Picture shows a historical atlas of Persian Gulf prepared by a European cartographer.

PARIS, April 7--The Persian Gulf’s Historical Atlas Forum opened here in the presence of researchers and experts from France, Portugal, Germany and Iran.
Paris Strategic Studies Center, Tehran University and Iran’s Foreign Ministry sponsored the forum, IRNA reported.
Discussions and exchange of views at the forum focused on the Persian Gulf’s historical atlas from the 16th to 18th centuries and the current status with regard to the reputable geographical maps.
Iran’s Ambassador in Paris Ali Ahani was among the speakers. Ahani referred to Persian Gulf as a joint cultural and historical heritage of mankind and said the name has always been used throughout history and in all languages and cultures.
Referring to the authentic historical maps that exist in famous museums and archives worldwide, the envoy said their registration in the UNESCO’s cultural heritage list is a proof of the authenticity of this historical name.
Asghar Qoreyshi, director general of Iran’s Foreign Ministry for historical documents, expounded on the importance of documents, communications and historical maps in international relations at the forum.
“There are 5 million historical documents, millions of pages of Iran’s diplomatic communications in the 16th-18th century as well as hundreds of the world leaders’ messages and 7,000 historical maps,“ he said.
Qoreyshi noted that many of the valuable maps in Iran’s Foreign Ministry have been drawn by famous European cartographers.
Jorge Manuel Flores, a professor in cartography from Brown University in the US, referred to the field as one of the basic and principled human sciences which helped human beings interact in the past centuries.
The Portuguese scientist stressed that Persian Gulf has always been named as an important waterway in all valid and reputable maps of the world since the 15th century.
“This gulf was known as the Persian Gulf since that time and the current maps with their precise points have been drawn with this name,“ he said.
Elio Brancaforte, a German professor of Towlan University in New Orleans, was another speaker who explained the references of German cartographers to the Persian Gulf.
“Germans have tried to know the Persian Gulf more and more since the 15th century because of its commercial importance,“ he said.

TEHRAN, April 7--State Expediency Council is seeking to impose a ban on politically-motivated administrative changes in Iran.
According to Fars News Agency, Mohsen Rezaei, SEC secretary, told reporters on Saturday that once the general state policies on human resource management are approved, political inclinations will no longer play a role in major administrative changes.
“Competence should be the main criterion for hiring government employees,“ he said, adding that as per the general state policies, job promotions will also be based on the employees’ performance.
Rezaei also said that as per the new policies, dismissals and appointments will have to follow legal procedures, instead of being decided by individuals. “Once ratified, these policies will revolutionize the country’s administrative system,“ he said.
Asked whether the new administrative policies would interfere with the government’s tasks, Rezaei said the policies will only promote meritocracy and restrict wholesale administrative changes.

TEHRAN, April 7--Kidnapped Iranian diplomat, Jalal Sharafi, who was released in Iraq last Tuesday, revealed that he was tortured severely by the CIA-backed agents of Iraq’s Intelligence Services.
“I was kidnapped by [Iraqi] officials who had identification cards of Iraqi Defense Ministry and used vehicles of US soldiers while I was shopping in one of Baghdad streets,“ he told Fars News Agency.
Sharafi, who showed signs of torture on his body, is currently undergoing medical treatment.
“I was taken to a [military] base near Baghdad airport and interrogated by Arab and English-speaking interrogators,“ he said.
Sharafi added that he was interrogated by CIA officials about the influence of Iran in Iraq, Iranian contributions, Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish sects as well as Iraqi Premier Nuri Al-Maliki.
“They [CIA agents] increased my torture when they heard my responses about the official relations of Iran with Iraqi government and officials. Then they tried to persuade me to cooperate with them, but I told them to contact the Iranian Embassy and explained that I was only a simple diplomat and cannot violate rules,“ he said.
Sharafi, who was kidnapped on February 4, noted that kidnappers were forced to release him near Baghdad airport after Iraqi officials exerted pressures on them.

SHIRAZ, Fars,
April 7--A lawmaker defended the Energy Ministry’s decision to make Sivand Dam operational.
Ali Akbar Qobadi also told Mehr News Agency that excavations and studies of the experts of Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization showed that the commissioning of Sivand Dam will not harm the historical Pasargad complex.
“Plans have been made to make Sivand operational and the Energy Ministry will announce the time of the commissioning,“ he said.
Qobadi added that the dam’s humidity will be measured after it becomes operational.
“As a water expert, I believe the commissioning of Sivand will not only not harm Pasargad, but will also help develop tourism in the region,“ he said.

WASHINGTON, April 7--A global “nuclear renaissance“, the clichˇ for a growth in nuclear power plant construction, is not merely talk, according to a new report by the Cambridge Energy Research Associates.
New reactors are in various phases, from planning to construction, and even the United States, which has not approved a new reactor since 1978, will likely take part, UPI reported.
The 435 nuclear reactors worldwide provide 16 percent of worldwide electricity (103 reactors feed 20 percent of US electricity). Another 28 are under construction outside the United States, mostly in Asia, and 20 countries are part of the boom CERA expects.
“We see good prospects,“ said CERA Senior Director Jone-Lin Wang, co-author of “Is the ’Nuclear Renaissance’ Real?“
“Quite a few countries, outside of North America and Western Europe, have actually never stopped building nuclear,“ Wang said. “So there are continuing efforts in Japan, China and South Korea, unlike the US that stopped for three decades, never stopped and upped the targets recently.“
China, for example, with the world’s largest population and a growing need for energy, plans to increase its nuclear capacity from the current 9 gigawatts to 40 gigawatts by 2020. It has already signed contracts and placed orders.
Russia is also looking to expand its nuclear presence both in and out of the country.
“They want to build nuclear power plants so they can release more natural gas to sell,“ Wang said.
Atomstroyexport, its nuclear export firm, is building reactors or has contracts to do so in India, China, Iran, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. In order to become more of a player, Russia will consolidate its various nuclear companies (transportation, fuel, construction and more) into a vertically aligned state entity.
Western Europe is showing signs of “revival, slowly,“ Wang said. Finland is building a reactor and France is both looking to meet demand growth and replace some of its current fleet--though nuclear opposition is growing. Britain is warming up to nuclear power as well, and Germany is thinking of holding off on plans to retire its fleet.
“I think the EU has been gradually making positive statements about nuclear power,“ Wang said.
India is “very ambitious,“ she said, attempting international agreements to give it more access to technology and supplies and looking to incorporate international designs to accompany the indigenous model it has followed.
And Australia, Wang said, may move beyond its role as raw uranium supplier to processing the fuel and possibly building nuclear plants to use it.

TEHRAN, April 7--Parliament Speaker Gholamali Haddad Adel said late Friday Islamabad has vowed to tighten security along the Iran-Pakistan border.
Talking to reporters upon his return from a three-day visit to Pakistan, Haddad said he held talks with senior Pakistani authorities on the security situation in Iran’s Sistan-Baluchestan province, which borders Pakistan, Fars News Agency reported.
“The Pakistani authorities also called for greater cooperation between the two countries in combating insecurity in border areas,“ he said.
The Majlis speaker said he discussed bilateral political, economic and cultural ties with the Pakistani president, prime minister and parliament speakers during his visit.
“The talks were very fruitful as the two sides shared numerous commonalities,“ he said.
He noted that Tehran and Islamabad share identical views on the “peace pipeline“ project that will transfer Iranian gas to Pakistan and India via a pipeline, stressing that both the countries support the undertaking.
Haddad also said that the Pakistani authorities defended Iran’s right to nuclear technology.
“We also held talks with the Pakistani lawmakers and thinkers,“ he said, expressing hope that his visit would help bolster ties with the neighboring country.

TEHRAN, April 7--An Iraqi minister said on Friday Baghdad attaches special importance to the repatriation of Iraqi refugees who fled to Iran due to the atrocities of Saddam’s regime and lack Iraqi birth certificates.
Iraq’s Minister of Displacement and Migration Abd Al-Samad Sultan made the remarks in an interview with the Arab-language Al-Arabiya news channel, IRNA reported.
“The Iraqi government will give a piece of land to refugees who return home (from Iran)“, said the minister, noting that hundreds of thousand of Iraqi citizens who took refuge in Iran do not have Iraqi birth certificates.
“Iraq will open offices in Iran to follow up the problems of Iran-based Iraqis,“ Sultan said, adding that the government of Iraq has decided to grant original Iraqi birth certificates to refugees born in 1957 based on their birth certificates.
According to Iraqi regulations, those having original Iraqi birth certificates would have no problem in being hired in public and military sectors.
Under Saddam’s rule, only those who had birth certificates from the Ottoman Empire era (1860-1906) could receive original Iraqi birth certificates, which rule is no longer in effect.

BAGHDAD, Iraq,
April 7--Turkey must not interfere in the Kurds’ bid to attach Iraq’s oil-rich city of Kirkuk to the Kurdish semiautonomous zone, the top official in Iraqi Kurdistan said in remarks broadcast Saturday.
Otherwise, Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani said, Iraq’s Kurds will retaliate by intervening in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast, where insurgents have battled for decades to establish their own autonomy, AP reported.
Barzani, president of the 15-year-old Kurdish autonomous region in northern Iraq, issued the warning after last week’s endorsement by the Iraqi government of a decision to relocate and compensate thousands of Arabs who moved to the city as part of Saddam Hussein’s campaign to push out the Kurds.
The government’s decision was a major step toward implementing a constitutional requirement to determine the status of the disputed city by the end of the year. The plan will likely turn Kirkuk and its vast oil reserves over to Kurdish control, a step rejected by many of Iraq’s Arabs and Turkmen--ethnic Turk who are strongly backed by Turkey.
“We will not let the Turks intervene in Kirkuk,“ Barzani said in an interview with Al-Arabiyah television. “Kirkuk is an Iraqi city with a Kurdish identity, historically and geographically. All the facts prove that Kirkuk is part of Kurdistan.“
Some in Turkey have hinted at military action to prevent the Kurds from gaining control of Kirkuk.
“Turkey is not allowed to intervene in the Kirkuk issue and if it does, we will interfere in Diyarbakir’s issues and other cities in Turkey,“ Barzani said. Diyarbakir is the largest city in Turkey’s Kurdish-dominated southeast.
Asked if he meant to threaten Turkey, Barzani responded that he was telling Ankara what would happen “if Turkey interferes“. He said Turkey had military and diplomatic clout, but that the Kurds had survived through the Saddam Hussein regime and that what happened in Kirkuk was “none of their (Ankara’s) business“.
When asked about the Turkmen minority in Kirkuk and Turkey’s concern for its ethnic brethren, Barzani shot back: “There are 30 million Kurds in Turkey and we don’t interfere there. If they (the Turks) interfere in Kirkuk over just thousands of Turkmen then we will take action for the 30 million Kurds in Turkey.“
“I hope we don’t reach this point, but if the Turks insist on intervening in Kirkuk matter I am ready to take responsibility for our response,“ Barzani said.