President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (r) walks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin past IranÕs Foreign Ministry building decorated with sculptures of Iranian soldiers of the ancient imperial PersiaÕs Archaemenid dynasty, during PutinÕs farewell ceremony in Tehran, October 17.

President Vladimir Putin has told Iran’s president that there will be continuity in Russia’s relations with Tehran, a senior Russian official said on Wednesday.
“An oral message from Russian President Vladimir Putin was conveyed to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at a meeting,“ RIA Novosti news agency quoted Valentin Sobolev, acting secretary of Russia’s National Security Council, as saying in Tehran.
“The substance of it is that Russia confirms the principles of mutual relations (with Iran) and her policy will not depend on who is in power,“ he said.
Putin’s successor Dmitry Medvedev will be sworn in as president next month.
Sobolev, who heads a high-level Russian delegation visiting Tehran for discussions on Iran’s nuclear program, had talks with Ahmadinejad on Wednesday and said the Iranian president has sent his greetings to both Putin and Medvedev.
Iran has set out a series of proposals to Sobolev, which are aimed at ending the deadlock over Tehran’s disputed nuclear program, the news agency said, without giving any details about the proposals.

Decisive Role
Ahmadinejad also said that the US and the bullying powers which emerged after the World War II are on decline, requiring Iran and Russia to play an active role by expanding cooperation.
Iran and Russia are two natural and historical allies, said the president, adding that expansion of ties between the two countries would leave positive impacts on mutual relations as well as the security of the region and the world, IRNA reported.
On Iran’s peaceful nuclear activities, he said, “The prospects are brilliant.“
The Russian envoy, for his part, underlined that Russia does not recognize the unipolar world order, adding that there are various new powers in the world which should be taken into account.
“Iran and Russia have close stand in dealing with regional and international developments,“ he said, adding that Tehran and Moscow could broaden mutual cooperation and hamper the efforts of those who try to tarnish such ties.
“Russia never withdraws from its position on backing Iran’s legitimate rights to use nuclear energy,“ he said.
“Russia welcomes Iran’s initiatives on drafting a package on the most significant global issues.“
Russia says there is no evidence that Iran is trying to make atomic weapons, but has pushed Tehran to be more open about its nuclear program.

Azerbaijan will soon release a shipment of Russian equipment for Iran’s first nuclear power plant that it halted at its border in late March, a senior government official said on Wednesday.
Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov also told reporters that the matter will be solved in the near future, AP reported.
He said the Russian state company building the plant in the Iranian port city of Bushehr has presented all necessary paperwork for the heat-insulating equipment.
Trucks carrying the equipment were detained at the Azeri-Iranian border on March 29.
Russia’s OAO Atomstroiexport has accused Azerbaijan of deliberately obstructing the cargo.
Iran is paying Russia more than $1 billion to build the light-water reactor. Construction was delayed earlier by disputes between Tehran and Moscow over payments and a schedule for shipping nuclear fuel.
The United States softened its position on the Bushehr plant after Iran agreed to return spent nuclear fuel to Russia.
The United States and its western allies agreed to drop any reference to Bushehr in the sanctions resolutions passed by the UN Security Council as a result of Russian pressure. Russia says the plant’s contract is in line with all international agreements aimed at preventing nuclear weapons proliferation.

Pope Benedict XVI was scheduled later Wednesday to meet a delegation representing Iran’s Shiite Muslim religious majority.
“Both Iran and the Vatican have religious governments, so there are many issues the two states have in common, such as morality,“ Anvarian, spokesman of Iran’s Embassy to the Vatican, told Deutsch Presse-Agentur DPA.
The eight members of the delegation from Iran’s Islamic Culture and Relations Organization arrived in Rome on Monday for bilateral talks.
The visit marks the sixth round of such talks between the Islamic Republic and the Holy See on religious issues since 1996, the embassy spokesman said.
The delegation headed by Iranian cleric Mehdi Mostafavi was scheduled to meet the pontiff, following the pope’s traditional general audience on Wednesday.
A joint statement following the meeting was ’likely’, Anvarian said, adding he could not comment on whether the talks would deal with problems affecting the Vatican’s dialogue with Islam.
Iranian authorities joined many Muslims around the world in criticizing remarks made by the pope during a 2006 visit to Regensburg, Germany, in which he appeared to link Islam to violence.
Relations between Tehran and the Vatican have improved since and in February Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki suggested the motion of a “permanent committee for dialogue between the Vatican and Iran“.

Alireza Moayyeri

Iran is critical of the Non- Proliferation Treaty’s violations by certain western countries, calling them a real threat to international stability and security. Iran’s Ambassador to the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, Alireza Moayyeri, on Wednesday echoed Iranian concern over the negligence of disarmament by nuclear states during an address to a two-week gathering on Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Treaty, IRNA reported.
The conference opened on Tuesday in Geneva. Criticizing the repeated violations of NPT regulations by certain western powers, the ambassador said, according to Article six of the treaty, western countries were committed to uphold disarmament.
“They have not only failed to fulfill their commitments, but they are also involved in stockpiling arsenals more than before,“ he said.
He stressed that there was no logical or legal justification for nuclear weapons while the US, Britain and France have based their military doctrines on nuclear weapons.
The Iranian envoy said Washington is the leading violator of NPT regulations by developing its own nuclear arsenal and providing Israel with technical and engineering expertise to go ahead with its weapons program.
Moayyeri called on the Geneva meeting to follow up the cases of NPT violations by the nuclear states as its main agenda.

Iran’s Air Force is fully prepared and strong enough to pull down enemies from the country’s skies, a senior Air Force official said on Wednesday.
Addressing the IRGC’s air force unit, Brigadier General Hossein Salami also said, “The Islamic Revolution’s Guards Corps has become a reliable, invincible and impenetrable body to defend the country against any threats,“ IRNA reported.
The US officials may believe that they possess the “military empire“ with more than half of the world’s military power, “but they have failed to fulfill their goals anywhere“, he said.
However, Brigadier General Salami stressed that Iranians should not forget that “the enemy is too close to us“.

When Iran announced that it has prepared a proposal to help resolve the regional and international problems, there were no immediate reactions from European and regional leaders as well as the media.
But after receiving positive signals from some corners, Iran’s foreign policy apparatus initiated negotiations with some countries to explain the package and seek their response.
In fact, the proposal will once again reveal whether the West has good intentions about settling all issues of conflict with Iran.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran is trying to come up with a proposal package to resolve regional and international problems through dialogue with opposing parties,“ Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on April 13.
After Mottaki’s announcement, the package was examined in meetings between Iranian and Russian officials as well as a phone conversation between Saeed Jalili, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, and Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey.
Calmy-Rey praised the Islamic Republic’s initiative and said she was happy to discuss the package with Tehran.
Her comment came as the country in the past had made some initiatives to resolve Iran’s nuclear deadlock with the West and this European country is the Islamic Republic’s only official channel with its arch-foe--the United States of America.
Iran’s top national security official on Monday also held talks acting head of Russia’s security council about the package.
“The package is about the great questions of the world and the nuclear question could be the subject of discussion,“ Jalili said after talks with Russia’s Valentin Sobolev.
“Our approach could be a good basis for negotiations between the influential powers of the world,“ he said.
The package appears to emphasize what Iran sees as its growing influence in the region and can play as a mediator in global conflicts.
Gholamreza Aqazadeh, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, called the package “a comprehensive plan“ addressed to the Group 5+1.
“Iran’s package of proposals is not addressed to one specific country. It is a comprehensive plan with broad proposals.
The spirit of the plan is that Iran is prepared to cooperate with all its capacity to resolve the remaining issues,“ Aghazadeh told a joint news conference with Sobolev.
Sobolev also said Russia was ready to examine Iranian proposals to end a deadlock over Tehran’s nuclear program.
Head of Iranian Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Alaeddin Boroujerdi stressed that the package would maintain Iran’s enrichment right.
Some diplomats in Europe claimed that Iran had earlier proposed turning its Natanz enrichment complex into a multilateral operation to counter pressures imposed on the Islamic Republic over its nuclear drive and that this might be among Iran’s proposals.
It’s a fact that the Islamic Republic will not bow to pressure or step back from its rights. However, by presenting the package Iran is showing greater transparency and goodwill to end the nuclear issue in a diplomatic manner.

Gholamali Haddad Adel

Majlis Speaker Gholamali Haddad Adel on Wednesday urged regional Arab states to avoid distorting history by trying to forge another name for the Persian Gulf.
“History would not change by distorting the name of Persian Gulf,“ Haddad told reporters while commenting on a recent “illogical move“ by the United Arab Emirates to distort the name of this strategic waterway, IRNA reported.
The Persian Gulf is the world’s third biggest gulf, after Mexican and Hudson gulfs.
Iran’s High Council of Cultural Revolution has designated April 30 as the National Persian Gulf Day, to safeguard the cultural and historical identity of the Iranian nation.
April 30 also marks the anniversary of the Portuguese forces’ withdrawal from the Strait of Hormuz in 1622.
“The Persian Gulf is always Persian Gulf for Iranians,“ he stressed, adding that changing the name of the strategic waterway “is against historical evidence and illogical“.
Haddad reiterated Tehran’s policy to establish good neighborly relations with its Arab neighbors.
On April 29, hundreds of Iranian university students held a peaceful protest rally in front of the United Arab Emirates’ Embassy in Tehran, showing their anger against the recent move by several Arab states to distort the name of the Persian Gulf.

Interior Minister Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi said on Tuesday that Tehran-Riyadh security cooperation would benefit the two nations as well as all the regional states.
In a meeting with Saudi Deputy Minister of State Ahmed bin Mohamed Al-Salem, he expressed his satisfaction with the current visit to Tehran of the Saudi delegation, IRNA reported.
He added that signing a joint security agreement would open a new chapter in the two countries’ security cooperation.
Pour-Mohammadi expressed hope that bilateral talks being held between the visiting Saudi delegation and the Iranian officials would be fruitful.
As to Tehran-Riyadh cooperation at the regional and international levels, he said the two countries’ leaders are determined to further promote bilateral ties.
The Saudi official conveyed the warm greetings of his country’s King Abdullah to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
“Iran-Saudi joint security committee meeting plays a key role in strengthening security cooperation between the two states and the entire region,“ he said.
He called for implementing ratifications of the security meeting.
The second meeting of Iran-Saudi Arabia joint security committee started in Tehran Monday evening.
Al-Salem, heading a delegation, is attending the meeting.
The two parties will study ways of implementing the security cooperation pact signed in the first meeting of the joint security committee held in Riyadh in October 2001.

Intelligence Minister Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei said on Wednesday no reason, sign or witness has been found to prove the possibility of sabotage in the Shiraz mosque blast on April 12.
Twelve people died and more than 190 were wounded in an explosion at Rahpouyan-e Vessal Culture Center that is part of Seyyed-ush-Shohada Mosque located in a residential area of Shiraz on April 12, IRNA reported.
The powerful explosion took place at around 21:00 local time (1730 GMT) on April 12 during an evening prayer sermon by a prominent local cleric.
Ejei told reporters that the police and security officials have yet to clarify the cause of the explosion.
On Ilam incidents related to the runoff election on April 25, the minister said it was not an anti-security issue, but a domestic event that is being followed up by the Interior Ministry.
“No anti-security event occurred on the day of the Majlis runoff election,“ he said.
The runoff election was held in 43 constituencies, including, Tehran, Rey, Shemiranat and Islamshahr, where the candidates could not obtain 25 percent of votes in the first round.