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Iran criticizes US for scapegoating others for Iraq policy failure
April 29, 2008
Iranian Ambassador to United Nations dismissed
"certain baseless allegations" made by representative of the United
States at the Security Council meeting against Iran on April 28.
In a letter to President of the Security Council Mr. Dumisani Shadrack
Kumalo, Mehdi Danesh-Yazdi said, "I would be grateful if you could bring
the content of the letter and its annex to the attention of the members
of the council, and to circulate it as a document of the Security
Council."
Danesh-Yazdi said in his letter: "The Security Council heard, today,
certain unfounded allegations against the Islamic Republic of Iran by
the representative of the United States. Since the format of the meeting
of the Security Council did not allow us to express our views on the
said allegations through making a statement in the Council's meeting.
"We reject the groundless allegations made against Iran by the US
representative in today's meeting of the Council. It is not the first
time that the international community is witness to the United States
baseless allegations and even its fabrication of so-called evidences
against other nations, in order to pursue certain ill-intended and
politically motivated national goals.
"To date the United States has not ever come up with any single reliable
evidence that would corroborate its claims against Iran - simply because
there are not any such evidences and because these allegations are
totally unfounded.
"Iran has, time and again, condemned all acts of violence and terrorism in
Iraq. It has strongly condemned the attacks on the Green Zone where the
Iraqi government's offices and diplomatic missions are located, as it
has condemned the attacks on residential areas in Iraq, including those
in Sadr city and Basra.
"Iran has also unambiguously supported the Iraqi Government's efforts
against outlaw gangs in the country. Iran has itself been subject to
terrorism and suffered from terrorist acts committed in and originated
from Iraq, due to the tacit and explicit support extended by the US
governments to certain terrorist groups stationed and operating in Iraq.
"Undoubtedly, as an immediate neighbor, Iran stands to highly benefit from
stability, security and prosperity in Iraq, as it will immensely suffer
from insecurity and instability in that country.
Iran's best interest lies in a democratic and prosperous Iraq at peace
with itself and with its neighbors. The Islamic Republic of Iran has
taken significant steps at the highest level to strengthen partnership
and cooperation with Iraq. As it is mentioned in the latest report of
the Secretary General, Iran's President has been the highest ranking
official from the region who has visited Iraq to promote the friendly
and brotherly relations that so happily exists between our two
countries. We have already implemented many short term and long term
programs aimed at promoting economic cooperation between the two
countries in various areas such as development, energy, education,
health, industry, transportation, investment, trade, tourism, financing
and many other areas, and are actively in the process of implementing
more such projects.
"Iran has also pledged $10 million to Iraq's Reconstruction Fund, while a
line of credit of one billion dollars has also been allocated to cover
the implementation of economic plans.
Iran's support to the Iraqi political process and its efforts to assist
Iraqis in their quest for peace, national harmony and reconstruction has
been unabated and will remain unreserved.
In view of the above and given Iran's constructive and transparent
policies and practices towards Iraq, it is ridiculously false to suggest
that the Islamic Republic of Iran would take any steps that would
contribute to the insecurity in Iraq.
It is not the first time that the US Government maliciously insists on
demonizing Iran for Iraq 's problems through a futile effort to
obfuscate the real sources of the instability in Iraq -- that is the
continuation of foreign occupation and certain wrong policies and
practices on the part of the occupying forces.
Instead of scapegoating others for US's policy failures in Iraq, the US
Government should address its own wrong policies and practices in the
country in an honest and sincere manner, and desist from deceiving its
own public opinion and that of the international community, the letter
said.
IRNA
======================================
Saudi FM favors diplomatic solution to Iran's nuclear issue
April 29, 2008
Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Saud-al -Faisal
emphasized once again in a meeting with his Norwegian counterpart here
Riyadh favors diplomatic solutions to Iran's nuclear issue.
The Saudi FM made the comment in a join press conference, adding, The
entire regional countries are entitled the right to take advantage of
nuclear energy for peaceful purposes within the international
regulations and standards."
He further emphasized, "No regional country should be allowed to act
outside the framework of the IAEA, and there should be absolutely no
exception to this rule."
Al-Faisal also referred to certain Arab countries' expressed will to
mediate between Riyadh and Damascus, arguing, "I believe here is no need
to such mediation, as the two countries already have full diplomatic
ties and our officials have direct contacts."
He said he was surprised to hear such a proposal made by some Arab
countries.
Referring to the status quo in Iraq, he said, "Safeguarding the national
unity of that country, under the umbrella of solidarity and independence
is possible."
The Norwegian Foreign Minister arrived in Riyadh atop a
political-economic delegation on Monday night.
IRNA
=======================================
IAEO Chief
negotiates Iran's package with Russia
April 29, 2008
Head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization Reza
Aqazadeh said here Monday, following talks with Acting Secretary of
Russian National Security Council, their talks were focused on Iran's
package of proposals for West.
Aqazadeh who was speaking to the press after a two-hour negotiation with
Valentine Sobolev said that the package would be presented to other
countries at an appropriate time.
IRNA asked why Iran did not negotiate with the representative of 5+1
Group, EU's Javier Solana, regarding its package of proposals? Aqazadeh
replied, "This package is not meant for any certain country, but is
rather a comprehensive scheme, inclusive of proposals at various
levels."
The Head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization said, "The Islamic
Republic of Iran can cooperate with its entire potentials, side by side
with the other countries in order to solve major problems and can be
regarded as a partner in tough problem solving, and not a different type
country."
Aqazadeh added, "The axes in this package of proposals are precise and
comprehensive issues, presented in a very practical framework, and we
presented it to Russia before any other country."
The Vice President in response to a reporter's question whether
suspension of Iran's activities is included in the package, said, "The
entire issues and axes of our proposal would be reveled after it would
be presented to the world public opinion and the mass media." Valentine
Sobolev, too, said at the joint press conference that he had discussed
over Iran's package of proposals during the meeting.
According to IRNA Political Desk reporter, he added, "The Iranian side
told us that it has a proposal for solving Iran's nuclear problem, and
presented it to us."
The acting secretary of Russia's National Security Council added,
"Russia will study this proposal article by article and we will exchange
our viewpoints regarding it with the Iranian side." A reporter asked the
Russian official, "Is Russia going to act with lots of long delays in
Iran's future nuclear projects, as your country did in case of our
Bushehr Nuclear Plant?"
He replied, "Tehran and Moscow are both emphasizing the need for putting
Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant to use at scheduled time." Sobolev meanwhile
explained, "The matter was also related to both sides' meeting of their
commitments, provision of the required facilities, and on time financial
payments."
He added, "The other important factor that can determine Iran's future
nuclear cooperation with Russia is the strategies that each side would
be pursuing."
IRNA
=======================================
Iran-Sri Lanka presidents underscore expansion of ties
April 29, 2008
President Ahmadinejad and his Sri Lankan
counterpart president Mahinda Rajapaksa presided Iran-Sri Lanka talks
here Monday and underscored expansion of ties.
The two presidents after holding a one-hour private talk, attended the
senior officials negotiation and expressed both countries' intention for
developing and consolidating bilateral relations.
Expressing pleasure over executing former agreements, Ahmadinejad said
Iran-Sri Lanka has a clear outlook for developing ties and added there
is no obstacle for expansion of relations between the two countries.
Referring to the latest world developments, President Ahmadinejad noted
that independent countries like Iran and Sri Lanka should be able to
cooperate with each other to have a positive affect on current
situation.
The president continued sustainable security can be achieved under a
sustainable progress and justice.
He also praised Sri Lankan support for Palestine and added, "Nowadays, the
Palestinian issue has turned into a criterion for defending democracy,
human rights and the right of nations to determine their fate."
The Sri Lankan president also presented a report on his country's
developing program and fight against terrorism and expressed his
appreciation on Iran's help during Tsunami disaster.
He also said the results of joint investment between the two countries to
build a refinery and dam and hydroelectric power plant caused
acceleration of progress and development in Sri Lanka and added Colombo
appreciated Tehran's cultural and educational assistance and also its
international cooperation in the world bodies.
Rajapaksa expressed his country's opposition to sending Iran's nuclear
dossier to the UN Security Council and said Colombo supports Iran's
right to use peaceful nuclear energy.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad heading a high ranking delegation arrived in
Colombo on Monday afternoon.
IRNA
=======================================
Ahmadinejad: Iran, Pakistan to finalize peace pipeline project
April 29, 2008
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Monday
high ranking Iranian and Pakistani officials are to finalized Peace
pipeline project soon.
In an exclusive interview with Pakistan's state TV channel, the Iranian
president referred to fruitful talks with Pakistani officials and
expressed the hope that the legal issue of gas deal between the two
countries would be resolved very soon.
Given historical, religious and cultural commonalities between Iran and
Pakistan, he said, "I wished to visit Pakistani people and voice
sincerity of Iranian nation to them but unfortunately and due to lack of
time during stop-over, I could not find the chance to do so." The
Iranian president once again condoled the Pakistani people over
assassination of Benazir Bhutto and wished them success and prosperity.
He voiced satisfaction over his stop-over visit to Pakistan and his
meeting with the country's president.
"During our short stay in the country, we had fruitful talks on issues of
mutual interest along with regional and global
developments," he said.
Tehran and Islamabad agreed to further bolster economic cooperation and
joint investment mainly in energy sector, he said.
Iran is ready to transfer its technological know-how in industry and
commerce to Pakistan, the president said adding that Iran regards
Pakistan's developments and stability as its own.
Iran spares no efforts to broaden ties with Pakistan and believes that
through firm determination of both sides' high ranking officials,
all-out relations between the two countries can expand.
IRNA
=======================================
India
and Pakistan Don’t Share US Assessment of Iran
April 29, 2008
Napoleon is said to have observed that
geography is destiny. Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, will be
emphasizing the truth of the emperor of France’s words in the next two
days as he makes surprise appearances in Pakistan and India.
The president’s visits will last just a few hours and are likely to set in
train big changes for the region. Sensing that the clock is ticking for
the Bush administration, Iran wants to press ahead with a long-proposed
1,700-mile pipeline to deliver gas to Pakistan and India, at a cost
$7.5bn.
Understanding that such a project would see a shared strategic interest
develop between three nations straddling the world’s main oil and gas
artery, the US peddles a rival scheme: The $7.6bn gas pipeline from
Turkmenistan’s Dauletabad field through Herat and Kandahar in
Afghanistan to Multan in Pakistan, and finally into India.
Both may go ahead but it is Iran’s proposal that has momentum. Oil
ministers met in Islamabad last week and agreed to sign a bilateral
agreement and to start construction of the pipeline by 2010. India also
wants to put back on track a floundering $25bn deal for getting 5
million tons of liquefied gas from Iran every year for the next 25
years.
In recent months, it has become increasingly clear that the US has been
unable to crack the Persian puzzle. The US’s attempts to ostracize Iran
over its nuclear program have so far yielded little. Washington’s
sanctions strategy has also been undone, principally by China’s
announcement that it would develop oil and gas fields in southwestern
Iran for $2bn late last year.
None of this has gone unnoticed in New Delhi and Islamabad. Pakistan has
had a fractious relationship with Iran in recent years. India’s dealings
with Iran have been bedeviled by baubles dangled by the US: Principally
a deal that would legitimate Delhi as a nuclear-weapons power in return
for the inspection of civilian atomic energy plants. To Tehran’s
annoyance, India also voted with the US and against Iran’s nuclear
program twice — in October 2005 and February 2006 — at the International
Atomic Energy Agency. The Indians are likely to be seeking to make
amends with President Ahmadinejad in a big way.
Nukes have long been at the center of Iranian dealings with South Asia.
India has never shared Washington’s assessments of Iran as an aggressive
regional power. India’s reason is simple: My neighbor’s neighbor is my
friend. Hence it sees Iran as offering a road to Central Asia — a key
Indian concern — that bypasses Pakistan. To this end New Delhi has been
building up Iran’s Chahbahar port and constructing roads that skirt
Pakistan’s border.
India and Iran’s energy, strategic and diplomatic ties, likely to be
revived this week, may also see more private sector dealings between the
two nations. In the past this has led to revelations of Indian transfers
to Iran of high-technology goods that could be useful for Iran’s atomic
program.
The truth is that in the past few months, Tehran has emerged as the Gulf’s
main power center. In Iraq, Tehran has outfoxed competitors, gaining
influence at their expense. Iran’s intervention a few weeks ago to end a
bloody Shiite conflict on the banks of Iraq’s Tigris did not go
unnoticed in Washington.
In Afghanistan both Indian and Pakistani diplomats have noted that the
West’s position is becoming seriously eroded, leaving Iran to shape the
debate.
This means they have to take seriously President Ahmadinejad’s recent
questioning of NATO’s legitimacy in Afghanistan. There is also a feeling
that the Western alliance has become lopsided: The US has accepted it
will need to airlift more troops because the Europeans will not. If
America ends up as the sole defender of the Kabul regime then the
attacks on the “coalition” can be construed as a resistance army
fighting an occupier.
All this comes at a time when the Northern Alliance, the former rebels in
Kabul over which Iran has considerable influence, have been talking to
their archrivals the Taleban, something that is anathema to Washington.
However much the Americans might wish otherwise, the reality is that no
one can ignore Iran. Involved in bloody imbroglios in Afghan and Iraq,
Tehran calculates the US would not use force against Iran, even if it
pursues its nuclear ambitions.
To reinforce this point Iran recently announced that 6,000 new advanced
centrifuges were up and running at the Natanz uranium enrichment
facility.
Ahmadinejad plainly enjoys the taunting the US. This is an Iranian luxury,
afforded by geography and geology, that neither India and Pakistan have.
The Guardian
=======================================
Natural gas
likely to follow oil in price hikes
April 29, 2008
As if it wasn't bad enough that oil prices are
staying high, natural gas prices are now going up.
It probably should be little surprise, since all commodity prices are
through the roof, but natural gas is beginning to ride on oil's
coattails to ever higher prices.
Unlike oil, however, the market fundamentals seem to be somewhat solid for
natural gas.
Analysts are predicting that gas is going to stay in the $11 to $12 per
British thermal unit (BTU) range, as demand grows and reserves,
especially in the United States, decline.
The US's Energy Department said that natural gas inventories have only
risen 24 billion cubic feet, to just over 1.2 trillion cubic feet, as of
April 18, which Dow Jones called a much smaller increase than expected.
Meanwhile, prices for natural gas have risen to their highest level in
more than two years.
That puts inventory levels below the five-year average of 1.31 trillion
cubic feet and significantly lower than 2007's almost 1.56 trillion
cubic feet.
In North America, part of the problem is that Europe is ready to shell out
more for natural gas than either America or Canada. And there seems to
be little question that demand in the Old World is going to keep prices
high, especially if another summer of record temperatures boosts demand
to fuel power plants.
Now that natural gas from the United Kingdom's North Sea is falling by 59
million cubic metres a day as of Sunday - which carries 30 per cent of
the UK's current natural gas demands and 40 per cent of the the nation's
crude production - following the Forties oil pipeline shutdown due to a
strike over pensions.
Rest assured that gas isn't the only thing that is going to take a hike
thanks to the strike, which has raised the spectre of fuel shortages in
Scotland and northern England, and is driving up the price of diesel and
petrol across Europe.
Even now oil prices are hovering around the $120 per barrel mark. Remember
the days when $100 per barrel was a pipe dream?
Already consumers are starting to feel the pinch as natural gas follows
oil skyward.
Even before Sunday's strike, consumers in some parts of Canada are
expecting prices to jump 55 per cent over the prices of May 2007.
As one analyst said, he once would have pegged $12 per Btu natural gas as
astronomical, but no one saw $120 per barrel crude oil either.
As of Monday, prices are hovering in the $11 range, which is a two-year
high for natural gas.
The good news? Higher natural gas prices mean more money to invest in new
operations. The Petroleum Services Association of Canada boosted its
activity forecast 14 per cent from 14,500 wells to 16,500 wells, and
attributed what they call a "drilling revival" to increased interest in
natural gas thanks to recent price hikes and a healthy long-term price
outlook.
Meanwhile, talks are in place to build natural gas pipelines everywhere
from Turkmenistan to the Subcontinent and from Turkey into Europe, just
to name a few.
"This is the year of natural gas," said Jim Cramer of CNBC's Mad Money TV
show in the United States.
His reasoning is pretty sound - as the price of oil increases, more people
look to cheaper natural gas for everything from heating and cooling to
powering cars.
That increased demand is translating into more natural gas drilling, more
interest in the pipelines used for transport and more overall investment
as energy companies look to fill the vacuum created by record oil.
Gulf News
=====================================
Iran, Syria of
trying to destabilize Iraq:US
April 29, 2008
UNITED NATIONS - The United States accused
Iranian-backed groups of launching numerous attacks on Iraqi civilians
and U.S.-led multinational forces this year and said estimates
suggest that 90 percent of foreign terrorists enter Iraq through Syria.
Iran and Syria must stop the flow of weapons and foreign fighters into
Iraq, and their malign interference in Iraq,' US Ambassador Zalmay
Khalilzad said Monday in a report to the U.N. Security Council on behalf
of the multinational force in Iraq.
The Iranian and Syrian governments have repeatedly denied trying to
destabilize Iraq and insist there is no proof.
But Iraq's U.N. Ambassador Hamid Al Bayati told reporters we know (there
is) intereference by neighbors. I can't state names, but we know some
neighbors are helping militias, armed groups. And (the) Iraqi government
is trying to stop intereference in internal affairs.'
In his speech to the council, Al Bayati highlighted Iraq's request for the
support of the international community in putting an end, and
preventing, foreign interference in Iraq's internal affairs that
destabilizes the country's stability and security.'
Khalilzad told the council that recent clashes between criminal militia
elements and Iraqi government forces in Basra and Baghdad have
highlighted Iran's destabilizing influence and actions.'
The Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force continues to arm,
train, and fund illegal armed groups in Iraq,' he said. The bulk of
weapons USed by these groups are made in Iran and supplied by Iran,
including mortars, rockets and explosively-formed penetrators.'
Khalilzad said this lethal aid poses a significant threat to Iraqi and
multinational forces and to the stability and sovereignty of Iraq,'
undermines Iraqi efforts to rebuild the country, and violates a Security
Council ban on such arms transfers.
The US ambassador's report to the council echoed the assessment last week
by Adm. Mike Mullen, the top US military official, who said it is clear
that recently made Iranian-made weapons are flowing into Iraq, including
to insurgents leading the fight recently in Basra in southern Iraq.
But Mullen, who chairs the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he has no smoking
gun' proof that the highest leadership in the Iranian government has
approved the stepped up support for insurgents who are killing US and
Iraqi forces.
As for the Syrian border, Khalilzad said, Syria continues to allow foreign
fighters to transit Syria en route to conducting attacks in Iraq, and we
know that al-Qaida terrorist facilitators continue to operate inside
Syria.'
Nonetheless, Khalilzad said, the overall security environment in Iraq
continues to improve, and there have been some gains on the political,
economic and diplomatic fronts as well ... (though) progress has been
uneven in certain areas, and many challenges still remain.'
During recent military operations, he said, some Iraqi units were found
wanting,' a reference to the fighting in Basra where some officers and
units fled or refused to fight.
But overall the Iraqi Security Forces are quite capable and their
performance is solid,' Khalilzad said.
More than 540,000 Iraqis are now part of the country's security forces, an
increase of 24,000 since January, he said, and the United States expects
an additional 50,000 Iraqi soldiers and 16 Army and Special Operations
battalions to be trained by the end of the year as well as more than
23,000 police officers and eight national police battalions.
The multinational force has about 140,000 US troops and some 10,000
personnel from other countries.
The force is authorized under a Security Council mandate, which expires at
the end of the year. Khalilzad said the Iraqi government does not want
the council mandate to be renewed, and the United States is currently
discussing a bilateral agreement with the United States to regulate the
presence of foreign forces.'
Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin raised the timetable for the
withdrawal of foreign troops in his remarks to the Security Council, and
questioned the prospect of a bilateral U.S.-Iraqi agreement.
Many Iraqis, let US admit this quite frankly, consider them as occupying
troops,' Churkin said of the multinational force.
Naturally, we are not speaking here of the immediate evacuation of the
multinational forces, since so far conditions do not exist for this,' he
said.
Churkin cited recent events in southern Iraq and elsewhere including
Baghdad as an indication that Iraqi forces are still not ready to full
shoulder responsibility for providing for security in the country and
for effectively countering various types of militias.'
At the same time, however, he warned that if a bilateral agreement on the
further presence of foreign forces turns into a mere change of signs,
this will not help clarify the issue of the continuation of such a
presence and that will hardly help in a radical improvement of the
situation in Iraq.'
Asked about Churkin's comment, Khalilzad called the Russian ambassador's
concerns premature' since we are in the middle of those discussions with
Iraqis ... (and) we don't quite know what the outcome would be.'
AP
=======================================
Iran discusses
nuclear proposals with Russia
April 29, 2008
TEHRAN, April 28: Iran has prepared a package
of “serious” proposals to help defuse a nuclear row with world powers,
chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili said on Monday after talks with a
top Russian official.
Iran said this month it would unveil ideas to help end the dispute over
its nuclear programme, which the West says is aimed at producing nuclear
bombs.
Tehran, which insists its atomic programme is aimed only at generating
electricity, has been hit by three rounds of UN sanctions since 2006 for
refusing UN demands to halt sensitive nuclear work.
“Iran ... has serious proposals regarding the nuclear issue, about what to
do to minimise the nuclear threat around the world,” Jalili said without
giving details of the package.
The proposals were discussed with Valentin Sobolev, acting secretary of
Russia’s National Security Council, an Iranian official said. Further
talks would be held on Tuesday, he added.
Sobolev, speaking through an interpreter at a joint news conference with
Jalili, said he had discussed the nuclear issue, as well as technical
and military cooperation.
“Iran’s activities are peaceful and not a threat against any country,” the
Russian said.
The United States and Britain this month vowed a united effort to stop
what they say is Iran’s bid to build a nuclear bomb, possibly by
expanding sanctions.
Russia, along with China, has been reluctant to back more sanctions in the
past although it supported all three UN resolutions when it came to a
vote at the UN Security Council.
World powers are considering enhancing a package of trade and other
incentives for Iran, previously proposed in 2006, if it stops enriching
uranium, which can be used as nuclear fuel or, if so desired, provide
material for bombs.
ACCUSATIONS: Jalili said Iran was ready for talks with world powers but
said such discussions had to respect the Islamic Republic’s position,
including its role as a regional player.
“We prepared a proposal to be handed over and on those issues we think we
can talk to influential powers which want to establish peace and
stability in the world and respect the integrity of countries. We can
sit down and talk to them,” he said, adding the package covered
political and security issues.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said this month Iran would
reveal proposals with a “new orientation”.
The talks with Russia came the same day Olli Heinonen, the International
Atomic Energy Agency’s top investigator, arrived in Tehran to discuss
international accusations that Iran researched how to make nuclear
bombs.
Heinonen had visited Iran last week. After that trip, the IAEA said Tehran
had agreed on steps to clarify the intelligence information by the end
of May. Iran had earlier dismissed the intelligence as baseless and
declined to address it in detail.
“We will cooperate with the agency as the only relevant technical
organisation, and in case of any question or ambiguity we will provide
the answers away from any political ballyhoo,” Iran’s IAEA ambassador,
Ali Asghar Soltanieh, said.
In comments reported by Iran’s Fars News Agency, he said Heinonen’s talks
would likely last three days, starting on Monday.
In a presentation in February, Heinonen indicated links in Iran between
projects to process uranium, test explosives and modify a missile cone
in a way suitable for a nuclear warhead.
The intelligence came variously from a laptop computer given to Washington
by an Iranian defector in 2004, from some other Western countries and
the agency’s own inquiries.
Reuters
=============================================
Iran
discusses package of nuclear proposals with Russia
April 29, 2008
TEHRAN, Iran --Iran and Russia on Monday
discussed the outlines of "serious proposals" aimed at assuring the
international community that Tehran's nuclear program is peaceful, state
media reported.
Top Iranian nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili did not provide details of the
proposals but said Tehran will soon unveil them publicly.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran has serious proposals about what to do to
reduce threats resulting from the nuclear issue to the minimum," Jalili
was quoted as saying by Iran's official news agency IRNA.
Later Monday, Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, head of the Atomic Energy
Organization of Iran, called the package "a comprehensive plan"
addressed to the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council
plus Germany.
"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 news conference.
Aghazadeh said the package was discussed Monday with acting Russian
Security Council Secretary Valentin Sobolev during his visit to Iran,
but was addressed to the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia
and China.
Those countries have pledged to enhance a 2006 package of political,
security and economic incentives in return for Iran halting uranium
enrichment. Iran has said it would not trade its rights for incentives.
Russia has been a key ally to Iran in its nuclear standoff with the West,
but also has voted in favor of three rounds of U.N. Security Council
sanctions against Iran for its failure to halt uranium enrichment.
Iran has denied pursuing nuclear weapons, saying its program is geared
toward generating electricity.
Also Monday, the deputy chief of the U.N. nuclear monitoring agency
arrived in Tehran to discuss Iran's controversial nuclear program.
His second visit in two weeks comes only days after the International
Atomic Energy Agency said it had reached a "milestone" agreement with
Iran that aims to provide answers to allegations that Tehran has tried
to develop nuclear weapons.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said Sunday that
Iran was willing to discuss any issue with the U.N. nuclear watchdog but
maintained the country had already answered all outstanding questions
about its nuclear program.
Associated Press
=======================================
India not to initiate discussion on Iran's nuclear program
April 29, 2008
India will not initiate a discussion on Iran's
nuclear programme during talks with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Tuesday.
Officials pointed out the controversial issue could only be discussed if
the Iranian leader raised it.
"We will not raise the nuclear issue with Iran," an official of the
external affairs ministry, who declined to be named, said Monday.
"But we will not shy away from discussing it if the Iranian president
decides to raise it during talks with our leaders," he added, IANS
reported.
The US has been rebuffed by India for suggesting that the issue of Iran's
nuclear programme should be raised during Ahmadinejad's talks with
Indian leaders.
Ahmadinejad is scheduled to make a six-hour stopover in New Delhi Tuesday
on his way from Sri Lanka.
He was in Pakistan Monday where he held discussions with leaders in
Islamabad on bilateral relations and other issues of interest to the two
countries. This will be his first visit to India.
The Iranian president is scheduled to call on his Indian counterpart
Pratibha Patil at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
But his 'substantive' meeting will be with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and National Security Advisor
M K Narayanan will also be present at the meeting between Singh and
Ahmadinejad.
The Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline will definitely be one of the
issues for discussion. But India will also be keen to get Ahmadinejad's
views on the situation in both Afghanistan and Iraq.
"We have major stakes in Afghanistan and it will be an ideal opportunity
for us to get a view from the Iranian President on how the situation
there is evolving, especially in the wake of reports about re-grouping
by the Taliban," the official said.
IRNA
====================================
President urges promotion of marine trade
April 29, 2008
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday called
for promotion of navigation and marine trade.
He made the remarks in his message to a seminar on marine held in this
southeastern port city on the occasion of the National Persian Gulf Day
(April 30).
The president's message to the seminar was read by Ali Taheri, Managing
Director of Ports and Shipping Organization and Deputy Minister of Road
and Transportation.
"Today, the world, more than any other time, is in dire need of
interaction among various nations," President Ahmadinejad said, adding
that shipping plays a key role in the transportation industry.
"Some 90 percent of transportation of goods is done via seas," the message
said underlining the importance of shipping industry and navigation in
modern world.
Iran, enjoying over 3,000 km of coastal line, is considered as a big and
influential coastal country in the region and in the entire globe, it
noted.
The president, in his message, further said that the Persian Gulf plays a
decisive role in the country's sustainable development.
Kharg, Abu Mousa, Greater and Lesser Tunbs, Kish, Qeshm and Lavan are
among the major islands of the Persian Gulf belonging to Iran.
To safeguard the cultural and historical identity of the Iranian nation,
the High Council of Cultural Revolution has called April 30, marking the
withdrawal of Portuguese forces from the Strait of Hormuz as the
National Persian Gulf Day.
Exploration of oil and gas in the Persian Gulf made it to be considered as
one of the world most important economic centers.
The Persian Gulf with its God-granted major resources has been playing a
decisive role in Iran's economic and social development in the past
1,400 years.
The Persian Gulf is the world third biggest gulf, after Mexican and Hudson
gulfs.
IRNA
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