militia and intelligence ministry centres in Kermanshah ...
FULL
TEXT
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* Iran says kills three MKO after blasts
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran said its security forces killed three armed
rebels in a clash Friday as they tried to slip back into neighboring Iraq
after setting off explosions in Western Iran. State-run Tehran radio quoted
an Intelligence Ministry statement as saying its agents surrounded and
killed the three members of the Iraq-based Mujahideen Khalq opposition
group who had hijacked a car and taken its driver hostage. The driver was
freed unharmed, the statement said ... FULL
TEXT
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* Oil market rally solid at 18-month highs
LONDON, July 2 (Reuters) - World oil markets on Friday cruised serenely
at heights not seen for 18 months as dealers pondered the prospects of
further price gains to come. London August futures for benchmark Brent
ended four cents higher on the day at $17.66 a barrel after peaking at
$17.76 on Thursday, the highest oil price since December 1997 ... FULL
TEXT
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* Rafsanjani says U.S. overtures 'fortunate'
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani
suggested Friday he welcomed recent U.S. overtures to Iran despite past
U.S. ``crimes'' against the Islamic republic. ``America's crimes against
Iran include the downing of our Airbus in which nearly 300 people were
martyred,'' Rafsanjani, still a top political figure, said in a sermon
carried on Tehran radio ... FULL
TEXT
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* Charges against Jews rejected by State Department
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The State Department and the House International
Relations Committee criticized Iran on Friday for arresting 13 Iranian
Jews on espionage charges. "The charges are unfounded and unacceptable,"
State Department spokesman James Foley said. "The arrest of these
Iranian citizens is a specious act and an indication that Iran is going
backward," said Rep. Benjamin Gilman, R-N.Y., chairman of the House
committee ... FULL
TEXT
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* French parliament head warns Iran not to hang Jews
PARIS, July 2 (Reuters) - The president of France's National Assembly,
Laurent Fabius, warned Iran on Friday that Western governments could break
diplomatic ties with Tehran if it executed 13 Jews arrested on charges
of spying for Israel. Calling on Tehran to spare the 13, Fabius, a former
prime minister, said: ``If that is not the case, they (Iran) can no longer
hope for normal relations with the international community, for whom the
rules of law, justice and freedom of conscience are inextricably linked
to democracy.'' ... FULL
TEXT
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* Greece reassures United States on Iranian ties
WASHINGTON, July 2 (Reuters) - Greece has told the United States it
has no plans to start defence cooperation with Iran, the U.S. State Department
said on Friday. The official Iranian news agency IRNA said on Tuesday that
visiting Greek Defence Minister Akis Tsohatzopoulos told a Tehran news
conference the two countries would ``promote defence cooperation'' by signing
a letter of understanding ... FULL
TEXT
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Thursday
July 1, 1999
* Members of Congress criticize U.S. Iran policy
WASHINGTON, July 1 (Reuters) - More than 130 members of the U.S. House
of Representatives, about a third of the total, have asked Secretary of
State Madeleine Albright to explore the possibility of working with the
Iranian opposition in exile. The letter, released by the sponsors on Thursday,
said the current U.S. policy, based on seeking dialogue with the Tehran
government, was sending mixed signals ... FULL
TEXT
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* Rules on sales to Iran weeks away-State Department
WASHINGTON, July 1 (Reuters) - The Clinton Administration is ``weeks''
away from issuing new rules that would allow U.S. exporters to sell food
and medicine to Iran, Sudan and Libya, a top U.S. government official said
on Thursday. ``We are in the very, very final stages'' of issuing the rules,
Stuart Eizenstat, Undersecretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs,
told a Senate Foreign Relations committee. He would not give a specific
date except to say the regulations will be finalized in ``weeks.'' ...
FULL TEXT
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* Rafsanjani will reportedly compete in forthcoming Majlis elections
June 30, Neshat Website -- BBC Worldwide Monitoring) -- Domestic News
desk: An informed source told us: The head of the Expediency Council [and
former president] Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani will compete in the sixth Majlis
elections, which will be held during the latter days of the current year
[February-March 2000]. His objective is to create a balance between the
country's legislative and executive authorities ... FULL
TEXT
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* Iran urges West to help it fight drug smugglers
TEHRAN, July 1 (Reuters) - Authorities in northeastern Iran called for
Western support in the country's fight against drug smugglers, the official
news agency IRNA reported on Thursday. Khorasan province's governor Mohsen
Mehralizadeh was quoted as urging Western states ``to assist Iran in whatever
way possible in order to protect their own society from...drug addiction.''
... FULL
TEXT
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* Khatami greets Saddam on Prophet's birthday-Ina
BAGHDAD, July 1 (Reuters) - Iranian leader Mohammed Khatami has congratulated
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on Prophet Mohammed's birthday despite recent
exchanges of accusations between the two countries, the Iraqi news agency
INA reported on Thursday. "On the advent of Prophet Mohammed's birthday,
I extend my congratulations to your excellency, and to Iraq's government
and people," INA quoted a letter sent by Khatami to Saddam as saying.
"I wish success for the Islamic world to achieve its objectives,"
the letter read ... FULL
TEXT
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Wednesday
June 30, 1999
* Iran minister slams bid to curb press freedom
TEHRAN, June 30 (Reuters) - Iran's liberal Culture Minister Ataollah
Mohajerani on Wednesday slammed a bill proposed by conservative deputies
in parliament aimed at limiting the country's fledgling press freedom.
``The custodians of the press and (newspaper) editors have not been consulted
about this bill...In our view, this bill is not meant to amend the press
law, but to change its whole structure,'' state radio quoted the minister
as saying ... FULL
TEXT
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* New British ambassador presents credentials to Iranian FM
TEHRAN, May 26 (Wire Services) - Britain's new ambassador to Iran presented
his credentials Wednesday to Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi, after
10 years of strained relations. The two countries agreed in September to
normalise relations after the Iranian government said it would not seek
to apply the 1989 religious decree, or fatwa, in which the late Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini called for British writer Salman Rushdie to be killed
... FULL TEXT
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* French assembly speaker calls charges against Iran Jews "barbaric"
PARIS, June 30 (AFP) - The speaker of the French National Assembly,
Laurent Fabius, on Wednesday described as "barbaric" the death
sentence facing 13 Iranian Jews charged with spying for Israel. "Thirteen
people, because they are Jews, face the death penalty by hanging on unfounded
accusations," Fabius told the assembly. "I ask the Iranian authorities
to reconsider this barbaric decision otherwise they cannot aspire to normal
relations with the international community." ... FULL
TEXT
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Tuesday
June 29, 1999
* Iran allows banks to use rial floating rate-papers
TEHRAN, June 29 (Reuters) - Iran has authorised state banks to exchange
hard currency gained from exports at an official floating rate close to
the currency's black market value, newspapers reported on Tuesday. The
decision is the latest move by the government to ease strict foreign exchange
controls which have been widely blamed for stagnating non-oil exports ...
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TEXT
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* New protests held in France for release of 13 Iranian Jews
PARIS, June 29 (Wire Services) - Thirteen French public figures briefly
chained themselves Tuesday near the Iranian embassy in Paris to demand
the release of 13 Iranian Jews whose arrest on charges of spying has provoked
an international outcry. Surrounded by some 100 protestors chanting "free
the innocent" and "Jews in prison, why this silence?", the
figures included Jean Kahn, head of France's Jewish consistory, Patrick
Gaubert, head of anti-racist organization LICRA, and the Paris mayor's
deputy, Jean-Pierre Pierre-Bloch ... FULL
TEXT
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* Italian bank agrees to extend billion dollar credit line to Iran
TEHRAN, June 29 (Wire Services) - An Italian commercial bank has agreed
in principle to extend a billion dollar credit line to Iran, Italian sources
said Tuesday. The Mediocredito Centrale, which specialises in export credits,
initialled the preliminary agreement here Tuesday. The final accord is
to be signed shortly in Italy, the sources said ... FULL
TEXT
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* Russia, Iran Sign Memorandum on Measures Against Drugs
MOSCOW, June 29 (Itar-Tass) - A meeting of Russian Interior Minister
Colonel-General Vladimir Rushailo and his Iranian colleague Abdolvahed
Moussavi-Lari took place in Moscow on Tuesday to discuss the bilateral
interaction and to sign a memorandum on joint measures against the illicit
trafficking of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances ... FULL
TEXT
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* Iran, Greece see defence cooperation deal soon
TEHRAN, June 29 (Reuters) - Iran and Greece, which border Turkey, said
they would sign an agreement on defence cooperation soon, but they added
that the move was not aimed at any country, the Iranian news agency IRNA
reported on Tuesday. It quoted visiting Greek Defence Minister Akis Tsohatzopoulos
as telling a news conference late on Monday that ``Tehran and Athens will
promote their defence cooperation through signing a letter of understanding.''
... FULL
TEXT
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Monday
June 28, 1999
* Khatami demands justice for the press
TEHRAN, June 27 (Reuters) - Iranian President
Mohammad Khatami, keen to protect press freedoms he has fostered as part
of his two-year reform drive, on Sunday demanded cases involving the media
be removed from hardline Revolutionary Courts and heard before special
press juries. Khatami used a national gathering of judiciary officials,
led by arch-conservative Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, to remind them that
the constitution calls for jury trials for press violations and political
crimes. He also said defendants had a right to legal respresentation at
all times ... FULL
TEXT
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* Kharrazi says arrested Jews passed on military
secrets
TEHRAN, June 28 (Reuters) - Iranian Foreign Minister
Kamal Kharrazi said the 13 Jews arrested in Iran on charges of spying for
Israel had passed on secret military information to foreigners, Iran's
state media reported on Monday ... FULL
TEXT
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* Court keeps MKO on State Department's terrorist
list
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Two dissident groups hostile
to the governments of Iran and Sri Lanka have lost a legal bid to be removed
from the State Department's list of terrorist organizations. A federal
appeals court, in an opinion released Friday, said the law left the judges
little room to decide whether Secretary of State Madeleine Albright acted
properly in declaring the groups have engaged in terrorist acts that threatened
the national security of the United States ... FULL
TEXT
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* Iran building its own fighters - Jane's
LONDON (Reuters) - Iran has begun series production
of a locally developed fighter called the Azarakhsh (Lightning), according
to Jane's Defense Weekly. In an article released ahead of publication Tuesday,
the authoritative British journal said production of the fighter had been
disclosed by Iranian air force General Habibollah Baghal in remarks to
Tehran newspapers ... FULL
TEXT
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