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Prayer Time (Tehran)
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Dawn: 3:39
Sunrise: 5:15
Noon: 12:10
Evening: 19:25
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Weather Guide
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SAT |
SUN |
Tehran: |
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High: |
38 oC |
38 oC |
Low: |
27 oC |
25 oC |
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Athens |
34 |
32 |
Ankara |
36 |
37 |
Cairo |
36 |
36 |
Copenhagen |
22 |
25 |
Frankfurt |
18 |
23 |
Karachi |
29 |
28 |
Kuwait City |
46 |
46 |
London |
26 |
27 |
Madrid |
33 |
33 |
Moscow |
20 |
20 |
New Delhi |
33 |
31 |
Paris |
25 |
27 |
Riyadh |
44 |
43 |
Rome |
27 |
26 |
Vienna |
22 |
20 |
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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
Executive Editor: Amin Sabooni
Editorial Dept. Tel: 88755761-2
Editorial Dept. Fax: 88761869
Advertising Dept. Tel: 88501499, 88737250
Internet Address:
www.iran-daily.com
E-mail Address:
iran-daily@iran-daily.com
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UN Has Lost Credibility
US, UK Responsible
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President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
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KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Aug. 4--Iran will continue its support for Lebanon and oppressed countries since the United Nations has failed to provide security and ensure the safety of its member countries, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a press conference in Putrajaya on Thursday.
He blamed the United States and Britain for the ongoing crisis in Lebanon and said the UN Security Council has failed to carry out its obligations, IRNA reported.
“We have declared that we will support nations that are suppressed. I am sorry to say that the UN Security Council, under the influence of Americans, has lost its credibility. It’s regrettable that the Security Council was the first to oppose a ceasefire in Lebanon when in actuality its task is to establish peace and security,“ he said, after the meeting of the Friends of the Chair of 10th Islamic Summit Conference in the Malaysian administrative capital.
The one-day meeting, initiated by Malaysia, was attended by 18 member-states of the Organization of Islamic Conference. The organization has 57 members that representing nearly one billion Muslims.
He noted that Lebanon was a classic example where the United Nations failed to exercise its duties and allowed Israel to destroy the Lebanese nation.
“The question is if an international organization cannot protect its own staff, how can they create peace and stability in the world?“ he asked.
The Iranian president declared that a new Middle East would be established but with the absence of Israel which, he said, was the main reason for Middle East instability since past 60 years.
“A new Middle East will prevail without the existence of Israel. Palestine will exist with territorial integrity and Muslims, Jews and Christians will live peacefully in the new Middle East,“ he said.
Ahmadinejad pointed out that the Zionist regime’s attack on Lebanon is not a conventional aggression of a government against another country, since its dimensions and goals are extensive.
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Israeli Raid Kills 33 Lebanese Civilians
BEIRUT, Lebanon, Aug. 4--An Israeli air strike killed at least 33 farm workers in northeastern Lebanon on Friday and Hezbollah fired scores of rockets into Israel in a worsening conflict that world powers have failed to halt.
Most of the dead and 20 wounded were taken to nearby Syria after the raid near Qaa in the Bekaa Valley, Reuters reported.
At least three rockets hit a farm where workers, mostly Syrian Kurds, were loading plums and peaches on to trucks, local officials said.
It was the second deadliest strike in Lebanon after an air raid killed up to 54 civilians in the village of Qana on Sunday.
Israeli aircraft also destroyed four bridges on the main coastal highway north of Beirut, disrupting efforts to aid civilians displaced or trapped by the conflict in Lebanon.
With no action to end the 24-day-old war emerging from the United Nations, fierce fighting raged in the south as Israeli troops tried to expand seven small border enclaves they control.
Hezbollah guerrillas fired more than 100 rockets into northern Israel, killing three people and wounding several, medics said. Rockets killed eight Israelis on Thursday.
The bombing of bridges in the Christian heartlands north of Beirut cut off the coastal highway to Syria, which the United Nations called its “umbilical cord“ for aid to Lebanon.
The bridge at Maameltein, north of Beirut, was split by a huge crater which partially engulfed a crushed minivan. Further north, another bridge lay in the valley it once spanned.
The European Commission said Israeli bombing of routes north of Beirut had made it harder to deliver humanitarian aid.
Hezbollah said its fighters had destroyed eight Israeli tanks and an armored troop carrier in fighting around the southern villages of Markaba, Aita Al-Shaab and Taibeh.
At least 720 people in Lebanon and 73 Israelis have been killed in the conflict, ignited by a cross-border raid in which Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers on July 12.
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Spread of Lebanon War Foreseen
TEHRAN, Aug. 4--Leader of Lebanese Shiites Allameh Seyyed Hassan Fadhlallah on Friday accused some pro-US Arab states of trying to ensure the continuation of the war in Lebanon for defeating Hezbollah, predicting that the flames of war would spread to all Arab and Muslim states.
Delivering the Friday prayer sermon in Beirut, Allameh Fadhlallah added that the US and Israeli allies as well as some Arab countries are encouraging the enemy to continue the war in Lebanon, Mehr News Agency reported.
The top Lebanese cleric noted that the US aims to attack all Arab countries, even its pro-American allies, with the assistance of Israel.
Fadhlallah also stressed that the US intends to make Israel the biggest regional powerhouse and wants Israel to act as its proxy for attacking Arab countries.
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Massive Pro-Hezbollah Rally
In Baghdad
BAGHDAD, Iraq,
Aug. 4--Hundreds of thousands of Shiites chanting “Death to Israel“ and “Death to America“ marched through the streets of Baghdad’s biggest Shiite district Friday in a massive show of support for Hezbollah in its battle against Israel.
No violence was reported during the rally in Sadr City, AP reported.
But at least 35 people were killed elsewhere in the country, most of them in car bombings and gunbattle in northern Iraq. The demonstration was the biggest in the Middle East in support of Hezbollah since Israel launched its attacks against the guerrillas in Lebanon on July 12. The protest was organized by Shiite cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr, whose political movement built around the Mahdi Army militia has been modeled after Hezbollah.
Demonstrators, wearing white shrouds symbolizing willingness to die for Hezbollah, waved the guerrillas’ yellow banner and chanted slogans in support of their leader Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, which has attained a cult status in the Arab world for its defiance of Israeli military power.
“Saddam and Bush, Two Faces of One Coin“ was scrawled on Bush’s effigy.
The absence of violence also attested to the control that Sadr’s Mahdi militia wields over Sadr City.
In the latest violence on Friday, a suicide car bomber blew up a police patrol, killing four policemen in the northern city of Mosul, provincial police commander Maj. Gen. Withiq Al-Hamdani said. Eight insurgents were killed in the subsequent gunbattle, he said.
Another suicide car bomber drove into a soccer field Thursday evening and blew up the vehicle and himself, killing three policemen and seven spectators, said police Col. Abdul Karim Ahmed Khalaf said. Fifteen people, including nine policemen, were injured. The policemen were on security duty at the game in Hadhra, 70 kilometer (45 miles) southeast of Mosul. Ten other people were killed across the country since Thursday, and one body was found Friday.
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Larijani: US Escalating Mideast Insecurity, Terrorism
LONDON, Aug. 4--Iran’s top security official said on Thursday the United States’ adventurism is the reason behind escalation of insecurity and terrorism in the Middle East.
In an exclusive interview with Channel 4 News of the British television, Ali Larijani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, added that the war in Lebanon is not a war between Iran and the US, but a war between the US and all Muslim nations, IRNA reported.
“There is no doubt that the Americans have a role to play in this adventure,“ he said, when asked by Jon Snow whether the Israel-Lebanon crisis was a proxy war.
Referring to the so-called US initiative to create a new Middle East, he said that the US is following some “reactionary adventures and tendencies in the region“.
Asked whether Iran has a responsibility to engage with Israel and the international community, Larijani replied that “we have a sense of responsibility and we feel responsible when it comes to international relations and we have tried to create security in the region“.
He noted that in the last 27 years, Iran has never acted aggressively against any of its neighbors but has suffered at the hands of the Americans in different ways either directly or indirectly.
Asked about the possibility of direct negotiations with Israel and the United States, Larijani said, “The problem with the US is not an emotional problem. The problem is related to the behavior of Americans. Americans should change their views.“
Commenting on the Iraqi situation, Larijani said, “Iran has been a refuge for Kurdish, Shiite and Sunni leaders of Iraq during the rule of Saddam Hussein. We were against the occupation of Iraq because we suffered the most damage from Saddam.“
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Research Budget Poor
MASHHAD, Razavi Khorasan, Aug. 4--Minister of Science Mohammad Mehdi Zahedi on Friday criticized the shortage of research budget and expressed concerns about its adverse impact on the country’s sustainable scientific advancement.
Zahedi, who was visiting an exhibition in Bojnourd, added that lack of support for the elites and shortage of research budgets can endanger the drive for scientific progress, ISNA reported.
He noted that in the past year university-oriented research endeavors did not increase due to shortage of funds.
“In the past year, the number of research projects declined due to shortage of funds. This impedes applied research and fulfillment of the objectives of the 20-Year Vision,“ he said.
The minister referred to the objectives of the 20-Year Vision, based on which Iran should rank first in terms of research in the Muslim world and said the slow pace of research activities nationwide is worrisome.
The science minister further said that expansion of Bojnourd University is among his ministry’s priorities.
“The fact that people have contributed money for establishing Bojnourd University stems from their craving for knowledge,“ he said, stressing the need to establish an applied sciences university in North Khorasan province.
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Attacks on Afghan Schools
Rise Sixfold
GENEVA, Aug. 4--School burnings and explosions in Afghanistan have risen sixfold so far this year, the UN children’s fund said Friday, calling the ’appalling’ attacks by insurgent groups a threat to the future of the country.
UNICEF said it has monitored more than 60 school attacks in the country so far this year and called on all groups to stop targeting innocent children and teachers, AP reported.
“The children of Afghanistan have a right to education. Threats, intimidation and violent attacks on students in school undermine the very fabric of the future of Afghan society,“ spokesman Patrick McCormick said.
Six children have died as a result of attacks on schools this year, according to UNICEF.
McCormick, speaking to reporters at the UN’s European headquarters in Geneva, said the children’s agency did not know who was committing the attacks, noting that “no one has ever claimed responsibility“.
But he said the agency increasingly was worried that education gains made since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2002 could be reversed by schools closing and students staying at home as a result of attacks and threats.
More than 5 million children have returned to the classroom since 2002, including large numbers of girls previously discriminated against under the rule of the fundamentalist Islamic regime, according to UNICEF.
The agency estimates that more than 100,000 children in four southern provinces are being prevented from going to school because of closures. It praised the Afghan government for its effort in trying to make Afghan schools “a place of learning and not of fear“, but noted that numerous challenges remain.
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Loud and Clear
By Mohammad Reza Mohammad Karimi
The UN Security Council resolution of July 31 gave Iran a month to halt its uranium enrichment activities or face sanctions.
The main motive of the five veto powers, especially the US, is apparently to prevent Iran from mastering the nuclear fuel cycle. Will the resolution achieve this?
Iran is only a step away from producing nuclear fuel at the industrial level for electricity generation. It also has the national backing to be able to withstand the bullying of nuclear powers that wish to monopolize the sector.
Following the resolution, the Iranian Parliament also reiterated its support for the continuation of the nuclear program.
Nevertheless, the lack of understanding on the part of Group 5+1 (the five veto powers plus Germany)--purportedly leading initiatives to end the standoff--was further demonstrated by the recent visit of Germany’s ex-foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, to Iran.
Fischer said Europe recognizes Iran’s nuclear right and only wants it to build international confidence.
Since uranium enrichment is authorized under the Non-Proliferation Treaty, to which Iran is a signatory, pressuring Iran to forego that is a violation, and not a recognition, of this right. As far as confidence-building measures are concerned, what do you call the suspension of Iran’s enrichment activities for two years, its voluntary abidance by the IAEA Additional Protocol and over 2,000 inspector-days of snap inspections by the UN nuclear watchdog?
This doublespeak was the main reason why the precondition--that Iran suspend uranium enrichment for getting economic and technological incentives as well as talks--failed to produce the desired result.
The Iranians see little leeway in these so-called incentives: they’re damned if they accept it and damned if they don’t. A Catch-22 offer, if you will.
Because if the Iranians were to accept the precondition, they will have to wait for a clean chit from the International Atomic Energy Agency and the UN Security Council, particularly the United States. And that could take years, if not decades.
And if they refuse to accept the proposal, the US will use “all the options“ it constantly threatens Iran with. However, they realize that the two main options of sanctions and military attack are neither viable nor effective.
That’s because Iran has already succeeded in circumventing the US sanctions imposed in 1996 and reauthorized in 2001 by attracting energy investments, while Pentagon officers recently warned the US administration that a military attack would fail to scuttle the country’s nuclear program.
Iran’s adversaries would also do well to remember that the country has managed without the trade and technology incentives since the 1979 Islamic Revolution and believes it can do without them in future as well.
It stands to reason that if Iranians agree to suspend uranium enrichment and take the incentives in return, what’s the big deal about the offer of talks?
The two sides should sit down for talks precisely to discuss the uranium enrichment program.
So, what’s next? The Iranians have promised to respond to the package by Aug. 22. They could also come up with a counter proposal, because their prime concern is to prevent attempts to put Iran’s nuclear program in cold storage.
Mistrust and suspicions are rife on both sides of the divide. Iranians believe the US wants diplomatic initiatives to fail, so that the onus will be on Iran for acting against the will of the international community.
However, attempts to create international consensus against Iran have met with setbacks: the 114-member Non-Aligned Movement and the 57-strong Organization of the Islamic Conference, for instance, have come out in support of Iran’s right to nuclear enrichment.
Continued intransigence and pressures on Iran’s nuclear program will only deepen Muslim distrust and anger toward the UN Security Council, especially the US.
If the Bush administration is keen to show a foreign policy success in an election year, it should agree to unconditional talks and negotiate a cap on Iran’s enrichment to a level needed for producing reactor fuel. This can be enforced under the IAEA supervision through talks, which can help ease the unnecessary tensions.
And it’s not as if only Iran stands to benefit from a compromise. The US will also reap huge benefits in the form of oil and trade contracts since Iranians would sideline the Europeans who are perceived as American lackeys.
The US should realize the folly of pushing its anti-Iran line further and instead put the precondition of suspending uranium enrichment behind the horse to set the cart of reconciliation rolling.
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