Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Hossein Fadlallah

BEIRUT, March 11--Lebanon’s Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Hossein Fadlallah here Friday called on Muslim nations to support Iran against pressures imposed by the United States and Europe over its nuclear case.
Noting that the referral of International Atomic Energy (IAEA) Chief Mohamed ElBaradei’s report on Iran’s nuclear program to the United Nations Security Council, Fadlallah noted that Iran enjoys tremendous political and military power, IRNA reported.
“The United States recently signed a civilian nuclear agreement to supply India with more nuclear reactors to generate electricity, but threatens Iran over its peaceful nuclear program,“ he said. Fadlallah said the US fears Iran’s access to nuclear energy would produce more electricity to fuel its industrial and scientific programs.
He blasted the West for its double standards that prevent Iran from fulfilling its desire to produce peaceful nuclear energy while supporting Israel’s nuclear arsenal in the Middle East.
Fadlallah maintained that the US would never achieve its hegemonic goals through its current confrontation over Iran’s nuclear activities.

Michelle Bachelet

Fatemeh Javadi

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina, March 11--Iranian Vice President Fatemeh Javadi and Chilean President-Elect Michelle Bachelet on Friday underlined the participation of women in society, saying it is of prime necessity.
The two officials stressed the expansion of bilateral relations in the regional and international arenas, IRNA reported.
The Chilean president-elect noted that female officials in Chile made utmost efforts to accord women their deserved social status in the country.
She also termed as ’significant’ the level of cooperation in the mining and mineral fields in particular, saying her country is ready to make use of Iran’s experiences in the field of oil.
Javadi, who also heads the Department of Environment, expressed her satisfaction with Bachelet’s victory in Chile’s presidential election held last December.
She expressed hope the growing bilateral relations would continue during the office of Bachelet.
Javadi also invited the Chilean president-elect to pay an official visit to Iran.
The first female president of Chile will be sworn in and begin her tenure after the inauguration ceremony today.

Policewomen parade during a graduation ceremony at the Police Academy in Tehran, March 11. (Fars Photo)

TEHRAN, March 11--The police chief said restoring the rights of women is one of the main tasks of the police force, noting that policewomen have a high sense of commitment and work ethics.
Speaking during the graduation ceremony of women police officers on Saturday, Brigadier Esmail Ahmadi-Moqaddam, commander of the Islamic Republic of Iran Police (IRIP), said the presence of women law-enforcement officers in police stations and investigation bureaus as well as traffic departments will put women complainants at ease, reported Fars News Agency.
“The presence of policewomen is also necessary at certain crime scenes where men cannot be allowed, as a show of respect for the legal and religious rights of women,“ he said.
The police chief noted that women police officers are an exigency in an Islamic society, terming their job as highly sensitive.
“Today, the dignity of women in the western world which claims to be an advocate of human rights and equality, has been repeatedly assaulted,“ he said, noting that women in the West are used as objects or sex workers while in Iran, women are respected and enjoy a high social status.
According to Ahmadi-Moqaddam, the IRIP employs 10,000 policewomen with only 13 cases of violations recorded against them during March 2004-5, indicating that women have a high sense of commitment and work ethics.
“The police force is proud to have such a large number of women working at various levels.“ Iran’s first batch of 400 young policewomen graduated from the academy in 2003 and the second in March 2005.

SHAHR-E KORD, Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari, March 11--A conservative political activist said the Experts Assembly should only have clerics as members.
“Members of the Experts Assembly should be from among the religious authorities to be able to select another religious authority as the leader and oversee his performance,“ Ali Yousefpour, a member of the central council of the Society of Islamic Revolution Sacrificers, told IRNA on Saturday.
The Experts Assembly is entitled to elect and unseat the highest authority in this country, namely the leadership and supervise over his functions.
However, ISNA last week quoted a member of Experts Assembly as saying the body has not succeeded in establishing a genuine relationship with the people because it allows only clerics to join as members and holds sessions behind closed doors.
Majid Ansari also said that a plan to amend the assembly’s Election Law for allowing non-clerics to join the body will ensure that the body comprises intellectuals from all strata of the society and not just clerics.
“Having leading legal, economic and military experts as members will ensure the assembly’s dynamism and prove that the leader is a popular elected figure,“ he said.
Ansari explained that the plan proposed that 80 assembly members be chosen from among religious authorities and 40 from non-clerics with only the former authorized to comment on the leader’s qualifications.

TEHRAN, March 11--A prominent MP warned against the harmful effects of radio waves emitted by the new system in parliament to make cellphones inaccessible.
Rasoul Seddiqi, Bonab MP, also told reporters on Saturday that to block mobile phone-calls in parliament, indoor waves should be stronger than outdoor ones, IRNA reported.
Seddiqi, who is also a professor of nuclear physics, added that such strong electromagnetic waves should naturally have high standards and when they exceed the permissible level, they produce ions and damage biological tissues.
“This will consequently lead to carcinogenic and dangerous diseases,“ he warned, noting, however, that the radio waves in Majlis are not “that dangerous“ and will cause headache, depression and slight illness.
Majlis Speaker Gholamali Haddad-Adel earlier objected to the MPs for making or answering phone-calls in Majlis, saying the system has been created to block the parliamentarians’ phone-calls during the Majlis sessions.
Over the last few years, mobile phones have changed from being expensive devices used by businesses to a pervasive personal item. In many countries, mobile phones now outnumber landline telephones.
With the increasing popularity of mobile phones around the world, people have started questioning the safety of these devices. Radio waves have been at the heart of the controversy over mobile phone safety.

KHORRAMABAD, Lorestan, March 11--Justice Minister Jamal Karimi-Rad said some 140,000 convicts are in Iranian jails.
Speaking to officials of Lorestan Justice Department late Thursday, Karimi-Rid noted that the world average prison population in the current year (March 2005-06) was 144 per 100,000 people, while the corresponding figure in Iran stood at 201 per 100,000, IRNA reported.
Last month, Karimi-Rad put the jailed population during Dec. 22-Jan. 20 at 137,875, which he said showed a decline of 2.5 percent compared to its previous month.
“Of this figure, 96.51 percent were men and the rest women while 60.53 percent of them were convicts and the rest are awaiting a court ruling,“ he said.
He said prison arrivals during Dec. 22-Jan. 20 were 46,930, 14.39 percent lower than the number recorded in the previous month.
According to the officials, 18.82 and 12.34 percent of the arrivals constituted men and women addicts respectively, with 19.26 percent of them men convicted of drug-related offenses. “The related figure for women was 21.2 percent.“
Karimi-Rad, also the judiciary’s spokesman, said the preliminary courts currently handle up to 70 percent of cases referred to the judiciary. “These courts need more facilities, which we hope to materialize through more funds allocated in the next year’s budget,“ he said.

BERLIN, March 11--German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier called for a diplomatic solution to the standoff over Iran’s nuclear ambitions and urged Tehran to cooperate.
The comments, issued on Saturday, followed days of tense rhetoric between Iran and the West, after a leading Iranian security official said Iran could inflict “harm and pain“ if the UN Security Council imposed any penalties on Iran, Reuters reported.
“Iranian politicians and diplomats threaten consequences if the world community sticks to its demand that Tehran stop all activities that allow it to get an atom bomb,“ he said in a guest article for Germany’s Bild am Sonntag newspaper released by the paper ahead of publication.
“We must not allow ourselves to be dragged into saber-rattling. This is the hour of diplomacy,“ he said.
Meanwhile, IRNA reported that Angelika Beer, a member of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee and chair of the Iran delegation in the EP, called on the European Union not to blindly toe the US policy towards Iran.
“The decision by the IAEA to refer Iran to the UN Security Council gives the thumbs up to the confrontational approach of the US and will seriously damage the chances of a negotiated solution,“ said Beer, a German member of the EP for the Greens, in a statement issued Friday in Brussels.
“Europe must abandon its policy of blindly following the US and finally take the lead in promoting a peaceful solution,“ she said.
“For its part, Iran must respond to all the unresolved questions from the ElBaradei report without delay. To avoid further inflaming the current situation, it must not scale back its cooperation with the IAEA.“
In related news, the leader of France’s National Front Party, Jean-Marie Le Pen, recognized on Friday Iran’s right to pursue peaceful nuclear energy.
“I do not know on which principle Iran should be prevented from gaining access to nuclear technology while no one questions Israel, India or Pakistan for having nuclear technology,“ he saied.
Le Pen’s remarks were published in the FN daily `French First’.