Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei addresses officials in charge of implementing new policies regarding Article 44 in Tehran, Feb. 19.

TEHRAN, Feb. 19--Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said on Monday if all government officials and institutions do their best, signs of implementing the general policies of the constitution’s Article 44 will become evident and the nation will become hopeful about their future.
In a meeting with officials in charge of implementing new policies declared by the leader regarding Article 44, Ayatollah Khamenei noted that efforts aimed at materializing these policies constitute jihad, ISNA reported.
He expressed dissatisfaction with attempts made so far for implementing the general policies of Article 44.
“Lack of implementation of Article 44 has undermined the article’s role in bringing about huge economic development in the country,“ he said.
The leader noted that structural reforms, amendment of laws and the role of state institutions in implementing the general policies of Article 44 are important.
“Efforts aimed at bringing about these changes are among the duties of the three branches of power. All state institutions are duty-bound to implement their policies within the framework of Article 44,“ he said.
He pointed out that economic developments after the 1979 Islamic Revolution have not matched the considerable socioeconomic developments that took place during the same period.
“We should provide the international community with a successful economic model by raising per capita income, increasing gross domestic product, participating in international economic competitions, removing poverty and establishing justice in the society,“ he said.
Ayatollah Khamenei also said increasing national wealth and establishing social justice are the two main missions of Islamic economy.

VIENNA, Austria, Feb. 19--Iran’s top nuclear negotiator will meet with the head of UN nuclear watchdog in Vienna on Tuesday, an Iranian official said.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Ali Larijani would meet with Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency.
The official, who works at the Iranian mission to the United Nations in Vienna, declined to give further details, AP reported.
Another person familiar with the meeting, who also requested anonymity, said Larijani was expected to arrive in the Austrian capital Tuesday morning.
Talk of a Vienna meeting comes just days ahead of a Feb. 21 UN Security Council deadline for Iran to halt uranium enrichment or face further economic sanctions. Iran has repeatedly refused to halt enrichment, which is necessary to produce fuel for nuclear reactors but also to make atomic weapons, saying it has the right to pursue a peaceful nuclear program.
The IAEA’s 35-nation board is expected to meet next month to consider whether to suspend nearly half of the technical aid the IAEA provides Iran.
The IAEA report by ElBaradei on Iran’s nuclear program could probably be released on Wednesday, an informed source said on Monday.
A source at the IAEA press section told IRNA that efforts are being made to have the report submitted by Wednesday.
If the report is not ready by Wednesday, it may be submitted on Friday, the source added.
The report will be simultaneously presented to the IAEA Board of Governors and the United Nations Security Council.

TEHRAN, Feb. 19--Interior Minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi said on Monday the US intelligence and spy agencies have been involved in recent terrorist attacks in Zahedan, the capital of Sistan-Baluchestan province.
Pourmohammadi told Al-Alam satellite channel that Iran’s security institutions have information indicating the US, Britain and Israel were behind unrests in the past years in different provinces of Iran, including Khuzestan, Kurdestan and Azarbaijan, IRNA reported.
“According to the evidence and information gathered by security organizations, a consolidated cooperation exists between American officers and insurgents in Afghanistan. The US officers are involved in drug smuggling and they cooperate with drug traffickers in this respect,“ he said.
The minister pointed out that the amount of narcotics confiscated along the Iran-Afghanistan border after the US invasion of Afghanistan is considerably higher.
“Terrorists had planned the assassination of Sunni religious scholars and bombing of Sunni mosques in Sistan-Baluchestan province,“ he said.
Meanwhile, one of the main bombers of Zahedan was publicly hanged on Monday after a verdict was issued by Zahedan Islamic Revolutionary Court.
Nasrollah Shanbeh-Zehi had been charged with killing police officers, bombing the bus carrying employees of the Islamic Revolution’s Guards Corps, complicity in the murder of two citizens and robbing Zahedan’s Refah Bank.

TEHRAN, Feb. 19--Islamic Revolution’s Guard Corps on Monday launched a three-day military wargames in 16 provinces across the country.
According to IRNA, the IRGC Ground Forces consisting of 20 brigades will test the most modern arms in the exercises that are held annually.
The IRGC military exercises, dubbed Power, started with the firing of short-, medium- and long-range missiles. These are aimed at maintaining the combat readiness of different units.
The guards will practice various kinds of military tactics, including those involved in asymmetrical warfare.
Fajr-3, Fajr-5 and Zelzal missiles of various ranges will be fired during the three-day wargames.
Talking to IRNA, Commander of IRGC Ground Forces Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi said the current maneuvers will be conducted in three stages.
Spokesman General Nilforoushan told television the wargames were aimed at “upgrading the capabilities and readiness of defense forces as well as the deployment of munitions and forces in the early hours of a war“.
“We will also carry out offensive exercises with anti-helicopter and anti-aircraft weapons,“ said the spokesman, whose first name was not given.
Nilforoushan noted that the armed forces successfully tested a laser-guided anti-tank missile that can be launched by a Russian-designed T-72 tank.
The military exercises are being held simultaneously in 16 provinces--Tehran, Khuzestan, Kermanshah, Isfahan, Fars, Kohkilouyeh-Boyerahmad, Gilan, Qazvin, Markazi, Kurdestan, Kerman, South Khorasan, Zanjan, Semnan, Mazandaran and Qom.
The wargames are the second launched by IRGC in a month.

TEHRAN, Feb. 19--Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Monday that in a meeting between Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Larijani and EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana, the two sides have agreed to resume talks from the point where it was disrupted.
Speaking at a joint press conference after a meeting with his Omani counterpart, Yousuf bin Alawi Abdullah, Mottaki told reporters that his talks with bin Alawi were about enhancing bilateral ties and regional developments, ISNA reported.
“We talked about joint investments between Iranian and Omani private companies. The two sides agreed on the sale of gas to Oman within the framework of previous negotiations,“ he said.
Commenting on the recent statements of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that Washington should reconsider its diplomacy vis-ˆ-vis Iran, Mottaki noted that these statements are new and Iran is looking at them positively.
“We will publicly announce our stance after closely studying Rice’s statements,“ he said.
Bin Alawi, for his part, said that during his meeting with Mottaki they discussed issues of mutual interest.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (c), Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas (l) and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert shake hands during a summit in Beit-ul-Moqaddas, Feb. 19.

BEIT-UL-MOQADDAS, Feb. 19--US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice held a rare summit with Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Monday but achieved little concrete progress in reviving the peace process other than a pledge for further talks.
Rice said all sides had discussed a future Palestinian state at the first such meeting in nearly four years, but warned that peace would not come through terror, in a clear reference to the dominant Islamist movement Hamas, AFP reported.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas agreed to meet again soon, Rice said, adding that she also planned to return to the region to pursue peace efforts.
Hopes of a breakthrough in Middle East peacemaking have been complicated by a deal between Abbas and Hamas to form a unity government in a bid to end a crippling aid boycott.
After the talks, Olmert insisted Israel would not cooperate with any government that did not meet international demands for peace, while Hamas lashed out at what it labeled US isolationism and “blackmail“.
“All three of us affirmed our commitment to a two-state solution, agreed that a Palestinian state cannot be born of violence and terror, and reiterated our acceptance of previous agreements and obligations, including the roadmap,“ Rice said after over two and a half hours of talks in a Beit-ul-Moqaddas hotel.
Abbas says the new unity government will honor existing agreements with Israel, implicitly recognizing the Zionist regime. Washington has remained publicly non-committal and Israel has rejected the deal outright.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said Abbas had argued that the new government should be judged on having recognized his authority to negotiate with Israel, and that they should understand the separation between political parties and the government.
In Gaza City, Palestinian prime minister-designate Ismail Haniya told the weekly meeting of his Hamas-led cabinet he “regretted that the American administration always behaves according to the logic of isolation and boycott which has proved to be a failure“.
Hamas spokesman Ismail Radwan slammed what he called US “blackmail“ and called on Washington to recognize the Palestinian government.

MOSCOW, Feb. 19--Late payments by Iran and problems obtaining equipment are likely to again delay the launch of the Islamic Republic’s first nuclear power station at Bushehr, Russian officials said Monday.
“Financing of the project by the Iranian side has practically been frozen since mid-January,“ Irina Yesipova, spokeswoman for lead contractor Atomstroiexport, told AFP.
That meant that the timetable for completion of the project might be changed. Problems had also arisen with delivery of equipment by other countries, she added.
“We will soon analyze with the Iranian side the current state of the project and its calendar,“ she said.
Andrei Cherkasenko, chief executive of the Atompromresurs company, told RIA Novosti that vital cooling equipment had not been received from third-country suppliers.
The equipment was only expected to arrive at the end of 2007 or the start of next year, he added.
“Deliveries from third countries of cooling equipment for the security systems are a serious problem,“ Cherkasenko said, adding that commissioning could only take place several months after the receipt of such equipment.
A source in the nuclear energy industry said an Iranian delegation would visit Moscow for talks by the end of February.
The nuclear power station project at Bushehr in southern Iran has long been a symbol of friendship between Iran and Russia.
Russia has insisted on pressing ahead despite calls by the United States for it to suspend construction.
The Bushehr plant’s construction has been subjected to repeated delays, which some analysts attribute to US pressure on Moscow and prompt periodic complaints by Tehran.
Last September, the two sides agreed a new timetable under which Russia would deliver fuel to the power station this March, which would begin working in September and producing energy in November.
On Monday, Russian news agencies quoted an unnamed state official as saying that payments by Iran had been held up for more than a month due to an Iranian ban on making payments in US dollars.