Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei (l) in talks with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Tehran on Sunday.

TEHRAN, Oct. 7--Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said on Sunday the nation and statesmen should never be intimidated by the enemy.
“The enemy should never be feared. Nor should he be considered petty or belittled. Wisdom demands every precaution be taken against the enemy’s entrapments in all domains including economic, social and cultural spheres,“ IRNA quoted him as saying.
In managing all affairs ethical values should be promoted more than ever before, the leader stressed.
Recalling the recommendations of Imam Ali (AS) to his son Imam Hassan (AS), Ayatollah Khamenei noted that according to the First Imam the greatest wealth of humans is wisdom and the worst type of poverty is being divorced from the path of wisdom and knowledge.
Ethics from the perspective of Imam Ali (AS) is not limited to having high morality, but characteristics such as patience, gratefulness, mercy toward the people and courage also constitute ethical values, he said in a meeting with Prisident Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his cabinet.
Meanwhile, Ahmadinejad said if anyone is to set conditions for negotiations, it is Iran and not the US.
Speaking during a cabinet meeting on Sunday, the chief executive was commenting on US President George W. Bush’s readiness for holding talks on condition that Iran stop its uranium enrichment activities, Fars News Agency reported.
“Bush has said that the US will hold talks with Iran if Iran gives up its nuclear right. But we say that Tehran has never favored negotiations with Washington,“ he said.
The president noted that negotiations with the US are only possible if the US reconsiders its unacceptable behavior.
“The world is concerned about the US behavior and it is not only Iran,“ he said.
Ahmadinejad pointed out that last year during his visit to New York, he proposed a debate with President Bush, which was not accepted.
“Debate is different from holding talks. Hence, we called for a debate and not negotiations,“ he said.
Commenting on the necessity of responding to people’s letters, Ahmadinejad pointed out that people’s letters should not be left without a response and officials should allot a considerable amount of time for responding to their demands and allowing face-to-face meetings with them.
Addressing a group of university chancellors and professors in Tehran on Saturday, Ahmadinejad called for positive global interactions to develop Iran, IRNA reported.
“Our universities should adopt a global standpoint regarding scientific and cultural affairs,“ he said.
“Weak personalities are not appropriate to undertake such a task and, fortunately, we do not have such people in our universities. Given our culture and scientific background, the world has nothing to offer and this was quite evident from what happened at Columbia University.“
Noting that the main venues of today’s competition are culture and science, the president urged the academics to promote the dignity of Islam, present Islamic culture to the world and pose necessary questions to the world.
Referring to the fact that the world could not answer his two questions on Holocaust, President Ahmadinejad said, “Politicians should not only be charged with this duty, but rather academics should also undertake the responsibility and put forward their questions.“
Ahmadinejad stressed that there is no limit on academic contacts between Iranian and foreign universities, except universities in the occupied Palestine.
On his presence at Columbia University, the president said, “I intended to break the heavy propaganda of the Western society which does not let any new idea enter and we saw that they were empty-handed.“
“They wanted to hit us from an academic front, what they had not been able to achieve in the political front. They wanted to condemn us in the name of university and launched a heavy psychological warfare but with the help of Almighty God, the whole thing turned against them,“ he said.
Ahmadinejad said the universities will enjoy free Internet lines soon.
In the meeting, deputy head of Teachers Training University, Nadermanesh said, “Universities pay annually 4,000 to 5,000 million rials for their Internet services which is a considerable amount.“
In response, the president said in order to support scientific centers, Internet services will be extended free of charge for universities soon.

TEHRAN, Oct. 7--Talks of freezing nuclear activities are outdated, the Foreign Ministry’s spokesman said.
In a press conference on Sunday, Mohammad Ali Hosseini reiterated Iran’s stance that its nuclear rights are inalienable under the international laws, IRNA reported.
“Suspension of nuclear enrichment is an old debate. We have reiterated that negotiations should pursue new issues,“ he said.
He also said Iran will hold a new round of talks with UN atomic agency officials on Tuesday as part of its agreement to answer questions about its nuclear energy program.
The IAEA and Iran reached an agreement in August for Tehran to provide answers to outstanding questions over its nuclear program, including plutonium experiments as well as P1 and P2 centrifuges.
When asked whether P1 and P2 centrifuges would be part of the talks, Hosseini said: “These issues will also be discussed.“
Iran has been seeking to develop advanced P2 centrifuges which are capable of enriching uranium more efficiently than the P1 technology it currently uses.
Hosseini said there would be a new meeting between Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana but that there was no “clear date“.
Solana had called for several meetings with Larijani before he submits a report to the UN Security Council next month.
He is to report to Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China and the US before mid-November on Iran’s progress in nuclear talks with the IAEA.
Hosseini ruled out talks over Iran’s suspension of uranium enrichment activities, but voiced the country’s readiness to hold negotiations with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany.
“Talks of nuclear freeze are outdated,“ Hosseini said when asked about suspension of Iran’s enrichment activities.
His remarks came just two days after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reiterated that his country would not give up its nuclear rights and would not negotiate its rights with world powers.
The major powers, split over whether to impose further sanctions against Iran, said last week that they would wait for Solana’s report and another from IAEA Chief Mohamed ElBaradei before deciding what action to take.
Hosseini said the new approaches of the French government, which are distancing it from the country’s traditional position, would harm the traditional position of Paris.
“As for recommendations to French enterprises to reduce or halt business in Iran, I should say we have never witnessed such a thing, rather the companies have become more interested in continuing their activities in Iran,“ he said.
Last week, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner proposed that in tandem with UN Security Council sanctions against Iran, the Europeans should consider their own additional measures.

The US Justice Department document had authorized and justified the use of violent techniques in interrogations of "war on terror" suspects.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 7--The United States appears to be illegally torturing terror suspects contrary to denials by President George W. Bush, House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday.
The country’s highest ranking Democrat also said that she still hoped to get most US troops out of Iraq by the end of 2008, despite the party’s repeated failure to win over enough Republicans in Congress to an exit strategy, AFP reported.
Interviewed on Fox News, Pelosi said reported interrogation tactics such as simulated drowning, head slapping and exposure to extreme temperatures would amount to banned torture.
“There is a legal definition of torture that I believe this would fit. The president says it is not,“ she said.
But the House speaker said she had received only limited briefings from the Bush administration on its interrogation tactics, and had not seen a controversial 2005 memo issued by the Justice Department.
The New York Times on Thursday alleged that the Justice Department document had authorized and justified the use of violent techniques in interrogations of “war on terror“ suspects.
The legal department document was circulated in the same year that Congress adopted a law banning cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment, the Times said.
“This government does not torture people. We stick to US law and our international obligations,“ Bush insisted Friday.
The president defended his “war on terror“ launched in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks as well as the secret policy of detaining and interrogating suspects.
“I have put this program in place for a reason and that is to better protect the American people and when we find somebody who may have information regarding a potential attack on America, you bet we’re gonna detain him and you bet we’re gonna question him,“ he added.
Pelosi, however, said violent interrogation methods did not work “and I think that protecting the American people being our top priority, we should do so in a way that is within the law“.
“And experts agree that does not obtain reliable intelligence through using these tactics and you diminish our reputation in the world, which hurts the cooperation we need to collect the intelligence we need to protect the American people.“
On Iraq, Pelosi said she was “much more optimistic“ about executing a swift end to the war than Democratic presidential candidates such as Hillary Clinton appear to be.
She said that despite setbacks in a series of congressional votes, the Democratic party’s strategy is still to get US troops “out in large numbers by the end of next year, and that is not contradicted by the leadership of Iraq“.
A ’minimal’ force could remain beyond 2008 to guard US diplomats and fight Al-Qaeda extremists, Pelosi said.
Clinton, the clear Democratic frontrunner for next year’s White House race, says she also wants to start pulling the bulk of US troops out of Iraq, but said last month that she could foresee now what she would ’inherit’ from Bush.

GAZA CITY, Occupied Palestine, Oct. 7--The Islamist Hamas movement ruling Gaza on Sunday said it would attend a conference to be held in Syria in November to rival a US-sponsored international Middle East peace meet.
“Hamas and (its political supremo) Khaled Meshaal will participate in this conference in Damascus,“ Hamas Spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told AFP.
Zuhri said the aim of the rival meeting “is to reaffirm our rights, including Beit-ul-Moqaddas and refugees, and to reject any attempts to strip us of any of our rights, especially the attempt to do so at the international conference“.
The rival Islamic Jihad group said it would organize the conference on November 7 in the Syrian capital, ahead of the US meeting expected to take place in Annapolis, Maryland.
Washington had called the conference amid its increased efforts to jumpstart stalled peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians but no date or venue has been confirmed.
Hamas, which is considered a terror group by Israel and has been boycotted by the Palestinian Authority since it violently seized power in Gaza in June, has called on Arab countries to boycott the US meeting.
Syria, which Washington said it would invite to the conference, has warned that it would not attend unless the Israeli-Arab conflict at large was discussed, including Syria’s Golan Heights, which Israel captured in 1967 and annexed in 1981.
Meanwhile, Palestinian militants fired a Katyusha rocket deep into southern Israel on Sunday, police said, showing an ability to extend the range of rocket attacks from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, Reuters reported.
Gaza militants usually fire crude rockets that have a maximum range of about 9 km (5.5 miles) into Israel, but rarely go beyond 3 km (2 miles). The Grad-type Katyusha, originally Soviet-designed, landed some 11 km (6.5 miles) inside occupied lands.
The Katyusha slammed into an open field, causing a brush fire but no injuries, a police spokesman said.
Katyushas, widely used by Hezbollah to strike Israel from Lebanon in a 2006 war, can reach a distance of 20 kilometers (12 miles).
No group claimed responsibility for Sunday’s attack.
Last year, Gaza militants launched a rocket that flew about 12 km (7 miles) and reached the center of the Israeli city of Ashkelon, causing no injuries.

DAMASCUS, Syria, Oct. 7--Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said Damascus had an important role to play in settling conflict across the Middle East following talks on Sunday with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad.
Turkey assured the Damascus government it would not let Israel use its airspace to strike Syria after an Israeli raid heightened tension in the Middle East.
“Syria has an important role to play in the settling...of problems whether they be Iraqi, Palestinian or Lebanese,“ Babacan told a joint news conference with his Syrian counterpart Walid Moallem, AFP reported.
Babacan arrived on Saturday in Syria on a regional tour which was to see him visit Israel later on Sunday, before traveling on to the Palestinian territories and Jordan.
The visit comes amid a spike in tensions between Syria and Israel after a September 6 air strike by Israeli jets on northern Syria.
Turkey demanded an explanation from Israel after it was embarrassed by the discovery of jettisoned fuel tanks on its territory.
The Turkish minister said he intended to raise the issue of the Israeli air strike with Israeli officials on his arrival in Tel Aviv.
He said he was astonished by newspaper reports that Turkey had prior notice of the raid and allowed its airspace to be used by the Israeli jets.
Turkey would not allow its territory to be used for an act “hostile to the security of Syria“, he said.
Secular, Muslim Turkey has been a main regional ally of Israel since 1996 when the two countries signed a military cooperation deal, much to the anger of Arab countries and Iran.
Ankara has also greatly improved ties with Damascus after years of animosity over the safe haven its southern neighbor Syria accorded to Turkish Kurd rebels.
On Syria’s regional influence, Babacan acknowledged that the political crisis in Lebanon was in a “delicate phase“ but said friendly and neighboring states must continue to support the country.
Lebanon’s Parliament, bitterly divided between pro- and anti-Syrian factions, last week adjourned until October 23 a session to elect a new president for lack of a quorum and to allow more time for lawmakers to reach agreement on a consensus candidate.
On Iraq, Moallem told reporters that Syria would take part in a meeting of Iraq’s neighbors to be held in early November in Istanbul.