AFP: The European Union voiced deep disappointment Monday over the decision by Iran’s election watchdog to eliminate many pro-reform candidates for June presidential polls. Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn, whose country currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency, also presses Tehran to abide by its nuclear commitments ahead of crunch talks with European negotiators this week.
EU laments disqualification of Iranian reformists, warns over nuke talks
Iran must meet basic standards for admission to WTO: White House
AFP: Iran must meet basic “commitments” — including an international ban on nuclear weapons development and transparency in its upcoming presidential election, before it can be admitted to the World Trade Organization, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Monday. McClellan said the White House in March gave its support to a European offer to help Iran gain admittance to the WTO, in exchange for assurances it would abandon its nuclear efforts.
British FM presses Iran ahead of ‘tough’ nuclear talks
AFP: British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw on Monday pressed Iran to stick by commitments to freeze its nuclear activities, ahead of what he said will be “tough” talks with the European Union this week. Arriving for a regular ministerial talks in Brussels, he confirmed that the talks — between Iran and the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany, plus EU foreign policy head Javier Solana – will take place in Geneva on Wednesday.
Election Choices Slashed in Iran
Los Angeles Times: Iran’s hard-line Guardian Council disqualified more than 1,000 presidential hopefuls on Sunday, narrowing a diverse field of candidates for next month’s
election to just six conservative contenders.
The surprise announcement all but guarantees that a conservative will take over the presidency from moderate Mohammad Khatami, whose attempts at reform have been stifled in the increasingly rigid political climate of recent years.
Iran says nuclear talks will be last chance for deal with EU
AFP: A senior Iranian official said Monday that this week’s crisis talks with Britain, France and Germany are likely to be the last chance for the two sides to reach a deal on the Islamic republic’s nuclear programme. “Nothing special would happen” if the talks fail, national security official Ali Agha Mohammadi told the student news agency ISNA, adding that Iran would simply continue the “natural process” of pressing on with controversial nuclear fuel work.
Iranian interior ministry says polls to go ahead despite disqualifications
AFP: Iran’s interior ministry, which is still controlled by reformists, said Monday that presidential election would go ahead as scheduled on June 17 even though powerful hardliners have disqualified the main pro-reform candidate. “We are bound by the law to organise the election on the given date,” interior ministry spokesman Jahanbakhsh Khanjani told AFP.
Backing Urged for Iranian Group
Los Angeles Times: A crowd of about 500 people gathered in Huntington Beach on Sunday to demand that the United States support the Iranian opposition and remove its most powerful armed group, the People’s Mujahedin, from the government’s list of terrorist organizations.
Back off on Kazemi, Iran tells Canada
Globe and Mail: Iran told Canada to back off yesterday over the case of Montreal photojournalist Zahra Kazemi, who died in Iranian custody, criticizing the Canadian government’s
“immaturity” and warning it to stop interfering in the case.
Spokesmen for both Iran’s foreign ministry and its judiciary took shots at Canada over the weekend, and indicated that Ms. Kazemi’s Canadian citizenship was irrelevant to them.
Iran Reformists Barred From Presidency
AP: All reformists who registered to run in next month’s presidential elections were rejected by Iran’s hard-line constitutional watchdog, which approved only six out of the 1,010 hopefuls, state-run television reported. The announcement Sunday prompted a crisis meeting by
reformers, who immediately threatened to boycott the election.
UK rights group urges Human Rights Watch to retract flawed report
Iran Focus: London, May 22 A human rights organisation with worldwide reach has said the latest report by U.S.-based Human Rights Watch on the Iranian opposition as based on fabrications. The United Kingdom branch of Jubilee Campaign issued a response to a 28-page document …
