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Prayer Time (Tehran)
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Dawn: 5:41
Sunrise: 7:08
Noon: 12:17
Evening: 17:46
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Weather Guide
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THU |
FRI |
Tehran: |
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High: |
9 oC |
10 oC |
Low: |
0 oC |
0 oC |
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Athens |
5 |
5 |
Ankara |
0 |
-1 |
Paris |
-3 |
-5 |
New Delhi |
8 |
7 |
Rome |
-1 |
-5 |
Riyadh |
7 |
10 |
Frankfurt |
-5 |
-6 |
Cairo |
12 |
11 |
Kuwait City |
4 |
7 |
Karachi |
8 |
8 |
Copenhagen |
-4 |
-7 |
London |
1 |
2 |
Moscow |
-10 |
-12 |
Madrid |
-2 |
-8 |
Vienna |
-6 |
-10 |
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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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Iran, Afghanistan Eager To Strengthen Ties
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Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai (c) in the presence of President Mohammad Khatami. (IRNA Photo)
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TEHRAN, Jan. 26--President Mohammad Khatami and his visiting Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai stressed expansion of bilateral ties on Wednesday.
Referring to the fact that friendly and brotherly ties always existed between the two countries, Khatami noted that Iran considered the security, stability and progress of Afghanistan as its own, IRNA reported.
He also noted that the pace of reconstruction of the country would further accelerate, now that the government there was well-established.
The president said that the opening of the Dogharoun-Herat Road will serve as an initial phase for a long road which would link east of Asia to its west.
He also said that he expected fruitful discussions and remarkable agreements during Karzai's visit.
Answering a question by an Afghan reporter on the educational problems of Afghan students in Iran, he remarked that part of the problems has temporarily been solved.
Karzai reiterated the solid foundation of Iran-Afghanistan ties moving toward further consolidation and expansion.
Touching upon the drug problem, he said his government has already taken measures to encourage people in most parts of the country to fight poppy cultivation.
The Afghan president expressed hope that Afghanistan would manage to uproot poppy cultivation in cooperation with Iran.
Stressing that Afghanistan was faithful to all its commitments regarding Hirmand River, Karzai said that the most favorable situation is for both the nations to enjoy the river's water. Karzai, heading a high-ranking political and economic delegation, arrived on Wednesday for a two-day official visit.
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Khatami, Aliyev Favor Continuation Of Caspian Talks
TEHRAN, Jan. 26--President Mohammad Khatami and Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev on Wednesday stressed continuation of talks to determine the legal regime of the Caspian Sea.
Talking to reporters after signing 10 documents on expansion of bilateral cooperation, Khatami said negotiations with regard to the legal regime of the sea are underway in a friendly atmosphere and with understanding, IRNA reported.
"The (main) issue is that this valuable sea belongs to the five littoral states which will benefit from its resources by safeguarding this god-given asset," he said.
He noted that economic issues were on top of the agenda of bilateral talks between Iran and Azerbaijan, saying the two countries will make efforts to begin broad cooperation while pursuing trade ties.
The Iranian president said Tehran and Baku enjoy potentials to promote development of their economies and expressed hope that the two sides would witness the result of their economic agreements in the near future.
Khatami also pointed to a memorandum of understanding signed between the two states on Wednesday on expansion of railroad cooperation and the linking of the North to the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea via Iran and Azerbaijan as an important regional development.
Aliyev said mutual relations between the two countries would witness important and positive developments through the economic, political and cultural agreements reached during his Tehran visit.
"Azerbaijan's foreign policy attaches importance to consolidation of ties with Iran," he said.
The Azeri president added that ties between the two countries have entered a new phase, noting that talks on the legal regime of the Caspian Sea would be continued in the future.
The two countries are holding friendly and sincere negotiations on Caspian issues and would reach positive results in this regard.
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36 US Troops Die in Iraq in One Day
BAGHDAD, Iraq,
Jan. 26--Thirty-one US troops were reported killed in a helicopter crash and five more died in insurgent attacks Wednesday in the deadliest day for American forces since they invaded Iraq 22 months ago.
The heavy US toll came amid a series of guerrilla bombings and raids that killed 10 Iraqis in a campaign to sabotage Sunday's landmark election--a cornerstone of US plans in Iraq, Reuters reported.
CNN, quoting the US military, reported 31 Marines died when their transport helicopter went down in the deserts of the restive Anbar province of western Iraq.
The cause of the crash was not immediately known.
Four US Marines were killed in action in Anbar province, and an American soldier was killed in a rocket-propelled grenade attack north of Baghdad, US officials said.
The latest surge of insurgent attacks appeared aimed at sowing panic even as the US-backed interim government vowed stringent measures to safeguard the election, Iraq's first since the fall of Saddam Hussein in April 2003.
In a closely coordinated attack, three suicide car bombers hit the town of Riyadh, a Sunni Arab area southwest of the northern city of Kirkuk.
Two explosives-laden cars blew up simultaneously close to an Iraqi Army post and police station and a third vehicle detonated minutes later on a nearby highway, a local police chief said.
Four Iraqi policemen, two Iraqi soldiers and three civilians were killed, and at least 12 people were wounded, police said.
Sunni insurgents have repeatedly targeted the country's fledgling security forces in the countdown to the election, accusing them of collaborating with US-led occupiers.
Iraq's Shiite majority is expected to dominate the vote after decades of rule by Saddam's Sunni minority.
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Palestinians, Israelis Discuss Summit
BEIT-UL-MOQADDAS, Jan. 26--Israeli and Palestinian officials held talks Wednesday aimed at arranging a summit between their two leaders, as they resumed ties for the first time since Mahmud Abbas took over as Palestinian Authority president.
"We discussed in great depth and detail several political and security issues, mainly preparations for a summit between the Palestinian and Israeli leadership," Palestinian negotiations minister Saeb Erakat told AFP.
"We agreed to hold another meeting next week to make further preparations for the summit," he said after the talks in Beit-ul-Moqaddas with Dov Weisglass, a senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Hassan Abu Libdeh, bureau chief of Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei, and former Palestinian Security Minister Mohammed Dahlan also attended the two-hour meeting, as well as Sharon's political advisor Shalom Tourjeman.
Contacts were renewed at the request of Sharon after "positive developments in the Palestinian Authority and efforts to prevent terror", a statement from Sharon's office said.
It stressed that any progress would be "dependent on comprehensive Palestinian activity against terror, violence and incitement".
Although the statement did not detail what was discussed, it said a second meeting would take place next week to continue security contacts ahead of the planned Sharon-Abbas meeting.
Speaking to reporters in the West Bank town of Ramallah, Abbas was upbeat about Wednesday morning's meeting.
"These were very good negotiations on every issue," he said, without giving further details.
Security contacts were resumed last week, leading to an agreement for the deployment of some 2,500 Palestinian security forces in the Gaza Strip with orders to prevent attacks by Palestinian militant groups on Israeli targets.
A Sharon-Abbas meeting would be the first top-level talks between Israel and the Palestinians in four years.
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Zohreh Agreement Expected
TEHRAN, Jan. 26--Iran and Russia are expected to finalize the agreement for the construction of Zohreh satellite soon, Telecommunications Company of Iran's (TCI) Public Relations Office announced on Wednesday.
According to IRNA, the office further said in a report that the satellite would cover Iran and regional countries once it gets the permit from International Telecommunications Union (ITU).
TCI noted that the satellite would enjoy high data transfer security, modern data-voice-TV system and emergency telecommunications system. It would also contribute to the telecommunications infrastructure along with fiber optic and radio systems, and play a role in the mobile and data networks.
The report indicated that the satellite would help provide access to telecommunications systems in mountainous areas, saying the satellite has been insured against natural hazards by international insurance firms. The TCI report comes at a time when State Aerospace Organization has not mentioned the precise timing of the much-publicized satellite's launch. In a meeting between Iranian Ambassador to Moscow Gholamreza Shafei and Russian Federal Space Agency chief, Anatoly Perminov, late last year the two sides agreed to carry out joint space projects, including construction of satellites and exchange of experience.
The two sides also reached an agreement on bilateral cooperation in the scientific study of UFOs (unknown flying objects).
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Davos Forum Opens
DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan. 26--Troubled by the limp dollar and facing calls to do more to curb poverty and climate change, more than 2,000 political and business leaders convened in the Swiss resort of Davos to talk, network and ponder the world's pressing problems.
The annual forum, a corporate schmoozer's dream nestled in the Swiss Alps, began with a sharp rebuke to 'self-indulgent' US consumers threatening global growth at one of the first of several hundred discussion panels here, AFP reported.
Later Wednesday, British Prime Minister Tony Blair was to deliver a formal opening speech on the need to control climate change, while President Jacques Chirac of France was set to push a plan for an international solidarity tax--although he was to deliver his address by video-conference because heavy snow prevented him from attending.
Other themes during the World Economic Forum, which runs to Sunday, range from the Middle East and China's growing clout to ethical dilemmas caused by globalization.
This year's gathering clashes with the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, a conference of greens, economists, libertarians and union activists usually at odds with the liberal, free-market approach favored at Davos.
Organizers brag that Davos offers an unprecedented opportunity for leaders to thrash out solutions, although much of the draw of the forum is the chance to network away from the public stage.
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Blair Sends Positive Signals
LONDON, Jan. 26--British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Wednesday said the country will do everything possible to send right signals to Iran and that Tehran will have to comply with international obligations.
An MP told Blair in the House that the country wants no involvement of British forces in any such attack on Iran if it were to take place and asked for assurance that "it publicly as well as privately strongly dissuade the Americans from any such attacks, including the use of Israeli forces to bomb Iranian nuclear installation", IRNA reported.
Blair responded by saying: "Personally, I see no such contemplation by the US and actually I am referring to what the vice president of America said the other day, when he made it quite clear that there is no such contemplation by America."
Earlier, Blair dismissed claims that the US is planning to attack Iran as a flight of the worst imagination.
The idea that the US is at present contemplating some kind of military strike against Iran is in the realm of "wild fantasies", Blair said.
But in an interview with the Financial Times, he sent conflicting signals by not ruling out an eventual US attack on Iran's facilities by saying 'Yes' to whether it may be theoretically the only way to stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
A few days ago, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw met with US Secretary of State nominee, Condoleezza Rice, and later denied the possibility of Americans attacking Iran.
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Bush Expecting Iraqi "Grand Moment"
WASHINGTON, Jan. 26--President George W. Bush predicted Wednesday that weekend elections in Iraq would be a "grand moment" in the country's history, despite a deadly campaign of violence by insurgents eager to derail the vote.
Speaking at the first press conference of his second four-year term, Bush said US-led forces in Iraq "will complete the mission as quickly as possible" but would not say when the roughly 150,000 US soldiers would start going home, AFP reported.
He predicted progress in 2005 towards building effective Iraqi security forces--which he has made a prerequisite for US withdrawal--but left unsaid when that goal would be reached.
"In terms of troop levels, obviously we're going to have to the troop levels necessary to complete the mission. And that mission is to enable Iraq to defend herself from terrorists, homegrown, or terrorists that come in from outside," he said.
Bush acknowledged that extremists had sown deadly chaos that left many Iraqis "feeling intimidated" ahead of the election, but predicted that a majority wanted to take part in the political contest.
"Millions of Iraqi voters will show their bravery, their love of country and their desire to live in freedom," he said. "I anticipate a grand moment in Iraqi history."
But he declined to set ambitious turnout expectations, saying: "The fact that they're voting in itself is successful."
Bush also seemed to water down the heady rhetoric of last week's inaugural address, in which he promised that spreading democracy and "ending tyranny in our world" would be the primary goal of his second-term foreign policy. Bush touched on a host of other issues in the wide-ranging press conference, though he declined to provide details on his stated domestic policy goals of overhauling the US tax code and partially privatizing the Social Security pension program.
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No Exception
By Soheil Mohajer
The upcoming presidential race can help consolidate national solidarity, sovereignty and regional coexistence.
The country's statesmen should make extensive efforts to promote large-scale public participation in this important undertaking and prepare the ground for the establishment of a government that prioritizes national strength.
If we endeavor to eliminate unnecessary tension and shun unhealthy rivalry, the people would develop more trust in the Islamic system and show up at the ballot boxes in large numbers. When the authorities prefer solidarity and national interest above party politics, the country would be assured of victory in the face of foreign threats and conspiracies.
If authorities do not put aside tendencies for totalitarianism and vested interests, pressure will build up within the society and the country's pursuit of democracy will fail. We should bear in mind that our target is to encourage people to express their disagreements and disgust through the voting process.
We must convince people that voting is tantamount to determining their own fate. It must be institutionalized that the more people vote, the society's adherence to democracy and march toward advancement will become more evident.
Officials must understand that if different personalities enter the presidential race, people would find greater incentives to vote. So moves to prevent any potential candidate from running for the presidency should be avoided.
The people are politically more mature than in the not-so-distant past and it is not possible to impose factional restrictions on the election without facing unwanted consequences. Therefore, we must trust the people's judgment in our drive for democracy and agree that a poor showing at the ballot boxes will undermine the credibility of the republic.
When a majority of people vote, the country need not worry about the outcome of the electoral exercise, because the concept of religious democracy will consolidate the foundations of the Islamic system.
Elections all over the world serve as the yardstick for the legitimacy of political systems and Iran is no exception. Let the people's vote prevail.
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