News
Sept 14-18, 1998 / Shahrivar 23-27, 1377
Sports
| Arts
| Business| Rights
| Community
Today
* Thousands mourn Iranians slain by Taleban
* Taleban to free 5 Iranian prisoners-Pakistan
* Pakistan's Aziz meets Iran's Habibi on Afghanistan
* Tous editor heads home to jail
* No response from Iran on U.S. offer
Previous
* Kharrazi to attend
Afghan meeting with U.S.
* Iran prefers diplomacy to force in Afghanistan
* Khatami to show Iran's new face at U.N. assembly
* Washington's Iran exiles row precedes Khatami trip
* Iran radio slams U.S. lawmakers for backing exiles
* Pakistan minister in Iran for Afghan crisis talks
* U.N. seeks meeting on
Afghanistan
* Iran army heads for Afghan border war games
* Two Iran diplomats return from Afghanistan
* Liberal Iranian newspaper closed
* U.S. lawmakers oppose overtures to Iran
* Petition for U.S.-Iran dialogue
* Iranian official in London for talks
* Khamenei orders military alert
* Taleban say will hit Iran if attacked
* Bodies of diplomats returned
* Refugees report deaths by Taliban
* UN urged to prevent more killings by Taliban
* Rajavi calls for boycott of Iran poll
* Afghan Taleban call for talks after Iran warning
* Iran warns of major regional conflict
* Key Iran official survives gunmen attack-IRNA
Sports
| Arts
| Business| Rights
| Community
Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday
| Thursday | Friday
Get Persian fonts from Hamshahri or Payvand
email us
Friday,
Sept 18, 1998
* Thousands mourn Iranians slain by Taleban
TEHRAN, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of people marched through
Tehran on Friday to mourn Iranian diplomats whose killing by the Afghan
Taleban has sparked high tension between Iran and Afganistan's dominant
militia. ``Our country did not submit to America, the Soviet Union or
Iraq. This group (Taleban) is too little to be taken seriously. Our people
and armed forces are prepared to answer any plots threatening our borders,''
Jannati said in a Friday prayer sermon ... FULL
TEXT
Go to top
* Taleban to free 5 Iranian prisoners-Pakistan
ISLAMABAD, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Afghanistan's Taleban movement, locked
in a tense standoff with neighbouring Iran, will free five Iranian civilians
on Saturday, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz said. ``As a goodwill
gesture, the Afghan government had earlier released five Iranian prisoners
and had followed it up by an announcement that another five would be released
tomorrow, Saturday,'' Aziz said ... FULL
TEXT
Go to top
* Pakistan's Aziz meets Iran's Habibi on Afghanistan
TEHRAN, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Pakistan's foreign minister met Iranian
First Vice President Hassan Habibi for talks on the Afghan crisis and handed
him a letter from Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, IRNA news agency
said on Friday. Sharif also ``categorically denied the allegations of
Pakistan's interference in Afghanistan'' and ``urged that Pakistan and
Iran should work closely for the promotion of a durable settlement of the
conflict in Afghanistan,'' said the radio, monitored by the British Broadcasting
Corporation... FULL
TEXT
Go to top
* Tous editor heads home to jail
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) -- The managing director of Iran's only
independent daily newspaper is flying home Saturday to be arrested. Mohammad
Mohsen Sazgara is not sure what the charge is. He doesn't know what punishment
he faces, where he will be jailed, or when he'll be able to speak publicly
again. ``I'm a citizen of Iran, first of all. Second, my friends are
in jail,'' Sazgara, 43, said Friday in an interview with The Associated
Press... FULL
TEXT
Go to top
* No response from Iran on U.S. offer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Iran's Muslim fundamentalist government has failed
to respond to overtures from the Clinton administration for improving relations,
but U.S. interest in a dialogue was reaffirmed Friday by the State Department.
And while the United States is looking for changes in Iran's policies,
``we have never made a change in their behavior a prerequisite for a meeting,
and we're not changing that view,'' spokesman James P. Rubin said...
FULL
TEXT
Go to top
Thursday
Sept 17, 1998
* Kharrazi to attend Afghan meeting with U.S.
WASHINGTON, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Iranian Foreign
Minister Kamal Kharrazi will take part in an eight-nation meeting in New
York next week that will also be attended by U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright, U.S. officials said on Thursday. The meeting on the situation
in Afghanistan, if it goes ahead as planned, will be the highest level
contact in many years between the two long-hostile nations... FULL
TEXT
Go to top
* Iran prefers diplomacy to force in Afghanistan
TEHRAN, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Iran's foreign minister said on Thursday
Iranian authorities were under pressure to use force to avenge the murder
of Iranians in Afghanistan, but diplomatic efforts should be given priority
in dealing with the crisis. Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi told his visiting
Pakistani counterpart Sartaj Aziz that both Pakistan and the Afghan Taleban
militia should take practical steps to avoid further escalation of the
crisis, Iran's official news agency IRNA reported... FULL
TEXT
Go to top
* Khatami to show Iran's new face at U.N. assembly
TEHRAN, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Iranian President Mohammad Khatami's trip
to the U.N. General Assembly this weekend will provide a rare opportunity
for the moderate Shi'ite Moslem cleric to expand on his proposed ``dialogue
of civilisations.'' The visit to New York, the first by a leader of the
Islamic republic to the United States since then President Ali Khamenei
went to the United Nations in 1987, will also be watched closely for any
steps forward in tentative moves by Tehran and Washington towards a thaw
in long-hostile relations... FULL
TEXT
Go to top
* Washington's Iran exiles row precedes Khatami trip
DUBAI, Sept 17 (Reuters) - A Washington furore over support for Iranian
guerrillas adds to the delicate nature of President Mohammad Khatami's
forthcoming address to the U.N. General Assembly in New York, political
analysts said on Thursday. Hopes for hastening a slow thaw in mutual hostility
between Washington and Tehran might be frustrated by a row over the status
of Iranian exiles fighting the Tehran government ... FULL
TEXT
Go to top
* Iran radio slams U.S. lawmakers for backing exiles
TEHRAN, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Iran's state radio on Thursday accused U.S.
congressmen who declared support for armed Iranian exiles of ``supporting
terrorism,'' and said the move was aimed at getting campaign contributions
from the American Jewish lobby. ``The American government, or at least
a part of it, resorts to any measure -- even supporting terrorism -- to
put pressure on the Islamic Republic of Iran,'' Tehran radio said... FULL
TEXT
Go to top
* Pakistan minister in Iran for Afghan crisis talks
TEHRAN, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Pakistan's Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz
arrived in Iran on Thursday for talks on the Afghan crisis that has marred
relations between Tehran and Islamabad and threatened to erupt into a regional
conflict. Iranian state television said Aziz arrived on an ``unexpected
and short'' visit with a message from Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
to Iranian President Mohammad Khatami. It gave no further details...
FULL
TEXT
Go to top
Wednesday
Sept 16, 1998
* U.N. seeks meeting on Afghanistan
WASHINGTON (AP) - Amid concern about a possible
Iranian intervention in Afghanistan, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan
is arranging a meeting next week of eight countries that are attempting
to bring peace to Afghanistan, a Clinton administration official said Wednesday.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright is expected to attend the meeting Monday... FULL
TEXT
Go to top
* Iran army heads for Afghan border war games
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran said Wednesday nine army
divisions were heading for the tense Afghan border for military exercises
that could begin as early as Saturday. But Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal
Kharrazi said diplomatic and peaceful approaches should be given a chance
before taking military action ... FULL
TEXT
Go to top
* Two Iran diplomats return from Afghanistan
TEHRAN, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Iran said on Wednesday
that two diplomats among 11 Iranians who went missing in northern Afghanistan
last month had returned home, the official Iranian news agency IRNA said...
FULL
TEXT
Go to top
* Liberal Iranian newspaper closed
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran closed a liberal Iranian
newspaper Wednesday for publishing articles detrimental ``to the country's
national interests and security,'' the official Islamic Republic News Agency
reported... FULL
TEXT
Go to top
* U.S. lawmakers oppose overtures to Iran
WASHINGTON (AP) - Congressional opponents of diplomatic
openings to Iran appealed to the Clinton administration Wednesday to refrain
from any goodwill gestures during next week's visit to the United Nations
by Iranian President Mohammad Khatami ... FULL
TEXT
Go to top
* Petition for U.S.-Iran dialogue
Iran-U.S. friendship petition from Iranians For
International Cooperation (IIC), Sept 16, 1998: "As undersigned, I
would like to express full support for the use of dialogue as a means to
solve the disputes between the US and Iran... FULL
TEXT
Go to top
* Iranian official in London for talks
LONDON, September 16, (BBC) - A senior Iranian
foreign ministry official is in London for a two-day viisit which will
include talks at the Foreign office and the Department of Trade. The official,
Ali Ahani, will meet the minister for Middle Eastern affairs at the Foreign
office, Derek Fatchett, and a junior minister at the Department of Trade
... FULL
TEXT
Go to top
Tuesday
Sept 15, 1998
* Khamenei orders military alert
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's supreme leader Tuesday put the military on
the alert for orders in a further escalation of the crisis with the Afghan
Taleban. ``All officials..., including the armed forces, must be ready
for the speedy, timely and decisive implementation of whatever decisions
the senior political and security authorities deem necessary and right
for the country,'' the official news agency IRNA quoted Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
as saying... FULL
TEXT
Go to top
* Taleban say will hit Iran if attacked
ISLAMABAD, Sept 15 (Reuters) - The Taleban said on Tuesday it would
hit Iranian cities if Iran's military, which was ordered on alert, attacked
Afghanistan. ``Iran must know that if the soil of Afghanistan is attacked,
we will target Iranian cities and the entire responsibility will rest with
Iranian authorities,'' Taleban spokesman Wakil Ahmed told the independent
Afghan Islamic Press (AIP)... FULL
TEXT
Go to top
* Bodies of diplomats returned
TEHRAN, Sept 15, (BBC) - Jim Muir audio/video report on the return of
the bodies of seven slain Iranian diplomats and reaction in Tehran to latest
developments... REALVIDEO
HERE
Go to top
* Refugees Report Deaths by Taliban
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Taliban fighters engaged in a ``killing frenzy''
after capturing the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif, according to
refugees' accounts, U.N. officials said Tuesday. U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard
said the eyewitness accounts corroborated reports about mass killings following
the Taliban's seizure of the city Aug. 8 ... FULL
TEXT
Go to top
* UN urged to prevent more killings as Taliban offensive continues
Sept 14, 1998 - Human Rights Watch today warned that the Taliban's current
military offensive in the Hazarajat region of central Afghanistan could
result in the torture and deaths of many more ethnic Hazaras, a Shi'ite
minority whom the Taliban has targeted in the past. Aid workers in Pakistan
say that thousands of Hazaras were killed when the Taliban took the northern
city of Mazar-e Sharif last month. Human Rights Watch called on the United
Nations Security Council, which has already expressed deep concern about
the human rights situation in Afghanistan, to launch a formal investigation
into the killings in Mazar-e Sharif, with the aim of setting up a tribunal
if appropriate ... FULL
TEXT
Go to top
* Rajavi calls for boycott of Iran poll
BAGHDAD, Sept 15 (Reuters) - The leader of the main exiled Iranian opposition
group on Tuesday called on Iranians to boycott the election of the country's
assembly of experts, set for October 23. ``The Assembly of Experts election
sham, most definitely boycotted by the Iranian people, is doubly illegimate,''
Masoud Rajavi, leader of Mujahideen Khaliq organisation, said in a statement
in Baghdad... FULL
TEXT
Go to top
Monday
Sept 14, 1998
* Afghan Taleban call for talks after Iran warning
TEHRAN, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Afghanistan's Taleban called for negotiations
with Iran under U.N. laws to defuse tensions after Iran warned the movement
and Pakistan that their actions in Afghanistan could provoke a major regional
conflict. The International Committee of the Red Cross said it evacuated
on Monday the bodies of seven of the nine Iranians whose killing by Taleban
soldiers sparked the crisis which deepened with the Sunni Moslem Taleban's
takeover of the Shi'ite Moslem stronghold of Bamiyan at the weekend ...
FULL
TEXT
Go to top
* Iran warns of major regional conflict
TEHRAN, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,
warned the Afghan Taleban movement and Pakistan on Monday that their actions
in Afghanistan could provoke a major regional conflict. ``I have...so far
prevented the lighting of a fire in this region which would be hard to
extinguish. But all should know that a very great and wide danger is quite
near,'' Khamenei said in a statement read on Tehran radio ... FULL
TEXT
Go to top
* Key Iran official survives gunmen attack-IRNA
TEHRAN, Sept 13 (Reuters) - The head of a powerful Iranian state foundation
survived an assassination attempt on Sunday, the official news agency IRNA
reported. It said unknown gunmen opened fire on Mohsen Rafiqdoust from
hills overlooking his office in north Tehran. Rafiqdoust, 58, heads the
Bonyad-e Mostazafan va Janbazan (Foundation of the Deprived and War Disabled)
which is Iran's top economic powerhouse. It controls most hotels and hundreds
of firms, including many industrial plants ... FULL
TEXT
Go to top
* U.S. keen to use Khatami visit for thaw
LONDON, Sept 14 (Reuters) - The United States would like to use Iranian
President Mohammad Khatami's visit to New York for the United Nations general
assembly next week to accelerate a thaw in long-hostile relations with
Tehran, diplomats say. But President Bill Clinton's domestic troubles and
Iran's threats of revenge against Afghanistan's Taleban militia over the
killing of Iranian diplomats make any spectacular rapprochement unlikely.
Former Secretary of State James Baker added his voice at the weekend to
a chorus of influential American strategists calling for better relations,
telling a conference in Bahrain that Washington should consider easing
its sanctions on Iran... FULL
TEXT
Go to top
Listen in RealAudio
