Nominees register for Iran's March 14 parliamentary elections, Jan. 5.

TEHRAN, Jan. 5--Enrollment of candidates for the next Majlis elections, slated for March 14, has started Saturday morning across the country.
The candidates will have one week to register for the parliamentary elections, IRNA reported.
The Majlis election and the Experts Assembly by-elections in the constituencies of Tehran, Qazvin, Ilam and East Azarbaijan provinces will be held concurrently.
All those having completed 18 years of age and above can vote for 290 parliamentary seats.
Various groups and parties, together with independent candidates, should end their weeklong electoral campaign 24 hours prior to the elections.
Registration of hopefuls for the Experts Assembly by-election started in those constituencies on January 3.
The Elections Headquarters announced that 609 candidates have enrolled for the Majlis elections so far.
Guardians Council spokesman, Abbasali Kadkhodaei, declared that the number of eligible voters in the parliamentary election does not exceed 43 million.
In his weekly press conference, Kadkhodaei said, “Although the number of eligible voters is below 43 million, we’re waiting for the Interior Ministry to declare the exact number. Otherwise, we’ll announce the statistics after expert examinations.“
Asked whether any changes have been made to the vetting procedure for candidates, the spokesman responded that nothing has been changed and the council abides by the law.

YAZD, Jan. 5--Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said resistance against enemies over the nuclear issue is a national necessity.
Addressing a public gathering in Abarkouh, the leader said government officials should be accountable to the nation and believe in national self-confidence, Mehr News Agency reported.
Ayatollah Khamenei stressed that being accountable and having confidence are major factors behind the nation’s remarkable breakthroughs, particularly in the nuclear energy sector.
“Government officials bear the responsibility of addressing the problems of people living in remote areas,“ he said.
Referring to conspiracies for undermining national confidence among Iranians, he urged people to continue on the peaceful track of development and progress.
The leader said public participation in social activities will prevent enemies from making conspiracies against the nation.
Ayatollah Khamenei called on the nation to participate extensively in nationwide elections scheduled for March 14.
“The nation’s mass participation in elections is a manifestation of the strong determination to withstand enemies,“ he said.
He stressed that candidates should avoid tarnishing the image of rivals during their campaigns for the March 14 parliamentary elections.
“The next parliamentary election would be held in a lively manner, thanks to the presence of the young nation in the polling stations,“ he said.
Ayatollah Khamenei noted that Iranian officials observe justice in advancing the goals of the Islamic Revolution and are equally concerned about the welfare of people living in different parts of the country.
The leader pointed out that the world powers have waged propaganda campaigns against Iran, but none of their measures can weaken the national resolve and force people to backtrack from their legitimate right.
Ayatollah Khamenei appreciated people’s resistance to western pressure on the national nuclear program and said no attention should be paid to such illegitimate pressures, because any retreat will embolden the enemy.

NEW YORK, Jan. 5--Tehran has urged the UN Security Council to end the dispute over its nuclear issue and send it to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran’s permanent envoy to the UN said on Saturday.
“The time has come to end the illegal consideration of Iran’s nuclear issue at the Security Council, and send the case back to a relevant technical forum, specifically the International Atomic Energy Agency,“ Mohammad Khazaei was quoted as saying by Ria Novosti.
He warned that the Security Council’s further involvement would only complicate the situation and undermine the IAEA’s credibility.
The envoy said previously that Iran neither sought nuclear weapons before 2003 nor will it seek them in the future.
Referring to the recent US National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) report on Iran, Khazaei said, “It had two aspects: a positive aspect and a negative one. Negative in the sense that it claimed Iran had been developing nuclear weapons before 2003, something we categorically reject. Positive because it was in line with the IAEA report that says Iran’s nuclear program is peaceful.“
He dismissed US President George W. Bush’s remarks that Iran had been seeking technology for making nuclear weapons and had stopped its program under international pressure.
“Theorizing on this issue is of no use and the claim that Iran has stopped its program in 2003 is not true because there was no pressure on Iran at that time,“ he said.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said in late December that “since there is no evidence that Iran has deviated from [the peaceful nature of] its nuclear program...the time has come for the parties dealing with the [Iranian] nuclear issue to make a bold and logical decision and return the matter to the IAEA“.
Mottaki also said Iran had turned down demands by the United States to halt its uranium enrichment program as a precondition for direct negotiations with Washington.
“Following the publication of the US intelligence report on Iran, US politicians have begun talking about preconditions for negotiations. But we do not accept any conditions,“ he said.
Mottaki also said US sanctions against Iran, ongoing international pressure and the double standards practiced by the US administration in the fight against terrorism contradicted the White House’s statements regarding its readiness to begin a dialogue with the Islamic Republic.
The NIE, published on December 3, stated that Tehran stopped its nuclear weapons program in 2003, although it was continuing to enrich uranium.
The report contradicted a previous US intelligence assessment in 2005 which said that the Islamic Republic was actively pursuing a nuclear bomb.

TEHRAN, Jan. 5--Many OPEC states are now producing as much oil as they can, limiting the group’s ability to raise output, an Iranian oil official said on Saturday.
Mohammad Ali Khatibi, deputy director of international affairs at the National Iranian Oil Company, also said any decision to hike OPEC output would only help if the market faced a crude shortage, Alalam.ir reported.
Iran has previously said there was no crude supply shortage and blames other factors for the surging oil prices, which hit a lifetime high of $100 a barrel this week.
“Because most members are currently producing at full capacity, it seems that even if there is a decision to increase the output ceiling, not all members would be able to increase their production capacity,“ he said.
Khatibi noted that even if it was possible, higher crude production will not help balance the market because it is not possible to increase the capacities of refineries.

Nuri Al-Maliki

BAGHDAD, Iraq,
Jan. 5--Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki arrived home on Saturday a week after flying to Britain for medical tests, saying in a newspaper interview he is determined to bring about reconciliation in his country.
Maliki underwent two days of checkups in a London hospital after suffering exhaustion caused by his heavy workload, a spokesman said earlier, AFP reported.
A small but vocal number of supporters welcomed Maliki, waving Iraqi flags and displaying posters of him as the premier’s convoy left the airport, AFP reported.
“I have returned to our homeland to continue construction at this hard stage in the history of Iraq,“ he told reporters on his arrival. “My health is good and we have big goals this year.“
In the interview, given before he returned to Baghdad but published on Saturday, Maliki dismissed accusations that his government did not want to end divisions that have practically paralyzed parliament.
“The reality shows that this is lying propaganda. I am the first who launched this initiative but unfortunately some politicians do not want reconciliation,“ he told the Al-Sharq Al-Awsat Arabic daily.
Maliki attacked Iraq’s Sunni Vice President Tariq Al-Hashimi, with whom he has repeatedly clashed over how to restore stability.
“The disagreement (with Hashimi) is substantial,“ he said. “I disagree with those who say that the political process must return to square one. I disagree with the call for freezing the constitution.“
Maliki added in the interview that the security forces alone could not impose peace, and gave credit to the US-backed Sunni “Awakening“ groups fighting Al-Qaeda in Iraq.
“Al-Qaeda and their leader Osama bin Laden have clearly targeted the Awakening because Awakening members have participated seriously in spreading security,“ he said. “This is a testimony to them.“
He also vowed that Iraq would not be used as a springboard for attacks on its neighbors.
“Iraq will not be a base to harm them, and will not be a headquarters or passage for any force which wants to damage the interests of Arab countries or our neighbors such as Turkey or Iran.“
Turkey, with the sanction of Baghdad, has staged a series of recent military operations against Kurdish rebels of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party in northern Iraq.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Jan. 5--The husband of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto on Saturday accused elements within Pakistan’s government of responsibility for her murder and urged Britain and the United States to support a UN investigation into the killing.
“An investigation conducted by the government of Pakistan will have no credibility, in my country or anywhere else,“ Asif Ali Zardari said in a commentary published in The Washington Post, AP reported.
“One does not put the fox in charge of the hen house,“ he said.
Zardari now heads Bhutto’s political party, which intends to contest elections next month.
Bhutto’s killing in a gun and suicide bomb attack on Dec. 27 thrust the already volatile Pakistan into deep political crisis at a time of rising attacks by Al-Qaeda and Taliban extremists. It also added to political pressures on President Pervez Musharraf, a key US ally in the war against terrorism.