Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Armed Forces Major General Hassan Firouzabadi said on Wednesday western supporters of the unrest have no right to talk about fresh negotiations with Iran unless they apologize to the Iranian nation.
“The European Union (EU) is a defeated political and economic alliance and in the recent elections for the European Parliament the people of Europe showed that they do not trust the EU. It must be said that the European members of Group 5+1 have now lost credibility,“ the general said in a meeting with senior officers, IRNA reported.
He referred to the “outrageous interference“ of the 27-nation group in the elections and said “now it is obvious for our people that EU is hostile to Iran and not eligible to hold any form of negotiations with the Islamic state.“
The five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany have been calling for almost two years for new talks with Iran over its nuclear program deadlock. Iran has so far refused to respond officially.

500 Police Wounded
Police Chief Brigadier General Esmaeel Ahmadi-Moqaddam on Wednesday said that in the recent unrests in Iran 1,032 people were arrested but most have were later released.
“During the recent turmoil, burglary increased by 200 percent and the society at large suffered from unlawfulness. More than 500 police officers were wounded in the unrest,“ he told a news briefing, Mehr News Agency reported.
He noted that in addition to the police, Basij (volunteer forces) and Intelligence Ministry officials were also involved in the arrests.
After official results of the election were announced, people poured into the streets to protest at what they described as vote rigging. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won 24.5 million votes while his main rival former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi garnered about 13 million votes. The protestors maintain that Mousavi won the election. Illegal gatherings were held for a few days in the capital
Officialdom and sections of the media have charged that the protests were provoked by foreign radio and TV broadcasts and even foreign operatives played a role in provoking the people, especially the youth. The situation has now calmed.
In the unrests in the capital no policemen died, but 20 protestors were killed,“ the general said.
He emphasized that his men brought the tensions under control with least violence.
“In the illegal gatherings of the past few days police performed in a completely legal manner,“ he noted.
“Some defeated presidential candidates in their statements urged the police not to obey orders. But, the police was cautioned beforehand about such calls and was fully informed about the scenario. We had predicted that we would face certain developments in Tehran by June 26.“
He said after the protests subsided the foreign media realized that the country has high standards of stability and security.
Iran has requested the Interpol to arrest and extradite Arash Hejazi who made controversial comments as eye witness in the tragic death of Neda Aqa-Soltan, Ahmadi-Moqaddam told the press corps.
Aqa-Soltan was shot dead in the unrest in Tehran and soon became a symbol of the protestations. The heartfelt incident attracted the attention of the foreign media. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has urged the judiciary to look into the case. Hejazi is a London-based physician who was present on the murder scene and after returning to London made controversial comments about the young woman’s death.

(See page Domestic Economy)

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday said that the June 12 presidential election marked a great victory for the anti-imperialist front in its entirety.
“It is obvious that from now on we will tackle global issues with more prowess,“ he told the visiting Venezuelan Minister of Energy Rafael Ramirez, IRNA reported.
The president said all existing potentials should be tapped for bolstering bilateral ties.
“God Almighty willing the two countries will stay alongside each other firmly and continue to deepen their bonds until final victory,“ he noted.
Ramirez presented Hugo Chavez’s written message to Ahmadinejad and congratulated him for his victory in the election.
“The extensive support voiced for you by the Iranian people in the election amazed the world. It is clear for world public opinion that Britain and the US perpetually seek to manipulate free elections worldwide and create unnecessary turmoil,“ he noted.
He denounced imperialistic plots against the Iranian nation and said, “Our fight against imperialism brings us closer by the day and victory will come only when we do not give up this fight.“
He urged expansion of two-way ties and noted, “We should implement the joint projects with full power and it is obvious that improving bilateral cooperation will open new vistas for cooperation in Latin America.“

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said on Wednesday it was important for the European Union to maintain diplomatic relations with Iran but both sides needed to ensure diplomatic staff were protected.
“We have a dialogue now with Iran where we are underlining that there is a mutual interest to maintain full diplomatic relations in the situation that we are in,“ Bildt told Reuters on the sidelines of a visit by the European Commission to mark the start of Sweden six-month stint in the EU presidency.
Bildt also said both EU countries and Iran needed to ensure diplomatic staff were protected. “We have to take action both in our countries to protect the Iranian diplomatic missions and they have to ensure that staffs at the European embassies are not subject to harassment by the authorities. So that’s an ongoing dialogue where we are showing both European strength and solidarity.“
Asked whether there was a recommendation for EU countries to withdraw ambassadors from Tehran, Bildt said: “We are taking one step at a time. At the moment we are in a state of dialogue with the Iranian authorities about these issues.“
Bildt said that the EU “will have to assess (a reaction) in close consultation with the Americans.“ He said it’s “too early“ for the EU to impose retaliatory measures. The EU wants to leave room for resuming dialogue with Iran on its nuclear program.

A UN fact-finding commission began on Wednesday an inquiry into the assassination of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto, a UN spokeswoman said.
Bhutto was murdered in a suicide gun-and-bomb attack in the city of Rawalpindi on Dec. 27, 2007, after a rally to drum up support for a general election she had hoped to win, AFP reported.
Her murder threw nuclear-armed US ally Pakistan into crisis and her Pakistan People’s Party rode a wave of sympathy to win a February 2008 election.
Her widower, Asif Ali Zardari, later become president.
The three-member UN team is headed by Chile’s UN Ambassador Heraldo Munoz and will take six months for its investigation.
“It’s a fact-finding mission. It has started work today and it’ll just inquire into the facts and circumstances of the assassination,“ said the UN spokeswoman, Ishrat Rizvi. While it started its work on Wednesday, the team was not yet in Pakistan but would arrive this month, Rizvi said.
The team will not be empowered to launch criminal proceedings related to the assassination.