News
March 22-26, 1999 / Farrvardin 2-6,1378
Sports
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Today
* Iran's top judge threatens crackdown
on liberals
* Saudi prince orders airport open for Iran pilgrims
* Iranian pilgrims denounce Israel, US at haj rally
Previous
* Iran deplores NATO attacks against
Yougoslavia
* Niki confident US will approve ag sales to Iran
* U.S. decision on farm sales to Iran may be near
* Pilgrims start first day of trouble-free haj
* Khamenei criticizes New Year celebrations
* Russia eyes cooperation with Iran
* Iran's minister says satisfied with OPEC oil cuts
* Iranians remember pilgrims killed in Mecca in 1987
* Mecca hears cries of "Death to America"
* Thirty children die in truck crash in southeastern Iran
* Oil ends weaker but overshadowed by OPEC
* U.S. Senate bill includes call for farm sales to Iran
* Senators demand pressure on Russia
* Former Beirut hostage sues Iran for $100 Million
* Iran sharply hikes petrol prices
* Iran's leaders regret economic woes, hope for better
* Saudis see no trouble from Iranian pilgrims at Mecca
* Khatami says to visit Saudi after the Haj-TV
* Iran opposition report attack on paramilitary HQ
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Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday
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Friday
March 26, 1999
* Iran's top judge threatens crackdown on liberals
TEHRAN, March 26 (Reuters) - The conservative head of Iran's judiciary
on Friday threatened a crackdown on liberal critics and the moderate press,
accusing them of seeking to undermine Islam and the 1979 Islamic revolution.
``There is no freedom for you to write and say anything you like. Our
people do not want such freedom if it is against the tenets of Islam,''
Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi said in a sermon at Tehran University ... FULL
TEXT... Also: Yazdi's Friday prayer sermon... IN
PERSIAN IMAGE TEXT
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* Saudi prince orders airport open for Iran pilgrims
TEHRAN, March 26 (Reuters) - Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, in a special
gesture to Iran, ordered an airport reopened to allow the last batch of
Iranian pilgrims to attend the annual haj, Iran's official news agency
IRNA said on Friday. It quoted Iran's ambassador to Saudi Arabia as saying
Jeddah airport, closed since Monday at the start of haj, was reopened on
Thursday to receive planes carrying 2,500 Iranians as well as Iraqi and
Afghan refugees ... FULL
TEXT
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* Iranian pilgrims denounce Israel, US at haj rally
JABAL ARAFAT, Saudi Arabia, March 26 (Reuters) - Iranian pilgrims denounced
the United States and Israel as ``enemies of God'' at a rally in Saudi
Arabia at the climax of the annual haj pilgrimage on Friday. ``Death
to America...There is no God but God, and America is God's enemy,'' thousands
of Iranian pilgrims chanted at a 90-minute rally held inside their compound
on Mount Arafat, site of the last sermon by Prophet Mohammed 14 centuries
ago. The rally ended peacefully ... FULL
TEXT
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Thursday
March 25, 1999
* Iran deplores NATO attacks against Yougoslavia
Tehran, march 25, irna -- spokesman of iran's foreign ministry hamidreza
assefi here thursday deplored nato's wednesday attacks against yougoslavia
and said, "any form of conflict, tension or military operation is
not only likely to deteriorate the situation in the region but also help
complicate situation in the balkans." ... FULL
TEXT
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* Niki confident US will approve ag sales to Iran
WASHINGTON, March 25 (Reuters) - The president of a start-up company
seeking a special export license to sell $500 million of U.S. farm goods
to Iran said on Thursday he was ``very confident'' of getting Clinton administration
approval. ``I'm very confident that this will be approved, but don't want
to speculate on the date,'' Richard Bliss, president of the Niki Trading
Co., told Reuters. ``There has been steady progress and we think things
are moving in the right direction.'' ... FULL
TEXT
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* U.S. decision on farm sales to Iran may be near
WASHINGTON, March 25 (Reuters) - A proposal to allow up to $500 million
in U.S. farm exports to Iran was at the White House awaiting a decision,
Senator Byron Dorgan said on Thursday ... FULL
TEXT
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* Pilgrims start first day of trouble-free haj
MECCA, Saudi Arabia, March 25 (Reuters) - Two million Moslems performing
the annual haj pilgrimage began their journey on foot and aboard buses
and cars on Thursday to a vast tent city in Saudi Arabia on the first day
of a so-far trouble-free rite. Wrapped in seamless white sheets and carrying
umbrellas against 36 Celsius (97 Fahrenheit) temperatures, pilgrims from
around 100 countries began leaving Islam's holy city of Mecca after dawn
prayers at the Grand Mosque where they circled the Kaaba seven times, the
first haj ritual ... FULL
TEXT
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Wednesday
March 24, 1999
* Khamenei criticizes New Year celebrations
TEHRAN, March 23 (AFP) - Iran's spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
has criticized certain aspects of celebrations of the Iranian new year
and said allowing people to observe a popular spring festival was a mistake.
Khamenei, in remarks reported by Iranian radio, said the Festival of Fire,
in which people jump over bonfires and set off firecrackers, is a "superstitious
festival of which Islam does not approve." ... FULL
TEXT
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* Russia eyes cooperation with Iran after NATO Kosovo strike: agency
MOSCOW, March 24 (AFP) - The Russian ministries of defence and foreign
affairs are preparing proposals for President Boris Yeltsin under which
Moscow could review its cooperation with Iran, arm Belgrade and replace
nuclear weapons in Belarus, ITAR-TASS reported Wednesday. Under the proposals
yet to be put to Yeltsin, Russia "seriously envisages" the possibility
of abandoning its accords with the United States on deliveries of arms
and military materiel to Iran in the case of NATO air strikes on Yugoslavia,
the agency said without quoting sources ... FULL
TEXT
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* Iran's minister says satisfied with OPEC oil cuts
TEHRAN, March 24 (Reuters) - Iran's oil minister said in remarks published
on Wednesday he was satisfied with an OPEC agreement to cut crude production
in order to stabilise prices. Bijan Namdar Zanganeh spoke to Iran's official
news agency IRNA a day earlier saying the deal by OPEC and non-OPEC countries
to cut 2.1 million barrels per day (bpd) proved the cartel was able to
overcome a crisis in the oil market ... FULL
TEXT
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* Iranians remember pilgrims killed in Mecca in 1987
TEHRAN, March 24 (Reuters) - Iranian pilgrims in Saudi Arabia held a
memorial service for Iranians killed in clashes with Saudi police in 1987
during an Iranian-led political rally, Iran's official news agency IRNA
reported on Wednesday. The ceremony was held in the holy city of Mecca
on Tuesday and was attended by a number of Iranian officials, including
Mohammad Mohammadi Reyshahri, who heads Iranian pilgrims to Mecca each
year, it said ... FULL
TEXT
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* Mecca hears cries of "Death to America" ahead of Iranian
rally
MECCA, Saudi Arabia, March 24 (AFP) - Cries of "Death to America"
rang out in Islam's holiest city of Mecca as pilgrims held a protest in
defiance of a Saudi ban, an Iranian official said Wednesday. Iran, meanwhile,
announced it would hold its own anti-US rally on Friday but not in Mecca
itself ... FULL
TEXT
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* Thirty children die in truck crash in southeastern Iran
TEHRAN, March 23 (AFP) - Thirty children were killed and another 30
injured when a truck transporting them plunged into a ravine in southwestern
Iran, the official IRNA news agency reported Tuesday. The victims, aged
between 12 and 15, were on their way home from a Koran recitation competition
Monday when the accident occurred on a mountainous road in Khuzestan province
... FULL
TEXT
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Tuesday
March 23, 1999
* Oil ends weaker but overshadowed by OPEC
LONDON, March 23 (Reuters) - World oil prices ended lower on Tuesday
but the weaker close was drowned out by market applause for an OPEC agreement
to cut oil supply to glutted markets. The cartel signed the deal on tough
new export limits which Saudi Oil minister Ali al-Naimi said were aimed
at lifting prices back to $18 a barrel ... FULL
TEXT
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* U.S. Senate bill includes call for farm sales to Iran
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate voted Tuesday to free up more
than $1 billion in aid to hurricane-hit Central America and Middle East
ally Jordan, and to bar the federal government from taking a share of the
$206 billion settlement between U.S. states and major tobacco companies.
One amendment urged the Clinton administration to approve the sale of U.S.
wheat and other farm products to Iran ... FULL
TEXT
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* Senators demand pressure on Russia
Tuesday, March 23, 1999, WASHINGTON (AP) -- A bipartisan group of 34
senators wants Vice President Al Gore to press Russia's prime minister
to stop his country's cooperation with Iran on missiles and nuclear technology.
In a letter released Monday, the 34 said Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov
must be convinced that ``an Iran armed with nuclear weapons and advanced
ballistic missiles is no more in Russia's interests than in our own.''
... FULL
TEXT
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Monday
March 22, 1999
* Former Beirut hostage sues Iran for $100 Million
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former Beirut hostage Terry Anderson filed a
$100 million lawsuit against Iran Monday, accusing it of being responsible
for sponsoring his kidnapping by a militant Islamic group 14 years ago.
Anderson's lawyer, Stuart Newberger, said the suit was filed in the U.S.
District Court in Washington and would be translated into Farsi before
being sent via diplomatic channels to the Iranian government ... FULL
TEXT
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* Iran sharply hikes petrol prices
TEHRAN, March 21 (Reuters) - Prices of petrol and other fuels rose sharply
on the first day of the Iranian New Year on Sunday as part of a government
plan to reduce consumption. The petrol price jumped 75 percent, from 200
rials to 350 rials (11.7 cents) per litre (53 cents per gallon). Motorists
lined up at petrol stations on Saturday night to fill their tanks in anticipation
of the rise. Prices of other fuels, such as gasoil and kerosene, also rose
considerably ... FULL
TEXT
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* Iran's leaders regret economic woes, hope for better
TEHRAN, March 21 (Reuters) - Iran's leaders said they regretted the
economic hardships of the past year and hoped for better in the Iranian
new year which started on Sunday. ``The year we left behind was as usual
full of sweet and bitter events. What was bitter for us was the hard economic
conditions of people, price hikes and hardships,'' official media quoted
spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as saying ... FULL
TEXT
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* Saudis see no trouble from Iranian pilgrims at Mecca
RIYADH, March 21 (AFP) - Saudi Arabia said on Sunday it does not expect
trouble from the tens of thousands of Iranians at the annual Moslem pilgrimage
to Mecca that starts this week. "Nothing will happen," said Interior
Minister Prince Nayef ibn Abdel Aziz, quoted in Saudi newspapers. "I
don't think our Iranian brothers will do anything that could endanger the
pilgrimage." ... FULL
TEXT
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* Khatami says to visit Saudi after the Haj-TV
LONDON, March 22 (Reuters) - Iranian President Mohammed Khatami has
told Saudi Arabian King Fahd that he planned to visit Saudi Arabia after
the end of the Moslem Haj season, Iranian television reported on Monday.
The report, monitored by the British Broadcasting Corporation in London,
said the news was conveyed to the Saudi Monarch in a letter from Khatami
delivered by Iran's ambassador to Riyadh ... FULL
TEXT
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* Iran opposition report attack on paramilitary HQ
LONDON, March 22 (Reuters) - The Iranian opposition group Mujahideen
Khalq said on Monday its members had attacked the headquarters of the paramilitary
Basij forces in Tehran with mortars last week. A Mujahideen statement said
its ``operational units launched a major mortar attack...on Thursday, March
18, against the command headquarters of...Basij in Tehran's Afsarieh district.''
... FULL
TEXT
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