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February March 6-10, 2000 / Esfand 16-20, 1378
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Latest
* World Bank likely to OK Iran loans
* Iranians indicted for spying
* Reformers start talks to build parliamentary bloc
* Mesbah denounces reformist policies
Recent
* Newly elected women MPs challenge chador
* Dissident case judge repalced
* Iran seeks to end U.S. trade ban
* US praises Iran, Saudi support for more OPEC oil
* Accused Jews to have lawyers designated by court
* Iranians allowed to celebrate Chaarshanbeh Soori
* 2,000 workers in fresh protest
* Tehran hails hints of ease in US sanctions
* Second round of elections set for April 21
* Iranian Jews pick lawyers ahead of spy trial
* Czech lawmakers block export of nuclear equipment to
Iran
* U.S. May Lift Sanctions on 3 Iranian Exports
* Judge vows no cover-up of police failings in July unrest
* Belgium "regrets" the impact of Rafsanjani legal
case
* Germany Seeks Better Iran Ties
* Kharrazi will not attend Arab League meeting
* Albright reaffirms US fears over Iran nukes, terrorism
* Italian foreign minister ends trip to Iran
* Fischer heads to Iran on first visit by German FM since
1991
* Belgian gov. denies involvement in Rafsanjani case
* Real culprits not on trial, Iran police court-martial told
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Friday
March 10, 2000
* World Bank likely to OK Iran loans
WASHINGTON (AP) - Two loans to Iran, the first in seven years, are likely
to be approved soon by the World Bank over U.S. opposition, bank officials
and representatives of other countries say. Bank and Iranian officials
plan a final round of negotiations in Paris before the end of the month
on the $231 million package, bank officials said. If the talks succeed,
the two projects will go before the bank's 24 executive directors, including
Jan Piercy, the U.S. representative, probably next month >>>
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* Iranians indicted for spying
Great Falls, Mont. (AP) - Eight Iranian Defense Ministry officials are
under federal indictment here for trying to obtain military secrets and
smuggle them out of the country in 1996, the U.S. Customs Service said.
Special agent Brian Buschini said the indictments, handed up in November
1996 and January 1997, remain sealed >>>
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* Reformers start talks to build parliamentary bloc
TEHRAN, March 10 (AFP) - Iran's reformist politicians, fresh from February's
electoral victory, started work Friday to form a political bloc strong
enough to back President Mohammad Khatami in the new parliament. Even
before the wheeling and dealing began however, the reformists of the Islamic
Iran Participation Front knew the strength of their position >>> FULL TEXT
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* Mesbah denounces reformist policies
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - A hard-line cleric lashed out at Iran's reformists
today, warning that the government's liberal cultural policies were more
dangerous to the nation than a military coup. Ayatollah Mohammad Mesbah
Yazdi, whose comments last month prompted a strong media response, said
criticism of religious teachings and prominent people in the name of press
freedom threatened Iran's Islamic system. >>>
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Thursday
March 9, 2000
* Four newly elected women MPs challenge chador as required garb
TEHRAN, March 9 (AFP) - Four Iranian women newly elected to parliament
are questioning the need to wear the chador, the black head-to-toe wrap
which has been standard garb for female MPs since the 1979 revolution,
a Tehran daily reported Thursday. The four women, who won election on the
reform ticket in last month's polls, say a scarf concealing their hair
and a long coat is sufficent to meet the requirements of Iran's Islamic
dress code, the Ham-Miham newspaper said. >>>
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* Iran seeks to end U.S. trade ban
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's foreign minister said today his government
sought better trade relations with the United States, particularly the
removal of bans on Iranian goods. ``We would welcome the lifting of U.S.
sanctions on Iranian goods and would consider it as a positive move,''
Kamal Kharrazi told a Tehran news conference >>>
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* US praises Iran, Saudi support for more OPEC oil
WASHINGTON, March 9 (Reuters) - The Clinton administration said Thursday
it welcomed Iran's decision to work with OPEC rival Saudi Arabia in backing
a crude oil production increase that would replenish world supplies in
hopes the move will calm inflation fears and stabilize prices by the end
of April. >>>
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* Dissident case judge repalced
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - The government has replaced the judge and investigators
looking into the 1998 murders of five political dissidents, an Iranian
newspaper reported Thursday. No reason was given for the decision, the
Hamshahri daily said, quoting an official Islamic Republic News Agency
report that said the investigation has taken more than a year because of
its complexity and ``sabotage.'' >>>
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* Accused Jews to have lawyers designated by court
TEHRAN, March 9 (AFP) - Thirteen Iranian Jews accused of spying for
Israel are to have their lawyers appointed for them by the revolutionary
tribunal after failing to notify the court of their own choice by the legal
deadline, officials said Thursday. "The deadline has passed for the
accused to designate their lawyers," judiciary spokesman Hossein Mir
Mohammad-Sadeqi told AFP >>>
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Wednesday
March 8, 2000
* Iranians allowed to celebrate age-old fire festival for first time
TEHRAN, March 8 (AFP) - Iranians are being allowed to celebrate an age-old
fire festival, condemned by the clergy as irreligious, for the first time
since the Islamic revolution of 1979, the government daily Ettelaat reported
Wednesday >>>
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* 2,000 Iranian workers in fresh protest over controversial labour
law
TEHRAN, March 8 (AFP) - Some 2,000 disgruntled Iranian workers rallied
outside parliament Wednesday in renewed protests against recent legislation
enabling employers with fewer than five staff to strip them of social security.
The demonstrators, gathered under the flag of workers' groups close to
reformist President Mohammad Khatami, accused parliament of having "humiliated
the workforce with its anti-worker law.">>>
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* Tehran hails hints of ease in US sanctions
TEHRAN, March 8 (AFP) - Iran's foreign ministry has welcomed hints of
an easing in US economic sanctions, official media reported Wednesday.
"If the American government has made such a decision we welcome that,"
an Iranian foreign ministry official told the state news agency IRNA >>> FULL
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* Second round of elections set for April 21
TEHRAN, March 8 (AFP) - The second round of Iran's parliamentary elections
will take place on April 21, the interior ministry said Wednesday. Sixty-four
of the 290 seats in the parliament remain to be contested in the run-off
between two candidates for each seat >>>
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* Iranian Jews pick lawyers ahead of spy trial
TEHRAN, March 8 (AFP) - At least ten out of 13 Iranian Jews facing trial
on charges of spying for Israel and the United States have selected their
lawyers, the daily Aftab e-Emruz said Wednesday >>>
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* Czech lawmakers block export of nuclear plant equipment to Iran
PRAGUE, March 8 (AFP) - The Czech parliament's lower house voted on
Wednesday to block the export of ventilator systems and other equipment
destined for use in the Iranian nuclear power station at Bushehr. >>> FULL
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Tuesday
March 7, 2000
* U.S. May Lift Sanctions on 3 Iranian Exports
Allowing the sale of carpets, caviar and pistachios would reopen
doors to dialogue, officials say.
By ROBIN WRIGHT
Los Angeles Times
March 7, 2000
WASHINGTON--In what would be a groundbreaking initiative to spur rapprochement
with Iran, the Clinton administration is close to a decision to lift economic
sanctions on Iranian carpets, caviar and pistachios, U.S. officials said
Monday.
The gesture, one of several now being considered, would follow the sweeping
election victory last month by Iranian reformers, ending two decades of
domination by conservatives in Iran's parliament >>>
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* Iran judge vows no cover-up of police failings in July unrest
TEHRAN, March 7 (AFP) - A Tehran military court judge vowed Tuesday
there would be no cover-up of any wrong-doing by police during the storming
of a student dorm last July which sparked the worst unrest here since the
aftermath of the 1979 revolution >>>
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* Belgium "regrets" the impact of Rafsanjani legal case
BRUSSELS, March 7 (AFP) - Belgium "regrets the impact" a Belgian
legal case involving Iranian President Rafsanjani has had on bilateral
relations, a government spokesman said Tuesday. But it will not interfere
in a legal enquiry opening here Tuesday. "Despite what has been written
by IRNA (the official Iranian press agency), we do not regret the opening
of the case, but rather the impact it has had on bilateral relations,"
said spokesman, Michel Malherbe."We cannot regret the opening of a
legal case, because it is a judicial act." >>>
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* Germany Seeks Better Iran Ties
TEHRAN, Iran In a visit aimed at strengthening ties, Germany's
foreign minister said Monday that Iran and Germany "should look forward
and not to the past" in their relations. "We've had very difficult
times in the past years," Minister Joschka Fischer told reporters
on his arrival to Tehran. "We hope to improve relations and especially
have President Mohammad Khatami visit Germany." >>>
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* Kharrazi will not attend Arab League meeting in Beirut
CAIRO, March 7 (AFP) - Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi will not
attend this weekend's Arab League ministerial meeting in Beirut, the Arab
League said Tuesday. OIC Secretary General Ezzedin al-Iraki had officially
announced that he would represent the organisation instead, said a spokesman.
>>>
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* Albright reaffirms US fears over Iran nukes, terrorism
PRAGUE, March 7 (AFP) - US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said
Tuesday she backs dialogue with Iran after its recent ballots, but reaffirmed
US fears over Tehran's backing of terrorism and plans to acquire nuclear
arms. Speaking in Prague, she meanwhile thanked Czech authorities for a
pledge not to sell sensitive technology to an Iranian nuclear power plant
which the West fears could be diverted to non-civilian ends >>> FULL TEXT
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Monday
March 6, 2000
* Italian foreign minister ends trip to Iran
TEHRAN, March 6 (AFP) - Italian Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini finished
an official two-day visit to Iran on Monday morning after talks which both
sides described as fruitful. Dini, the first senior European minister to
visit Iran since the reformists' overwhelming victory in February's parliamentary
elections, held talks with President Mohammad Khatami and Foreign Minister
Kamal Kharazi on Sunday >>>
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* Fischer heads to Iran on first visit by German FM since 1991
BERLIN, March 6 (AFP) - Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer left Berlin
Monday for Iran, the first visit by the top German diplomat to Tehran since
1991. Fischer's two-day stay was expected to focus on preparing for Iranian
President Mohammad Khatami's upcoming visit to Berlin, which both countries
hope will signal an end to cool diplomatic relations between them. Khatami
visited Paris and Rome late last year >>>
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* Belgian government denies all involvement in Rafsanjani case
BRUSSELS, March 6 (AFP) - A court action against former Iranian president
Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was not the work of the Belgian government,
which is intent on restoring healthy relations with Tehran, Belgian Foreign
Minister Louis Michel declared Monday. "The Belgian justice system
is independent, so the government has absolutely no part to play"
in the criminal investigation, Michel told Belgian radio station RTBF >>> FULL
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* Real culprits not on trial, Iran police court-martial told
TEHRAN, March 4 (AFP) - The real culprits responsible for a police attack
on a student dormitory that sparked off violent unrest in Iran last year
were still at large, defence lawyers claimed on the second day of a court
martial of 20 police officers here Saturday. "The real proponents
of this tragedy continue with business as usual and have engaged in an
intimidation campaign against one of the plaintiffs, Gholamreza Mahmoodi",
Mohsen Rahami, lawyer for the students, said >>>
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