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Tuesday, January 21, 1997

News

* Oil revenues expected to increase
* Prof. Tafazoli dies in car crash
* Shahravan surrenders
* Iran's FIFA ranking
* Iran: Troubled but...
* Tourism: Second revolution?
* Iran's naval power
* Religious cinema.....

From: Reza F. Bourghani <davood@ix.netcom.com>

Iran expects higher earnings from oil exports

From wire services 01/14/97

TEHRAN, Jan 14 - Iran expects to earn around 18 billion dollars from crude oil exports during the year beginning in March, 3.5 billion dollars more than during the previous year, Oil Minister Gholamreza Aghazadeh said.

Newspapers on Tuesday quoted Aghazadeh as saying during a budget debate in parliament that the average price for Iranian crude in the year starting on March 20, 1997 was expected to be around 17.50 dollars a barrel.

"We expect to export more than 2.5 million barrels a day at an average price of 17.50 dollars a barrel," he said.

Iranian crude has fetched an average 22.50 dollars a barrel recently because of the particularly cold winter in Europe and North America.

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Here are selected stories from Tuesday and Wednesday's (Jan 14, 15) editions of Theran's Hamshahri daily online newspaper. You need Persian fonts to see the news in Persian. If you have not installed it, go to these sites for free download and installation instructions:

//www.neda.net/hamshahri

or:

//www.payvand.com/persian

Articles

-- Professor Tafazoli dies in car crash
//www.neda.net/hamshahri/751026/elmfa68.htm

-- Brief brief on 2nd anniversary of Bazargan's death: //www.neda.net/hamshahri/751029/siasi45.htm

-- Iran wants to head International Atomic Energy Agency: //www.neda.net/hamshahri/751029/eqtes13.htm

-- Faezeh Hashemi's diplomacy for women's sports: //www.neda.net/hamshahri/751029/shahr59.htm

-- 75 percent of Tehran Stock Exchange activity comes from shares offered by state-owned companies:
//www.neda.net/hamshahri/751029/eqtes63.htm

-- Art show review of four young women artists:
//www.neda.net/hamshahri/751029/adabh2.htm

-- FIFA declares Iran 7th best soccer team in developing world:
//www.neda.net/hamshahri/751026/varze45.htm

-- Majlis deputy says budget for women's programs should increase
//www.neda.net/hamshahri/751025/siasi71.htm

-- Feature report on pharmaceutical shortages:
//www.neda.net/hamshahri/751026/gozar39.htm

-- Two thirds of child cancer patients are boys:
//www.neda.net/hamshahri/751026/shahr.htm

-- Non-oil, non-metal exports up 83 percent to $750 mn in past eight months:
//www.neda.net/hamshahri/751026/eqtes66.htm

-- ... But non-oil exports in past nine months are down 3.8 percent. Do these figures add up? //www.neda.net/hamshahri/751025/eqtes21.htm

-- Auto industry - look to foreign markets:
//www.neda.net/hamshahri/751025/ejtem10.htm

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From: Farhad Arad <farhad@onlook.com>

Cowboys' false accuser turns herself in

DALLAS - A woman charged with filing a false police report implicating two Dallas football players in a sexual assault turned herself in at the Dallas County jail on Thursday and posted $500 bond on a misdemeanor charge of perjury.

Police had accused Nina Shahravan, 23, earlier this week of filing a false police report, a Class B misdemeanor, but prosecutors increased the charge to Class A misdemeanor perjury, which carries a stiffer penalty. Shahravan's lawyer, David Smith, denied that she had lied in her accusations against Cowboys stars Michael Irvin and Erik Williams.

''I don't believe my client is guilty,'' Smith said. ''My client doesn't believe she's guilty of any offense. I represent the victim of a rape.''

Shahravan filed a police report Dec. 30 accusing Irvin of holding a gun to her head while Williams and a third man, who was never identified, raped her in Williams' home. She also accused Irvin of videotaping the attack.

Irvin and Williams denied the claim from the start. They were never charged.

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From: Mehran Azhar <mazhar@students.uwf.edu>

Hi all,

Iran is ranked 83rd in the world in soccer, according to FIFA's latest rankings (December 20th). This is considered a huge jump as compared to last year's rank at 108.

(Source: //cnn.com/SPORTS/SOCCER/96/stats.fifarank.html)

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From: S. Hossein Samiei <SSAMIEI@IMF.ORG> & Sabi Behzadi <Sabi.Behzadi@MS01.DO.treas.sprint.com>

See this week's Economist magazine which has a feature report on Iran. There is a brief summary at:

//www.economist.com/issue/18-01-97/

"There is more on the credit side than you might expect, but Iran remains a troubled country that needs to win back the confidence of its young, says Barbara Smith..."

For full text... I guess you have to buy the magazine.

Hossein Samiei

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From: Reza F. Bourghani <davood@ix.netcom.com>

Half the World puts on a smile

Isfahan is the magnificent scene of Iran's second revolution - this time involving tourists. But strict Islamic rules remain firmly in place, reports DAVID HIRST

The Guardian, of London
01/17/97

IT GOES without saying that tourism and the values of the Islamic Republic do not mix - in fact, they often clash head-on. Nowhere is that more lamented than in Isfahan.

"Half the World", its inhabitants call it, ever since a European traveller exclaimed that of all the Earth had to offer of beauty, ease and refinement, this former capital of the Safavid dynasty possessed half of it. Its mosques, royal palaces and pavilions are bedecked with brilliant ceramics. It is hard to fathom how such gorgeous places spawned an Islamic revolution so addicted to the colour black, so seemingly dark and joyless.

But the Islamic Republic now has an officially encouraged "tourist industry", and Isfahan explains why: 80 per cent of visitors come to the city. The trickle of tourists began after the Iraq-Iran war ended in 1988, rising from 90,000 that year to 420,000 in 1996. It is paltry by world standards. But it is a breakthrough, even a revolution of sorts.

The mullahs had to wrestle with their puritanical souls to permit it. Many still do not like the idea of foreign visitors at all, unless they are pilgrims to the shrines of Qom or Meshed. Unfortunately, the average pilgrim spends about half the money of the average German tourist. Germans, followed by Japanese, head the visitors' list.

Despite its oil wealth, Iran badly needs foreign capital. What's more, some mullahs who have acquired a taste for capitalism and high-living have realised that Iran's historic riches - pre-Islamic ones included - can make a handsome contribution to their lifestyles...

***

Search the article in The Guradian is at:

//www.guardian.co.uk:80/

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From: Reza F. Bourghani <davood@ix.netcom.com>

Iran will boost power in Persian Gulf with new submarine: British officials

From wire services
01/15/97

KUWAIT CITY, Jan 15 - Iran will receive its third Russian-built submarine in the next few days, boosting the Islamic republic's ability to project its power in Gulf waters, British naval officials said Wednesday.

"It would certainly be a great asset to anyone who wanted to achieve a certain degree of sea control in the area," said British Commander Duncan Potts, referring to the delivery of a new kilo-class submarine to Iran's navy.

"Certainly in terms of military capability a submarine threat in the area is another dimension, which is relatively new," Potts told reporters aboard the ship he commands, HMS Southampton, docked in Kuwait.

Iran already has two kilo-class submarines in operation with its navy, which have been delivered during the past three years. Lieutenant Keith Blount, principal underwater warfare officer, said the Russian submarine would arrive in the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas in the Gulf in a "few days."

"It's interesting to us to see how Iran has been able to use submarines in such challenging waters," he said, adding that submarine warfare was more difficult in the Gulf's shallow waters.

HMS Southampton is part of the Royal Navy's Armilla Patrol in the Gulf, which helps enforce the UN embargo on Iraq imposed after the August 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

The ship docked in Kuwait on Tuesday and will leave on January 18 for a day of maneuvers with Kuwaiti ships.

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From: Reza F. Bourghani <davood@ix.netcom.com>

Iran clergy aim for a religious cinema

From wire services
01/17/97

TEHRAN, Jan 17 - Iran's ruling Shiite Moslem clergy are seeking to turn the national cinema into a cultural tool to promote the "sacred" values of the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Iran's culture and Islamic Guidance Ministry organised a seminar with the title of "religious cinema" last week to try to encourage film-makers to produce movies with religious themes and content.

Clergymen, film critics, movie directors and producers as well as army officials debated ways of "transforming" the country's cinema to better serve Islamic principles.

Others argued that the clergy should exercise more control over film-making to ensure the movies' contents and forms conformed to Islamic teachings.

"Moral and Islamic criteria are always to be respected in movie-making in our country," said ultra-conservative cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Janati, who usually takes a tough line on cultural issues.

The ayatollah, who heads the Islamic information campaign in Iran and abroad, said Iranian artists should feel as though they had a "mission" to serve Islam when having a production at hand.

However, Mojtaba Raii, a producer of several popular feature-length movies, said during the conference that there was "no clear formulae" to follow to make a so-called religious movie.

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