AFP: Iran has accused the European Union countries of committing “blatant human rights violations” in a response to fresh EU criticism of the Islamic republic’s own record, press reports said Wednesday.
“The issue of violating the rights of Muslims, as well as other discriminatory laws regarding minorities, worries the Islamic republic of Iran,” foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza
Asefi was quoted as saying.
Iran accuses EU states of violating human rights
Armitage: U.S. Not Yet Seeking Sanctions on Iran
Reuters: Iran should be “brought to account” on its nuclear program, but Washington is open to ideas other than taking it
to the U.N. Security Council for sanctions, U.S. Deputy
Secretary of State Richard Armitage said Wednesday.
Lorestan University students go on hunger strike
Iran Focus: Tehran, Oct. 12 – Students from Lorestan University resumed a hunger strike in protest to lack of rights of expression. The students had originally started their hunger strike last Saturday but then suspended it when local government officials promised to resolve outstanding issues.
Lorestan University students go on hunger strike
Iran Focus: Tehran, Oct. 12 – Students from Lorestan University resumed a hunger strike in protest to lack of rights of expression. The students had originally started their hunger strike last Saturday but then suspended it when local government officials promised to resolve outstanding issues.
Iran’s 2003 Nobel Laureate Says Prize Helped Her Everywhere But Home
AP: A year after her Nobel Peace Prize was announced in Oslo, human rights activist Shirin Ebadi said today that the honor
had helped her cause everywhere except at home in Iran.
“The Nobel Peace Prize has given me more international possibilities. It has opened a lot of doors,” said the Iranian lawyer, writer and activist. “But the prize has not made my work any easier in Iran.”
Iran digs heels in on uranium enrichment
Reuters: The EU cannot force Iran to give up its right to enrich uranium, Iran’s foreign minister says, apparently slamming the door on European Union efforts to halt the process and ease fears Tehran is seeking a nuclear bomb. “It is wrong for them (the EU) to think they can, through negotiations, force Iran to stop enrichment,” Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi told a conference in Tehran on Tuesday. “Iran will never give up its right to enrichment.”
Iran ‘child murder’ trial starts
BBC: The trial has started in Iran of two men accused of murdering 17 children, two men and a woman in the desert outside the country’s capital, Tehran. Iranian state media said seven others would go on trial later, accused of sexually abusing the children. At least 16 police are being reprimanded or referred to the judiciary for incompetent handling of the investigation into the killings.
Iran ‘won’t negotiate’ with EU on uranium
DPA: Iran on Tuesday said it would not negotiate with the European Union over a halt to uranium enrichment, just as an inspection team from the United Nations nuclear watchdog arrived in the country.
“We welcome negotiations with the EU but the talks should
just be focused on Irans legitimate right to have peaceful nuclear technology and not on stopping uranium enrichment,” Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi told state-run television.
Iranian Vice President Resigns
AP: An Iranian vice president, who was a close ally of reformist President Mohammad Khatami, resigned Tuesday, saying he could not work with the conservative-dominated parliament.
Mohammad Ali Abtahi first tendered his resignation in February, but it was not accepted. He said Tuesday that the president had accepted his resignation after he insisted …
Russia urges Iran to heed IAEA’s nuclear demands
Reuters: Russia urged Iran on Sunday to heed the U.N.
nuclear watchdog’s call for it to suspend sensitive nuclear
work that could be used to make atomic bomb material.
Iran, in turn, said it was ready to give whatever assurances were required to show that it will not use nuclear technology to make atomic weapons.
