Gholamreza Aqazadeh

TEHRAN, Jan. 13--Iran’s nuclear issue is in its final stage of settlement in the face of the transparent activities of Tehran, a senior nuclear official said on Sunday.
Gholamreza Aqazadeh, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, said negotiations are underway at the highest level, Fars News Agency reported.
Referring to the recent visit by Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Aqazadeh said mutual confidence has increased between Iran and the IAEA.
“In talks with ElBaradei, we stressed that he should give us guarantees that the IAEA is Iran’s party in the nuclear issue,“ he said, adding that ElBaradei will present his final report on Iran’s nuclear activities in March.
“We will try to solve all the outstanding questions by mid-February before Mohamed ElBaradei presents his report in March to the (IAEA’s) Board of Governors.“
Aqazadeh noted that if Iran’s case is finalized in March, the nuclear issue will become a normal issue in the agency, just like those of other member-states, stressing that Iran’s nuclear case should return to the agency from the United Nations Security Council.
“We are hoping that all the past and present questions about our case will be solved and we will see a return to normalcy,“ he said.
The IAEA is hoping that Iran’s answering of outstanding questions will draw the investigation to a conclusion.
As part of a cooperation deal agreed in August, Iran and the IAEA have already held talks over three areas of ambiguity--uranium particle contamination, Iran’s past experiments with plutonium, and its use of uranium-enriching P1 and P2 centrifuges.
Aqazadeh said ElBaradei has been satisfied with negotiations and cooperation with Tehran.
In related news, Ali Asghar Soltaniyeh, who represents Iran in the IAEA, told IRNA on Sunday that a new chapter has opened in cooperation between Iran and the IAEA in the face of the visit by ElBaradei.
Soltaniyeh, who accompanied ElBaradei in the recent visit to Tehran, said the IAEA is the only qualified source to deal with Iran’s nuclear case.
“We hope remaining issues on the nuclear case would be resolved before the Board of Governors’ meeting in March,“ he said, adding that talks with the IAEA’s technical team are moving on the normal track.

Leader:
IAEA Facing Important Test

TEHRAN, Jan. 13--Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei urged that Iran’s nuclear case be returned from the UN Security Council to the International Atomic Energy Agency, pledging not to give in to the US pressure.
In a meeting with the UN nuclear watchdog’s chief Mohamed ElBaradei on Saturday, Ayatollah Khamenei called on the IAEA to fulfill its duties as an independent international organization, IRNA reported.
The leader said that settling Iran’s nuclear issue through appropriate means would be a great success for the IAEA.
Ayatollah Khamenei termed the handling of Iran’s nuclear case an important test for the agency.
The leader also pointed to the issue of nuclear weapons--the oft-cited pretext for western opposition to Iran’s nuclear program--and said Iran is fundamentally opposed to their development on religious grounds.
“Hegemonic powers are outraged at the results of the IAEA’s investigation into Iran’s nuclear activities, which have confirmed its peaceful nature, indicating that they are against the world body’s independence,“ he said.
Ayatollah Khamenei said “America’s problem with Iran goes beyond the nuclear issue“ and that Washington believes it could bring the Iranian nation to its knees by exerting pressure on the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program.
ElBaradei, for his part, supported Iran’s right to peaceful nuclear technology and called for a diplomatic solution to the dispute.

TEHRAN, Jan. 13--Thirty-two Majlis deputies, in a written motion on Sunday, underscored the need for defending the 1975 Algiers Accord in line with Iran’s national interests.
The Algiers Accord was signed by Iran and Iraq in 1975 in the Algerian capital to settle territorial disputes between the two neighboring states, IRNA reported.
By proposing another motion, the deputies urged Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki “to seriously refrain from making remarks that are contrary to the country’s national interests with regard to its share of the Caspian Sea resources and following up issues to restore the historical rights of the Iranian nation“.
The motions were read by Majlis Speaker Gholamali Haddad Adel during Sunday’s open session of the parliament.

A picture released by the US Navy shows the Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman and the Military Sealift Command fast combat support ship USNS Arctic sailing side-by-side somewhere in the Persian Gulf waters, January 6.

WASHINGTON,
Jan. 13--Threatening comments heard at the end of a Pentagon-released audio recording designed to prove harassing maneuvers by Iranian patrol boats in the Strait of Hormuz may have come from a local heckler known as the “Filipino Monkey“, The Navy Times reported.
The 36-minute video aired on Friday included footage of Iranian boats following the US ships at some distance, AFP quoted.
It includes a shot of a dark object floating in the water, but it could not be determined whether this was one of the box-like objects that the Pentagon claims were dumped in the path of a US warship by two speedboats.
The videotape did not include a previously released audiotape of a threat to blow up the ships made in a radio transmission that the Pentagon says was received during the incident.
A voice on the audiotape is heard to say in accented English: “I am coming to you ... You will explode in a few minutes.“
Pentagon officials now say they do not know the source of the radio transmission, backing off a previous claim that it came from one of the boats.
The Times said Friday the voice in the audio sounded different from the one belonging to an Iranian officer shown speaking to the cruiser Port Royal over a radio from a small boat in the video released by Iranian authorities.
That is why several Navy experts interviewed by The Times are raising the possibility that a heckler known in the region as the “Filipino Monkey“, or an imitator, could be behind the threats.
“Filipino Monkey“, who is likely more than one person, listens in on ship-to-ship radio traffic and then jumps on the net shouting insults and vile epithets, the report said.
US Navy women who are overheard on the radio are said to suffer particularly degrading treatment, the paper said.
A civilian mariner with experience in that region said the “Filipino Monkey“ phenomenon is worldwide, but it is more likely to occur around the Strait of Hormuz because there is a lot of shipping traffic there, The Times said.

TEHRAN, Jan. 13--A Kuwaiti delegation is to travel to Iran to do the groundwork for the official visit of the country’s foreign minister to Tehran.
A delegation of experts headed by Kuwait’s Foreign Ministry representative for regional affairs will arrive in Tehran on Sunday, IRNA quoted a Kuwaiti source as saying.
The delegation will attend a meeting with the members of Iran-Kuwait committee to finalize the agenda of discussions during the foreign minister’s trip to Tehran.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammad Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah, who is also Kuwait’s deputy prime minister, will lead a high-level delegation to Tehran on Tuesday to discuss regional developments and ways to boost bilateral ties.
The issue of exporting Iran’s gas and water to Kuwait is expected to be tabled during the talks.
Currently, the two countries’ trade ties are estimated to be over $750 million, of which is Iran’s export share is $500 million.

RIYADH,
Saudi Arabia,
Jan. 13--Cooperation between Iran and Saudi Arabia has entered a new chapter, said Saudi Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi in a meeting with Iran’s Ambassador to the kingdom, Mohammad Hosseini, on Sunday.
The minister stressed that consistent contacts between Iranian and Saudi officials, and the invitation by King Abdullah bin Abdelaziz to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to perform the annual Haj rituals were clear indications of the deepening of Tehran-Riyadh relations, IRNA reported.
“Iran and Saudi Arabia can become a proper model for the rest of the Islamic world by cooperating with each other and with the help of other regional states,“ Naimi said.
He urged the Muslim nations to pursue scientific and technological progress.
Meanwhile, the Iranian ambassador said Tehran and Riyadh “have many motives to promote all-out bilateral ties, particularly in the fields of oil, energy and mining“.
Hosseini stressed that Tehran and Riyadh could help solve the problems facing the Muslim
world by establishing strategic ties.

TEHRAN, Jan. 13--Deputy Foreign Minister for Europe Ali Baqeri will hold high-level talks with Greek officials in Athens.
According to a Foreign Ministry statement, Baqeri will arrive in Athens on Sunday, IRNA reported.
During the two-day visit, the deputy minister is slated to meet Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis and other officials, including the parliament’s deputy speaker.
In addition to strategies to boost bilateral ties, their talks will focus on Middle East developments, Iraq and Iran’s nuclear issue, the statement said.