Security Deal With Qatar

Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar said Tuesday the outlines of the security accord signed with Qatar are important in that it will help bolster bilateral ties.
A security pact between the two sides was inked for the first time in Doha in the presence of Najjar and Qatar’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser Al-Thani.
“The agreement contains 12 articles. Two-way cooperation will expand in areas including the fight against drug trafficking, smuggling of goods, forgeries, money laundering, illegal economic activities and organized crime,” Najjar told reporters after signing the accord, Mehr News Agency reported.
Iran also has signed security and military accords with other regional countries, he noted.
“The security agreement with Qatar has been inked for the first time on the basis of which a joint working group will convene once a year to follow-up its progress,” he said.
The Qatari minister said the agreement is a significant step forward in expanding good neighborly relations.
“The accord definitely will have a big impact on deepening cooperation between Tehran and Doha,” he added.
Najjar on Tuesday conferred with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabir Al-Thani.
The premier reiterated his country’s support for Iran’s peaceful nuclear program and expressed gratitude over the conclusion of the security accord.
“The deal is a step forward toward improving bilateral relations. We will not allow any government to interfere in our ties with Iran. Qatar will do everything possible to expand mutual economic ties,” he said.
Najjar accompanied by governors-general of Fars, Bushehr, Khuzestan and Mazandaran toured some Qatari investment firms.
During the visits he said many investment opportunities exist in Iran which do not exist in other countries and this should help offer an opportunity to potential Qatari investors.
The governors-general introduced the capacities and potentials of their provinces and voiced their ability and willingness to support investors in the neighboring emirate.
The chiefs of Qatari investment funds briefed the Iranians on the range and scope of their work and said they would be interested in investing in Iranian projects for building hotels, tourism townships and industrial and agro sectors.

Petraeus Slur Draws More Fire

Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani on Tuesday criticized a top US military commander over what he called clichés and old rhetoric about Iran’s presidential election last year.
“The murderous government in the United States is a government of thugs that has killed thousands of Iraqis, Afghans and Palestinians,” Larijani said at the open session of the Majlis, IRNA reported.
The military chief of the US Central Command, General David Petraeus, claimed in an interview Sunday with CNN, that the Islamic Republic’s conduct in dealing with the unrests after the disputed mid-June vote showed Iran had moved “from being a theocracy to a thugocracy”.
Larijani said it is understandable that the “exhausted general” had insulted the Iranian government because the people of the region abhor the self-styled superpower.
The White House is embroiled in two bloody and unwinnable wars in the oil-rich Middle East. Civilian deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the huge military presence in the two countries have added to strong anti-American sentiments in the region that shows no sign of abating.
The senior lawmaker welcomed the “crushing response” the Iraqi people gave to the occupying US forces with their strong participation in the parliamentary vote at the weekend.
He recalled that Washington had committed heinous crimes in Abu-Ghraib and Guantanamo prisons.
“You are suffering from political isolation among nations but the use of such insulting words will never resolve your problems but further incite more public hatred,” he said addressing himself to the arrogant American politicians and generals.
“[Regional] nations and particularly the people of Iran, as the flag bearers of Islamic vigilance, will take bigger and stronger steps in the fight against the US.”
The war of words between the US and Iran has gained momentum in recent weeks.
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in a speech last month in Saudi Arabia that the “US sees Iran moving toward a military dictatorship.”
Iran dismissed the charge and accused the US of supporting terrorists and brutal regimes in the volatile region.

Germany Rebuked for Freeing PJAK Leader

The Foreign Ministry on Tuesday criticized Germany for releasing the leader of the Free Life in Kurdistan Party (PJAK). The banned group is responsible for several terrorist attacks inside Iran, mainly in the western and northwestern border regions.
Abdolrahman Haji Ahmadi was arrested at his apartment on Friday, but was released Monday, a website affiliated to the Movement for Change in Iraqi Kurdistan reported.
PJAK, which conducts deadly operations in Kurdish-populated regions of western Iran, is an offshoot of the internationally-banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Presstv reported.
In response to the German report, Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast accused western countries of not being sincere in the so-called fight against terrorism.
He told reporters in Tehran that there is evidence indicating that “Europe has been a safe haven for terrorists” and continues “to support terrorism despite claims to defending human rights.”
“We saw the same pattern about Mujahedeen Khalq Organization (MKO). This criminal group was taken off the [terrorist] list in Europe. We also saw another instance in Abdolmalek Rigi’s case where footprints of foreign spy organizations were seen in supporting his group (Jundullah).”
The same holds true about the PJAK leader, who was released by the German authorities despite Iran’s hard evidence showing the group’s role in numerous terror attacks, Mehmanparast said.

Real Thugs
Mehmanparast also deplored the military chief of the US Central Command, General David Petraeus, for saying that the Iran had become a “thugocracy.”
Petraeus on Sunday referred to the suppression of protests against the result of the disputed June presidential election in which Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was reelected for a second and last term.
“Those who use such language and adopt such attitude are the (real) thugs,” the spokesman told reorters.
He associated Petraeus’s remarks with what he called the US failure to launch a so-called “soft war” to topple the Islamic Republic.

Nuclear Fuel
Iran considers a nuclear fuel swap with any supplier as a valid option providing its conditions are met.
The spokesman said that Tehran’s “priority is to obtain fuel” for a Tehran medical research reactor.
An IAEA-backed deal requires Tehran to send most of its low-enriched uranium abroad for further processing to be formed in special rods for the research reactor.
Iran says it would agree to a deal if guarantees are provided by the West that the fuel would be resent on time. The condition has been rejected the western governments.
Iran is currently enriching uranium to a level slightly below 20 percent and the country’s nuclear chief says the special plates for the fuel will be manufactured in a few months.
Mehmanparast made it clear Tuesday that Iran was still open to a swap. “If the [International Atomic Energy] Agency suggests a country has 20 percent enriched fuel, we are ready to buy it. Besides, if there are countries ready for a swap which will meet our conditions, we are ready. If not we will produce the fuel [ourselves],” he said.

Foreign Ministry in Tehran:

Iraq Election a Turning Point

The Foreign Ministry commended the people of Iraq for their high turnout in the parliamentary elections despite threats and “enemy plots.”
In a statement on Monday, the ministry said Iraqis had proved that the will of a nation determines its fate, Presstv reported.
Iraq’s electoral body announced Monday noon that 62.4 percent of the eligible 20 million voters had cast ballots amid mortar and rocket attacks.
At least 38 people were killed and 110 others were wounded in and around Baghdad on polling day.
The ministry praised the high turnout as an “act of great courage” that could help improve democracy in Iraq, billing the vote a “turning point” in the fight against occupation and dictatorship.
The last parliamentary election in Iraq was held in December 2005 with a turnout of 76 percent.
A number of parties announced their own preliminary results, but Iraq’s election commission has warned against speculating on the outcome saying counting the complicated ballots (6,200 candidates competed for 325 seats) -- will take time.
No one coalition is expected to win an outright majority in the 325-seat chamber. The coalition that gets the largest number of votes will face the monumental task of cobbling together a government with other partners.
Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, who campaigned as head of his State of Law Coalition, faced a double challenge at the polls.
On the one side there was a coalition of Shiite religious parties, including one led by the popular anti-American cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr, who didn’t run himself. On the other Maliki was challenged by former prime minister Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite and strong critic of the government preferred by the US and Saudi rulers.

Isfahan Anti-Drug Successes Outlined

Anti-drug squads of the law enforcement police disbanded 149 major drug-trafficking gangs in the central province of Isfahan during the last 12 months, a provincial police chief announced.
“Seizure of 300 cars and trucks [carrying illegal drugs] and disbanding of 149 drug-trafficking gangs have been among the most important measures taken by the Isfahan anti-drug police in the outgoing Iranian year [ends March 20],” Fars News Agency quoted the commander of Isfahan’s Anti-Drug Taskforce Mohammad-Reza Taqvaei as telling reporters on Monday.
He said police also seized 57 kg of heroin, 22,500 kg of opium, 325 kg of crack, 232 kg of morphine and 1,330 kg of hashish during the same period.
More than 10,000 drug traffickers and gang leaders have been arrested.
Taqvaei said his unit has initiated special measures to intensify the fight against drug-trafficking in the remaining days of the current Iranian year, expressing hope that the measures would deal a big blow to the merchants of death in Isfahan province.
Anti-drug police have regularly staged operations against drug traffickers and dealers, but latest reports say that Iran had embarked on a long-term plan to crackdown on the drug trade since the beginning of the current Iranian year (started March 21).
Since the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran has spent millions of dollars to fight drug trafficking and lost over 3,000 men in the en-ending war against narco terror.

No Travel Ban

Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabaei, a lawyer of former president Mohammad Khatami, Tuesday denied a report that the senior reformist politician has been banned from leaving the country.