The Guardian: Iran refused yesterday to agree to suspend indefinitely its uranium enrichment activities although it would continue talks with Britain, France and Germany on a package of incentives. The foreign ministry said in a statement: “Indefinite suspension of nuclear enrichment activities is not acceptable … and it is not a subject of the talks.”
Iran will not halt uranium project
Iran’s Guard may be gaining clout
AP: They are the shock troops of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, the men who helped seize the U.S. embassy a generation ago
and bore the brunt of their country’s eight-year war with Iraq.
The vast and well-funded Revolutionary Guards are still the most potent force available to the regime.
Iranian uranium facility ’70 percent’ operational: official
AFP: A uranium conversion facility in the Iranian city of Isfahan, whose activities European states want to suspend, is now “70 percent” operational, an official from the country’s nuclear agency said on Sunday.
Iranian women barred from standing in presidential vote
AFP: Iranian women have been barred from standing in next year’s presidential election after a powerful conservative body stood by its literal interpretation of a single but ambiguous
word in the constitution.
Iran Rejects EU Nuclear Proposal
Reuters: Iran on Sunday rejected a European Union proposal that it stop enriching uranium in return for nuclear technology, increasing the likelihood that it will be reported to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions.
Iran will defy curbs on nuclear ambition
The Sunday Times: IRAN is to resist international demands to abandon a nuclear programme that has alarmed the West and worsened the risk of instability in the Middle East.
Secret intelligence seen by Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, reveals that Iran will not give up production of nuclear material that could be used in weapons.
Iran says EU nuclear proposal unbalanced, rejects uranium demand
AFP: Iran on Sunday described a European proposal aimed at ending a nuclear standoff as “unbalanced” and rejected demands that the Islamic republic halt all uranium enrichment activities.
“The European proposal is their preliminary proposition and is not definitive but it is unbalanced,” foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said.
Students protest food standards
Iran Focus: Tehran, Oct. 23 – Students from the University of Hormozgan (southern Iran) are continuing their demonstration in the university campus which started Thursday afternoon in protest against lack of food hygiene and service.
The students have complained of a poor food and below minimum standards of hygiene as well as insufficient accommodation in their dormitories.
Civil servant disappears after court hearing in the Iranian city of Mashhad
Iran Focus: Tehran, Oct. 23 – A member of the welfare society
of the department of education in the Iranian province of Khorrasan (northeastern Iran) has reportedly disappeared after being summoned to court.
The director of the Khorrasans welfare society announced that Saeid Hashem Khastar was summoned to court without any explanation as to what he was accused of.
Powell says US on the ‘march’ to refer Iran to UN Security Council
AFP: The United States has seen no sign Iran will comply with international demands on its suspect nuclear program and will push next month for the matter to be sent to the UN Security Council unless Tehran reverses its course, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said Saturday. Powell said Washington believed it could get support from the International Atomic Energy Agency to refer Iran to the Security Council …
