News
September 27-October 1, 1999 / Mehr 5-9, 1378
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Today
* Khamenei backs Khatami in insult row
* Khamenei calls for rapprochement of factions
* Bail for suspect in Iranian exile's murder
* Iran promises careful investigation in spy case
Previous
* Khatami expected in France next month
* German accused of spying in Iran
* Silence shrouds talks on Portuguese hostages
* One-act play sparks cultural drama
* 275 Iraqi POWs arrive home from Iran
* German "very happy" after final hearing
* Khatami says rivals working against freedom
* Clinton reaches out to Iran in 1996 bomb attack
* Iran aims to produce four new missiles
* Tehran press criticize over Portuguese kidnapping
* Iran releases 276 Iraqi prisoners of war
* Massive $100 bln oil find
* Portuguese Men Kidnapped in Iran
* Rally demands death for Iran's student playwrights
* U.S. seeks Iran's cooperation in inquiry
* Iran celebrates birth anniversary of Imam Khomeini
* Fuss fest
* Khatami sees 'calculated' plot in new crisis
* Ayatollah Sanei: Women are equal
* Liberal Iran publisher says court verdict biased
* Iran backs Russia against guerrillas, Moscow says
* Iran begins manoeuvres in key shipping lane
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Friday
October 1, 1999
* Khamenei backs Khatami in insult row
TEHRAN, Oct 1 (Reuters) - Iran's supreme clerical leader on Friday threw
his political and religious weight behind embattled reformist President
Mohammad Khatami and warned hardliners not to take matters into their
own hands. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei praised the president and judicial authorities
for their handling of a scandal over a satirical student play deemed to
have insulted a holy Shi'ite figure which has outraged Iran's religious
leadership ... FULL
TEXT
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* Khamenei calls for rapprochement of factions
TEHRAN, Oct 1 (AFP) - Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called Friday
for a reconciliation of Iran's conservative and reformist factions, two
months after violent clashes pitted pro-reform students against police
and hardline Islamists. "The country and the revolution are in need
of unity," said Khamenei, who led special weekly prayers attended
by leading conservatives and reformers to mark the centenary of the birth
of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomenei, founder of the Islamic Republic ... FULL TEXT
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* Bail for suspect in Iranian exile's murder
PARIS, Oct 1 (Reuters) - France has released a Frenchman of Iranian
origin, who had been imprisoned for the past seven years and was awaiting
trial in connection with the murder of an Iranian dissident in Paris, judicial
sources said on Friday. The sources insisted the release had nothing to
do with Iranian President Mohammad Khatami's expected visit to France at
the end of the month. Khatami cancelled his trip six months ago because
wine was due to be served at a state banquet ... FULL
TEXT
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* Iran promises careful investigation in spy case
WASHINGTON, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Iranian officials have promised Austrian
President Thomas Klestil a ``careful investigation'' of espionage charges
against 13 Iranian Jews, Klestil said in a letter released on Thursday.
Klestil, who visited Iran on September 20 and 21, intends to follow the
case personally on the basis of the assurances he received there, he told
the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Los Angeles in a letter dated Sept. 28 ...
FULL TEXT
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Thursday
September 30, 1999
* Khatami expected in France next month
PARIS, Sept 30 (AFP) - Iranian President Mohammad Khatami is expected
in Paris late October for both a visit to France and to deliver a speech
before UNESCO's General Conference, officials at the UN agency said. Officials
close to UNESCO chief Federico Mayor said Khatami was expected in Paris
from October 26 to 28. "He was invited by Mr Mayor to speak before
the General Conference on october 28 during an official visit to France,"
the source said ... FULL
TEXT
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* German accused of spying in Iran
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - Iran's judiciary today accused a
German businessman of spying, only a day after he was cleared of illegal
sex charges. Helmut Hofer is now accused of having ``contact with suspicious
elements,'' the judiciary said in a statement obtained by The Associated
Press in Dubai. Iranian authorities usually use that phrase to refer to
spying. The statement did not say for whom Hofer had allegedly spied ...
FULL
TEXTTEXT
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* Silence shrouds talks to release Portuguese hostages in Iran
TEHRAN, Sept 30 (AFP) - Talks to secure the release of three Portuguese
men abducted three days ago in southeastern Iran were being conducted in
strict secrecy Thursday, with police and Lisbon's embassy tight-lipped
on the case. "There are no new elements in the case," an official
at the Portuguese embassy here told AFP, but declined any further information
on the sensitive issue ... FULL
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* One-act play sparks cultural drama
TEHRAN, Sept. 29, (Washington Post) -It was a one-act satirical play
that never made it to the stage, but it was printed in an obscure university
publication and distributed in photocopies. But because of it, the writer
is in custody, the culture minister is under fire, conservative newspapers
are incensed and President Mohammed Khatemi's policy of freedom of expression
is taking a beating ... FULL
TEXT
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* 275 Iraqi POWs arrive home from Iran
BAGHDAD, Sept 30 (AFP) - A group of 275 Iraqi prisoners of war arrived
home Thursday, released by Iran 11 years after the end of the bloody war
between the neighbouring countries, the official INA news agency said.
Iran said Wedndesday it had released 276 POWs from the 1980-88 conflict,
but INA made no mention of the whereabouts of the 276th released prisoner
... FULL TEXT
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Wednesday
September 29, 1999
* German "very happy" after final hearing in Iran death
sentence retrial
TEHRAN, Sept 29 (AFP) - Germany businessman Helmut Hofer said he was
"very happy" Wednesday after an Iranian court ruled out any possiblity
of upholding the death penalty handed down against him for alleged sexual
relations with an Iranian Muslim woman. Judge Yusef Musavi added that Hofer
may well be freed on time served ... FULL
TEXT
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* Khatami says rivals working against freedom
TEHRAN, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Iranian President Mohammad Khatami lashed
out on Wednesday against Islamic extremists, accusing them of seeking to
limit freedom and keep society in the dark. Khatami also condemned what
he called efforts by ``foreign-inspired enemies'' to strip Iranian universities
of their religious identity ... FULL
TEXT
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* Clinton reaches out to Iran in 1996 bomb attack
WASHINGTON, Sept 29 (Reuters) - President Bill Clinton last month sent
a secret letter to Iranian President Mohammad Khatami seeking cooperation
in investigating the 1996 bombing of a U.S. military housing complex in
Saudi Arabia, sources familiar with the matter said. ``The president sent
a letter, but I'm not going to get into the details of it,'' White House
spokesman Joe Lockhart said ... FULL
TEXT
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* Iran aims to produce four new missiles
TEHRAN, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Iran, seeking to develop its arms industry
to self-sufficiency, on Tuesday inaugurated 25 defence projects, including
four new missiles, state television said. It said the projects included
two laser-guided heavy anti- armour missiles named ``Thunder'' and ``Tosan,''
a medium-weight anti-armour missile called ``Super-Dragon'' and an anti-aircraft
missile ``Misaq.'' ... FULL
TEXT
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* Tehran press criticizes government over Portuguese kidnapping
TEHRAN, Sept 29 (AFP) - Negotiations appeared to be under way Wednesday
to secure the release of three Portuguese nationals held hostage by drug
traffickers in southeastern Iran as Tehran newspapers expressed concern
about the implications of their abduction. "The whereabouts of the
hostages has been identified and they will presumably be released soon,"
an unnamed "informed source" told the Akhbare-Eqtesad paper ...
FULL TEXT
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* Iran releases 276 Iraqi prisoners of war
TEHRAN, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Iran unilaterally released 276 Iraqi prisoners
of war on Wednesday, nearly 11 years after the end of their 1980-88 war,
Iran's official IRNA news agency reported. IRNA said the move was to commemorate
the 100th anniversary of the birth of Iran's late revolutionary leader
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ... FULL
TEXT
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Tuesday
September 28, 1999
* Massive $100 bln oil find
TEHRAN, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Iran on Tuesday announced its biggest oil
find in 30 years, a giant 26-billion barrel field discovered as the country
drives to revive exploration activities and foreign firms compete for big
deals. Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said the oilfield in the prolific southwest
Khuzestan province has the potential to produce up to 400,000 barrels a
day ... FULL TEXT
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* Portuguese Men Kidnapped in Iran
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - Three Portuguese men, including two
journalists, have been kidnapped in eastern Iran. Gunmen stopped vehicles
carrying seven Portuguese men and women Monday and took three of the men
hostage, leaving one man and three women free to go, the released man told
Portugal's TSF Radio on Tuesday. Nothing was known about the kidnappers'
motive ... FULL
TEXT
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* Rally demands death for Iran's student playwrights
TEHRAN, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Angry demonstrators rallied in central Tehran
on Tuesday to demand death for two student playwrights whose lampoon of
campus conservatives has been condemned as an unforgivable insult to Islam
and touched off a national crisis. Shopkeepers in the holy Shiite city
of Qom, meanwhile, closed the central bazaar, a traditional form of protest
with a long tradition in Iranian history, following a symbolic shutdown
in Tehran on Monday ... FULL
TEXT
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* U.S. seeks Iran's cooperation in inquiry
September 28 (USA Today) -- President Clinton has asked Iran's President
Mohammed Khatami to cooperate in the investigation of the bombing in 1996
of a U.S. military housing complex in Saudi Arabia, former and current
U.S. officials say. Analysts suggested that Iranian cooperation could lead
to an improvement in U.S.-Iranian relations that have been strained since
the takeover of the U.S. Embassy by Iranian extremists in 1979 ... FULL TEXT
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* Iran celebrates birth anniversary of Ayatollah Khomeini amid factional
struggle
TEHRAN, Sept 27 (AFP) - Iran's Islamic regime on Monday marked the centenary
of the birth of its founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini amid an increasingly
bitter struggle between his successors over his legacy. "This year
is the year of the Imam (Khomeini)," read slogans on countless giant
portraits of Khomeini plastered along Tehran's roadsides, while some 500,000
pilgrims and 30,000 volunteer Islamic Basiji militia prepare to take part
in official ceremonies at the Imam's mausoleum in south Tehran ... FULL TEXT
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Monday
September 27, 1999
* Fuss fest
Conservatives are up in arms over an "anti-Islamic" play
News
report on alleged insults to Imam Mahdi in a play published in a student
magazine. Plus responses in Persian from: * Khatami
* Mohajerani
* Nateq
Nuri * Majlis
members * Ayatollahs
* Jannati
* Safaie-far
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* Khatami sees 'calculated' plot in new crisis
TEHRAN, Sept 27 (Reuters) - Iranian President Mohammad Khatami deplored
a satirical student play for insulting Islamic sanctities, but warned the
incident was being exploited as part of a ``calculated design'' to incite
the nation. In remarks to his cabinet late on Sunday, the president condemned
the play, which first appeared last month in a campus journal with a circulation
of less than 200, as an insult to pious believers ... FULL
TEXT
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* Ayatollah Sanei: Women are equal
Sept 26, (BBC) -- A senior Iranian cleric has declared that women are
completely equal to men in all aspects of political and social life. Ayatollah
Yosef Sanei said there should be nothing to stop a woman in the Islamic
Republic becoming the supreme religious leader or president ... FULL
TEXT
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* Liberal Iran publisher says court verdict biased
TEHRAN, Sept 26 (Reuters) - The publisher of a pro-reform Iranian newspaper,
sentenced to jail on a blasphemy conviction, sharply attacked the verdict
on Sunday as politically motivated and demanded a new, impartial hearing.
(Related photo) ``The court was biased and influenced by a certain political
faction. Their approach was more political than legal, and marked by double
standards,'' Latif Safari, the director of the banned Neshat daily, told
a news conference ... FULL
TEXT
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* Iran backs Russia against guerrillas, Moscow says
MOSCOW, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Iran expressed support on Saturday for Russia's
efforts to combat Islamic guerrillas operating from the breakaway republic
of Chechnya, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. Iran's ambassador to Moscow,
Mehdi Safari, handed Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin a
message from Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi ``on the situation
in the North Caucasus and the fight against international terrorism,''
the ministry said in a statement ... FULL
TEXT
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* Iran begins manoeuvres in key shipping lane
TEHRAN, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Iran has launched a week of air and sea
manoeuvres in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, one of the world's busiest
waterways. Iranian military officials said the manoeuvres, which began
on Saturday, commemorated the start of the 1980-1988 war with Iraq ...
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TEXT
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