TEHRAN, Dec. 30--Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant will become operational at half its capacity next summer.
“Grounds would be prepared for injection of fuel into the 1,000-megawatt power station after the completion of the nuclear fuel shipments by Russia which will take place in eight stages,“ Mottaki told reporters on the sidelines of a ceremony to mark Eid-e Ghadir on Sunday, IRNA reported.
The Bushehr power plant is being built with the help of Russia’s Atomstroiexport corporation.
The first consignment of nuclear fuel was delivered by Russia to Iran on December 17 while the second cargo arrived in the country on December 28.
The total fuel consignment for the Bushehr plant is around 82 tons which would be delivered to Iran in eight separate consignments from Russia within two months.
Mottaki further said Iran-Russia economic cooperation has witnessed appropriate growth, expressing optimism that this would be further strengthened in the next few years.
Referring to a 100-percent growth in bilateral trade in 2007 as compared to 2006, he said the prospect of bilateral economic cooperation is very bright.
The foreign minister noted that Tehran and Moscow enjoy amicable ties in all areas, including the military field.
“Tehran sees no obstacles to cooperation with Moscow,“ he said.
On the legal regime of Caspian Sea, Mottaki said Iran’s share of the Caspian Sea resources has never been over 50 percent.
“The figure is not logical, nor has there been any accord about it. In fact, Iran’s exploitation of the Caspian Sea has never been higher than 11.3 percent,“ he said.
Mottaki said compilation of the sea’s legal regime is on the agenda of Iran, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan.
“The share of each of the three countries is based on justice and determines the underwater borders for utilization of the sea’s resources,“ he said.
“Kazakhstan’s share of the Caspian Sea is 24 percent and that of Russia is under 20. Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan each has less than a 20-percent share.“
The foreign minister also said Iran and Iraq have formed a technical committee to dredge the Arvand Roud river in southwestern Iran, which borders Iraq.
Mottaki referred to an upcoming visit to Tehran by an Iraqi delegation and said boosting economic and political cooperation is the objective of the delegation’s visit.
“General agreements have been made on dredging Arvand Roud river and Iran has selected its members for the committee. We are now waiting for the Iraqi side to introduce its members,“ he said.
Mottaki reiterated the validity of the 1975 Algiers Accord signed by Iran and Iraq to settle their territorial disputes.
“The agreement is a firm basis for maintaining cordial and good neighborly relations between Iran and Iraq,“ he said.

TEHRAN, Dec. 30--Iraqi ambassador in Tehran said the 1975 Algiers Accord is a legal and valid contract.
Mohammad Majid Al-Sheikh added that a high-ranking Iraqi delegation is coming to Iran to work on relocation of sea border demarcations between Iran and Iraq, Mehr News Agency reported.
Commenting on recent statements by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani on the Algiers Accord, Al-Sheikh noted that the accord is legal and valid according to
international regulations and no one can revoke it
unilaterally.
“In view of friendly relations between Tehran and Baghdad at the highest level and in all areas, the two sides can discuss the accord,“ he said.
Al-Sheikh pointed out that the Iraqi administration is committed to dialogue and mutual understanding.
“Iraqi and Iranian political leaders are trying hard at the highest level to make relations between the two countries the most distinct in the region,“ he said. The 1975 Algiers Accord was signed on March 6, 1975, between the former Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and the then vice president of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, as a political contract for dividing Arvand Roud river.
Arvand Roud (Shatt-al-Arab), located 400 km to the south of Baghdad, is 190 km long. Its width at some points reaches 2 kilometers. The river is formed from the crossing of Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Al-Ghaznah City and pours into the Persian Gulf.

TEHRAN, Dec. 30--President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appointed head of Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei as head of the National Center for Globalization Studies.
Ahmadinejad said in his letter to Mashaei on Sunday that the center will work in tandem with the National Center for Dialogue Among Civilizations, which is affiliated to the Presidential Office, IRNA reported.
Former President Mohammad Khatami ran the Center for Dialogue Among Civilizations after he handed over the presidency to Ahmadinejad in 2005.
Khatami proposed the concept of Dialogue Among Civilizations in a UN General Assembly session and the United Nations designated the year 2001 as the Year of Dialogue Among Civilizations.

Newly-appointed chairperson of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Bilawal Bhutto Zardari (l), the son of Benazir Bhutto watches his father Asif Ali Zardari speak during a press conference at the Bhutto residence in Naudero, Dec. 30.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Dec. 30--Benazir Bhutto’s 19-year old son was chosen Sunday to succeed her as chairman of her opposition party, while her husband will serve as co-chairman, extending Pakistan’s most famous political dynasty to another generation.
The party also decided to contest upcoming elections, apparently ending the threat of a wholesale boycott by Pakistan’s political opposition as the key US-ally struggles to transition to full democracy after years of military rule, AP reported.
The decision was made at a closed meeting of the Pakistan People’s Party’s central executive committee, three days after the two-time prime minister was assassinated in a suicide attack.
It catapults Bilawal Zardari, an Oxford University student with no political experience, to the center of Pakistan’s tumultuous public life.
“The party’s long struggle for democracy will continue with renewed vigor,“ he said at a news conference. “My mother always said democracy is the best revenge.“
Supporters chanted “Benazir, princess of heaven“ and “Bilawal, move ahead. We are with you.“
Bhutto’s husband Asif Ali Zardari, 51, is a party powerbroker who served as environment minister in her second government.
As co-chairman, he is widely expected to have hands-on leadership of the party.
He immediately announced the group’s participation in the vote, and appealed to the party of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to drop his plans to boycott the polls--planned for Jan. 8 but anticipated by many to be delayed following the assassination.
The government has blamed an Al-Qaeda-linked militant for the murder, but the party disputes that and has suggested that elements in the ruling party
could have been behind the slaying.
Zardari appealed to the United Nations and British government to help investigate the assassination.

AMMAN, Jordan,
Dec. 30--Syrian Prime Minister Muhammad Naji Al-Otari warned that peace would not materialize in the Middle East unless Israel withdraws from the Golan Heights and other Arab territories it occupied in the six-day 1967 war.
“The region and its peoples will not enjoy peace unless it returns the entirety of Golan Heights up to the June 4, 1967, borders,’ Al-Otari said during the opening meeting of Joint Higher Jordanian-Syrian Commission on Saturday, DPA reported.
He added that any peace agreement between Israel and Arab countries should also provide for the liberation of the Lebanese territory still occupied by Israel as well as “restoration of the Palestinian people’s rights, including the setting up of their independent state with Beit-ul-Moqaddas as its capital“.
“For a long time, Syria has committed itself to the establishment of peace provided it is comprehensive and involves all tracks in accordance with the international legitimacy resolutions, the Madrid conference reference, the principle of land for peace and the Arab peace initiative,“ he said.
The Syrian prime minister reiterated his country’s support for national reconciliation among the Lebanese “as the only way for safeguarding Lebanon’s territorial integrity and its Arab role and affiliation“.
He alluded to the current stalemate between Lebanon’s majority and opposition over the election of a new president.
Otari said Damascus supported “dialogue and understanding“ among Palestinian factions, a reference to the present standoff between the Fatah and Hamas groups.

GAZA CITY, Occupied Palestine, Dec. 30--The armed wing of the Islamist Hamas movement claimed responsibility on Sunday for an attack in the occupied West Bank that left two Israeli militants dead.
In a statement, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades said it had carried out the attack jointly with the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad group in response to continuing Israeli operations in the West Bank and Gaza, AFP reported.
“This operation came in response to the assassinations and air strikes against the fighters and resisters in the Gaza Strip, and the assassinations and arrests in the West Bank,“ it said.
On Friday, Palestinian gunmen opened fire on three Israeli settlers hiking near the flashpoint West Bank city of Al-Khalil.
The two hikers killed--armed off-duty Israeli soldiers--fired back and killed one of the Palestinians.
It was the deadliest attack in the occupied West Bank since at least the start of the year.
Hamas seized control of Gaza in mid-June, routing forces loyal to Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party after a week of deadly street clashes.
West Bank security forces, still controlled by Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas, had arrested two men suspected of being involved in the attack.
Referring to the attack, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned on Sunday that Israel would not make any changes on the ground as part of revived peace talks until Palestinians cracked down on
security.