IndiaÕs Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar (l) shakes hands with IranÕs top nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, in Tehran on Sunday.

TEHRAN, Dec. 16--India’s Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar said relations with Iran top the agenda of his country and called for expansion of bilateral ties.
During a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki here on Sunday, Menon said Iran and India, as two important and stable countries in the region, enjoy friendly and consolidated ties that have led to more regional stability, IRNA reported.
Expressing his dissatisfaction with the current level of relations between the two countries, Menon called on the two sides to seize opportunities and take advantage of each other’s capabilities and potential.
“The visit of high-ranking Indian officials to Tehran would help boost ties between the two countries,“ he said.
The Iranian foreign minister, for his part, said both Iran and India share common stands on mutual, regional and international issues, adding that Iran is an independent state that makes its own decision on how to establish or continue ties with others.
“We should not let any foreign powers to harm ties between the two countries,“ he said.
Mottaki said the level of bilateral relations should be upgraded to serve the significant role of both the countries in the region.
He called on the two sides to take more concrete steps to revive the two countries’ relations and take advantage of each other’s capabilities.
Also on Sunday, Menon held a separate meeting with Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, who heads the Supreme National Security Council.
During the meeting, two sides discussed Iran’s peaceful nuclear program as well as issues of mutual interest.

BEIT-UL-MOQADDAS, Dec. 16--Israel has failed to convince the United States that Iran’s nuclear program poses a serious and immediate threat, an Israeli cabinet minister said on Saturday, following the publication of a US intelligence report.
Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter criticized the US report, published on Dec. 3, that said Iran had no nuclear weapon program, claiming that a US ’misconception’ could lead to a regional war, Reuters reported.
The findings reversed a key conclusion from a 2005 intelligence report that Iran was developing a bomb.
“We need to admit that Israel did not succeed in convincing the US leadership on the fact that an Iranian weapon threat is immediate and significant,“ Dichter, a former director of Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency, said in a speech near Tel Aviv.
“It seems that what we put before them, how we presented it, wasn’t persuasive enough,“ he said. “It’s important for Israel to keep trying to convince with facts and intelligence data.“
Only Israel possesses nuclear weapons with more than 300 arsenals in the Middle East.
Israel holds regular bilateral discussions with Washington on regional issues, including Iran.
“We must not let a misconception develop in the United States. Such a misconception may lead to a regional Yom Kippur, where Israel is just one of the countries threatened,“ Dichter claimed.
Meanwhile, the Zionist regime has dispatched an unscheduled delegation of intelligence officials to the US to try to convince it that Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons. But while Israel was trying to convince Washington with regard to Iran, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert scolded the cabinet minister for his harsh, public criticism of the US report.

Charles Kupchan

TEHRAN, Dec. 16--An American political analyst said Iran and the United States should expand the agenda of their upcoming talks on Iraq security.
Charles Kupchan, a professor of international relations in the School of Foreign Service and Government Department at Georgetown University, also told Mehr News Agency on Sunday that Iran’s nuclear program and other issues should also be included in the next round of talks between the two arch-foes.
Noting that diplomacy can work on Iran’s nuclear program, he called for more face-to-face negotiations between Tehran and Washington.
Kupchan’s remarks came as an Iranian delegation arrived in Baghdad on Friday and began preliminary talks with Iraqi officials about the fourth round of Baghdad-Tehran-Washington talks.
The first and second rounds of talks were held at the ambassadorial level and the third round was at the experts level to provide the negotiating sides with sufficient time to think about the insecurity prevailing in Iraq.
The professor referred to the next US presidential election in 2009 and predicted that the next American president will revise the country’s policies, especially in the Middle East.
Kupchan also noted that many issues require Iran and US cooperation in this regard.

ISFAHAN, Dec. 16--Interior Minister Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi said high-ranking officials who disrupt or interfere in the government’s programs should be confronted.
Speaking on the sidelines of a visit to Isfahan on Sunday`, Pour-Mohammadi said organizations and institutes, whose activities are not in line with the 20-Year Vision, should be confronted and the government will follow up their violations, Mehr News Agency reported.
Referring to the government’s policy on using officials related to previous governments, he said, “The government does not intend to oust all these officials, but there will be some changes and replacements.“
The minister stated that the government has made efforts in recent months to make information dissemination completely transparent.
“The government welcomes press freedom and journalistic activities, as well as criticism,“ he said.
Pour-Mohammadi stressed that enemies try to implement their goals by targeting the beliefs and thoughts of people, adding that the government should make people aware of their plans.

Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi (r) greets Tanzanian Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Mary Michael Nagu, (l) in Tehran on Sunday.

TEHRAN, Dec. 16--Iran is ready to share its judicial expertise with Muslim states, said Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi on Sunday.
Speaking in a meeting with visiting Tanzanian Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Mary Michael Nagu, Ayatollah Shahroudi said Tehran is also ready for promoting legal and judicial cooperation with Dar Es Salaam, IRNA reported.
Referring to Iran-Tanzania ties following the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, Shahroudi said, “Iran enjoys codified laws in different judicial fields, including personal affairs as well as women’s and children’s rights, which are based on Islamic teachings.“
Commenting on Iran’s progress in judicial fields, he said the employment of new technologies in different stages of prosecution is an example of this progress.
The Tanzanian minister said her country is keen to boost judicial cooperation with Tehran.
Meanwhile, an Indian judiciary delegation discussed issues of mutual interest with the Mashhad prosecutor.
According to a Justice Ministry report, Prosecutor Gholamhossein Esmaeili said, “The situation of Iran’s judiciary system and judges is unique.“
The head of India’s delegation, for his part, explained India’s judiciary system and added that Iran’s system has advantages which can be a good model for other judiciary systems.
The two sides also agreed to continue judiciary cooperation.

Seyyed Hassan Firouzabadi

TEHRAN, Dec. 16--A top military official said on Sunday all economic, social and cultural potentials should be mobilized to boost the capabilities of the Islamic Revolution’s Guards Corps.
Seyyed Hassan Firouzabadi, head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Armed Forces, added that all government efforts should be focused on increasing IRGC capabilities by three times, IRNA quoted him as saying in the introduction ceremony for his new deputy for Basij (volunteer forces) affairs.
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei appointed Mohammad Baqer Zolqadr as the deputy joint chief of staff for Basij affairs last week after he resigned as the deputy interior minister.
Firouzabadi said the Joint Chiefs of Staff is determined to answer the leader’s call for attracting tens of millions of people to Basij.
He pointed out that Iran is not a threat to the region and regards regional states as its friend and brother.
The head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Armed Forces added that the United States is a threat to the Islamic Republic, noting that the Iranian nation is capable of standing up to the US.
He said the release of the US intelligence report on Iran’s nuclear activities marks a failure for the US.
“Oppressors in the White House are backtracking [from their hostile policies toward Iran],“ he said.
Firouzabadi noted that Iran’s Armed Forces is equipped with cutting-edge military equipment and ready to defend the nation.

TEHRAN, Dec. 16--Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Mohammad Reza Baqeri met with Ethiopian and African Union officials.
According to Foreign Ministry’s Media Department on Saturday, Baqeri, who has traveled to Ethiopia at the head of a delegation, met with Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and presented President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s invitation letter to visit Tehran, IRNA reported.
Welcoming the invitation, Zenawi said, “Ethiopia considers ties with Iran as an important issue.“
The Iranian envoy also discussed issues of mutual interest with Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin and Speaker of the House of People’s Representatives Teshome Toga.
In a meeting with Mesfin, the two officials exchanged views and discussed bilateral ties, Palestine, Iraq and Lebanon as well as developments in Horn of Africa and the situation in Somalia.
Among bilateral issues, reopening of the Ethiopian Embassy in Tehran to facilitate trade and commercial ties was also discussed.
In a meeting with Ethiopia’s Parliament speaker, the two sides reviewed ways of expanding bilateral parliamentary relations.
The Iranian special envoy also met with African Union Commissioner Alpha Oumar Konare and discussed Iran-Africa relations.