email us

US Transcom
US Transcom

Shahin & Sepehr

 

Sehaty Foreign Exchange

Advertise with The Iranian

News
Dec 7-11, 1998 / Azar 16-20, 1377

Sports | Arts | Business| Rights | Community

Today

* Alarming pattern of killings and "disappearances"
* Weightlifter prays to prophets, wins gold
* Iran condemns attack on Americans
* Shell drops plans for pipeline across Iran
* Iran not seeking biological weapons, says official
* Iran says U.S. can't curb its missile capacity
* Rafsanjani slams Palestinian charter change
* Annan denies mediation offer on disputed Gulf Islands

Previous

* Dissident Iran author missing -- relatives
* Gloves come off in Iran's political struggle
* Bazaari leader attacks Khatami
* Iran navy launches missiles to end Gulf war games
* Russia will curb missile exports to Iran if proven
* Gorbachev to Visit Iran
* Another missing Iranian writer dead under suspicious circumstances
* German court rejects appeal over Iran verdict
* Missing Iran dissident poet found dead-relatives

* Parliament puts off petrol price debate
* U.S. may cut Russia aid over Iran missile-Albright
* Iranian firms in oil price slump
* UAE says Iran-GCC ties linked to islands
* Khatami attacks conservatives
* Organisation concerned about fate of missing journalist
* Iran torn between reform, revolution on eve of anniversaries
* MUST READ: Karbaschi on politics
* Iran says U.S. late in dropping it from drug list
* Iran rejects mediation, wants UAE talks on islands
* Iranian woman denies links with attacks in Argentina
* Khatami asks for student patience on reform
* Liberal opposition editor banned for one year
* Another writer disappears
* Rafsanjani's daughter cleared
* Reformists rally around Khatami - new party formed
* Iran cut from U.S. list of drug countries
* Total may export Caspian oil through Iran
* Khatami to visit Saudi Arabia soon - envoy

Sports | Arts | Business| Rights | Community


Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday


Get Persian fonts from Hamshahri or Payvand


email us


Friday
December 11, 1998

* Alarming pattern of killings and "disappearances"

11 December 1998, (Amnesty International) - An alarming pattern of murders and "disappearances" of several prominent Iranian writers and government critics is emerging in Iran, Amnesty International said today. Amnesty International is concerned for the safety of Mohammad Ja'far Puyandeh, Hushang Golshiri, Kazem Kordavini, `Ali Ashraf Darvishiyan and Mansur Kushan, all of whom are prominent Iranian writers ... FULL TEXT

Go to top

* Weightlifter prays to prophets, wins gold

BANGKOK, Dec 11 (Reuters) - With a prayer to the prophets and look towards heaven, Shahin Nassiri Nia clean and jerked 210 kg in the men's 85 kg division and grabbed Iran's fourth gold of the Asian Games on Friday. Nassiri Nia said he regularly clean and jerked 215 kg in practice, and said he would go for the world record of 218 kg next year. ``I'm happy for my country to win the medal,'' Nassiri Nia said after the competition where he also tied an Asian record in the snatch with 170 kg... FULL TEXT

Go to top

* Iran condemns attack on Americans

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran's hard-line speaker of Parliament said Thursday that last month's attack on a group of American visitors was ``inappropriate,'' according to the official news agency. Ali Akbar Nateq-Nouri's comments marked the first against the Nov. 21 attack from a conservative within Iran's ruling clerical hierarchy. He added, however, that a failure to explain the visitors' purpose had provoked ``suspicion'' about the delegation ... FULL TEXT

Go to top

* Shell drops plans for pipeline across Iran

December 10, 1998, (JOURNAL OF COMMERCE STAFF) - Royal Dutch/Shell has quietly dropped plans to build a controversial gas pipeline across Iran, ending one of the biggest threats to U.S. sanctions policy in the last three years. Shell's interest in a trans-Iran project to carry gas from Turkmenistan to Turkey has dogged U.S. efforts to isolate the Islamic Republic and keep it from controlling sensitive energy routes ... FULL TEXT

Go to top

* Iran not seeking biological weapons, says official

TEHRAN, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani on Friday dismissed U.S. charges that Tehran sought to develop biological weapons, saying that Washington simply wanted to deprive Iran of technology. ``The new claim is a major act of libel... It shows the depth of America's grudge against our revolution and independence,'' Rafsanjani said. ``America is seriously trying not to let us acquire new sciences,'' he said at the weekly Friday prayers gathering at Tehran University, broadcast on state-run radio ... FULL TEXT

Go to top

* Iran says U.S. can't curb its missile capacity

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said Friday the United States was no longer able to curb Iran's missile industry because Tehran had largely reached technological self-sufficiency. Rafsanjani, who now heads a top state body, also dismissed charges that Tehran sought to develop biological weapons ... FULL TEXT

Go to top

* Rafsanjani slams Palestinian charter change

TEHRAN, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani on Friday blasted the cancellation of anti-Israel clauses in the PLO charter, saying Palestinians were ``submissively'' giving in to U.S. pressure. ``They (Americans) are pushing the Palestinians back step by step and forcing them to make concessions. The latest concession came just yesterday when the Palestinians voted to cancel their charter in Israel's favour,'' Rafsanjani said in a Friday prayer sermon broadcast on Tehran radio ... FULL TEXT

Go to top

* Annan denies mediation offer on disputed Gulf Islands

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 11 (AFP) -UN chief Kofi Annan on Friday denied that he had offered to mediate in the dispute between Iran and the United Arab Emirates over three strategic Gulf islands. In a statement issued here, Annan's spokesman Fred Eckhard said that "the secretary-general wishes to clarify that he has not offered mediation."

Go to top


Thursday
December 10, 1998

* Dissident Iran author missing -- relatives

TEHRAN, Dec 10 (Reuters) - An Iranian dissident author has gone missing in the latest disappearance of secular opposition intellectuals, his relatives said on Thursday. They said Mohammad Jafar Pouyandeh, a 45-year-old translator and author, had gone missing after he left his Tehran office on Wednesday afternoon. ``We have contacted all relevant authorities, including police, hospitals, and the morgue, with no trace of him to be found,'' a relative told Reuters... FULL TEXT

Go to top

* Gloves come off in Iran's political struggle

TEHRAN, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Iran's powerful conservatives have slammed President Mohammad Khatami for his staunch defence of his ``civil society'' programme, taking aim for the first time directly at the popular moderate leader. In a series of public statements and press commentaries, the conservatives blasted Khatami's question-and-answer session on December 7 before a university crowd hungry for social and political reform, accusing him of playing partisan politics and defaming the divine values of the Islamic Revolution... FULL TEXT

Go to top

* Bazaari leader attacks Khatami

TEHRAN, (Hamshahri) - Habibollah Asgarowladi head of a right-wing group with strong ties with the bazaar launched a direct attack on President Khatami ... FULL TEXT IN PERSIAN

Go to top

* Iran navy launches missiles to end Gulf war games

TEHRAN, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Iran's navy fired ballistic and cruise missiles in the Gulf on Thursday to end major war games involving 50,000 troops, the Iranian news agency IRNA reported. It said four Iranian-made Fajr-4 ballistic missiles were tested on the last day of the Vahdat-77 (Unity-77) exercises in which 160 naval vessels and 120 aircraft took part... FULL TEXT

Go to top

* Russia will curb missile exports to Iran if proven

MOSCOW, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Russia told the United States on Thursday it was willing to tighten controls on exports of missile technology to Iran if Washington provided proof of illicit transfers, Interfax news agency reported. The exchange on Iran came as a high-level U.S. team led by Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott met Russia's economic supremo at the start of two days of talks on where Moscow is headed under a new, more conservative government... FULL TEXT

Go to top

* Gorbachev to Visit Iran

TEHRAN (Dec. 10) XINHUA - Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev will pay a visit to Iran in January, 1999 to deliver lectures, the Iran Daily said on Thursday. Gorbachev will come to Tehran at the invitation of the International and Political Studies Center (IPSC) of the Iranian Foreign Ministry, a source at the IPSC said. He will deliver lectures, attend press conference and meet political experts and university scholars during his stay in Iran, the source said, while not giving the exact date of the visit.

Go to top


Wednesday
December 9, 1998

* Another missing Iranian writer dead under suspicious circumstances

New York, December 9, 1998 (Human Rights Watch) - Human Rights Watch urged the Iranian government to investigate the recent death of an Iranian writer under suspicious circumstances. The body of Iranian poet, writer, and free expression advocate Mohammad Makhtari was found today in a Tehran city morgue, Human Rights Watch said. Marks on his head and neck made it appear that he had been murdered, possibly by strangulation, although no autopsy has yet been carried out ... FULL TEXT

Go to top

* German court rejects appeal over Iran verdict

KARLSRUHE, Germany, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Germany's highest criminal court rejected on Wednesday an appeal against a 1997 verdict which concluded that Iranian intelligence had ordered the assassination of Kurdish dissidents in Berlin. The ruling by the Federal Court of Justice means the verdicts in the trial, which prompted a diplomatic rift between the European Union and Iran for several months, are legally binding ... FULL TEXT

Go to top

* Missing Iran dissident poet found dead-relatives

TEHRAN, Dec 9 (Reuters) - The body of an Iranian dissident poet has been found after he went missing in Tehran last week, his relatives said on Wednesday. They said Mohammad Mokhtari's son, Siavash, identified his father's body at a Tehran morgue on Wednesday. Mokhtari had been missing since he left his home last Thursday. ``Officials said Mokhtari's body had been found on Friday in the outskirts of Tehran but that it had not been identified,'' a relative told Reuters. ``The cause of death is not known yet.'' There was no official confirmation of the report ... FULL TEXT

Go to top

* Parliament puts off petrol price debate

TEHRAN, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Iran's parliament on Wednesday postponed debating a bill to limit a government-proposed increase in the price of petrol. The bill requires the government to restrict petrol price rises to about 20 percent in the next Iranian year starting in March. The government, facing huge costs for fuel subsidies, has proposed keeping petrol prices at 200 rials (6.7 U.S. cents) a litre for the first 45 litres bought each month and charging consumers 750 rials a litre for additional quantities ... FULL TEXT

Go to top

* U.S. may cut Russia aid over Iran missile-Albright

BRUSSELS, Dec 9 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright warned Russia on Wednesday it could lose millions of dollars in American aid if it did not curb its assistance to Iran's missile programme, a U.S. official said. She made the threat at a meeting with new Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov at which the two also discussed the agenda for high-level talks in Moscow this week on Russia's faltering economic reform programme, the senior official told Reuters ... FULL TEXT

Go to top

* Iranian firms in oil price slump

DUBAI, December 9, 1998 (BBC) - With a barrel of oil fetching less than half of what it did at its peak last year, Iran's economy has been devastated. But the knock-on effects of the economic crisis caused by historically low oil prices have reached out across the Gulf to hurt Dubai's Iranian business community. According to the spokesman for the Iranian Business Council in Dubai, Mohammed Massinaei, turnover amongst Iranian companies here has slumped to just half what it was a year ago ... FULL TEXT

Go to top

* UAE says Iran-GCC ties linked to islands

ABU DHABI, Dec 9 (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates said on Wednesday Iran could not have good relations with its Gulf Arab neighbours unless a long-standing dispute over three key islands near key Gulf shipping lanes was resolved. UAE Foreign Minister Rashid Abdullah al-Nuaimi told a news conference in Abu Dhabi after Gulf leaders ended a three-day summit that the UAE wanted to resolve its dispute with Iran peacefully and urged U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to help ... FULL TEXT

Go to top


Tuesday
December 8, 1998

* Khatami attacks conservatives

TEHRAN (Hamshahri) - Khatami responds to questions from students at Tehran University; attacks conservatives and insists on people's freedoms and right to determine their future... FULL TEXT IN PERSIAN

Go to top

* Organisation concerned about fate of missing journalist

The International Secretariat of World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) requests your URGENT intervention regarding the following situation in Iran. Brief description of the situation: The International Secretariat has been informed by several sources that on 3 December 1998, Mr. Mohamad Mokhtari, a famous Iranian writer, allegedly disappeared in Tehran... FULL TEXT

Go to top

* Iran torn between reform, revolution on eve of anniversaries

TEHRAN, Dec 8 (AFP) - Austere portraits of Ayatollah Khomeini watch over Tehran streets as a reminder that his legacy lives on, but schoolgirls cover their notebooks with pictures of "Titanic" heart-throb Leonardo DiCaprio. On the eve of the 20th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution, Iran is a country of seeming contradictions and one torn between loyalty to the ideals of the revolution and a profound desire for reform ... FULL TEXT

Go to top

* MUST READ: Karbaschi on politics

TEHRAN (Hamshahri) - Detailed interview with (Former?) Tehran Mayor Gholam-hossein Karbaschi on moderation, tolerance and peaceful opposition in politics ... FULL TEXT IN PERSIAN... Part (1) ... Part (2)

Go to top

* Iran says U.S. late in dropping it from drug list

TEHRAN, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Iran said on Tuesday the United States was extremely late in taking it off a U.S. list of sources of illegal drugs, Iranian state television reported. ``Iran's important role and its major investment in fighting drugs and preventing the transit of drugs to other countries, especially Europe, is so obvious that no country can deny it,'' the television quoted Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi as saying. ``America has been very late in admitting this reality,'' Kharrazi said... FULL TEXT

Go to top

* Iran rejects mediation, wants UAE talks on islands

TEHRAN, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Iran on Tuesday rejected any mediation over three contested Gulf islands and said it wanted direct talks with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to resolve the long-standing dispute. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Monday he had held talks with UAE President Sheikh Zaid bin Sultan al-Nahayan in Abu Dhabi on bringing the two sides together to discuss the dispute and had also spoken with Kharrazi by telephone... FULL TEXT

Go to top

* Iranian woman denies links with attacks in Argentina

BUENOS AIRES, Dec 8 (AFP) -An Iranian woman held in connection with two deadly bomb blasts in Argentina has denied any involvement in the attacks, a source close to the probe said Tuesday. The source, who asked to remain anonymous, said Nahrim Mokhtari was calmer during questioning by Supreme Court Judge Gustavo Bossert on Monday than on Friday, the day she was charged in connection with the 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy and a 1994 attack on a Jewish center.

Go to top


Monday
December 7, 1998

* Khatami asks for student patience on reform

TEHRAN, Dec 7 (Reuters) - President Mohammad Khatami on Monday told raucous students clamouring for decisive reform of Iran's Islamic system to be patient and tolerant in the face of mounting attacks by conservatives. Khatami, a scholarly Shi'ite cleric, was addressing a Students' Day gathering at Tehran's Sharif Technical University, fielding impassioned questions about his campaign to forge a pluralistic ``civil society'' under the rule of law ... FULL TEXT

Go to top

* Liberal opposition editor banned for one year

TEHRAN, Dec 7 (Reuters) - A court in Iran has banned a prominent liberal opposition editor from heading any publication for one year amid increased pressures against the moderate press, newspapers reported on Monday. The ruling against Ezzatollah Sahabi came as Faezeh Hashemi, editor of the moderate daily Zan (Woman) and daughter of former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, appeared in court to face charges of ``publishing lies ... FULL TEXT

Go to top

* Another writer disappears

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - An Iranian writer left his home last week and has not been heard from since, adding to a recent spate of mysterious disappearances, a Tehran newspaper reported Monday. Mohammed Mokhtari, a poet and member of the Association of Iranian writers, left to go shopping Thursday in the residential suburb in northern Tehran, the Zan newspaper said. It said Mokhtari's family searched hospitals, morgues and police stations but could not find him... FULL TEXT

Go to top

* Rafsanjani's daughter cleared

LONDON, December 7, 1998, (BBC) - The daughter of Iran's former president, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, has been cleared of charges of publishing false news in her liberal newspaper. However, the jury at a press court in Tehran found Faezah Hashemi guilty of a lesser charge of insulting a senior police chief ... FULL TEXT

Go to top

* Reformists rally around Khatami - new party formed

TEHRAN, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Supporters of Iranian President Mohammad Khatami have launched a broad counter-offensive against their conservative critics, seeking to regain the political momentum ahead of key polls early next year. After weeks of set-backs and outright embarrassment at the hands of the entrenched clerical establishment, pro-Khatami forces have rallied strongly in a bid to revitalise a popular reform movement launched with the president's surprise landslide victory in May, 1997 ... FULL TEXT ...Also ... FULL TEXT IN PERSIAN

Go to top

* Iran cut from U.S. list of drug countries

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said Monday it had removed Iran and Malaysia from its annual list of sources of illegal drugs, but said the two nations still bear watching. Iran's progress was welcomed by the White House as a ''positive'' step, but officials said the decision to remove it from the list was unrelated to a slow thaw in U.S.-Iranian relations under Iranian President Mohammad Khatami ... FULL TEXT

Go to top

* Total may export Caspian oil through Iran

BAKU, Dec 7 (Reuters) - French oil company Total is considering pumping crude oil from its Caspian basin projects in Azerbaijan to world markets through Iran, a senior company official said on Monday. Patrick Lantigner, Total's resident representative in Azerbaijan, told a news conference in Baku that Total was considering forming a consortium to fund and build a possible pipeline through Iran... FULL TEXT

Go to top

* Khatami to visit Saudi Arabia soon - envoy

RIYADH, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Iranian President Mohammad Khatami is expected to visit Saudi Arabia in the next three months in response to an invitation by King Fahd, Iran's ambassador in Riyadh said on Sunday. ``His Highness King Fahd issued an invitation to President Mohammad Khatami. He (Khatami) accepted and is expected to visit the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia within three months,'' Ambassador Mohammad Reza Nouri told Reuters ... FULL TEXT

Go to top

  BBC Persian

Live daily radio news:
2:30-3:00 am GMT
9:30-10:00 pm
EST
6:30-7:00 pm
PST


For the latest news visit
THE IRANIAN
Newsroom




IRNA Logo


email us



Copyright © 1997 Abadan Publishing Co. All Rights Reserved. May not be duplicated or distributed in any form