Friends and relatives gather for a picnic on the 13th day of Norouz, marking the start of spring, in Tehran on Saturday. (IRNA Photo)

TEHRAN, April 2--Iranian families celebrated Saturday as Sizdah Bedar--the last day of Iranian New Year holidays (started March 21)--by going outdoors.
On Sizdah Bedar, also known in Iran as the national “picnic celebration“, Iranians head for parks, beaches and green areas to celebrate the close of the holiday season outdoors, IRNA reported.
The tradition of Sizdah Bedar (Sizdeh means 13) translates into “Getting Rid of Thirteen“ (linked to the belief that 13 is an unlucky number). The concept of avoiding the number 13 symbolizes the determination to deal with all evil in the new year.
On this day, people tie a knot with grass leaves and make wishes of getting married, having a baby, buying a house or any such thing.
An interesting ritual performed at the end of the picnic day is discarding the Sabzeh (green sprouts) from the Norouz Haft-Seen table (a table stretched on the first day of Norouz, containing seven items beginning with the Persian letter ’Seen’ and pronounced with the ’S’ sound). The Sabzeh is believed to have imbibed all the sickness, pain and ill-fate that the family may face throughout the coming year.
Life returns to normal after Sizdah Bedar: schools reopen, shops start business and offices resume their routine operations.

President Mohammad Khatami (2r), Head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization Gholamreza Aqazadeh (c) and reporters visit the nuclear facilities in Isfahan, 295 km from Tehran, March 30. (IRNA Photo)

VIENNA, Austria, April 2--Iran’s charge d’affaires to Prague, Hossein Rezvani, said the tour of reporters to the nuclear facilities of Natanz in Isfahan province on Wednesday is in line with Tehran’s policy of transparency.
In a live phone interview with Voice of Prague on Thursday, Rezvani said the tour to Natanz facilities, where President Mohammad Khatami was also present, is a proof of Tehran’s transparency, IRNA reported.
The diplomat added that transparency and realism are among the outstanding features and principles of Iran’s foreign policy and of its peaceful and civilian nuclear activities.
“Iran has maintained its full transparency in its general policies and in cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA),“ he said, adding that Iran’s nuclear activities are merely for generating nuclear energy to meet the growing domestic demand for electricity.
He also said that it was not the first time foreign reporters were visiting the Iranian nuclear sites.
Rezvani stressed that Iran would continue its comprehensive and transparent cooperation with the IAEA by fully observing its safeguards obligations and the additional protocol to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

ALGIERS, Algeria, April 2--Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani arrived here Saturday for a three-day visit at the head of a high-ranking delegation.
Visiting Algeria on the invitation by his Algerian counterpart, Shamkhani will confer with the country’s political and military officials, IRNA reported.
Upon arrival at Houari Boumediene Airport, Shamkhani was received by Algerian Interior Minister Yazid Zerhouni, the National Liberation Army Chief of Staff Major General Ahmed Qaed Saleh as well as a number of the commanders of armed forces.
In a brief interview with IRNA upon arrival, Shamkhani voiced his satisfaction over his visit to Algeria that has a long record of campaign against tyranny and colonialism, saying talks on bilateral ties and further expansion of ties are among goals of his visit.
Meanwhile, Shamkhani on his way to Algeria stopped briefly at Ankara airport on Saturday and met with a senior official of Turkey’s Defense Ministry.
Shamkhani and the head of Turkish Defense Ministry’s Planning Department, General Sardar Doulgar, discussed issues of mutual interest.
Shamkhani expressed his ministry’s readiness to expand relations and cooperation with Turkey’s Defense Ministry and said Turkey should give special consideration to military cooperation with Iran.
Iran’s ambassador to Ankara and the Iranian military attache were also present in the meeting.

PARIS, April 2--Presidents Mohammad Khatami of Iran and Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria are to attend a UNESCO conference in Paris next Thursday, and are also expected to meet President Jacques Chirac, officials said Friday.
The two leaders will both address an international conference on Dialogue Among Civilizations at the UN’s science and culture organization, they said, AFP reported.
Diplomats confirmed that they will also see the French leader, though the timing of the meetings was not known.
Meanwhile, France’s Ambassador to Iran Francois Nicoullaud told IRNA on Saturday that there is not “even the slightest of disagreements“ between Tehran and Paris.
“The two countries currently enjoy a good level of two-way political, economic and cultural relations,“ he said.
Speaking on the occasion of Khatami’s imminent visit to France, Nicoullaud said it did not carry political weight and was only a friendly trip, adding that the Iranian president will deliver a speech at the Paris-based United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) headquarters.
Nicoullaud also said the French president has expressed interest in meeting Khatami at the same headquarters and exchange views on expansion of bilateral ties at the regional and international levels.
Commenting on his country’s participation in nuclear negotiations with Iran, Nicoullaud said France will make all efforts to make the crucial talks a success.
On the economic front, he said French firms are increasingly establishing themselves in the Iranian market, especially in its oil and auto-manufacturing sectors.
Khatami will be the first speaker to address the UNESCO’s meeting on Dialogue Among Civilizations next Tuesday.
UNESCO said in a press release on Friday that more than 300 people have been invited to the meeting, which will open by a speech by the organization’s director general.
The Algerian president would also address the meeting.
UNESCO announced that the meeting aims to unveil achievements of the concept over the past five years.
President Khatami had proposed the year 2000 as the year of Dialogue among Civilizations, which was welcomed by the UN and the year was named after it.

WASHINGTON,
April 2--Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said in an interview late Thursday that nuclear-capable cruise missiles were sold illegally to Iran and China under Kiev’s previous regime.
“I confirm this, though I do so with bitterness,“ Yushchenko, who will make an official visit to Washington next week, told NBC.
He said the X-55 missiles were exported under a forged contract that had Russia as the country of destination, but did not say when the sale took place, AFP reported.
A copy of the contract obtained by NBC appeared to bear clearance stamps for the export of 20 missiles to the Russia, which has denied any role in the sale, NBC said.
No nuclear warheads were sold with the missiles, made in 1987 with a range roughly of 3,200 kilometers (2,000 miles) and were poorly maintained, according to a Ukranian source familiar with the investigation.
US intelligence officials quoted by NBC said China and Iran each obtained six missiles. Ukrainian officials have offered conflicting accounts of the number of rockets delivered.
Despite lacking nuclear warheads, the rockets could advance Iran’s alleged quest for nuclear weapons--they could reverse engineer the missiles, and double the range of its most powerful rocket, the Shahab-3, US intelligence officials told NBC. Yushchenko is due to meet with President George W. Bush at the White House on Monday, and will address a joint session of the US Congress on Wednesday, during his visit to Washington that ends April 7.
The pro-Western Yushchenko defeated his pro-Russian rival Viktor Yanukovich in the rerun presidential elections in December, which followed a popular uprising sparked by two previous fraudulent rounds of elections.

ARDEKAN, Yazd, April 2--Iranian Zoroastrians perform their religious rituals in total freedom, respect and peace in the Islamic Republic, a senior Zoroastrian priest said here on Thursday.
Zoroastrian priest Goshtasb Balivani made the remarks in an address to a group of Zoroastrians at Hirom Baad rituals at Pir Herisht Temple, 17 kilometers north of this central Iranian city on Thursday, IRNA reported.
The temple is named after Pir Herisht, also known as Morvarid, one of the servants of Iran’s Sassanid King Yazdgerd.
Zoroastrians from Fars, Kerman, Tehran and Yazd provinces recited from their religious book and performed Hirombad rituals at Sharifabad fireplace.
There are many Zoroastrian holy sites in Yazd province, including Pir Narki, Pir Sabz, Khatun Banu, Narestaneh, Pir Herisht, Setti Pir, Pir Elias Shah, Heram Yazd, Pir Mehr Izad and Chehel Cheragh.
Zoroaster was born in Takht Suleyman of Iran’s Azarbaijan in 3,600 BC to Dogdu and Purwashsb.
Zoroastrians believe Zoroaster was assigned to prophethood at the age of 30 by Ahura Mazda and was killed at a fireplace in Balkh northeast of Iran by Turbratur.
Of the estimated 150,000 Zoroastrians worldwide, 30,000 reside in Iran’s provinces of Yazd, Kerman, Fars, Tehran, Khuzestan and Kohkilouyeh-Boyerahmad.

BRUSSELS, Belgium, April 2--The European Union-Russia Permanent
Partnership Council met in Luxembourg Friday and discussed bilateral ties as well as international issues such as Iran, Iraq, Palestine and Kyrgyzstan.
After the meeting, European Commissioner for External Relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner told a press conference, “On Iran, I would like to say that we very much appreciate the support the European Union has had from Russia in its initiative to find a negotiated solution,“ IRNA reported.
“It is clear that the EU and Russia also are on the same wavelength regarding Iran’s nuclear program and Russia’s insistence on the return of spent fuel in the Bushehr reactor deal is, indeed, a very essential and important one,“ she said.
On his part, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said they discussed the situation in the Middle East, Iran and Iraq.
Lavrov further said they agreed that the UN should play the leading role in settling the Iraq crisis.

Andrias Cole

VIENNA, Austria, April 2--Austrian Parliament Speaker Andrias Cole on Thursday referred to Iran as a cultural superpower, saying Vienna welcomes the ’positive’ trend of mutual ties.
Cole also told Iran’s Ambassador to Vienna Mohsen Nabavi that Austria is keen on further exchange of civilizational dialogue with Iran as well as promotion of bilateral economic cooperation, IRNA reported.
Referring to the next week’s one-day visit of President Mohammad Khatami to Vienna, Cole said Vienna looks forward to welcoming the president and is proud of that.
Iran’s president will visit Vienna on the first leg of his two-nation European tour, which will also take him to France, and is scheduled to meet with Austrian President Heinz Fischer, Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel and Parliament Speaker Cole.
Nabavi referred to the good and age-old ties between Iran and Austria, saying the President’s Austria visit would serve as an important step toward further expansion of two-way ties.
Nabavi and Cole also discussed Tehran-Vienna ties, Iran-EU3 talks and other issues of mutual interest.

AMMAN, Jordan, April 2--King Abdullah of Jordan felicitated President Mohammad Khatami on the 26th anniversary of the establishment of the Islamic Republic, reported Jordan’s official news agency, Petra.
In a message to President Khatami late on Thursday, the Jordanian king congratulated him on the auspicious day and wished the Iranian nation “success and health“.
Some 99 percent of Iranians voted for the establishment of the Islamic Republic on April 1, 1979, a few months after the monarchy was overthrown by the popular revolution led by the late Imam Khomeini.