News
Dec 7-11, 1998 / Azar 16-20, 1377
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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
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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
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* 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
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* 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
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* 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
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* 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
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* 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
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* 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
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* 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."
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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
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* 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
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* 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
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* 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
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* 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
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* 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.
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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
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* 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
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* 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
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* 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
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* 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
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* 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
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* 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
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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
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* 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
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* 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
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* 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)
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* 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
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* 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
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* 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.
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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
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* 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
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* 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
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* 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
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* 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
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* 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
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* 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
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* 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
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