News
June 14-June 18, 1999 / Khordad 24-28, 1378
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Today
* Jannati says Jews spied, deserve to
hang
* Iran tells UAE not to worry over Saudi ties
* Iran calls for quick Israeli pullout from Lebanon
* Tehran street gets new mural of Sadat assassin
Previous
* Director of Iranian paper arrested
* Iran launches helicopter search for kidnapped Italians:
report
* Iranian Jews critical of outside support for spying suspects
* U.S. group sees Turkmen pipeline ready by 2002
* Unfair trials, ill treatment of prisoners continue:
Amnesty
* President defends rights of Iranian Jews - agency
* Iran hardliners move to undermine Egypt ties
* No word on Italian trio from Iranian kidnappers
* Italian businessmen still missing in Iran
* Conference on Iran 's future in Cyprus
* Khatami highlights minority rights in Islamic Iran
* Jackson wants meeting with Iran
* IIC welcomes U.S. immigration decision
* Iran's Khatami urges more democracy in Moslem world
* Iran Kurdish MPs want Turkey out of Islamic group
* Arabs try shuttle diplomacy to end Iran spat
* Kuwait crown prince to visit Iran
* Iran says more than 13 arrested in spy network
* 'Hoviyyat-e Kheesh' banned for "insults"
* Iran
Jewish leader seeks justice for 13 jailed Jews
* Iran's dissident ayatollah defends election
choice
* Mujahedeen vows to retaliate inside Iran
* Iraq sends MPs to Iran for POWs talks-Papers
* GCC Head on to mend rift over Iranaz
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Friday
June 18, 1999
* Jannati says Jews spied, deserve to hang
TEHRAN, June 18 (Reuters) - An influential Iranian cleric said on Friday
that 13 Jews arrested on spying charges passed secrets to Israel through
third countries including Turkey and deserved to hang. Ayatollah Ahmad
Jannati, secretary of the powerful Guardian Council, said: ``They (Westerners)
think...they can force us into a compromise. But we cannot deal in things
like getting a concession and letting them go. Spies deserve to be hanged.''
... FULL
TEXT
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* Iran tells UAE not to worry over Saudi ties
BEIT EDDINE, Lebanon, June 18 (Reuters) - Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal
Kharrazi on Friday told the United Arab Emirates not to worry about his
country's improving ties with Saudi Arabia and not to interfere in them.
Kharrazi, on a two-day visit to Lebanon, said UAE officials could visit
Tehran if they wanted talks on a territorial dispute over Gulf islands
-- the issue the UAE fears regional kingpin Saudi Arabia will abandon in
its rapprochement with Iran ... FULL
TEXT
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* Iran calls for quick Israeli pullout from Lebanon
BEIRUT, June 18 (Reuters) - Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi
said on Friday Israel must pull its troops out of south Lebanon immediately
and unconditionally. ``Israel must pull out immediately and unconditionally
its aggressive army from Lebanese territory in an implementation of U.N.
Security Council resolution 425,'' Kharrazi told an audience at the Faculty
of Law at the University of Lebanon ... FULL
TEXT
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* Tehran street gets new mural of Sadat assassin
TEHRAN, June 18 (Reuters) - Hardliners on Friday unveiled a mural in
honour of the assassin of the late Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, in an
open challenge to moves by Tehran to improve ties with the big Moslem Arab
country ... FULL
TEXT
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Thursday
June 17, 1999
* Director of Iranian paper arrested
TEHRAN, June 16 (AFP) - The director of a weekly publication close to
reformist circles in Iran was arrested Wednesday on the orders of the conservative
revolutionary tribunal in Tehran, the magazine said. Hossein Kashani, director
of Hoveyat-e-Khish, was taken in for questioning for having published information
contrary to "public order and the public interest," officials
said ... FULL
TEXT
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* Iran launches helicopter search for kidnapped Italians: report
TEHRAN, June 17 (AFP) - Iran has sent out helicopters to join the search
for three Italians kidnapped four days ago after receiving information
about the kidnappers' hideout, the press reported Thursday. "We have
received some clues regarding the whereabouts of the kidnappers,"
said Mohammad Ali Tohidi, governor of the southern city of Bam where the
three Italians were seized on Tuesday ... FULL
TEXT
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* Iranian Jews critical of outside support for spying suspects
TEHRAN, June 13 (AFP) - Statements of international support for 13 Iranian
Jews accused of spying are "propaganda," according to a communique
published Sunday by the official IRNA news agency and attributed to the
country's Jewish community. Sympathetic remarks from abroad are "simply
hostile propaganda irrelevant to the true interests and concerns of the
Jewish Iranians," the communique said ... FULL
TEXT
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* Iran insists on its sovereignty over Persian Gulf islands
TEHRAN, June 17 (AFP) - Iran has again insisted on its sovereignty over
three strategic Gulf islands also claimed by the United Arab Emirates,
saying their legal status was clear. "The legal status of the three
Iranian islands, Abu Musa, Greater and Lesser Tunbs is clearly transparent
and no legal ambiguity exists in this regard," deputy parliamentary
speaker Hassan Rowhani said ... FULL
TEXT
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* U.S. group sees Turkmen pipeline ready by 2002
ASHGABAT, June 17 (Reuters) - An ambitious trans-Caspian pipeline linking
the gas fields of Turkmenistan in Central Asia with markets in Turkey could
be up and running by 2002, the company in charge of the project said late
on Wednesday. ``We expect that actually construction will start early in
2000 and be completed in 2002,'' Edward Smith, president of U.S. company
PSG, told Reuters in an interview ... FULL
TEXT
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Wednesday
June 16, 1999
* Unfair trials and ill treatment of prisoners continue in Iran:
Amnesty
LONDON, June 16 (AFP) - Iran continued to hold hundreds of political
prisoners in 1998, many sentenced after unfair trials, the human rights
group Amnesty International said Wednesday in its annual report. "Reports
of torture and ill treatment continued to be received," Amnesty said,
adding that its information also suggested that "extrajudicial executions"
had occurred. It also said human rights abuses had been committed by armed
opposition groups ... FULL
TEXT
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* President defends rights of Iranian Jews - agency
TEHRAN, June 16 (Reuters) - President Mohammad Khatami, facing international
criticism for Iran's arrest of 13 people charged with spying for Israel,
on Wednesday repeated is pledge to defend the rights of religious minorities.
``We deem it our task to defend our Sunni (Moslem) brothers and sisters
as well as Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian minorities,'' Khatami said
... FULL
TEXT
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* Iran hardliners move to undermine Egypt ties
TEHRAN, June 16 (Reuters) - Egypt, already insulted by the naming of
a Tehran street after the assassin of its late president Anwar Sadat, may
now face a further affront in the form of a mural of the Islamist killer.
A group of Iranian hardliners have tried to paint a large portrait of Khaled
Islambouli, the Islamist activist who assassinated Sadat in 1981, on a
wall overlooking a street already named in his honour, press reports said
on Wednesday ... FULL
TEXT
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* No word on Italian trio from Iranian kidnappers
TEHRAN, June 16 (Reuters) - Authorities have heard nothing in the way
of ransom or other demands from the kidnappers of three Italians at a popular
tourist sight in southeastern Iran on June 13, the Italian embassy in Tehran
said on Wednesday. A spokeswoman for the embassy identified the missing
Italian nationals as two engineers and a technician assigned by the Danielli
company to a project in the central Iranian city of Yazd. She said their
whereabouts remained a mystery ... FULL
TEXT
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Tuesday
June 15, 1999
* Italian businessmen still missing in Iran
TEHRAN, June 15 (Reuters) - The current whereabouts of several Italian
business representatives abducted in the southeast of the country earlier
this week were still unknown on Tuesday, according to a Foreign Ministry
spokesman. Security services were reported to be hunting for bandits blamed
for the kidnapping ... FULL
TEXT
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* Conference on Iran 's future in Cyprus
NICOSIA, June 15 (AFP) - Iranian intellectuals from inside and outside
the Islamic Republic are to meet in Cyprus this week to discuss the prospects
for their country in the 21st century. The subjects to be discussed include
modernity and culture, the media, politics, the economy, and Iran 's international
relations ... FULL
TEXT
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* Khatami highlights minority rights in Islamic Iran
TEHRAN, June 15 (Reuters) - President Mohammad Khatami, facing mounting
international pressure over the arrest of 13 Iranians on charges of spying
for Israel, has taken personal responsibility to ensure the rights of all
religious minorities. Iranian newspapers on Tuesday said Khatami, in a
speech at the weekend to commanders of the Revolutionary Guards, highlighted
the freedoms enjoyed by all recognised religious minorities in the Islamic
republic ... FULL
TEXT
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* Jackson wants meeting with Iran
June 15, 1999, NEW YORK (AP) -- The Rev. Jesse Jackson says he is still
waiting for a requested meeting with Iran's U.N. ambassador over the fate
of 13 Iranian Jews arrested on espionage charges in their home country.
`We hope at some point such a meeting will be granted,'' Jackson told reporters
Monday outside U.N. headquarters. He was joined by local rabbis and representatives
of the Roman Catholic and Episcopal dioceses of New York, the Armenian
Church and the National Council of Churches ... FULL
TEXT
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* IIC welcomes U.S. immigration decision
Washington DC, June 15, 1999 - Iranians for International Cooperation
warmly welcomes the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control
decision that US sanctions against Iran do not apply to most Iranian applicants
for US non-immigrant visas ... FULL
TEXT
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* Iran's Khatami urges more democracy in Moslem world
TEHRAN, June 15 (Reuters) - Iranian President Mohammad Khatami called
on Tuesday for greater democracy in Moslem countries as he opened the inaugural
conference of Islamic parliaments. ``The rule of people is a basic tenet
of Islam and is derived from the holy Koran. It is so befitting that Islamic
societies pay greater heed to this matter,'' Khatami said in a speech to
the Founding Conference of the Organisation of Islamic Parliaments ...
FULL
TEXT
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* Iran Kurdish MPs want Turkey out of Islamic group
TEHRAN, June 15 (Reuters) - A group of Kurdish members of the Iranian
parliament have called for the expulsion of Turkey from the world's largest
Islamic body, branding Ankara's secular government ``infidel and heretic,''
a newspaper said on Tuesday. ``The infidel and heretic nature of (Turkey's)
secularist regime violates Islamic teachings,'' the MPs said in an open
letter published in the Neshat newspaper, demanding that Turkey be ousted
from the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC). ... FULL
TEXT
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* Arabs try shuttle diplomacy to end Iran spat
DUBAI, June 15 (Reuters) - Worried Gulf Arab nations have turned to
shuttle diplomacy to cool a blistering row between Saudi Arabia and the
United Arab Emirates over improving ties with one-time regional pariah
Iran. The secretary-general of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council
(GCC) is holding talks with Kuwaiti leaders on Tuesday, one day after meeting
with Qatar's emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, in Doha. Gulf sources
said he is also expected to travel to GCC members Bahrain and Oman. ...
FULL
TEXT
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* Kuwait crown prince to visit Iran
KUWAIT, June 15 (Reuters) - Crown Prince and Prime Minister Sheikh Saad
al-Abdulla al-Sabah of Kuwait is expected to visit Iran in late August
as part of a tour which will also include Arab allies Egypt, Syria and
Lebanon, Gulf officials said on Tuesday. In March, Sheikh Saad ordered
his aircraft, which had just landed in Iran, to return to the Arab side
of the Gulf following the sudden death of Bahrain's emir Sheikh Isa bin
Sulman al-Khalifa ... FULL
TEXT
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Monday
June 14, 1999
* Iran says more than 13 arrested in spy network
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Iran's U.N. mission
indicated in a press statement Monday that more alleged spies were recently
arrested than the 13 already accused of espionage for Israel and that they
included some Muslims. It appeared to be the first indication that the
number of those arrested went beyond the 13 believed to be Iranian Jews
and that they included Muslims ... FULL
TEXT
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* 'Hoviyyat-e Kheesh' banned for "insults"
June 13, 1999 (Kayhan - BBC Monitoring) - The fortnightly 'Hoviyyat-e
Kheesh' ['Self-Identity'] has been banned and all copies of the latest
edition have been taken out of circulation. According to reports, the Islamic
Revolution Court of Tehran has indicated that 'Hoviyyat-e Kheesh' has been
accused of insults and defamation against the main principles of the Islamic
republic's system ... FULL
TEXT
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* Iran Jewish leader seeks justice for 13 jailed
Jews
TEHRAN, June 12 (Reuters) - An Iranian Jewish
leader called in remarks published on Saturday for ``true justice'' for
13 Jews arrested in Iran on charges of spying for Israel. ``As the representative
of (Iranian) Jews, I demand true justice for the suspects. If the results
of investigations prove them guilty, they should be punished. But if the
opposite was proved, they should be released immediately,'' Manouchehr
Eliasi, the representative of Iran's 27,000-strong Jewish community in
parliament said in an interview with the centrist Entekhab daily ... FULL
TEXT
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* Iran's dissident ayatollah defends election choice
TEHRAN, June 13 (Reuters) - Iran's top dissident cleric, whose influence
reaches beyond the confines of his house arrest, has denounced attempts
by conservative theologians to determine who may stand for key parliamentary
polls set for next March. In an open letter to seminary students, Grand
Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, 76, accused the conservative Guardian
Council of overstepping its authority to protect Islam and interfering
directly in the democratic rights of the Iranian people ... FULL
TEXT
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* Mujahedeen vows to retaliate inside Iran
BAGHDAD, June 12 (AFP) - The Iranian armed opposition People's Mujahedeen
vowed Saturday to retaliate inside Iran for this week's attacks on its
fighters in Iraq. "The leadership of the movement inside Iran will
retaliate for the criminal acts committed by the Iranian regime,"
a Mujahedeen spokesman said, referring to the group's past assassinations
of military and judicial officials ... FULL
TEXT
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* Iraq sends MPs to Iran for POWs talks-Papers
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq, which last week accused Iran of firing missiles
into its territory and of being behind a car blast that killed seven people,
sent a parliamentary delegation to Tehran to discuss prisoners of the 1980-88
Iraq-Iran war, newspapers reported Monday. ``The delegation will discuss
with Iranian officials pending issues related to the Iraqi prisoners of
war and will demand Iran... accelerate their release,'' the newspapers
said ... FULL
TEXT
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* GCC Head on to mend rift over Iran
KUWAIT, June 14 (Reuters) - The secretary-general of the Gulf Cooperation
Council (GCC) arrived in Kuwait on Monday as part of a Gulf tour to mend
a rift between some members of the alliance over the pace of improving
ties with non-Arab Iran. Jameel al-Hujailan downplayed the differences
which foreign ministers failed to resolve at a ministerial meeting last
week in Saudi Arabia ... FULL
TEXT
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