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Prayer Time (Tehran)
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Dawn: 05:45
Sunrise: 07:14
Noon: 12:13
Evening: 17:33
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Weather Guide
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SAT |
SUN |
Tehran: |
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High: |
5 oC |
4 oC |
Low: |
-1 oC |
-3 oC |
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Athens |
7 |
7 |
Ankara |
2 |
2 |
Paris |
6 |
6 |
New Delhi |
21 |
22 |
Rome |
10 |
10 |
Riyadh |
21 |
18 |
Frankfurt |
0 |
0 |
Cairo |
17 |
17 |
Kuwait City |
17 |
17 |
Karachi |
27 |
26 |
Copenhagen |
2 |
2 |
London |
10 |
10 |
Moscow |
-1 |
-2 |
Madrid |
6 |
6 |
Vienna |
0 |
0 |
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Identification
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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
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Iran Will Not Yield
Right to Nuclear Technology
Scientific Progress Under Attack
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Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
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BANDAR ABBAS, Hormuzgan, Jan. 13--President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Friday Iran will not by any means forfeit its right to access peaceful nuclear technology.
“The global powers, which build tens of nuclear power plants every year, are trying to deprive Iran of its legal rights,“ the president told a public gathering in Bastak, IRNA reported.
Referring to the applications of nuclear technology in the fields of medicine, agriculture and energy, Ahmadinejad said, “Today nuclear energy is the top form of energyÉand certain powers wish to monopolize this form of energy. The enemies of the Islamic system want to sell nuclear energy at a high price to other nations when fossil fuel is depleted and impose their hegemony,“ he said, noting that the enemies are opposed to scientific progress of other nations, and not to nuclear weapons because they themselves possess them.
The president stressed that all global norms and regulations allow Iran to access peaceful nuclear technology by relying on scientific advancement and its youth.
“Iran does not fear the threats of enemies,“ he said.
Meanwhile, in response to the reaction of the EU-3 regarding Iran’s peaceful nuclear activities, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki urged Britain, France and Germany on Friday to exercise self-restraint.
The EU-3 foreign ministers in a press conference in Berlin said on Thursday Iran’s nuclear dossier will likely be referred to the UN Security Council.
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362 Die in Haj Stampede
No Iranian Among Victims
MINA, Saudi Arabia, Jan. 13--A total of 362 pilgrims, including about 100 Egyptian nationals, were killed in the stampede at the annual hajj pilgrimage, a senior Saudi medical official told AFP on Friday.
“We now have 362 dead, including about 100 Egyptians,“ said Hussein Saleh Bahashwan, deputy director at Al-Muaysem Morgue, just outside the city of Mina, east of the holy city of Mecca.
Saudi Arabia blamed unruly pilgrims on Friday for the crush, but many Muslims said better security could have averted the worst disaster to befall the rite in 16 years.
The pilgrims were crushed on the last day of the haj at the disaster-prone Jamarat Bridge in Mena, a narrow valley near the holy city of Mecca, as they jostled to perform a stoning ritual in the early afternoon.
The legitimacy of Saudi Arabia’s ruling house rests in the eyes of many Muslims on its ability to host some 2.5 million haj pilgrims from all over the world every year.
Abdollah Nassiri, public relations manager of Iran’s Haj and Pilgrimage Organization, said in Mecca on Thursday all Iranian pilgrims are in good health.
Nassiri added that the Iranian medical team has announced that no Iranian pilgrims are among the victims.
Some pilgrims said the authorities failed to impose their own rules on the ritual, which has seen similar deadly stampedes in the past.
In 2004, some 250 pilgrims were crushed to death at Jamarat Bridge. A decade earlier, 270 were killed in a similar stampede.
Thursday’s death toll was the highest since 1,426 people were killed in a stampede in a tunnel in Mecca in 1990.
This year’s haj had already been marred by the collapse of a Mecca hostel that killed 76 people last week.
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EU Powers:
Too Soon for Sanctions
PARIS, Jan. 13--Iran should be referred to the UN Security Council for its defiance in resuming nuclear research, European governments said on Friday, cautioning that it was too early to consider imposing sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
France, Germany and Britain took the first step toward moving the issue before the council, calling for a meeting of the UN nuclear watchdog as the diplomatic standoff between Tehran and the West escalated.
Iran resumed nuclear activities this week, defiantly claiming it had the right to pursue atomic research for peaceful means, despite Western worries that the technology can be used to make atomic bombs.
On Friday, Tehran threatened to withhold cooperation with the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) if it is referred to the Security Council.
Tehran’s new ambassador to the UN agency said on Friday Iran is keen to continue negotiations with Europe over its nuclear program and maintain cooperation with the IAEA, despite calls for its referral to the UN Security Council.
“We are determined to continue our work, our full cooperation with the agency,“ Ali Asgar Soltanieh said during a press conference at the International Atomic Energy Agency’s headquarters.
“We are a people for dialogue, for negotiation,“ he said. “We warmly welcome the opportunity to negotiate with the Europeans.“
Britain, France and Germany, which led drawn-out negotiations with Iran over the crisis, said that they would consult with “key partners“ before pushing for sanctions--a move aimed at ensuring support from all five veto-wielding permanent members of the UN Security Council.
“The question of sanctions is premature,“ French Foreign Ministry Spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei said.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the call for an IAEA meeting was “not necessarily saying“ there would be sanctions.
“Military action against Iran is also not on the table,“ he said.
In Berlin, foreign ministry spokesman Martin Jaeger also called sanctions ’premature’.
“We first want to speak to our relevant partners,“ he said.
France, Britain, Germany and the United States were bolstered in their decision to seek referral to the council by Russia, a fellow permanent council member and longtime partner with Iran on energy issues.
“We again call on Iran to revise its decisions and resume the moratorium and engage in full and transparent cooperation with the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency),“ Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said in a written statement, indicating Moscow could support the Security Council referral.
All five permanent Security Council members--including China--and officials from other EU countries will meet in London on Monday, when they are expected to set a date for the crunch meeting of the IAEA, a diplomat in Vienna said.
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WB, EU Pledge Bird Flu Aid
78 Dead So Far
ANKARA, Turkey,
Jan. 13--The World Bank and the European Union pledged a combined $600 million in aid to boost the global fight against bird flu on Friday and Turkey stepped up the culling of birds to try to stop the deadly virus spreading further.
Makers of the TamiFlu drug, the best known defense against the deadly H5N1 strain of bird Flu, said on Friday they would donate more antiviral pills to Asia, the epicenter of the threat to global health, Reuters reported.
The World Bank was pressing for funding to help the worst-affected countries cope, and endorsed spending $500 million, ahead of a meeting of donors next week in Beijing where it was hoped $1 billion more would be pledged.
World Bank Vice President Jim Adams told Reuters that Kyrgyzstan would be the first beneficiary and would get $5 million to prepare for bird Flu. He said Turkey could be in line for some money, too.
The $100 million in European Union aid comes after the virus jumped from birds to humans and has killed at least 78.
A British laboratory found that two of the first Turkish victims were infected with a slightly mutated strain of H5N1.
Although it did not seem to be more dangerous, the mutation in theory could help the virus more easily pass from a chicken to a human. Of gravest concern is that the H5N1 virus will mutate so it passes from human to human.
The human victims of the disease had all been in East Asia until the recent outbreak in Turkey brought the virus towards the edge of Europe. Iran has started mass culling of poultry along its border with Turkey to try to stop the disease from spreading, a health ministry official said on Friday.
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Nuclear Energy Benefits Agricultural, Medical Sectors
By Sadeq Dehqan
A university professor of Islamic Azad University said on Wednesday that by utilizing nuclear energy the share of watershed areas in causing soil erosion can be estimated and investments can accordingly be regulated.
Mohsen Bigdeli added that land in watershed areas is washed by rainwater and the soil of these areas is transferred to the adjacent plains.
“By using radio isotope, the role of each watershed in washing down the soil can be evaluated. The norm is that heavy elements in soil contain heavier isotopes due to natural radioactive radiation. These heavy elements are different in different areas. For example, the heavy elements in some regions vary from 1 to 2 percent. Therefore, the level of soil resistance to water streams can be assessed by measuring the heavy elements of soil in the upper and lower sections of watershed areas by using nuclear technology.“
“By estimating the level of erosion, watershed areas that could be utilized more frequently can be identified,“ he said.
The university professor also pointed out that the effect of enzymes and vitamins on living organisms can also be accurately measured by using radioactive elements.
Bigdeli noted that nuclear technology has applications in the agricultural sector as well.
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Oil Drops Near $63
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Tehran, Jan. 13--Persepolis Captain Hamed Kavianpour (l) vies for the ball with his compatriot Ali Karimi playing for Bayern Munich during their friendly soccer match in Tehran, Jan. 13. Bayern won 2-1. (ISNA Photo)
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LONDON, Jan. 13--Oil fell towards $63 on Friday as investors took profit from this week’s rally but readied for a protracted period of market unease stemming from the unraveling Iranian nuclear drama.
Royal Dutch/Shell resumed output at its 120,000 barrels per day (bpd) Nigerian EA oilfield that had been closed for two days after gunmen kidnapped foreign oil workers, taking further heat out of the market, Reuters reported.
But 100,00 bpd of Nigerian oil is still shut in because of a pipeline explosion. US crude futures shed 69 cents to $63.25 a barrel at 1327 GMT, after hitting a session peak of $65.10 a barrel on Thursday, the highest level since early October. London Brent crude was down 70 cents at $61.92 a barrel.
If Iran uses its oil exports as a retaliatory political weapon and ceases exports of around 2.4 million bpd, the rest of the world’s spare capacity would struggle to cover the deficit, especially with mounting tensions in Nigeria.
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Battle of Nerves
By Mohammed Reza M. Karimi
Following the resumption of nuclear research by Iran, its western adversaries are up in arms.
The US and the EU-3 (Britain, France and Germany) have scheduled a meeting in London with Russia and China (the two veto powers opposed to referring Iran’s nuclear issue to the United Nations Security Council) and are expected to call for an emergency session of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
This has been accompanied by an extensive media campaign to justify the western political agenda against Iran. The world continues to be bombarded with concoctions about the so-called threat to international peace posed by the Iranian nuclear activities, with the sole objective of pressuring Iran to abandon all nuclear activities.
What have been sacrificed in the European battle of nerves are little-known facts. Nuclear research has been restarted on a lab scale and there is no possibility of nuclear fuel production at this stage. It is only part of the country’s Research & Development program and totally complies with the IAEA bylaws and the Non-Proliferation Treaty provisions.
The Jan. 3 research initiative, as well as the earlier resumption of uranium conversion, has been launched under the supervision of the IAEA. Iran is continuing its active cooperation with the IAEA, despite the western machinations and lies.
ElBaradei, the head of the nuclear watchdog, has announced that he will soon present a report on recent developments. Iranians have no cause for concern, since their transparent activities were acknowledged by ElBaradei in his September report which noted that Iran’s cooperation exceeded NPT obligations.
Iran has also allowed full access to IAEA inspectors and invited international players to participate in its nuclear programs. And the world has seen no trace of any attempt to divert Iran’s civilian nuclear program toward weapons.
Although Iran has bent backwards to prove its peaceful intentions, the western world has shown no willingness to discard the bogey of ambiguity. And the Europeans refuse to specify “objective guarantees“ that could allay those concerns. In fact, this approach is the main cause of EU ambiguity and the resulting Iranian mistrust.
Iran’s next round of nuclear talks with Russians will be held on Feb. 16 and it is optimistic about their cooperation over nuclear fuel production. They also concede Iran’s right to enrich uranium, in principle.
In the meantime, Iran is determined to rally international support for mastering the nuclear fuel cycle on its home territory. Given the worsening energy situation worldwide, the Iranians have no alternative but to pursue a policy that ensures an independent future supply of nuclear fuel.
And the Europeans will only mar their own credibility further by acting illogically. It’s their pragmatism and goodwill toward Iran’s nuclear program which will help work out a solution acceptable to both sides. And there is no need for fireworks to achieve that.
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