Hamid Reza Asefi

TEHRAN, Jan. 16--Iran reaffirmed Sunday it would resume its nuclear enrichment program but said the timing of the initiative is yet to be decided.
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters the "Islamic state has reiterated that it has frozen the enrichment program temporarily and voluntarily and that it would one day carry on the activity".
Earlier, Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Hassan Rohani, declared the country would not allow others to impose a permanent halt on its enrichment plans.
Hossein Musavian, a key member of Iran's nuclear negotiation team, also said the country may resume uranium enrichment in March, if talks with the European Union end without any progress.
But Asefi said the negotiations are progressing smoothly.
"We have made our position clear to the EU and have had favorable talks with the Europeans," he said, stressing that Iran-EU negotiations are on the right track.
He said there is no need for the US presence in ongoing negotiations between Iran and the EU, adding that Tehran has preconditions for resumption of talks with Washington.
"We do not think there is any need to embark on face-to-face talks with the Americans at this juncture because both the countries can convey their messages to each other through third parties, speeches and the interest section of the Swiss Embassy," he said.
He, however, stressed that if the US wants to sit on the negotiation table with Iran, it has to change its approach.
Asked whether the presence of the US oil and gas giant Halliburton in a major energy project in Iran means a thaw in relations, Asefi said "Iran's energy sector was more interested in competitive prices offered by the American company" than the country it belongs to.
"The Americans have imposed sanctions on Iran but Iran has not reciprocated," he said, adding that the project in which Halliburton is participating serves the Islamic state's interests.
The US company has been awarded phases 9 and 10 of the giant project to develop the world's largest gas field, South Pars, in southern Iran. Halliburton has won the bid together with an Iranian company, Kish Oriental.
On repeated claims by the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf littoral states over the three Iranian islands of Abu Musa and Lesser and Greater Tunbs, the spokesman said Iran does not care about such allegations.
On circumstances that led to the court summons for Noble Peace Laureate Shirin Ebadi, Asefi said the issue has been politicized by the United States.
"Mrs. Ebadi was summoned to court after a private plaintiff filed a complaint against her," he said, adding that she has been accused of libel and would likely be sentenced to a cash fine of around $50 in the worst possible scenario.
He said the Americans have got the habit of poking their nose into everything, including those, which do not concern them at all.
Asked how important it is to the Islamic Republic that the United Nations has failed to prepare the grounds for the massive turnout of Iraqi refugees in Iran in the upcoming out-of-country elections, Asefi said Tehran is following up the issue seriously.
"The elections in Iraq are of paramount importance (to Iran) and the voter turnout must be so high that the next Iraqi government would be representative of the Iraqi nation's votes," he added, stressing that if the UN fails to provide Iran-based Iraqis with sufficient ballot boxes, Iran can help supply mobile ballot boxes.
Asefi also said talks are underway with the UN authorities to provide better voting conditions for Iraqi expatriates in Iran.

BAMAKO, Mali, Jan. 16--President Mohammad Khatami said on Monday Africa is in need of development so that its people can achieve an acceptable standard of living.
Speaking prior to the ceremony for signing six memoranda of understanding on mutual cooperation with Mali, Khatami highlighted the two sides' historical ties and denounced the wrongdoing of colonialists in the black continent, IRNA reported.
"African and Asian countries that had suffered material and spiritual losses from western colonialists are not out to take revenge," he said.
"The western conscience should revise its wrongdoing in the past and help promote justice-seeking moves and development of other nations."
Underlining his detente policy, the president said Iran calls for expansion of all-out ties with other countries in general and African countries in particular.
Mali's President Amadou Toumani Toure, who also attended the ceremony, lauded the Iranian president and its nation.
"On behalf of myself and my nation, I would like to thank you for accepting our invitation and visiting our country," he said.
Highlighting Iran's historical status, Toure criticized economic classification of the countries and said the assets and cultural features of countries should not be forgotten. He stressed that the two sides should endeavor to preserve their culture.
Meanwhile, Khatami and his Malian counterpart oversaw the signing of six MoUs for cooperation, stressing expansion of ties between the two countries.
The documents included an agreement for cultural cooperation, a memorandum of understanding between Export Development Bank of Iran and Mali's Ministry of Economy and Commerce, and an MoU for Iran's development assistance to Mali, which were inked by the two presidents and their foreign ministers.
Mali's government newspaper L'Essor said the two sides would discuss mining cooperation and development of rail and air transport infrastructure.
President Khatami, accompanied by a delegation, arrived in the Malian capital on Saturday night on the fourth leg of his seven-nation African tour which has already taken him to Nigeria, Senegal and Sierra Leone.

TEHRAN, Jan. 16--Al-Alam TV Network has acquired classified documents exposing Iraqi Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan as an active member of Saddam Hussein's intelligence service, IRNA reported on Sunday.
These documents show that in the 1990s Shaalan spied for the Iraqi regime under different names until the last days of Saddam's ouster.
The most important of these documents was issued on June 27, 2000, and includes the names of Iraqi officers dispatched abroad and information about their links with Iraqi spies living overseas. In this document, the name Hazem Shaalan has been specifically mentioned, his place of residence enlisted as London and the name of the Iraqi officer who was supposed to meet him in Morocco on April 28, 2000, specified as Ala Al-Hussein Ahmad.
Another document dated Jan. 5, 2003, entitled 'Codes' has been sent from Iraqi Foreign Ministry to Iraqi Embassy in Morocco. This document refers to the importance of implementing the directives of the Iraqi Embassy's Research Bureau attributing new codes to different Iraqi spies for the sake of exchanging information.
In this document, Shaalan's name is mentioned with the old code H5 and his pseudonym Heydar Ahmad.
The third document was issued by the Iraqi Intelligence Ministry, affiliated to the Iraqi Presidential Office and is entitled 'Management's Directives'. This document is also similar to the other two documents and exposes Shaalan's meeting with Ahmad on April 28, 2000.
The fourth document was also issued by the Iraqi Intelligence Ministry dated Nov. 7, 2002, entitled "Personal Classified".
It includes the names and codes of people who can be trusted. In this document, code number 20 was designated to Shaalan and his other code H5 is also mentioned as a spy active in Morocco.
The fifth document includes the names of the links of Iraqi Intelligence Ministry in foreign countries and also the information that Shaalan sent to the ministry on Feb. 1, 1998, regarding Ahmad Chalabi's meetings with British officials and his trip to Iran.

TEHRAN, Jan. 16--Secretary of the Office to Consolidate Unity Abdollah Momeni on Sunday said the student movement will not endorse any of the presidential candidates.
"The main concern of the student activists is that democratic principles are abided by the rulership," he told ILNA.
Commenting on the issue of unity among fundamentalist forces, Momeni said, "Since the monopolist current has entered the scene to gain control over the pillars of the Islamic system in a planned manner, it does not appear that the fundamentalists would encounter problems for forging unity among themselves."
The OCU secretary stressed that the fundamentalists do not adhere to democracy.
"It seems that fundamentalists are playing games and intend to obtain results by giving the impression that they are following democratic principles," he said.
Momeni noted that the fundamentalist current would ultimately reach consensus over one single presidential candidate and the present hue and cry is only a gimmick.
He also said that fundamentalists would not allow reformers to win the presidential race by manipulating the electoral process.
"Since the people have developed a negative attitude toward reformers who are confused and divided, and the fact that reformist candidates may be disqualified by the Guardians Council, the result of the next presidential election is known in advance. It is obvious that the fundamentalists will win the race," he concluded.

TEHRAN, Jan. 16--Managing Director of Tehran's Fire Department Ahmad Ziaei on Sunday warned about the increasing death toll due to carbon monoxide poisoning.
"In the past month, 25 people have choked to death by inhaling carbon monoxide. These people died due to incomplete combustion and absence of air movement in a closed atmosphere," IRNA quoted Ziaei as saying.
He recalled that despite previous warnings regarding ways of using heating systems in wintertime, the sad part is such incidents are on the rise.
"On several occasions, we have warned people that they should put their heating systems in parts of the room where there is air movement, otherwise they might be poisoned," he said.
Ziaei concluded by saying that since the beginning of the current Iranian year (March 20, 2004), an average of 40 to 70 accidents have occurred in the capital daily.

TUNIS, Tunisia, Jan. 16--Although overall illiteracy rates have been falling in Arab countries, rising populations mean that the total number of people unable to either read or write continues to increase, a report produced by an Arab League body devoted to education and culture said.
The report, an internal document of the Arab League Education, Science and Culture Organization (ALESCO) that was obtained by AFP, said some 70 million people aged over 15 in the league's member countries were unable to read or write.
It expressed regret that a goal to halve the numbers of illiterate people between 1990 and 2000 had not been achieved, and said that on current trends it would take three decades to completely eliminate the problem.
The document also said that almost half of women in the countries concerned--46.5 percent--were unable to read or write, as against a rate of 25.1 percent among men.
The report, however, noted that as a percentage of total populations, the average level of illiteracy in Arab League states had fallen enormously over the past 35 years.
The overall rate had stood at 73 percent in 1970, but had fallen to 48.7 percent in 1990 and was now down to 35.6 percent, the report said.
In absolute numbers, however, there were some 50 million illiterates in 1970, rising to 61 million 20 years later and now to an expected 70 million this year.
Unsurprisingly, the report found that illiteracy rates were much higher in Arab countries with large populations and relatively high levels of poverty, such as Egypt--which alone was estimated to have 17 million illiterate citizens--Algeria, Morocco, Sudan and Yemen.
Small, oil-rich Persian Gulf states such as Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait scored best, as did the Palestinian territories.