Press Association: The 300 men filling out forms in the offices of an Iranian aid group were offered three choices: train for suicide attacks against US troops in Iraq, or train for suicide attacks against Israelis. Or train to assassinate British author Salman Rushdie.
Thousands Respond to Call for Martyrs
Iranian journalist barred from leaving the country
AFP: A dissident Iranian journalist has been barred from leaving the Islamic republic after trying to fly to the Netherlands for a conference, the student news agency ISNA reported Sunday.
Iran cautions Canada against following case of murdered photographer
AFP: Canada’s newly-appointed ambassador to Iran will get into “trouble” if he pursues the case of murdered Iranian-Canadian photographer Zahra Kazemi, Iran’s foreign ministry warned Sunday. “If anyone enters Iran on this mission they get themselves into trouble. This is a domestic issue of the
Islamic Republic of Iran,” foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters.
Iran has secret nuclear lab
Sunday Times: Iran is working on a secret nuclear
programme for military purposes despite its promise to
halt all uranium enrichment activities, a German news magazine claimed yesterday.
Iran Vows Not to Give Up Centrifuge Demand
AP: Iran toughened its position over its nuclear program Sunday, vowing to maintain its demand to exempt 20 centrifuges it says it wants for research despite international efforts to save a deal committing Tehran to freeze uranium enrichment and all related activities. Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi also said Tehran was not worried about being referred to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions.
Iran Reasserts Its Right to Enrich Uranium as Standoff Persists
New York Times: Iran’s foreign minister said Saturday that Iran had every right to keep, for research purposes, some centrifuges that could be used to enrich uranium, an indication that a standoff on the country’s nuclear program may not be easily resolved. “Iran’s demand to keep 20 centrifuges is not against its commitments,” said the minister, Kamal Kharrazi, the IRNA news agency reported.
Iran’s Lonely Crowd
New York Times: When Friday Prayer here finishes at about two o’clock in the afternoon, hundreds of worshipers parade toward waiting buses east of Tehran University, shouting canned rhetoric against America and Israel, defining themselves by their animosity toward others. Watching this ritual, one cannot help but ask a soul-searching question: “How can such a small minority of vocal people – totally orchestrated worshipers and their security guards – set the agenda for a nation of 70 million people?”
EU Warns Iran to Agree Nuclear Deal by Monday
Reuters: France, Britain and Germany told Iran on Saturday if they had not reached a final agreement to freeze key parts of its atomic program by Monday, they would not stop moves to seek sanctions against Tehran, diplomats said. “The Iranians were told that if there’s no deal by Monday, they (the EU) would no longer block a referral to the U.N. Security Council when the (U.N. nuclear watchdog) reconvenes,” a Western diplomat told Reuters.
Iran dug tunnel for military nuclear work – magazine
Reuters: Iran is working on a secret nuclear programme for military purposes despite promising the European Union it would halt all activities related to uranium enrichment, the
news magazine Der Spiegel said on Saturday.
Iran-EU nuclear talks break off: diplomats
AFP: Informal Iran-EU talks to rescue an agreement on a promised Iranian freeze of key nuclear fuel-making activities broke off Saturday, opening the door to possible UN sanctions against Tehran, diplomats said. “We have no progress. It is up to the Iranians now to ponder what they will do,” a European diplomat close to the talks told AFP. “They have a very serious decision to make.”.
