Ebrahim Asgharzadeh

TEHRAN, March 12--Secretary-General of Hambastegi Party Ebrahim Asgharzadeh has decided to run for the ninth presidential elections as an independent candidate, slated for June 17.
According to Fars News Agency on Saturday, Asgharzadeh will officially declare his nomination in a press conference today.
A source close to the political activist told the news agency that he is still a member of the Hambastegi Party.He said news about Asgharzadeh breaking away from the party are baseless and although members have refused to endorse him as the partyÕs candidate, they are opposed to his departure from the party.

TEHRAN, March 12--Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said on Saturday correction of mistakes and removal of a few unjustifiable restrictions will never persuade Iran to give up its legitimate rights.
Talking to IRNA, Asefi was responding to the recent remarks of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
He said restrictions on spare parts sale for non-military jets should not have been imposed on Iran at all.
ÒRemoval of such restrictions and Iran joining the World Trade Organization are not incentives for Iran,Ó he said.
Asefi also said the US made false allegations by accusing Iran of trying to gain access to nuclear arms, forcing Europe to follow it as well.
However, he said, the transparency of Iran's policies is quite apparent and the International Atomic Energy Agency has confirmed in its reports that the country's nuclear activities are peaceful.
ÒThe United States' foreign policy is based on lies and trickery, leading to distrust in the international arena. Rice has talked of lifting some sanctions while Bush has extended economic sanctions against Iran,Ó he said.
Asefi said Iran is determined to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, and threats, incentives and pressures of any type cannot make Iran forsake its inalienable rights.

TEHRAN, March 12--Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani said Iran is ready to confront any threat and safeguard its nuclear installations.
Shamkhani also told ISNA on Saturday Iran will defend its nuclear installations and is ready to thwart any possible threat.
Commenting on the recent threatening remarks by US leaders and extension of economic sanctions, Shamkhani said the Americans have adopted a hostile attitude toward Iran since 1953.
ÒWe cannot be indifferent toward US threats. We have maintained self-restraint till now,Ó he said.
Asked whether Iranian officials are pleased with the result of recent Iran-EU talks, he said the negotiators were not satisfied with the talks.
On the recent massive rally of Lebanese people against withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon, he said it was a wise and timely decision.
Asked about measures taken by the Defense Ministry in the civil sector, Shamkhani noted that the Defense Ministry has been active in civil transportation, energy and communications sectors.

TEHRAN, March 12--Leading reformist, Mohsen Armin, condemned the attack on the election meeting by presidential candidate, Mostafa Moin, in Isfahan and said anti-reformists are indirectly trying to undermine Moin and other reformist candidatesÕ bid for presidency, IRNA reported on Saturday.
Armin, also the spokesman of Islamic RevolutionÕs Mujahideen Organization, said new elements have been hired to disrupt electoral meetings by reformist nominees.
A number of unknown assailants interrupted MoinÕs meeting with a group of Isfahan University students, their second bid after trying to also disrupt a similar meeting by Moin in the city of Mashhad.
Armin said past failures have persuaded authoritarian groups to refrain from challenging their rivals directly through their traditional supporters.
ÒThey have trained new forces to do the job for them which is the best way to escape public criticism,Ó he said.
Also criticizing the performance of the state TV vis-ˆ-vis the June 17th presidential election, Armin said by ridiculing certain candidates, airing biased news and reports, and spreading baseless rumors, the IRIB intends to keep people at home on election day.

Abdolvahed Mousavi Lari

TEHRAN, March 12--Interior Minister Abdolvahed Mousavi Lari said on Saturday the budget allocated to organizations expected to supervise the ninth presidential election on June 17 is unacceptable.
Speaking at the administrative council meeting held at Tehran Governorate, Lari added that the current budget ratio for executive bodies is incomparable, IRNA reported.
He noted that Majlis Special Commission has ratified an electoral budget equivalent to that of the 2003 for executive organizations involved in the upcoming presidential election.
"Since the Interior Ministry is in charge of all the executive electoral affairs and the Guardians Council is not expected to bear any expenses in this respect, a credit of over 83 billion rials has been earmarked for the executive bodies and 160 billion rials have been allocated to electoral supervision," he said.
The interior minister further said this is while the number of officials in charge of electoral affairs from the Interior Ministry and other executive bodies is one-tenth of those assigned by GC.
He declared that 35,000 voting booths will be set up for the upcoming presidential election, of which 4,200 or 12 percent will be allocated to Tehran.
Lari urged that everyone is expected to do oneÕs best for holding a healthy and orderly election.

TEHRAN, March 12--A weekly of the Islamic Coalition Party in its latest editorial on Saturday urged fundamentalists to pay attention to clerics in the presidential election slated for June 17.
ShomaÕs editorial declared that ignoring clerics during the next presidential election is not acceptable.
Commenting on the US launching 30 satellite television networks, the paper noted that these networks are aimed at forcing the people to elect a weak cabinet during the next presidential election.
Referring to a change of focus in US policies from military to political, the publication called for measures to foil such plots.
The weekly criticized the university student movement for its past performance and said since many years the student movement has turned into a base for the enemies of the Islamic Revolution as a result of the policies of the reformist front.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, March 12--Prime Minister of Pakistan Shaukat Aziz on Saturday said Information Minister Sheikh Rashid was misquoted that the father of the country's nuclear program Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan provided Iran with nuclear technology.
"The information minister was misquoted," Aziz told reporters when asked about Rashid's remarks, IRNA reported.
The information minister had told a seminar in Islamabad on Thursday that nuclear scientist Dr Khan had provided Iran with centrifuges that could be used in the process for making nuclear weapons.
"There is no new development," Aziz added, when asked if he sees any pressure on Iran's peaceful nuclear program.
Dr A.Q Khan has been under house arrest since last year.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf pardoned him, but has kept him away from international investigators.

Paul Rogers

LONDON, March 12--A leading British security analyst warned that the EU will need to exert "huge diplomatic energy" to prevent US from launching another dangerous war against Iran.
During his visit last week to attend an international conference at the Iranian Foreign Ministry's Institute for Political and International Studies, Professor Paul Rogers said he found the Iranian leadership's ÔconfidenceÕ a striking theme, IRNA reported.
"Much of this confidence seems to derive from events in Iraq, including the outcome of the January 30 elections," he said, suggesting that the formation of a Shiite-dominated legislature in Baghdad is Ôbroadly favorableÕ to Iran's interests,Ó he said.
The professor of peace studies at Bradford University in northern England said itÕs true that the US still had 150,000 troops in Iraq, several thousand more in Afghanistan, and controls the waters of the Persian Gulf.
But in his weekly column for Opendemocracy.Net, he warned the US was also "enmeshed in a bitter and continuing insurgency" that may make its core aim of setting up a client government with permanent military bases in Iraq to "eventually prove untenable".
"The United States may dominate the country through its massive embassy, economic influence and occupation forces, but Iran's view is that the US will eventually be worn down and forced to withdraw most, if not all, of its military forces," he said.
Rogers further spoke of the rising Shiite influence in Iraq being ÔmirroredÕ across the wider community in the region, including Bahrain. He also referred to the "significant political influence" shown by Hezbollah in this week's huge demonstration in Beirut.
He was, however, unconvinced about the "quiet satisfaction" conveyed by the head of State Expediency Council, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, and other speakers at the conference that the US would go as far as to attack Iranian nuclear facilities, saying they could be wrong.
"In the current circumstances, the risk of a United States or Israeli military attack on Iran looks all too plausible at some time in the next 18 months," he said.
Rogers suggested that it was Iran's "near-certain intention to develop the technical capacity to produce nuclear weapons--even if it does not go the whole way--(that) will clearly be unacceptable in Washington and Tel Aviv".
"It is not at all clear that the Iranian leadership is prepared to make sufficient concessions to forestall the risk of war, or even sees any reason why it should," he said.
The professor found that many Iranians saw "the acquisition of nuclear weapons as essential to their security, deterring a United States administration that has declared Iran to be a part of the Ôaxis of evilÕ and in need of regime change".
One clear message from his visit was that "the effect of a major attack--from the United States, Israel, or both--would be to produce a degree of nationalist unity that will transcend major political divisions in Iran," he said.
Rogers suggested that it was these "ingredients of confrontation" nearly two years on that seem to indicate that "the result of the United States' strategy in Iraq will be to make conflict with Iran more likelyÓ.
"The Europeans," he warned, "are going to have to exert a huge amount of diplomatic energy if they are to help avoid another dangerous war in an already volatile region."

CARACAS, Venezuela, March 12--Venezuela's database of Geological Sciences was inaugurated by Iran's President Mohammad Khatami and his counterpart Hugo Chavez.
The inauguration took place on the basis of two agreements already reached between the two countries to set up the database, IRNA reported.
The newly-inaugurated center will carry out research works on geology, space geophysics, geochemistry, exploration of mines and geomatic explorations.
Khatami arrived in Caracas late on Thursday from Sarajevo on the third leg of his three-nation tour which took him to Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The Iranian president met Chavez for talks on issues of bilateral interest, as well as regional and international developments.
Iran and Venezuela also concluded political and economic cooperation agreements during Khatami's visit.
Khatami arrived in the Venezuelan city of Ciudad Bolivar on Saturday to a warm welcome by a group of local officials.
Iran's ministers of foreign affairs, finance and economy as well as industries and mines are accompanying Khatami.
Khatami will leave Venezuela for Tehran after inaugurating the tractor manufacturing plant in Ciudad Bolivar.