Mohammad-Ali Hosseini

TEHRAN , Feb. 17--Iran has presented information on its centrifuges demanded by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Foreign Ministry spokesman said Sunday.
“All nuclear activities of the Islamic Republic are in line with the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and under the surveillance of the IAEA,“ Mohammad-Ali Hosseini said at his weekly press conference in response to a question on Iran’s test of a new generation of centrifuges at the Natanz nuclear facility.

US Has Nothing
The spokesman noted that Iran is not concerned about a decision by the US to turn over classified data about Iran’s nuclear program to the UN nuclear watchdog.
“They should present whatever they have to the IAEA which in turn should decide what to do with it.“
The US alleges that its intelligence proves Iran was working on an atomic bomb before 2003.
“We are certain the Americans have nothing, otherwise they would have presented it (information) long ago and poisoned the atmosphere against Iran,“ he told the reporters.
“The Americans, more than others, are aware that Iran’s nuclear program is peaceful,“ he added.
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Technical Reasons
Hosseini blamed technical reasons for the delay in holding a new round of talks with US officials on security in Iraq. The third round of negotiations were expected to be held in Baghdad over the past week.
“The postponement was simply for technical reasons.“ He insisted that Tehran had never given “any specific date for the meeting.“
He also reflected on reports by Iraqi officials that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is due to visit the neighboring country on March 2, the first of its kind by an Iranian president.
However Hosseini refused to confirm the date of the historic tour, saying Tehran would announce the schedule in due course.
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Paris Meeting Ê
In another part of his press briefing Hosseini played down a are encounter with US officials at an anti-money laundering meeting in Paris.
He stressed that no direct talks were held between the two sides at the multilateral session organized by FATF.
The US announced last week that a senior official from its Treasury Department, Daniel Glaser, had attended talks alongside Iranian officials at the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in Paris last month.
“No direct talks were held. All that was said was within the framework of the meeting,“ Hosseini was quoted as saying.
“The meeting was aimed at looking into issues related to money laundering. This is an international forum and the United States is also a member.“ The meeting took place on January 29 and brought together representatives from 14 countries, including the US and Iran.
The spokesman also noted that UAE premier and ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, will arrive in Tehran on Monday.“ Talks will cover economic relations, investments, transfer of electricity, export of gas... Ways and means will be explored for boosting the volume of trade between the two countries.“

TEHRAN, Feb. 17--Iran’s recently launched research rocket has successfully transmitted scientific data back to the country.
The rocket transmitted the information after reaching an orbit of 200-250 kilometers (125-155 miles) above the earth, IRIB quoted Mehran Mirshams, a space official, as saying Sunday.
Tehran unveiled the first Iranian-made satellite, called Omid, or Hope, and inaugurated its first space center earlier this month when it launched the research rocket (Explorer 1).
After launching the rocket Iran reiterated that its space program is peaceful and said it is working toward the launch of the country’s first domestically built satellite this summer.
“Iran will launch its first satellite into a 650-kilometer (400-mile) orbit in June,’’ Mirshams said. The satellite would pass over the country five to six times in 24 hours.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a rally in Tehran last week to mark the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution that “God willing, next summer we will launch the first fully Iran-made satellite into sapce.“
Experts will conduct two more rocket tests before the launch.
“Two other explorers will be sent into space so that the satellite would be ready for launch,“ the president said referring to the February 4 test of a rocket designed to carry Iran ’s first indigenous satellite.
Iran wants to put its own satellites into orbit to monitor natural disasters in the earthquake-prone nation and improve telecommunications.
In 2005, the government said it had allocated $500 million for space projects in the next five years. Also in 2005, Iran launched its first commercial satellite, Sina-1, from a Russian rocket in a joint project with Moscow, which appears to be the main partner in transferring space technology to Iran.
Iran hopes to launch four more satellites by 2010, the government has said, to increase the number of land and mobile telephone lines to 80 million from 22 million. It also hopes to expand its satellite capabilities to increase Internet users to 35 million from 5.5 million.

TEHRAN, Feb. 17--Unauthorized websites indifferent to rules and accepted norms in the upcoming parliamentary elections will be shut down.
Mohammad Hossein Saffar-Harandi, the minister of culture and Islamic guidance, said the unregistered websites will be filtered soon after they are found to have breached election regulations.
He was speaking to reporters on Sunday at the sidelines of a conference on setting an “ethical charter“ for the elections.
The minister added that managers of all Iranian websites have been urged to register their sites with the Ministry of Culture.
Cases of unauthorized websites will be referred to the judiciary for possible prosecution, he warned.
“Web managers must be accountable for what they publish,“ IRNA quoted him as saying.
Commenting on the registered websites, Harandi said their managers will be given a written notification should they violate rules during the March 14 vote.
He said a special committee has been formed at his ministry to handle website affairs.