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Prayer Time
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Dawn: 4:31
Sunrise: 5:58
Noon: 11:55
Evening: 18:14
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Weather Guide
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SUN |
MON |
Tehran: |
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High: |
32oC |
31oC |
Low: |
18oC |
17oC |
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Athens |
17 |
17 |
Ankara |
10 |
10 |
Paris |
10 |
12 |
New Delhi |
22 |
21 |
Rome |
12 |
11 |
Riyadh |
22 |
22 |
Frankfurt |
8 |
8 |
Cairo |
22 |
22 |
Kuwait City |
21 |
21 |
Karachi |
25 |
26 |
Copenhagen |
8 |
8 |
London |
11 |
10 |
Moscow |
4 |
3 |
Madrid |
8 |
10 |
Vienna |
8 |
8 |
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Identification
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Published by the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA)
Address:
Iran Cultural & Press Institute, #212 Khorramshahr Avenue Tehran/Iran
Managing Director: Mohammad T. Roghaniha
Executive Editor: Amin Sabooni
Editorial Dept. Tel: 8755761-2
Editorial Dept. Fax: 8761869
Advertising Dept. Tel: 8753119, 8757702, 8733764
Internet Address:
www.iran-daily.com
E-mail Address:
iran-daily@iran-daily.com
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Shamkhani:
Electronic, Telecom Needs Met Domestically
TEHRAN, Sept. 25--Defense Minister Vice Admiral Ali Shamkhani said Saturday the missile tested during Ashura-5 War Games was built by State Aerospace Organization in compliance with the requirements of armed forces.
According to ISNA, the minister was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the inauguration ceremony for the Defense Ministry's 25 electronic and telecommunications projects.
Shamkhani emphasized that today the Islamic system is able to procure all its electronic and telecommunications needs domestically.
"The Islamic system's defense policy is based on effective prevention. We have never been immune to enemy threats. It is not that the enemies did not want to attack us but rather that regional and foreign enemies have not attacked us because we have suitable defense capabilities," he said.
The defense minister noted that in view of the constant quantitative, qualitative and geographical advancement of enemies, maintaining the country's current preventive capabilities necessitates permanent upgrading of defense capabilities.
"Increasing the preparedness of the armed forces and the production capacity of hardware as well as the continued presence of the people on the scene are among factors that can help maintain our preventive powers," he said.
Shamkhani recalled that five wars have taken place in the region in the past couple of decades.
"The country's defense industry products reflect the experiences gained from these wars, which have been tailored to the country's defense needs," he said.
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US Planes Pound Fallujah
Britain, Egypt Seek Hostages– Release
FALLUJAH, Iraq, Sept. 25--US aircraft pounded the insurgent enclave of Fallujah on Saturday, killing seven Iraqis in a raid the military said targeted a suspected hideout of a militant group.
Another seven Iraqis--national guard recruits--died in a rebel attack near the capital, Baghdad, while a roadside bomb killed a US soldier in the area, bringing to five the number of US troops killed in 48 hours, the military said.
In New York, visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi pledged that the country's own forces would secure his war-torn country in time for January elections to be held.
In the shadowy and bloody battle involving foreign hostages, Britain sent a delegation from the Muslim Council of Britain to seek the release of engineer Kenneth Bigley, threatened with the same death, by beheading, meted out earlier this week to two Americans kidnapped with him.
Bigley, 62, and the Americans were seized from their Baghdad home earlier this month by the Unity and Holy War group of alleged Al-Qaeda operative Abu Mussab Al-Zarqawi.
A web posting claimed on Saturday that he had been executed but the British authorities dismissed the statement.
The families of six Egyptians kidnapped recently in Iraq also pleaded for their lives, although no group has yet claimed responsibility for kidnapping the men, all employed by the Egyptian telecom giant Orascom.
The fate of two missing Italian women, both aid workers, remained unknown, despite two distinct claims that they had been killed.
In its daily battle against insurgents, the US military said its air force "conducted a strike inflicting a blow to the Abu Mussab Al-Zarqawi terrorist network by conducting a precision strike on a known terrorist meeting site in central Fallujah".
Medics in the town said women and children were among the dead.
The military also disclosed the deaths of the five soldiers, one on Saturday in the Baghdad area by a roadside bomb, and four marines in three separate incidents on Friday in Al-Anbar province, which includes Fallujah.
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IAEA Will Probe Dimona Radiation
VIENNA, Austria, Sept. 25--The UN nuclear watchdog is to send experts to Jordan to verify whether the ageing Dimona nuclear plant just across the border in Israel is emitting high levels of radiation, an IAEA spokesman said Saturday.
"We have received a request from the Jordanian government to assist them in monitoring the radiological situation," said Mark Gwozdecky, spokesman for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
"We agreed to send a fact-finding mission in the coming weeks to help them determine whether there is any radiological incident."
The request came from Jordan's parliamentary Health and Environment Committee after former Israeli nuclear scientist Mordechai Vanunu warned that the plant, built in the late 1950s with the help of France, in the southern Negev Desert could become a "second Chernobyl".
Vanunu, a former technician, served an 18-year prison sentence in Israel for revealing secrets about the plant.
But a diplomat based in Vienna, where the IAEA is headquartered, said there was no proof of any contamination from the Dimona plant.
"There is no evidence of radiation ... Nobody has ever gotten near Dimona," he said.
Jordan said in August it was preparing to invite UN experts from the IAEA to carry out independent surveys in the kingdom to eliminate any fear of contamination from the plant in neighboring Israel.
However, Jordan's government spokeswoman Asma Khodr has insisted the country is free of any contamination from the ageing Israeli reactor and reiterated that radiation levels were normal.
The IAEA said it had had no similar request from Israel, which maintains a high level of secrecy around its nuclear programs.
Chernobyl was a nuclear plant that exploded in Ukraine in 1986, causing the world's worst-ever civilian nuclear accident.
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America Waiving Iraqi Debts To Persian Gulf States
WASHINGTON, Sept. 25--A Bush administration official suggested on Friday that Iraq may not need to repay $45 billion in debt claimed by Persian Gulf countries because the funds were grants to help Iraq in its war against Iran in the 1980s.
The money claimed by Arab states of the Persian Gulf is a substantial part of the estimated $120 billion Iraq owes other states and eliminating it would significantly ease the country's burden.
The United States, committed to rebuilding Iraq despite a deadly insurrection, is trying to work out an agreement between Baghdad and its creditors to allow it to use its money for reconstruction rather than for servicing old debts.
US officials hope to reach a deal with the 19 members of the Paris Club of creditor nations for Iraq, but the Persian Gulf states fall outside of this group.
Referring to the funds given to Iraq by the Persian Gulf states, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage told a House of Representatives subcommittee hearing, "There's no paper on it because it was given when Iraq was fighting Iran. It was provided as a grant because of the war at the time."
Armitage was testifying on President George W. Bush's request to shift $3.46 billion in US aid from Iraqi reconstruction projects to improve security and prepare for elections.
As part of that request, Bush asked Congress to set aside $360 million to cover costs of forgiving 95 percent of Iraqi debt owed to the United States. The figure represents the current estimated amount of the debt, largely run up during the 1980s.
The administration wants the money to be reprogrammed quickly so that Washington can go to an Oct. 12 Paris Club meeting with US debt reduction complete. There will be further Paris Club meetings in November and December.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia said on Saturday it was ready to discuss a major reduction of the $30 billion it says it is owed by neighboring Iraq, but appeared to dismiss a US suggestion that the debt could be entirely written off.
Saudi Arabia says the money was loaned to Baghdad.
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Khatami Receives KDP–s Barezani
TEHRAN, Sept. 25--President Mohammad Khatami here Saturday said Iraq deserves stability and progress.
"It is necessary that Iran and Iraq cooperate to restore peace and stability to Iraq. Let us hope that with the departure of the foreign occupation forces from Iraq, the Iraqi people would find the opportunity to determine their own fate," the president told Massoud Barezani, the leader of Kurdistan Democratic Party.
The chief executive stressed the need for different Iraqi groups to avoid discord.
"Insecurity in Iraq implies insecurity for Iran and the rest of the region," he said.
He also stressed that general elections should be held in Iraq as soon as possible so that all Iraqis could participate in governing their country's affairs.
Khatami verified the standpoints of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani and noted that his presence in Iraq could ensure security and progress in that country.
Barezani, for his part, appreciated Iran's efforts for establishing peace and security in Iraq.
"All Iraqi officials wish to pursue sound relations with their neighbors, especially Iran," he said.
The KDP chief underlined the need for all Iraqi groups to stand united.
"The occupation of Iraq will come to an end. Kurds and Shiites have pursued the territorial integrity of Iraq more than all other groups and today they want to build a new Iraq," he said.
Barezani concluded by urging expansion of two-way commercial bonds and active presence of Iran in Iraqi development projects.
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Peaceful Nuclear Technology Is Iran's Right
World Challenged By Extremism
UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 25--Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi here Friday insisted on Iran's right to gain access to nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
Addressing the 59th session of UN General Assembly, Kharrazi stressed the importance of the international community taking action over the existence and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, IRNA reported.
"As the only victim of the unbridled use of weapons of mass destruction in recent years, Iran feels very strongly about the absolute imperative of a collective and rule-based multilateral campaign to eradicate all these weapons and to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons as an interim measure," he said.
He stressed that this must be done by the universal application of disarmament and non-proliferation instruments in a comprehensive and non-discriminatory manner.
"Iran has been at the forefront of efforts to free Middle East from weapons of mass destruction," he said, noting that this initiative has received the repeated approval of the UN General Assembly.
Kharrazi noted that the UN Security Council has been systematically obstructed by Israel's intransigence and its rejection of all multilateral instruments, regrettably with impunity.
He urged the international community to show its resolve to maintain the credibility of multilateral disarmament instruments by taking action to compel Israel to comply.
Pointing to Iran's stance on Iraq, he said, "We condemn all acts of violence and terrorism in Iraq. We stress the need for promoting security, preserving the unity, territorial integrity and political independence of Iraq, promoting democracy by drafting a new constitution, holding free and fair elections as scheduled and accelerating the reconstruction in Iraq as well as the speedy withdrawal of foreign forces from Iraq."
Kharrazi further said a realistic review of current developments in international relations will show that the world today faces the formidable challenge of extremism in two distinct and yet interconnected faces: violence and terrorism of non-state actors and unbridled militarism of states.
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No Exception
By Soheil Mohajer
The latest IAEA resolution on Iran's nuclear program released last week put a halt, albeit temporary, to controversies and high-flying charges about our search for nuclear technology. Britain, France and Germany have taken some comfort and seem relieved more than others because the strong resolution proposed by the three was ratified without a vote.
However, some of our senior officials had the right to express reservations and dissatisfaction with the document that sets a new deadline for Tehran to further broaden its cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog.
The point is that things happened contradictory to what our statesmen had expected. In recent years one of known strategy was to work with European powers in confronting illegitimate US demands and pressures. But what happened in Vienna showed for another time that the US and its European allies had come to an understanding in relation to their Iran policy. For all the known reasons, Washington was able to convince the Europeans to see the nuclear issue from its own narrow perspective. After all its election season in the US, so reality and reason can wait for some more time, was the basic message to the Europeans from the Bush White House!
Yet, it was not only our statesmen who were disappointed with the ruling by the agency's board of governors. Those close to the session said the US delegation too had its own grievances as it was forced to compromise on key articles of the resolution to push it through.
America still strongly insists that Iran is hiding a nuclear weapons program for worldview and should thus be referred to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.
Common sense dictates international disputes should be resolved through dialogue and by upholding rights of all parties. Iran like all other countries has certain rights, which the global community must respect. It is natural that in return Iran will and should play by the rules and help safeguard international laws and regulations.
In the new resolution there are many vague, ambiguous and strange references.
Some articles and points seem to have been inserted in the text quite hastily and on the last minute. The Non-Aligned Movement member-states too had raised their serious objection to the original proposal and the unreasonable demands it put on the Islamic state, which indeed contradicted the agency's charter.
It cannot be doubted that the regular IAEA inspections of our nuclear sites, the several visits by IAEA Chief Mohamed ElBaradei to Iran over the past year, and his public statements about the transparency of our nuclear activities, show Iran's dossier is moving towards a peaceful solution.
Under the circumstances, Iran will continue to cooperate with the agency and fulfill all its international obligations. It is clear that when conflict arises, the skills of conflict managers are put to a litmus test. Threats, bullying tactics or intimidation are no more the tools to solve problems and get the desired results. Powers and politicians who have dealt with Iran in the past quarter century are aware of this plain truth. Let the IAEA and Europeans be no exception.
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