Front-page Iran

Iranian Missle can Avoid Radar

Iran successfully test-fired a missile that can avoid radar and hit several targets simultaneously using multiple warheads, the military said Friday.
Gen. Hossein Salami, the air force chief of the elite Revolutionary Guards, did not specify the missile's range, saying it depends on the weight of its warheads.
But state-run television described the weapon as ``ballistic'' - suggesting it's of comparable range to Iran's existing ballistic rocket, which can travel 1,250 miles and reach arch-foe Israel and U.S. bases in the Middle East.
``Today, a remarkable goal of the Islamic Republic of Iran's defense forces was realized with the successful test-firing of a new missile with greater technical and tactical capabilities than those previously produced,'' Salami said on state-run television.
It showed a clip of the launch of what it called the Fajr-3, with ``fajr'' meaning ``victory'' in Farsi.
``It can avoid anti-missile missiles and strike the target,'' Salami said.
He said the missile would carry a multiple warhead, and each warhead would be capable of hitting its target precisely.
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Iranian Earthquake

A strong earthquake hit western Iran on Friday, killing at least 70 people and devastating villages, a provincial official said.
More than 1,200 people were injured in an area around the cities of Doroud and Boroujerd in the province of Lorestan, said Ali Barani, head of the provincial emergency team for disasters.
Some survivors were dug out of the rubble of buildings alive, rescue officials said. In the worst hit areas, brick buildings collapsed into piles of masonry and mud homes were reduced to mounds of dust.
Barani said 330 village in the area were severely damaged but the death toll was unlikely to rise much further.
"If there are any changes, it will be very few," he said by phone from Lorestan.
Strong tremors on Thursday night helped keep the toll down because they drove many to leave their homes and take to the streets well before the big quake hit on Friday morning. There were 3 quakes, at 11:15pm local time there was a quake of 4.7, at 4:50 am another quake struck with a magnitude of 6.0. A 5.1 was also recorded.
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Oil Price Drops

Oil prices stayed lower after posting sharp gains this week, as Iran said it will not use oil as a weapon in the row over its nuclear programme while Agip resumed normal output in Nigeria after repairing a sabotaged pipeline.
At 4.25 pm, May-dated Brent contracts were down 13 cents at 66.33 usd, after gaining 91 cents to close at 66.46 yesterday. Meanwhile May-dated US light crude futures were down 75 cents at 66.40 usd.
After breaking out of a month-long trading range of 60-64 usd, oil prices are now nearing their all time record of 70.85 usd as concerns about supply risks in Iran and Nigeria combine with worries over US gasoline stocks.
Prices rose sharply yesterday after Iran categorically ruled out complying with a UN Security Council statement calling on it to halt uranium enrichment, and after world powers said Tehran could be facing sanctions.
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Iran Faces Isloation

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Iran faces ``deeper isolation'' if it persists with its nuclear program and the U.S. doesn't rule out any option in its efforts to persuade Tehran to cease uranium enrichment.
``Thus far Iran has not been interested in any of the offers put to it,'' Rice said after a speech in Blackburn, England, the electoral constituency of U.K. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. The Bush administration never takes anything ``off the table'' in its policy toward the Middle Eastern country, though it is not contemplating military action now, she said.
Rice yesterday suggested the U.S. is prepared for lengthy diplomacy to rein in Iran's nuclear ambitions after the United Nations refrained from attaching consequences to its demand that Iran curb its program and open it to scrutiny. The U.S. suspects Iran is engaged in a secret attempt to build a nuclear weapon.
Rice and Straw yesterday met in Berlin with their counterparts from France, Germany, Russia and China to discuss how to deter Iran from seeking nuclear weapons. The six used a joint statement to urge Iran to halt ``all enrichment-related activities.''
She was also met by anti-war protesters, when she visited a high school. She used her speeches to defend the Iraq war.
``If you're impervious to the lessons you've just come out of you're brain-dead,'' she told the gathering, organized by the Royal Institute of International Affairs, a U.K. foreign policy research center. ``I believe strongly it was the right strategic decision'' to invade Iraq.
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Phone Calls

After three weeks of haggling, many Western diplomats had just about given up hope of convincing Moscow and Beijing to sign onto a U.N. Security Council statement pressing Iran to suspend its suspect nuclear activities, comply with international nonproliferation rules and return to negotiations with the Europeans.
But in the end, it took U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice personally working the phones, and ceding a little ground, to seal the deal — which gave Iran 30 days to suspend its uranium enrichment activities or face as yet unspecified consequences. In the last several days, Rice has spoken to her counterpart, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, on a number of occasions, to try and bridge the gap. On the last phone call Wednesday morning, state department officials said, Rice agreed to ask the British to strike a line from their draft statement suggesting that Iran’s rogue behavior might constitute a "threat to international peace and security."
While that may seem like mere semantics, in diplomatic parlance the phrase has a very specific — and to the Russians ominous — meaning; it echoes the U.N. charter and, in Lavrov's mind, could potentially serve as a precedent for subjecting Iran to punitive economic and political sanctions, which the U.S. supports and Russia adamantly opposes.
Lavrov, however, also made concessions. The British draft called for Mohamed El Baradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, to report to the Security Council on Iran’s compliance or lack thereof. The Russians wanted El Baradei to report to the IAEA, but Rice and European officials said this would kick the Iran problem out of the Security Council and back to a weaker agency. The compromise, hammered out by Rice and Lavrov, called for El Baradei to report to both the Security Council and the IAEA.
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Iran's Ready for Talks

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mounachehr Mottaki said on Thursday.
“The recent proposal made by Iraqi leaders for Iran to talk with the US about issues relating to Iraq: we look on this proposal as an opportunity to help the Iraqi nation,” Mottaki told journalists in Geneva. “These negotiations will be limited only to Iraq. The venue, the team of negotiators and the time is yet to be finalised,” he added.
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Oil at 66$

“There’s got to be a crunch point over Iran,” Geoff Pyne, an independent oil analyst, said, adding “At the end of the day Iran is intent on uranium enrichment and the West won’t allow it.”
US crude stood at $66.6 a barrel, up 13 cents. London Brent crude was up 50 cents at $66.1 a barrel. The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a ’presidential statement’ late on Wednesday calling on Iran to freeze its uranium enrichment work.
But as the five permanent Security Council members and Germany met in Berlin to discuss their next step on Thursday, Iran’s ambassador to the UN atomic agency ruled out complying. Oil prices touched their highest point since February 2. In real terms oil is at levels unseen for a quarter of a century.
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India is not Iran, US counters Germans

The US leapt to India’s defence after German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the Indian civil nuclear energy deal “was not helpful” given that it came in the midst of talks on curbing Iran’s nuclear ambitions. “We would differ with anybody who tries to make any comparisons between the behaviour of Iran and the behaviour of India,” US State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack told a press conference on Wednesday where the issue reared its head.
“At the end of the day, India has been a responsible member of the international community when it comes to issues of nonproliferation. Iran, on the other hand, has abrogated its treaty obligations not to seek to develop a nuclear weapon and continually lied to the international community about that,” he added.
According to reports, Steinmeier told the German daily Handelsblatt; “There is no question that in light of the continuing talks over the Iranian nuclear programme, the timing of the American-Indian agreement was not helpful.” However, the German minister said such agreements could draw countries like India into the fold of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
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Rice is all over the Place

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived late Thursday afternoon in Paris, where she is to talk with French President Jacques Chirac, as part of a lightning tour of European capitals for consultations on Iran.
Topics surrounding Iran, the Mideast and Lebanon would be at the center of their talks, which will also cover the situation in Belarus, according to the French Foreign Ministry.
The visit followed a stop in Berlin, where Rice talked with her counterparts from the other permanent member countries (Britain, China, France and Russia) of the United Nations Security Council and Germany over Iran's nuclear program.
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30 More Days

The United Nations Security Council on Wednesday urged Iran to suspend its nuclear program and said it would take up the issue again in 30 days.
It was the first time the U.N. body has condemned Iran's nuclear ambitions, a move that could ultimately lead to sanctions.
The statement, which took three weeks to craft, is weaker than the United States, Britain and France originally sought. Earlier drafts called for the council to meet again in 14 days and said Iran's activities were a potential "threat to international peace and security." Under the U.N. charter, that language can justify economic sanctions or military strikes.
U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said Russia and China watered down the statement. "The message is clear nonetheless that Iran's nuclear weapons program is unacceptable," Bolton said.
The council acted a day before Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was to meet in Berlin with foreign ministers from the other four veto-holding members of the council — Russia, China, Britain and France — as well as Germany. The six officials are to discuss longer-range policy toward Iran, said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.
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Naval War Games

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) will begin large-scale naval exercises in the Persian Gulf and Sea of Oman on Friday by firing a Shahab-2 missile “to show Iran’s desire for peace and friendship with neighbouring countries”, the IRGC naval chief said on Wednesday.
Rear Admiral Morteza Saffari, who commands the IRGC Navy, told a press conference in the Iranian capital that the naval war games would go on until April 6 with the participation of five IRGC naval garrisons and the assistance of Iran’s regular navy and air force, as well the missiles force, the Bassij, and the State Security Forces.
“Today, Iran is calling for its rightful demands with strength and national unity and these exercises will show an increase of strength and preparedness”, the navy commander added.
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3 Guards Killed

Three members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards were killed in a clash with Kurdish separatists in the country's restive western borderlands, Iran's student news agency ISNA said on Wednesday.
The Revolutionary Guard "agents" were killed in fighting on Tuesday with a Kurdish group called PJAK. Their bodies were transferred from the border to the nearby city of Salmas, the report said.
Iranian officials were not immediately available for comment. Iran's Revolutionary Guards are an ideologically driven branch of the country's armed forces.
Security experts say PJAK is an Iranian wing of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) whose separatist struggle regained momentum in southeastern Turkey after it called off a unilateral ceasefire in the summer of 2004.
The PKK Web site said seven Iranian soldiers were killed and 11 injured in a clash with PKK guerrillas. It said Iranian forces launched an operation against the rebels on March 25 in an area it identified as Kelares, near the border between Iran and Turkey. It said there were no PKK casualties.

UN Deal this Week?

U.N. Security Council powers accelerated talks on Tuesday in an effort to reach a deal on Iran's nuclear programs before their ministers meet this week.
"Ministers are getting together in Berlin on Thursday and I think for their purposes and for ours we are trying to reach agreement here" by then, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said.
Ambassadors from the five veto-holding permanent council members -- the United States, Britain, France Russia, China -- met several times on Tuesday on Iran's nuclear research, which Tehran says is for peaceful purposes but the West believes is a cover for bomb making.
British Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry said there were "still one or two really difficult issues if we are going to finish by Thursday but most of the rest of the text is coming together."
Bolton said he hoped the full 15-member council could meet on Wednesday but cautioned, "I think we've got a certain momentum and we had it before and didn't necessarily promise that we would reach agreement."
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High Alert for the Revolutionary Guards

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces in western and south-western Iran close to the Iraqi border have been put on a heightened state of alert since the middle of this month, a source in the Iranian military told Iran Focus.
The Supreme Command of Iran’s Armed Forces issued the directive to Najaf and Karbala garrisons of the IRGC, which are respectively based in Kermanshah and Khuzestan provinces and are the headquarters of IRGC forces in western and south-western Iran.
The directive took effect from March 14, according to the source, who requested anonymity.
Najaf and Karbala garrisons are the primary Revolutionary Guards headquarters responsible for Iraqi affairs and house much of the IRGC’s elite Qods Force whose stated objective is to spread Iran’s Islamic Revolution to Iraq and other countries in the Middle East.
Under the rules of Iran’s armed forces, the decision to raise the military alert status along Iraq’s borders must have been approved by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is the commander in chief of the armed forces. Khamenei visited areas close to the Iraqi border in Iran’s restive province of Khuzistan last week and delivered a speech in Arabic, slamming the United States and Britain for their occupation of Iraq.
On Sunday, Khamenei told thousands of Islamist militiamen in Tehran that threats of military action against the Islamic republic “could be put into action in some cases, but a nation that retains its greatness, dignity, identity and interests will be able to withstand such attacks without any retreat”.
“The decision [to put the armed forces on alert along the Iraqi border] could be defensive or offensive in nature, but it’s significant because of its timing”, said Ehsan Pourhaydari, a former colonel in Iran’s regular armed forces who now lives in Germany. “It coincides with impending talks between Iran and the U.S. on the situation in Iraq. The ayatollahs must be calculating that the talks will make them more vulnerable, or will provide new opportunities for them in Iraq. Either way, it would make sense for them to put their forces on alert close to the Iraqi border”.
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Iranian Blog Crackdown

On his last visit to Iran, Canadian-based blogger Hossein Derakhshan was detained and interrogated, then forced to sign a letter of apology for his blog writings before being allowed to leave the country. Compared to others, Derakhshan is lucky.
Dozens of Iranian bloggers have faced harassment by the government, been arrested for voicing opposing views, and fled the country in fear of prosecution over the past two years.
In the conservative Islamic Republic, where the government has vast control over newspapers and the airwaves, weblogs are one of the last bastions of free expression, where people can speak openly about everything from sex to the nuclear controversy. But increasingly, they are coming under threat of censorship.
The Iranian blogging community, known as Weblogistan, is relatively new. It sprang to life in 2001 after hard-liners - fighting back against a reformist president - shut down more than 100 newspapers and magazines and detained writers. At the time, Derakhshan posted instructions on the Internet in Farsi on how to set up a weblog.
Since then, the community has grown dramatically. Although exact figures are not known, experts estimate there are between 70,000 and 100,000 active weblogs in Iran. The vast majority are in Farsi but a few are in English.
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Cargo Plane Crashes

An Iranian cargo plane carrying 12 passengers crash-landed close to the city of Karaj, west of Tehran, on Tuesday, state television reported.
None of the 12-man crew on board was killed according to the report, which quoted the head of Payam Airport. The airport is three miles away from the crash site.
The Russian-made Antonov plane crash-landed into farmland at 16:40 Tehran time after one of its engines failed.
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Germany Urges Suspension of Program

Elbaradei met German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
"We are not in a position today to say that (Iran's nuclear) program is exclusively for peaceful purposes," ElBaradei told reporters after meeting Steinmeier.
Germany, France and Britain were the three European Union nations which mediated the negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program last year.
"I would like Iran to do what they can right now to lower our doubts ... until negotiations resume," the IAEA chief added.
Steinmeier said: "Iran must suspend all enrichment work, including research."
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Iran budgets $213 mln for two atomic power plants

Iran will put some $213 million of its national budget for the year to March 2007 into building two nuclear power stations, a senior government official was quoted as saying on Monday. Tehran insists its atomic scientists are only working on an ambitious power station programme that should produce 20,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity by 2020.
The official Iran newspaper quoted Farhad Rahbar, head of the government▓s management and planning organisation, saying 1.94 trillion rials ($213 million) would be directed towards two atomic power stations.
Building and completing two nuclear power stations in order to produce cheap electricity is among the most important construction plans,■ state television quoted him as saying.
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German police search firms over exports to Iran

Police searched business premises across Germany in connection with an investigation into the illegal export of equipment for Iran's controversial nuclear programme, prosecutors said Monday.
One of the companies searched was believed to be a front for the illegal export of hydraulic pumps and transformer parts, which could be used in nuclear facilities, prosecutor Benedikt Welfens said.
German law restricts the sale to Iran of such dual use equipment, which has applications in both military and civilian programmes.
Seven persons, most of them of Russian extraction, are under investigation in connection with the illegal exports, which investigations showed reach Iran via Russia. Police seized data, a special cable ready for export and cash during last week's raid of 41 premises in 10 German states
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Military force can't destroy our atomic program

Military strikes against Iran's nuclear sites would not destroy the Islamic republic's uranium enrichment activities, which could be easily moved and restarted, a senior Iranian official said on Monday.
"You know very well ... we can enrich uranium anywhere in the country, with a vast country of more than 1 million 600 square kilometers," said Aliasghar Soltaniyeh, Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna.
"Enrichment can be done anywhere in Iran," he told a panel discussion on the possible use of military force to destroy what the West fears is Iran's atomic bomb program.
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All this comes one day before a possible airstrike on Iran by Israel according to a Russian Democrat, Vladimir Zhirinovsky. Yah, yah we'll see.

Iran Oil Cut off Suicidal

Iran's nuclear standoff with the United States, Europe, and other nations has led to considerable speculation of $100-per-barrel oil and $4-per-gallon gasoline in the US. Such high prices might kick off a worldwide energy crisis and recession.
The West already suspects that Iran's uranium enrichment program is a cover for bombmaking. To try to put a stop to it, the United Nations Security Council could impose sanctions, or even riskier, the US or Israel might attempt to knock out Iran's nuclear facilities with an air or missile strike.
In retaliation, Iran could act against its own best economic interests and slash oil exports. Last September, the head of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards warned that "any sanction against Iran" could push the price of oil to $100 a barrel.
"It would be easy to see oil trading at $100 a barrel," says Milton Ezrati, an economist with Lord Abbett, a mutual-fund company in Jersey City, N.J. But if oil traders view the action by Iran as merely a short-lived "diplomatic stunt," he says, oil would rapidly head back toward today's $62 a barrel price.
Mr. Ezrati warns that a long-term action would cause energy prices to soar. That would set back the incipient recoveries in Europe and Japan and seriously slow the US economy as well.

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U.S. and Russia attempting to Resolve "Issues"

The United States is working with Russia at the United Nations Security Council on Iran and is hopeful that some of the "tactical" differences may be resolved through the negotiations.

There was agreement in the international community on what Iran should do but there were some "tactical issues" that need to be resolved on how best this is going to be achieved, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on the Fox News on Sunday.

"The Iranians are defying the world's will and the international community has to speak with one voice. We and the Russians and the Europeans and others have the same view that was expressed in the Board of Governor's Resolution on February 4 of the International Atomic Energy Agency -- that is that Iran needs to suspend its enrichment activities and return to negotiations," Rice said to a question as to whether US is ready to step up the pressure on Moscow over Iran.

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The Final Victory will be Iran's

"All these threats and intimidations by the West against Iran's nuclear programme will not hinder the final victory to be that of the Iranian nation," said Ahmadinejad. 'Our local experts will eventually put nuclear technology to the disposal of the Iranian people and we will even demand compensation (from the West) for the loss of the last two and a half years."

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Germany and IAEA talks

Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, and ElBaradei will meet on Monday to discuss Iran's crisis. ElBaradei will also meet German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and some other high ranking officials.
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Ahmadinejad Supports "suspicious" Talks

Ahmadinejad said today that he was in support of the Iran-American talks on Iraq but was suspicious of the motives. "We essentially do not trust the Americans but we will conditionally negotiate with them about Iraq while taking into account the interests of Iraqis and the world of Islam," said the Iranian president. The talks themselves have already been approved by the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final word in Iranian matters. Ahmadinejad also said, "The enemies seek to prevent us from making progress by massive propaganda but, hopefully, this year the Islamic Republic of Iran will fully master the nuclear energy for peaceful purposes." Another statement came from Manouchehr Mottaki, Iran's Foreign Minister. "Some of the permanent members of the Security Council ... are seeking to achieve certain political goals about Iran's nuclear case and beat the drum of confrontation."
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Ahmadinejad Attacks American ME Policy

“America plans to divide Islamic countries by driving a wedge between them and turning them into its puppets, while a united position by the Islamic world can roll back America and Israel hundreds ofkilometerss. Presently, the real crisis is in America and the West. Not only are they facing widespread domestic crises, but they are concerned by the resistance in Palestine and they are on the verge of being destroyed in Iraq and in Afghanistan. For this reason they try to create divisions to export their problems to other countries. The recent events in the region showed that Islamic countries have begun a movement to push forward. If they continue to push this movement forward with correct understanding and complete unity, as well as bravery, resistance, and steadfastness, the conditions of the region will completely turn infavorr of the Islamic world," said Ahmadinejad at a meeting in Tehran with the Syrian Vice-President Farouq al-Shara.

Iran Earthquake

A quake with a magnitude of 6 on the Richter scale was felt today at 10:58 at a Fin, a small provincial town near Qeshm island with a population of 39 000. No one was hurt, but 2 helicopters were dispatched to the area and some house were damaged, reports said around 20 were destroyed. Also the quake blocked some roads to village. Aftershocks ranging from 3.8- 5.4 on the Richter scale were felt afterwards.
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