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Iran asks Azerbaijan
to release N-spares
April 28, 2008
TEHRAN, April 27:
Iran has urged Azerbaijan to release a cargo of parts from Russia for
its first nuclear power plant, the foreign ministry said on Sunday.
Russia says Azeri officials at the border with Iran last month halted the
heat insulators for the Bushehr nuclear plant being built by a Russian
contractor in southwest Iran.
“We call on the government of the Republic of Azerbaijan to carry out the
necessary measures for the delivery
of the consignment to the Islamic Republic of Iran,” foreign ministry
spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told a
news conference.
Iran has asked Azerbaijan’s ambassador in Tehran “to do his utmost so as
to deliver the consignment,” he said.
“The consignment is within the framework of Iran-Russia cooperation with
respect to the completion of the Bushehr power plant. There is no ban
regarding the consignment.”
Azeri customs officials say the cargo needs a special permit which was not
supplied.
The United States and Russia say the plant means Tehran does not need to
enrich uranium itself. Western nations fear Iran is seeking to master
enrichment technology to make nuclear bombs.
Russia has already delivered nuclear fuel under a $1 billion contract to
build the Bushehr plant and Iranian officials say the reactor is likely
to be started up during 2008.
Iran’s ambassador to Azerbaijan, Nasser Hamidi Zare, said Azeri officials
had halted the cargo because of “technical problems”, the official
newspaper, called Iran, reported.
Russia has asked Iran to help resolve the row over paperwork with
Azerbaijan or the row would delay commissioning of the plant. Work on
the plant was started in the 1970s before the Russian contractor took
over the project in the 1990s.
Iranian officials say it is their right to have a domestic enrichment
programme and insist that their plans are peaceful.
In a separate incident, two Iranians were shot dead by Azeri border forces
on the boundary this month. Azeri media, monitored by the BBC, said the
two were trying to cross illegally.
Asked about the incident, Hosseini said: “The treatment we saw from the
Azeri forces in connection with the two Iranian youngsters is
unacceptable and we condemn it. And of course Iranian border forces will
follow up on this issue with sensitivity.”
Reuters
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Azerbaijani
President Receives Turkish Minister
April 28, 2008
BAKU - The president of Azerbaijan met Turkey`s
labor minister on Thursday.
The meeting between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Turkish Labor
& Social Security Minister Faruk Celik took place in the Azerbaijani
capital of Baku, the Azerbaijani official news agency Azertac said.
Celik is actually paying a formal visit to Azerbaijan.
During the meeting, Aliyev said he was pleased with improvement of
relations between the labor ministries of Turkey and Azerbaijan.
Celik said his visit would help enhance bilateral relations.
Minister Celik also met members of Azerbaijani-Turkish Parliamentary
Friendship Group, Deputy Prime Minister Abid Sharifov and Turkish
businessmen and citizens residing in Azerbaijan.
Celik is expected to see historical and touristic attractions in the
Azerbaijani capital and depart from this country on Friday.
Turkish press
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Iran
demands Russian nuclear shipment
April 28, 2008
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran demanded Sunday that
Azerbaijan deliver a Russian shipment of nuclear equipment blocked at
its border with Iran for the past three weeks.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said in his
weekly briefing that his country has asked the Azerbaijani ambassador in
Iran to get his government "to deliver the shipment as soon as
possible."
The blocked nuclear equipment "is in the framework of Iran-Russia
cooperation" and there should be "no ban on it," he said about the
shipment destined for a Russian-built nuclear reactor in the southern
Iranian port city of Bushehr.
Azerbaijan has said it was seeking more information about the shipment due
to fears that it might violate any of the three sets of U.N. Security
Council sanctions imposed on Iran over its failure to halt uranium
enrichment.
On Monday, Russian state-run company Atomstroiexport said that one or two
trucks carrying the equipment for Iran were stopped two weeks ago at the
town of Astara, on the Azerbaijani-Iranian border.
Company spokeswoman Irina Yesipova said officials were holding talks with
both Azerbaijan and Iran about the incident. She said the shipment
contained "heat-isolating equipment" essential to the plant's operation
but that the holdup was not likely to delay the startup of the plant.
Iran is paying Russia more than $1 billion to build the light-water
reactor at Bushehr.
Construction has been held up in recent months by disputes between Tehran
and Moscow over payments and a schedule for shipping nuclear fuel.
Russia delivered the final shipment of uranium fuel in January, and Tehran
has said it was hoping the plant would begin operations by summer.
The United States initially opposed Russia's building Bushehr, but later
softened its position after Iran agreed to return spent nuclear fuel to
Russia to ensure it does not extract plutonium from it that could be
used to make atomic bombs.
Washington and Moscow have also said the Russian nuclear fuel supply means
Iran no longer needs to continue its uranium enrichment program -- a
process that can provide fuel for a reactor or fissile material for a
bomb.
Associated Press
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Law requiring recreational boat owners to get permits for dumping being
contested in Congress
April 28, 2008
Owners of recreational boats — more than 40,000
in Palm Beach County alone — could get snagged in government red tape if
Congress doesn't sink a new environmental permit system.
Recreational boats are forbidden by law to dump garbage, sewage, fuel and
oil overboard. But so-called normal discharges — deck runoff, engine
cooling water and gray water from showers and sinks — haven't been
regulated.
Until now.
A federal court recently ruled that an old federal water law applies not
just to large ships and tankers but to smaller recreational and fishing
boats as well. It gave the Environmental Protection Agency a September
deadline to implement a permit system.
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., meeting with representatives of the local
marine industry in Riviera Beach on Friday, said the courts have gone
overboard.
"We can't have 73 million recreational boaters suddenly have to have a
permit come September," Nelson said. "That is a huge administrative
nightmare for the U.S. government and boaters and fishermen."
Nelson is among nearly 30 bipartisan co-sponsors of legislation that would
exempt recreational boats. The bill passes out of committee next week
and so far there is no opposition, Nelson said. But there's no guarantee
of beating the September deadline.
"We're running out of time," he said. "If we get division on it, then it's
not going to get through."
He urged the 30 or so people who gathered at the Newport Cove Marine
Center to write letters and e-mails to their lawmakers urging them to
support the legislation.
The court case involved regulation of foreign vessels that dump their
ballast water in U.S. waters, especially the Great Lakes, Nelson said.
The Great Lakes are infested with zebra mussels that hitchhiked from
Europe in ships' ballast water. The mussel is a freshwater pest that has
plagued Europe for years but is now spreading through U.S. and Canadian
waters.
Zebra mussels originated in the Caspian Sea and first were detected in the
United States in 1988. They disrupt ecosystems and damage power plants,
boats and harbors. Nelson said he was not aware of zebra mussels having
spread into Florida waters.
John Sprague, president of the Palm Beach County Marine Industry, thanked
Nelson for his support.
"We will do what we can to ensure clean water, but we need to enjoy
boating, too," Sprague said.
Daily News
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Energy Minister Calls On German Firms To Invest In Turkey
April 28, 2008
ANKARA - Turkey`s energy minister invited
German firms on Thursday to invest in energy projects in Turkey.
Energy & Natural Resources Minister Hilmi Guler said a total of 130
billion USD of energy investment is foreseen till 2020.
During a meeting of the Turkish-German Cooperation Council, Guler
enumerated Turkey`s energy projects as nuclear power plants, lignite
power stations, dams, wind stations, mine exploration, geothermal and
hydrogen power plants, renewable energy, energy efficiency and
electricity distribution lines.
A number of Turkish and German investors participated in the council that
held its 14th meeting in the Turkish capital of Ankara.
"Our biggest investments are Afsin-Elbistan C and D thermal power plants
as there are significant lignite beds there. We want to generate
electricity from coal with clean technologies," Guler said during a
meeting of the Turkish-German Cooperation Council.
He said Turkish and German firms might cooperate in wind, production of
devices that would assure energy efficiency and energy distribution
lines.
The Turkish minister also said authorities would call for a tender within
a few weeks time to privatize electricity distribution. Guler Also said
German RWE company had been chosen as the sixth partner in the Nabucco
project.
The Nabucco project is a planned 3,300 kilometres natural gas pipeline
that will carry gas from Turkey to Austria, via Bulgaria, Romania, and
Hungary. It will run from Erzurum in Turkey to Baumgarten an der March,
a major natural gas hub in Austria. This pipeline is an alternative to
the current projects developed to import natural gas from Russia. It
will be connected with the Tabriz-Erzurum pipeline, and with the South
Caucasus Pipeline, linking Nabucco Pipeline with the planned
Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline.
The project is developed by the Nabucco Gas Pipeline International GmbH,
established in 2004 in Vienna. The shareholders of the company are: OMV
(Austria), MOL (Hungary), Transgaz (Romania), Bulgargaz (Bulgaria),
BOTAS (Turkey) and RWE (Germany).
turkishpress
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US working to
link subcontinent with C. Asia
April 28, 2008
WASHINGTON, April 27: Pakistan and Afghanistan
enjoy a pivotal role in US policies which also envisage India playing a
key role in the region.
“Everybody (benefits) from India with a potential new source of energy and
a place to export to, to Pakistan, which becomes a logical port and hub
for a lot of this trade,” says US Assistant Secretary of State Richard
Boucher.
“Afghanistan, which becomes a transit point and contributor to the trade,
or Central Asia which in addition to their ties to Russia, China, and
Europe gets to open up another set of export routes and avenues,” he
added.
But a transcript titled “The year ahead in South and Central Asia”
released at the weekend, acknowledges that this goal cannot be achieved
unless there’s stability in both Afghanistan in Pakistan.
Interestingly, there is no mention of Iran, an oil-rich country with
borders and influence in both South and Central Asia.
Mr Boucher, however, does talk about a US suggestion to Indian leaders
that they should ask Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to abandon
Iran’s nuclear programme when he visits New Delhi on Tuesday.
Mr Boucher also failed to mention the Iran-Pakistan-India gas project Mr
Ahmadinejad hopes to finalise during his visit.
The US opposes any major investment in an Iranian project.
Instead, Mr Boucher underlined US efforts to link Central and South Asia
through Afghanistan. He pointed out that the US, Japan, China, the Asian
Development Bank and others were building roads between Central and
South Asia, including one that links the Kazakh city of Almaty to
Karachi.
“That’s new. That’s different. That’s good. And that’s an opportunity,” he
said. The US, he said, was working with Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and
Turkmenistan to develop electricity lines for Afghanistan and with
Tajikistan to help bring electricity to Pakistan.
Dawn
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Iraq situation
makes US attack unlikely: Iran
April 28, 2008
TEHRAN, April 27: Iran said on Sunday a
“disastrous situation” facing the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan
coupled with Washington’s domestic issues made any US attack on the
Islamic Republic unlikely.
The Foreign Ministry comments came two days after the US Navy said a cargo
ship hired by the US military fired warningshots at approaching boats in
the Gulf, underscoring tension in an area vital to world oil shipments,
and driving up crude prices.
“We think it would be unlikely the Americans would take the decision to
get themselves into a new fiasco, the consequences of which they
themselves have acknowledged would be painful for the region and the
world,” spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said.
“We hope those who think better in America view the realities more closely
and manage to correct such approaches,” he told a news conference.
Relations between Washington and Tehran, which have not had diplomatic
ties for nearly three decades, are tense over Iran’s nuclear programme
and over who is to blame for violence in Iraq.
Hostile rhetoric between the two foes and close encounters in the Gulf
have fuelled some speculation the United States may be planning some
sort of military action against Tehran.
However, a US intelligence report in December that said Iran halted a
nuclear weapons programme in 2003 made any US attack very unlikely,
analysts say. Iran denies ever having ambitions to build nuclear
weapons.
Last week, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said another Middle East war
would be “disastrous on a number of levels”.
But he added the military option must be kept on the table “given the
destabilising policies of the regime and the risks inherent in a future
Iranian nuclear threat — either directly or through proliferation.”
But Hosseini dismissed the likelihood of any US military strike “in view
of the numerous problems the Americans are facing, along with the
disastrous situation in Iraq and Afghanistan and (their) domestic
problems.”
He did not specify what domestic US problems he was referring to but the
Bush administration is facing low approval ratings and an economic
downturn during its last year in office.
US defence officials first said they suspected the approaching vessels in
Thursday’s incident were Iranian, but a navy spokeswoman later backed
away from that charge. Iran denied any confrontation took place in the
Gulf.
In January, the United States said five small Iranian speed boats
aggressively approached three US Navy ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran said its boats were simply trying to identify the US vessels.
Reuters
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Iran
wants Russian nuke hardware
April 28, 2008
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran demanded Sunday that
Azerbaijan deliver a Russian shipment of nuclear equipment blocked at
its border with Iran for the past three weeks.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said in his
weekly briefing that his country has asked the Azerbaijani ambassador in
Iran to get his government "to deliver the shipment as soon as
possible."
The blocked nuclear equipment "is in the framework of Iran-Russia
cooperation" and there should be "no ban on it," he said about the
shipment destined for a Russian-built nuclear reactor in the southern
Iranian port city of Bushehr.
Azerbaijan has said it was seeking more information about the shipment due
to fears that it might violate any of the three sets of U.N. Security
Council sanctions imposed on Iran over its failure to halt uranium
enrichment.
On Monday, Russian state-run company Atomstroiexport said that one or two
trucks carrying the equipment for Iran were stopped two weeks ago at the
town of Astara, on the Azerbaijani-Iranian border.
Company spokeswoman Irina Yesipova said officials were holding talks with
both Azerbaijan and Iran about the incident. She said the shipment
contained "heat-isolating equipment" essential to the plant's operation
but that the holdup was not likely to delay the start-up of the plant.
Iran is paying Russia more than $1 billion to build the light-water
reactor at Bushehr.
Construction has been held up in recent months by disputes between Tehran
and Moscow over payments and a schedule for shipping nuclear fuel.
Russia delivered the final shipment of uranium fuel in January, and Tehran
has said it was hoping the plant would begin operations by summer.
The United States initially opposed Russia's building Bushehr, but later
softened its position after Iran agreed to return spent nuclear fuel to
Russia to ensure it does not extract plutonium from it that could be
used to make atomic bombs.
Washington and Moscow have also said the Russian nuclear fuel supply means
Iran no longer needs to continue its uranium enrichment program — a
process that can provide fuel for a reactor or fissile material for a
bomb.
The Associated Press
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Russian
delegation in Tehran for bilateral talks
April 28, 2008
Acting Secretary of the Russian Security
Council, Valentin Sobolev, heading a high-ranking delegation arrived in
Tehran Sunday evening.
During his two-day stay, Sobolev is to hold talks with Secretary of
Supreme National Security Council, Saeed Jalili, and a number of other
Iranian officials.
Sobolev's visit to Tehran is taking place in response to Jalili's trip to
Russia last December.
Formal negotiations between Iranian officials and the Russian delegation
are to begin Monday morning.
Tehran-Moscow security cooperation and the latest regional and
international developments will top the agenda of talks between Jalili
and Sobolev.
IRNA
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President kicks off regional tour, heads for Pakistan
April 28, 2008
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad left for
Islamabad, pakistan, Monday morning at the first leg of his three-nation
tour to regional states which would later take him to Sri Lanka and
India.
The president is accompanied by his senior advisor, Mojtaba Samareh
Hashemi, Head of Cultural Heritage and Tourism
Organization, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, Foreign Minister Manouchehr
Mottaki and Minister of Commerce Massoud Mir-Kazemi as well as a group
of other senior officials.
During his two-day visit to Pakistan, the president would hold separate
talks with his Pakistani counterpart Pervez Musharraf and the country's
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani.
The two sides would discuss promotion of bilateral ties and cooperation,
particularly in the field of energy.
They would also exchange views on major bilateral, regional and
international developments.
IRNA
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Daily terms Pakistan, India talks on Iran gas line as breakthrough
April 28, 2008
Pakistan and India seem to have made a major
breakthrough on the gas pipeline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit
to the two capitals will help expedite the project, a major Pakistani
daily said Sunday.
The differences between Pakistan and India, especially over the transit
fee and transportation charges, have already delayed the pipeline
project, raising the cost from $3.3bn in 2004 to $7.5bn today, Dawn
newspaper said in its editorial.
"But that is no reason why the three countries should abandon a project
that serves the economic and energy interests of all of them," it said.
The paper referred to a press conference in Islamabad on Friday by oil
ministers of Pakistan and India that they had now agreed on the
"fundamental issues" of the project.
The two ministers were hopeful that a final agreement could be signed in
weeks if not days.
The daily said that several factors have delayed the materializing of IPI,
one of them being America's hostility toward Iran and New Delhi's
sensitivity to Washington's concerns. As a result India stayed away from
three meetings between Pakistani and Iranian officials during the last
nine months.
However, hard economic realities coupled with a domestic backlash have
combined to force a rethinking in New Delhi, it said.
Many Indian politicians, especially those on the Left, and sections of the
media have criticised what to them appeared to be their government's
lack of spine in standing up to US pressure.
This was in sharp contrast, they pointed out, to the resolve shown by
Tehran and Islamabad to go ahead with the project. Then there is the
obvious fact that India has to rely on imports to meet its gas
requirement.
According to the daily what brought the Indian oil minister rushing to
Pakistan is the possibility that China may respond to President Pervez
Musharraf's invitation during his visit to that country to join the Iran
gas project.
"That perhaps clinched the issue for New Delhi. India's 're-entry'into the
IPI project is a welcome development," Dawn said.
IRNA
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