|
Prayer Time (Tehran)
|
|
Dawn: 05:45
Sunrise: 07:15
Noon: 12:07
Evening: 17:20
|
|
Weather Guide
|
|
|
SAT |
SUN |
Tehran: |
|
|
High: |
6 oC |
6 oC |
Low: |
0 oC |
-1 oC |
|
|
|
Athens |
13 |
14 |
Ankara |
4 |
2 |
Paris |
7 |
7 |
New Delhi |
21 |
23 |
Rome |
12 |
12 |
Riyadh |
18 |
18 |
Frankfurt |
1 |
3 |
Cairo |
22 |
21 |
Kuwait City |
15 |
16 |
Karachi |
25 |
22 |
Copenhagen |
0 |
4 |
London |
8 |
9 |
Moscow |
-1 |
-2 |
Madrid |
11 |
10 |
Vienna |
0 |
2 |
|
|
Identification
|
|
Published by the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA)
Address:
Iran Cultural & Press Institute, #212 Khorramshahr Avenue Tehran/Iran
Managing Director: Mohammad T. Roghaniha
Executive Editor: Amin Sabooni
Editorial Dept. Tel: 8755761-2
Editorial Dept. Fax: 8761869
Advertising Dept. Tel: 8753119, 8757702, 8733764
Internet Address:
www.iran-daily.com
E-mail Address:
iran-daily@iran-daily.com
|
|
|
|
Ahmadinejad:
Gov’t Above Politics
TEHRAN, Dec. 30--President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the government does not belong to any political faction.
Addressing a cabinet meeting on Thursday, also attended by governors general, Ahmadinejad said, “You are not indebted to any particular political current and you should not accept any imposition. You should be careful about upholding public rights. You should feel that you are indebted to the Islamic Revolution, the people, martyrs and sacrificers. You should only consider the public interest and try toÉfulfill what is necessary to improve the people’s living conditions.“
Ahmadinejad stressed that the governors general should act like the father of the residents of the province.
“He should establish close bonds with the people, who usually do not find the opportunity to discuss their problems with officials, and should be at the service of the people. He should not develop any affiliations with political parties,“ he said. In this meeting, cabinet members discussed the 2006-7 budget and also appointed new governors general for Kurdestan and Hamedan.
Esmail Najjar and Behrouz Moradi were selected as new governors general of Kurdestan and Hamedan respectively.
The cabinet also ratified issues pertaining to the environment, transportation sector and administrative reforms.
|
|
|
Gas Crisis in Iraq
Chalabi Takes Over Oil Ministry
|
|
An Iraqi police officer guards as he watches vehicles stuck in a traffic jam as a result of gas shortages in the town of Baquba, Dec. 30. (AFP Photo)
|
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 30--Long lines formed at gas stations in Baghdad on Friday as word spread that Iraq’s largest oil refinery had shut down in the face of threats against truck drivers and fears grew of a gas shortage.
Also in the capital, a suicide car bomber and a mortar killed six people and injured 23 people in separate attacks Friday, police said, AP reported.
The car bomber blew himself up next to a police patrol in a commercial area, killing three Iraqi civilians, and the mortar landed in a market, killing three Iraqi civilians and injuring 21. The market was closed because of the Friday holiday.
An international team, meanwhile, agreed on Thursday to assess Iraq’s parliamentary elections, a decision lauded by Sunni Arab and secular Shiite groups who have staged repeated protests around Iraq complaining of widespread fraud and intimidation.
The Shiite religious bloc leading after the Dec. 15 poll also welcomed the decision and said it would help end any doubts about the elections.
Iraq’s largest oil refinery, in Beiji, was shut down on Dec. 18 because of the deteriorating security situation in the region, Oil Minister Ibrahim Bahr Al-Uloum told The Associated Press on Friday.
He said the facility “is considered one of the vital refineries in Iraq“ and produces about 2 million gallons of gas a day.
As word of the shutdown spread through the country, several hundred cars waited at one of Baghdad’s biggest gas station.
According to an AFP report, Iraq’s Deputy Premier Ahmed Chalabi was put in charge of the oil ministry Friday after the minister, Ibrahim Bahr Al-Uloum, was relieved of his duties for protesting government-imposed petrol price hikes, an official said.
“The government has relieved Bahr Al-Uloum of duties for 30 days and put in charge Mr. Chalabi who heads the energy council,“ the official said on condition of anonymity.
“The decision was taken because of Mr. Bahr Al-Ulum’s objections to the early introduction of higher petrol prices,“ the official said.
The outgoing Iraqi government earlier this month announced a tripling of petrol prices in a bid to reduce subsidies, a move which sparked angry protests across the country.
|
|
|
Nuclear Proposals Under Review
TEHRAN, Dec. 30--Iran’s top nuclear negotiator said on Friday Iran is seriously considering new proposals for peaceful settlement of its nuclear issue.
Javad Vaedi, Supreme National Security Council’s deputy for international security affairs, also told Fars News Agency that assurances should be provided for carrying out uranium enrichment operations inside Iran on the basis of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) guidelines.
He said Russia’s proposal on carrying out uranium enrichment operations outside Iran is an ’idea’.
“Apart from what we call this ’idea’, Iran is seriously considering new proposals and ideas for the resolution of its nuclear issue,“ he noted.
Vaedi noted that although Iran is dissatisfied with the concept of “negotiations for the sake of negotiations“, the least benefit of the negotiations is that Iran will no longer be viewed as a serious threat to international peace and security.
He stressed that agreements reached between Iran and the EU-3 (Britain, France and Germany) in Vienna are transparent.
“As expected, the two sides insisted on their own stances and the new development is that negotiations will continue on Jan. 18, 2006,“ he said.
Vaedi emphasized that by negotiating with EU-3, Iran aims to facilitate further cooperation with the IAEA.
Meanwhile, France said on Thursday Iran must take steps to end the standoff over its alleged nuclear weapons program, while acknowledging Tehran’s decision to examine a new proposal from Moscow.
“We have noted the public announcement by the Iranian authorities marking their new readiness to seriously study these Russian proposals,“ foreign ministry spokesman Denis Simmoneau told reporters.
“Time is now pressing and it is up to Iran to take the necessary decisions to relaunch a negotiating process, in line with the wishes of the international community.“
|
|
|
Iran to Buy Airplanes from China
BEIJING, Dec. 30--Iran is negotiating with China to buy airplanes and expand its air fleet, an Iranian attachŽ in Beijing said on Friday.
Speaking to the Chinese daily “China Youth“, Farhad Asadi pointed at the US sanctions imposed on Iran and the recent fatal crash of a C-130 plane in Tehran in which 108 journalists, photographers and military personnel were killed.
“This is a historical source of disgrace for the US which uses every possible tactic to defeat a nation that refuses to succumb to the illegitimate demands of Washington,“ he said.
“The issue of imposition of sanctions against a nation in different domains, including a ban on non-military airplane spare parts, can be followed up at international tribunals.“
The Iranian diplomat emphasized that Iran does not fear the US and will not surrender to the American wishes because of the sanctions.
On Tehran-Beijing cooperation in 2006, he said, “Tehran currently has the best possible level of relations with China which is among the top trade partners of Iran. China and Iran possess the potentials to cooperate on a long-term basis by relying on mutual understanding and trust.“
Asadi said the agreement between Iranian and Chinese officials for oil and gas cooperation, which will amount to billions of dollars in the next 25 years, and the implementation of tens of small and big industrial plans in Iran by China indicate the importance of bilateral ties.
|
|
|
Rocket Attack on Israel Shakes Lebanon Coalition
BEIRUT, Lebanon, Dec. 30--A rocket attack on Israel from southern Lebanon, claimed by Al-Qaeda but widely blamed on Shiite fundamentalist movement Hezbollah, has shunted Lebanon’s ruling coalition closer to possible collapse.
The fragile alliance of anti-Syrian politicians and a pro-Damascus Shiite coalition has been shaken by Wednesday’s rocket attack to which Israel responded with an air strike on a Palestinian militia base south of Beirut.
While Al-Qaeda in Iraq claimed the attack in an unverifiable statement, Israel and the United States both insist it could not have taken place without the knowledge of Hezbollah, which has been boycotting the government amid calls for the disarming of its military wing.
Five ministers from pro-Syrian Hezbollah and fellow Shiite bloc Amal have refused to take part in cabinet meetings since December 12 in protest at calls for an international probe into a wave of attacks against Damascus critics.
A source close to Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora told AFP that talks aimed at ending the crisis had stumbled over the application of last year’s UN Security Council Resolution 1559 calling for the disarming of all militias in Lebanon.
Hezbollah militants were instrumental in bringing about the withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon in 2000 and the group insists its forces must remain there to prevent a new Israeli occupation.
An Arab diplomatic source said Hezbollah and Amal were thinking of leaving once and for all the government it formed along with Christians, Sunni Muslims and Druze representing Lebanon’s fractious ethnic patchwork.
Anti-Syrian Druze leader Walid Jumblatt said Damascus was trying to implicate Al-Qaeda in southern Lebanon to try to show that the area had become a “terrorist base“ since Syrian troops quit in April after a 30-year presence.
The leader of Hezbollah’s bloc in parliament, Mohammad Raad, said Siniora’s refusal to sign a new agreement covering the presence of militias in the country was ’unacceptable’.
|
|
|
US Probes Leak of Eavesdropping Program
WASHINGTON,
Dec. 30--The US Justice Department has launched an investigation to determine who disclosed a secret NSA eavesdropping operation approved by President George W. Bush after the Sept. 11 attacks, officials said on Friday.
“We are opening an investigation into the unauthorized disclosure of classified materials related to the NSA,“ one official said.
Earlier this month, Bush acknowledged the program and called its disclosure to The New York Times “a shameful act“. He said he presumed a Justice Department leak investigation into who disclosed the National Security Agency eavesdropping operation would get underway.
Justice Department officials would give no details of who requested the probe or how it would be conducted.
The disclosure of the covert domestic spying program has triggered concerns among both Democrats and Republicans, with many lawmakers questioning whether it violates the US Constitution.
Several lawmakers have backed a planned hearing on the issue by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, a Republican from Pennsylvania.
Bush and senior administration officials have argued that the policy of authorizing--without court orders--eavesdropping on international phone calls and e-mails by Americans suspected of links to terrorism was legal and necessary to help defend the country after the Sept. 11 attacks.
The White House has sought to play down the impact on civil liberties, saying the program was narrow in scope and that key congressional leaders were briefed about it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dim Prospects
By Mohammad Reza M. Karimi
The World Trade Organization’s battle of wits at Hong Kong did not take the world closer to a trade liberalization accord. It only intensified the conflict of interest between the developed, developing and least developed states.
The so-called compromise deal reached after six days of negotiations, lobbying and trade-offs was largely symbolic. It agreed to end one type of agricultural subsidies, namely export subsidies, which make up less than 2 percent of total subsidies, by 2013. And offered tariff-free access to 49 poorest countries, comprising less than 1 percent of all trade.
But the downside is that developing and least developed countries were pressured to agree to open their economies to manufactured goods and services in exchange for access to agricultural markets in the industrialized countries.
Imagine leaving basic services like water, power, education, health, transportation, telecommunication, banking, insurance and tourism at the mercy of foreign capitalists.
Efforts to force this non-consensual clause down the throats of delegations were supported by India, which once again allied with the big powers to repeat its performance at the International Atomic Energy Agency in September--the backstabbing of Iranians. This time around, other developing peers were at the receiving end.
The deal to liberalize services sector is unpalatable to most developing countries. It is nothing but a recipe for disaster.
Even proposals to increase Aid for Trade funding by the US, the European Union and Japan are tied with damaging concessions from developing countries in the form of tariff reductions.
Look at the issues of ensuring generic production of essential medicines, aviation deregulation or a fair deal concerning textile, banana, rice, etc. In fact, every single WTO sector is marked with disagreements and a selfish tug of war.
A number of recent studies, including the one by the World Bank, indicate that the benefits of trade liberalization and privatization have been massively overestimated. And the benefits that do occur go primarily to developed countries.
Another global public opinion survey carried out for the World Economic Forum in 20 countries paints an alarming picture of declining levels of trust in the trade body.
Only WTO officials and beneficiaries can make claims about WTO boosting economic growth, creating jobs and spreading prosperity without choking. This lends weight to critiques that WTO poses a threat to indigenous development, climate change and global diversity.
Today developing member-states are being pressured into deregulation and amendment of constitution and laws to comply with WTO requirements. Tomorrow it will be the turn of Iran.
The implications are clear. Iran should carry out impartial, comprehensive studies on the repercussions of joining WTO. It has to get its act together by focusing on sectors with comparative advantages and rid the economy of unhelpful monopolies and subsidies.
Iran is already struggling to retain the level of its traditional exports. Where can it export its problems?
A sustainable international trade accord can only be reached when all sides are convinced of a fair deal. This calls for greater empathy and lesser greed; in other words understanding and compromise. Otherwise, prospects for WTO will continue to dim as it proceeds toward the 2006 deadline.
|
|
|
|
|
|
