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Prayer Time (Tehran)
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Dawn: 5:45
Sunrise: 7:14
Noon: 12:13
Evening: 17:32
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Weather Guide
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SUN |
MON |
Tehran: |
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High: |
-8 oC |
-8 oC |
Low: |
-11oC |
-14oC |
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Athens |
13 |
14 |
Ankara |
-10 |
-11 |
Cairo |
16 |
16 |
Copenhagen |
4 |
3 |
Frankfurt |
4 |
6 |
Karachi |
22 |
22 |
Kuwait City |
5 |
8 |
London |
11 |
9 |
Madrid |
8 |
13 |
Moscow |
0 |
0 |
New Delhi |
23 |
23 |
Paris |
8 |
10 |
Riyadh |
7 |
6 |
Rome |
10 |
11 |
Vienna |
4 |
2 |
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Identification
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Published by the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA)
Address:
Iran Cultural & Press Institute, #212 Khorramshahr Avenue Tehran/Iran
Executive Editor:
Editorial Dept. Tel: 88755761-2
Editorial Dept. Fax: 88761869
Advertising Dept. Tel: 88500616,88500617
Internet Address:
www.iran-daily.com
E-mail Address:
iran-daily@iran-daily.com
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US Must Apologize
TEHRAN, Jan. 13--Foreign Ministry Spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini urged Washington to apologize to Iran for efforts to mislead public opinion about Iranian speedboats patrolling the Persian Gulf.
Making the remarks during his weekly press conference on Sunday, Hosseini said, “The attempts of Americans to distort realities through a media campaign are obvious,“ he said.
Referring to Iranian speedboats patrolling the Persian Gulf as routine work, he said the Americans by making a hue and cry tried to create Iranophobia in line with the objectives of US President George W. Bush’s tour to the region.
However, they faced the indifferent attitude of regional states, he added.
“For their attempts to mislead the public opinion, the US officials should apologize to Iran, regional states and the American people,“ he said.
He added that the encounter was merely a routine procedure of identifying warships passing through the territorial waters and carried out within the framework of international regulations.
The spokesman advised US President George W. Bush to reconsider his previous wrong policies regarding Iran before the end of his tenure.
“During the past seven years, the Bush administration has followed a policy to isolate Iran and promote Iranophobia in the region,“ he said.
“However, all the regional states adopted a vigilant approach regarding that policy and opposed it.“
Hosseini noted that the regional states “attach no importance to US policies vis-a-vis Iran“.
He pointed out that President Bush’s visit to the region was aimed at “fanning the fuel of Iranophobia among regional states and winning more support for the Zionist regime“.
The spokesman also said regional nations, including Palestinians, would not accept the US as peacemaker between Palestine and Israel.
Commenting on nuclear issues, the spokesman said Iran’s cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has had a proper pace.
“Iran-IAEA cooperation aims to remove outstanding ambiguities and is taking place within the framework of their action plan,“ he said.
He added that Iran is critical of the nuclear case remaining in the UN Security Council and regards it as ’unreasonable’.
Hosseini said Iran’s messages and considerations on Iran-US talks on Iraq have been sent to Washington through the Iraqi authorities.
“As soon as the Americans respond to these messages and considerations, decisions will be made on the date and level of future talks on Iraq. Serious confrontation with terrorist groups in Iraq and handing over the security affairs to Iraqi officials are among Iran’s considerations,“ he said.
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Turkmenistan Blamed for
Northern Gas Disruption
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Gholamhossein Nozari
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TEHRAN, Jan. 13--Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari apologized to the residents of provinces who faced shortage of gas in the past few days.
Speaking in an open Majlis session, Nozari expressed hope that because of the government’s new agenda similar incidents will not be repeated in future, ISNA reported.
“The move by neighboring Turkmenistan in cutting gas supplies to Golestan, Gilan and Mazandaran provinces was at the worst point in time,“ he added.
He pointed out that a headquarters was formed in the National Iranian Gas Company to resolve the problem of northern and northwestern provinces.
“We immediately ordered the managing directors of related companies to form a headquarters and resolve the problem of gas shortage shortly,“ he said.
The oil minister pointed out that the ministry’s technical team managed to secure the gas supply of Semnan province by feeding gas into the 200-km pipeline from Qom city to Tehran.
“We have provided power stations with oil, gas and furnace oil in order to prevent electricity shortage,“ he said.
“A total of 4.6 million barrels of oil is distributed everyday in the country, which is worth nearly $120 billion.“
Unprecedented cold weather hit Iran since last week, taking the temperature in some western and northwestern cities to below 30 Celsius.
All schools and some universities were shut down in the past few days as a result of the worsening cold weather and fuel shortage.
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Call for Releasing Diplomats Jailed in Iraq
American Troops
Use Torture
TEHRAN, Jan. 13--Two Iranian diplomats kidnapped by the US troops in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil in January 2007 and released in Nov. 9 are calling for the release of their three colleagues still detained in the US prison in Iraq.
Another group of Iranians, including three diplomats, three government employees and 20 to 25 Iranian citizens are still in the US custody in Iraq.
One of the released diplomats, Mousa Chegini, told Alalam that his job at the Iranian Consulate in Irbil was to issue visas for Iraqi businessmen and patients keen on visiting Iran and “nothing beyond that“.
“I was astonished when US troops broke into the Iranian Consulate at midnight and started shooting,“ Chegini said.
“The US troops handcuffed and took us to a chopper in a disgraceful manner.
They left us in dark rooms in solitary confinement without a blanket in the winter.“
Chegini added that the US troops were lying to Iraqi Kurdistan officials about “the way they treated us“.
“They treated us contrary to what they were claiming in their reports to the Iraqi officials in the province,“ he said.
He noted that the first reversal of fortune came three months after their kidnap when representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) visited them in prison.
His colleague Hamid Reza Asgari said US troops exposed the five diplomats to torture in order to extract confession for their baseless charges, but to no avail.
“We had done nothing beyond our diplomatic mission in Irbil.
Our mission in the province was lawful and there was nothing to confess,“ he said in reference to the psychological pressure exerted by the Americans.
Asgari also said Iraqi officials in the province had authorized the consulate’s operation and were aware of the services rendered there.
He said that by taking Iranian diplomats captive, the US officials in Iraq aimed to sabotage Iran’s relations with Iraq and make Iran a scapegoat for their failures in Iraq.
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Iraqi Shiite, Sunni MPs
Sign Unity Pact
BAGHDAD, Iraq,
Jan. 13--Parliamentary blocs representing Sunnis, Shiites and independents on Sunday signed on to a common platform, stressing the need for national unity and central control over oil reserves.
The blocs, should they come together as is expected as a new political alliance, would be a dominant force in the 275-member parliament, with a total of more than 100 seats, AFP reported.
Among those who signed the statement of common understanding are the political wing of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr, the secular Iraqi National List of former Premier Iyad Allawi and the Sunni leader Salah Al-Mutlak’s National Dialogue Front, a joint statement said.
The statement said the pact was signed “for the sake of the higher national interest, to maintain a united Iraq free of sectarian divisions...and to support national reconciliation.“
The parties demanded that oil and gas “and other natural resources should remain Iraqi treasures“ and not be allowed to be signed away by regional powers.
The statement expressed “deep concern at individual acts without reference to central government, such as the signing of contracts with foreign companies“--a reference to Iraq’s oil-rich autonomous Kurdish region, which has signed 15 crude oil contracts with 20 foreign concerns since August.
The parties also came out in support of a political agreement over the future of oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk, rather than a now-delayed referendum.
According to Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution, a referendum was supposed to have been held by the end of 2007 to decide whether Kirkuk with its oil wealth should go under the control of the Kurdish regional government.
However, the poll was not held on time and has been delayed for six months, amid calls that it be scrapped altogether.
The statement also called for the “mobilization of resources to complete building the Iraqi security forces by training them to enforce law and protect the country and so end all justification for the presence of occupying forces on Iraqi soil“.
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Renowned Researcher Passes Away
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Seyyed Jafar Shahidi
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TEHRAN, Jan. 13--Seyyed Jafar Shahidi, the noted researcher of Islamic history and biographer of the infallible household of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), passed away in the holy month of Muharram.
The 89-year researcher had also taught university students, worked in Allameh Dehkhoda Lexicography Foundation and wrote many research papers on Iranian culture.
Translation of Nahj-ul-Balagheh (Peak of Eloquence) by first Shiite Imam Ali (AS), annotations of Jalaleddin Rumi, Uprising of Third Shiite Imam Hussein (AS), Life of Hazrat-e Fatemeh (AS), biography of Ali ibn Al-Hussein (AS), the Lion-Hearted Woman of Karbala, Abouzar Ghaffari, selected statements of first Shiite Imam Ali (AS) are among his works.
Shahidi traveled to Najaf in Iraq in 1941 to study religious sciences, jurisprudence and basics, returning to Iran after eight years.
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Labour Party Lagging
LONDON, Jan 13--British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Labour party lagged well behind the main opposition Conservatives in two opinion polls published on Sunday.
David Cameron’s Conservatives were on 43 percent and Labor on 33 percent in a YouGov/Sunday Times poll, which put the opposition’s lead back to previous highs after a lull when it fell to 5 percent at the end of last year.
Labour were also behind in an ICM/Sunday Telegraph study which put the Conservatives on 40 percent and Labour on 33 percent.
The Sunday Times reported that many voters cited pessimism over the state of the economy in explaining their position, adding that 22 percent believe there will be a recession in Britain this year.
As former finance minister, Brown has faced rising political heat over fears about the state of the economy and particularly over the plight of troubled bank Northern Rock.
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New Ploy
By Tahmineh Bakhtiari
The Palestinian people are now facing a new US-Israeli conspiracy. It is reported that during his ongoing tour of the Middle East George Bush despite his obvious irrelevance even in the staunchly pro-western capitals, sought to back some Israeli ploy to pay “reparations“ to Palestinian refugees if they agree not to return to their homeland.
Bush’s support for such odious Israeli business plan is understandably seen as a green signal to the usurper state to expedite its policy of permanently displacing the millions of oppressed Palestinians.
Since the illegitimate birth of Israel in 1947, thanks to British colonialism and divide and rule tactics, Tel Aviv has done all within its reach to prevent Palestinian refugees from returning to their homes.
Due to the open lawlessness and deafening silence of the so-called international (read western) public opinion for almost six decades, the number of Palestinian displaced from their homes now exceeds 4.5 million. Most if not all of their lands and houses have been taken over by the Jewish settler and/or their colonies spreading like wild mushrooms over Occupied Palestine.
Large numbers of Palestinian refugees are living in abject poverty and misery in the overcrowded camps either in the occupied territories or in the Arab countries.
Measures, though simply not effective, have been taken in recent years to help the refugees return home and start a new and decent life on their own land. One such move was the ratification of United Nations Security Council Resolution 194. According to Article 11 of this resolution Palestinian refugees wishing to return to their homes and live in peace with their neighbors should be allowed to do so at the earliest possible date, and compensation should be paid for the property of those deciding not to return and loss/damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the responsible governments or authorities.
The UN Conciliation Commission was appointed in 1948 to facilitate the repatriation, resettlement and economic and social rehabilitation of the refugees and the payment of compensation.
Israel, however, has refused to abide by this resolution and as a matter of policy has prevented (often times through force) the refugees from returning as mandated by the international community.
Since 1948, displacement has turned into a permanent situation for the defenseless Palestinians. In recent years and under pressure from public opinion, Israel has presented proposals to resolve the refugee problem seen by many observers as the major sticking point in any future resolution of the Middle East conflict.
However, the Israeli proposals are all in line with its own interests. One such offer pertained to the “limited return“ of the refugees in lieu of the occupation of the West Bank by the formidable Israeli army. The offer talks about the occupying power agreeing with the repatriation of only 50,000 Palestinians to the pre-1948 borders over 10 years provided it is allowed to annex more West Bank territory.
This is while the UNSC has long ago demanded the return of all occupied land including the West Bank to its lawful Arab owners. If Israel wants to grab more parts of the West Bank in exchange for the limited return of the refugees, it will be against the UN demand in letter and spirit.
Although Bush’s support for the new Israeli arrogance is not in stark contrast with the will of the international community, it will deprive the Palestinians of their birthright to a homeland in exchange for a few thousands dollars. If implemented, the new plan will transform millions of Palestinians into permanent refugees.
If lasting peace and sustainable security in the Middle East really means anything to today’s confused world, its leaders will do a great service to that cause by trying to chart effective ways to end the half-century plight of the Palestinian refugees.
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