Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi

TEHRAN, May 16--Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi said on Monday dossiers that can be handled in an atmosphere of peace and compromise should not be sullied by premeditated judgments.
According to ISNA, Ayatollah Shahroudi, who was addressing the nationwide gathering of heads of arbitration councils, added, “Judgment in Islam has two phases. The first phase is peace and compromise, and the second phase is premeditated judgment. The first phase, of course, is more important. Revival of the culture of peace and compromise in the Islamic community entails many blessings, as it can help cement the very foundations of the Islamic system.“
He noted that arbitration councils is a fundamental issue in Islamic culture, but has not yet received due attention.
The judiciary chief referred to the restoration of arbitration councils in recent years and said they should not be given secondary importance, emphasizing that arbitration on the basis of peace and compromise is the best solution.
Shahroudi stressed that the revival of the culture of peace and compromise will help prevent crimes and disputes.
“Currently, what we see in the society is the culture of friction. This can lead to one dossier being examined several times and waste the time and energy of judicial forces.
If the culture of peace and compromise is revived, then many dossiers will not be created in the first place,“ he said.

ZABOL, Sistan-Baluchestan, May 16--Secretary-general of the Association of Muslim Journalists Ali Yousefpour said on Monday the next government and the parliament should help ameliorate the conditions of the press corps.
Addressing a question-answer session at Zabol University, Yousefpour also told IRNA that the Iranian press corps faces numerous problems and there is lack of a civil institution to handle press affairs.
Yousefpour, who is also the managing director of the Persian daily ’Siasat-e Rouz’, noted that since the government dominates state affairs, it is responsible for the problems of the press corps.
“At present, the government handles the tasks of issuing print permits and distribution of the print media. Furthermore, the range of duties of the judiciary chief in the domain of press corps is not clear. Although, we have certain red lines in our press community, the future of Iranian print media is promising,“ he said.
Yousefpour announced that currently 1,950 publications are being printed in the country while 3,000 publishers are awaiting print permits.
“If the government and the Majlis were to cooperate, the press corps will blossom within five years,“ he said.

John Allen Grim

It may be difficult to find a link between religion and environment. However, John Allen Grim, the associate professor of religion in Bucknell University, USA, clarified the link in an exclusive interview with Iran Daily.
Grim was in Tehran to attend the International Conference on Environment, Peace and Dialogue Among Civilizations and Cultures (May 9-10), which was held in cooperation with the United Nations Environment Programme and Iran’s Department of Environment.
Grim has coordinated a ten-conference series on world religions and economy at Harvard’s Center for the Study of World Religions, along with Mary Evelyn Tucker.

IRAN DAILY: You have reportedly said economic growth without restraint can be a challenge to the environment. Could you elaborate?
John Allen Grim: Economic growth is currently pursued under a model of unlimited growth and yet we now know that we live on a limited planet and the resources of that planet were certainly extended beyond our generation and maybe even the generation of our children. But what about our grandchildren? What about generations to come? What will be left for them in terms of water, clean air and natural resources? So we need to know an economic model that is based on “earth economics“ or what some call “ecological economics.“ And that’s an economic model based not necessarily on growth, but growth that is strategically understood as looking forward to the next generations.

With competition and efficiency having emerged as the pillars of economic growth, is there any space left for shaping an environmentally sustainable global economy?
This is an excellent question because these two terms go hand in hand with the current model. In fact, that economic model extends even now into the environmental community. So you find many environmentalists use these terms; they are very committed to a new form of environmental economics called “natural capitalism“. They are also committed to understanding the resources of the earth, air, water, energy and so on. They are the highest criteria for understanding economic development.
However, what we would like to propose is that there are criteria that rise from the human experience of the world which is embedded in the religious traditions.
If you look at religious traditions in all their diversity, they reflect upon the world in ways other than simply efficiency. For example, they talk about the Creator of the Universe or Hayat (life) in Islamic traditions. You see that’s not just efficiency.
That’s something deeper. So that’s why we are trying to encourage religions to enter into environmental conversations to bring new ways of understanding human relationships with the earth and economics.

Many organizations are demanding religious communities have greater participation in reducing threats to environment. What can religious communities do to alleviate environmental crises? What strategies can be adopted by religious communities in line with President Khatami’s Dialogue Among Civilizations to help promote ecology?
The website of Harvard’s Forum on Religion and Ecology lists over 1,000 projects where religions are active on the ground, and not just talking. They are addressing environmental problems.
For example, the Islamic community in Kenya along the coast of Mombassa where coral reefs have been damaged by the fishing people because they have been dynamiting them... You can see how religion and ecology work together to educate the fishing people not from outside in, but to have discussions with the fishing people: how long will there be fish if you dynamite the coral reefs? Will there be fish for your children and grandchildren?
In Iran also there is a special day in which people plant trees. In all these examples, we see environmental religious leaders participating.
Dialogue Among Civilizations and Cultures reminds us again of the importance of environmental conservation. And certainly President Khatami has made a very deep impression on the global community by his call for this dialogue which is so appropriate for Iran because it has been from an ancient period at the crossroads of cultures and civilizations.
Some say the US, the world’s largest emitter of carbon monoxide, has opposed Kyoto Protocol because it believes the protocol will either retard the growth of industries or transfer wealth to third-world countries. Are these justifications valid?
I don’t think so. I think that it’s a great regret for many Americans that we have not joined the international global community on climate change, especially the Kyoto Protocol, which is absolutely necessary. And this particular administration in the US under President Bush is a disaster with regard to the environment in every aspect, especially because we consume so much of the world’s resources and we give back as you said so much of the emissions. So we must take responsibility in this regard.

TEHRAN, May 16--Iran and Europe will hold the next round of nuclear negotiations on May 23.
Talking to reporters after addressing the 17th working group meeting on the Caspian Sea legal regime, Kharrazi added that talks will be held at the ministerial level, IRNA reported.
“Secretary of Supreme National Security Council Hassan Rohani will take part in the next round of talks,“ he said.
The minister noted that the European venue of negotiations has not been determined yet.
Asked about the outcome of the meeting and what if the two sides fail to reach a final agreement, he said, “It has been repeatedly announced that we want our rights. We agreed to hold this round of talks because the Europeans themselves requested them. We hope to reach a formula which will guarantee our rights.“
He noted that the Europeans should logically “reach an agreement with us because they know we are determined“.
“The parliament on Sunday ratified a bill urging the government to resume enrichment. We are quite logical and committed to promises. We should reach a formula that will meet our rights and remove their concerns,“ he said.
“Our decision is quite legal and within the framework of international regulations and the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. We hope the European side will cooperate with us and reach a formula that will build confidence.“
Meanwhile, Majlis Speaker Gholamali Haddad-Adel said on Sunday the Iranian officials and nation will strongly follow up peaceful nuclear technology which was achieved by the Iranian scientists.
Haddad-Adel also said Iran has made noteworthy progresses in sciences, particularly in physics, in recent years and realized nuclear potentials without the participation of any foreigner.

MOSCOW, May 16--Judges began reading their verdict Monday in the trial of Yukos oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky and defense lawyers renewed assertions that the case was a Kremlin vendetta that would result in guilty verdicts on charges of fraud and tax evasion.
Three justices on a panel led by Judge Irina Kolesnikov took turns reading from the detailed prosecution indictment of Khodorkovsky, but the hearing was suspended after three hours and before pronouncement of a final verdict on any of the 11 counts against him, AFP reported.
The trial, the most prominent since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, brings into sharp focus some of the most contentious issues in Russia since then, ranging from privatizations in the 1990s that made overnight billionaires, to judicial reform, and basic respect for human rights.
The verdict hearing was scheduled to resume Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. (0630 GMT). Only around one-fourth of the indictment was read Monday and experts in the Russian court system cautioned it could be several days before a verdict in the case is announced.
The trial of Khodorkovsky, however, has been widely viewed as Kremlin retribution for the tycoon’s foray into politics and even before the adjournment of Monday’s hearing the businessman’s lawyers emerged from the courthouse and condemned the proceedings as politically-motivated with a preordained result.
“You can say the court has already de facto judged Khodorkovsky guilty of the counts read this morning,“ lawyer Yevgeny Baru told AFP.
Maria Ordzhonikidze, a spokeswoman for a team of American lawyers advising the Khodorkovskky defense team, stated: “If the court reads the indictment it means they agree with the prosecution because they are using it (the indictment) as their own statement.“
The case has come under wide international scrutiny also because it is seen as a bellwether of investor confidence and the future relationship between the public and private sectors in economic policy.
“The sentence for Khodorkovsky is awaited by practically all the citizens of the country,“ the centrist daily Izvestia said in a commentary.
“Without exaggeration, it is a signal event that will determine the direction of the country’s development for many years to come.“
Khodorkovsky, 41, and Lebedev, 46, face up to 10 years in prison if convicted. They have been charged with 11 counts of tax evasion and massive fraud under seven articles in the Russian criminal code.
Both men have denied all charges against them. They have argued that the acts with which they have been charged were either legal at the time they were committed or else did not take place at all.
Khodorkovsky and Lebedev have been held in jail since their arrests in 2003.