|
Prayer Time (Tehran)
|
|
Dawn: 4:38
Sunrise: 6:15
Noon: 13:10
Evening: 20:26
|
|
Weather Guide
|
|
|
THU |
FRI |
Tehran: |
|
|
High: |
38oC |
39oC |
Low: |
29oC |
28oC |
|
|
|
Athens |
33 |
32 |
Ankara |
29 |
33 |
Paris |
24 |
23 |
New Delhi |
35 |
36 |
Rome |
27 |
28 |
Riyadh |
43 |
43 |
Frankfurt |
20 |
21 |
Cairo |
37 |
37 |
Kuwait City |
47 |
47 |
Karachi |
32 |
32 |
Copenhagen |
20 |
19 |
London |
21 |
22 |
Moscow |
23 |
26 |
Madrid |
35 |
36 |
Vienna |
21 |
22 |
|
|
Identification
|
|
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
|
|
|
|
Ahmadinejad Takes Office
|
|
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei presents a presidential decree to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as outgoing President Mohammad Khatami looks on during an investiture ceremony, Aug. 3. (Mehr Photo)
|
TEHRAN, Aug. 3--Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s four-year term started on Wednesday after Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei confirmed his presidential decree.
According to IRNA, senior Iranian authorities, army officials and a number of Tehran-based foreign diplomatic corps attended the ceremony.
The leader’s confirmation is in line with Article 110 of Iran’s Constitution.
According to the article, “Signing the decree formalizing the election of the president of the republic by the people; the suitability of candidates for the presidency of the republic, with respect to the qualifications specified in the constitution, must be confirmed before elections by the Guardians Council; and, in case of the first term (of the presidency), by the leadership.“
Ahmadinejad took office as the sixth president of the Islamic Republic after Abolhassan Banisadr, Mohammad Ali Rajaei, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Seyyed Mohammad Khatami.
Ayatollah Khamenei, Hashemi Rafsanjani and Khatami were elected for two consecutive terms as president.
According to Article 114 of the constitution, “The president is elected for a four-year term by direct vote of the people. Reelection for a successive term is permissible only once.“
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad managed to win over 17 million votes during the first presidential runoff election held in Iran on June 24.
|
|
|
New Gov’t Should Deliver
TEHRAN, Aug. 3--Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday the 60 million votes cast in two stages of presidential election indicated a national resolve, urging the new government to help the poor.
Ayatollah Khamenei said in his investiture statement that the ninth presidential election demonstrated a national move to deal a blow to the enemies and the interventionist arrogant powers, IRNA reported.
He thanked the nation for the timely understanding of the need for actively taking part in the election.
“The great blessing of people’s presence on the scene is a gift from the Islamic Revolution and displays religious democracy,“ he said.
The leader criticized US President George W. Bush for calling on Iranians not to go to the polls and said Iranians acted exactly to the contrary.
On the eve of the presidential election, President Bush had called on Iranians not to participate in the presidential election.
Ayatollah Khamenei noted that justice is the fundamental principle of Islam and the major objective of the Islamic Revolution and the governing system.
“Since Mr. Ahmadinejad has put emphasis on justice in his election campaign, his government is required to pay attention to the poor,“ he said.
Wishing all success to President Ahmadinejad, the leader advised him not to act in haste and urged the people to exercise patience to allow the government embark upon the 20-Year Vision Plan. On foreign policy, the leader said Iran is an advocate of international peace and bears no hostility toward any other state.
Ayatollah Khamenei appreciated the eight-year services of outgoing President Mohammad Khatami and said President Khatami’s government generated enormous capacity for the country in implementing development plans.
|
|
|
14 US Marines Killed in Iraq
BASRA, Iraq, Aug. 3--Fourteen marines were killed Wednesday in one of the deadliest attacks on US forces since the invasion of Iraq as an American freelance reporter was gunned down in the relatively calm south.
The marines, along with an interpreter, were killed when their armored vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb during combat operations near Haditha, 260 kilometers (160 miles) northwest of Baghdad, the US military said. One other marine was wounded, AFP reported.
The latest deaths bring the number of US military personnel killed in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion to 1,811, according to the AFP tally based on Pentagon figures.
Since Monday, a total of 21 marines have been killed in western Iraq’s Al-Anbar province. Twenty of them died near Haditha, while one was killed near the town of Hit, 170 kilometers (105 miles) west of Baghdad.
Ansar Al-Sunna, an extremist group linked with the Al-Qaeda network, said in an Internet statement that it had killed eight US marines and captured a ninth in western Iraq.
The group also said it had killed some of the marines on Monday by “slitting their throats,“ while others were shot. The statement could not be verified.
It also said its fighters had captured a ninth US marine “who was wounded in an ambush...near Haditha.“
Wednesday’s attack on marines is the second deadliest carried out since the December 21 lunchtime blast at a US base in the northern town of Mosul.
Vincent, who had been in Basra for the last two months, was abducted along with his female Iraqi translator who was also shot twice but survived.
“There were four gunmen in a white pick-up truck and they kidnapped the two,“ police lieutenant-colonel Karim Al-Zaidi told AFP. “Vincent was killed, while the girl is alive.“
Vincent, apparently the first US journalist to be kidnapped and killed, was wearing a black T-shirt and a symbolic necklace usually worn by Shiite Muslims, sources said.
|
|
|
IAEA Against Resumption
Of Nuclear Activities
VIENNA, Austria, Aug. 3--The UN atomic agency called Wednesday on Iran not to resume nuclear fuel cycle work until an international inspection system is in place next week, after Tehran threatened to restart the work immediately.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has “made it clear that we need until the middle of next week to get our surveillance equipment in place before any seals could be cut and nuclear activities started,“ IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said in a statement, AFP reported.
“The agency calls on Iran again not to start any activities in Isfahan (where there is a uranium conversion facility) before the IAEA inspection system is in place,“ Fleming said.
She was reacting to an announcement in Tehran earlier Wednesday that Iran hopes to resume limited nuclear activities at Isfahan, despite the risks of triggering an international crisis.
The announcement by nuclear negotiator Ali Aqa-Mohammadi came shortly after Iran’s new ultra-conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took office.
The European Union and the United Stated are expected to call for Iran to be brought before the UN Security Council for possible sanctions if Tehran resumes the conversion activities, the first phase in enriching uranium into fuel that can be used in civilian nuclear reactors but could also serve as the explosive core of atom bombs.
Britain, France and Germany’s foreign ministers said Tuesday they would call “in the next few days“ for an emergency meeting in Vienna of the IAEA’s 35-nation Board of Governors, the body that would send the Iranian nuclear dossier to the Security Council.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi Tuesday in reply to a letter by the EU3 foreign ministers, said “the time for intimidation and bullying is over“.
The European Union in a letter threatened Tehran not to restart its nuclear activities otherwise they would take another course of action, IRNA reported.
“The response to their letter will be given through diplomatic channels soon. Intimidation is not the solution. Instead of threats, Europe should commit itself to the Paris Agreement. We are committed to this agreement and present objective guarantees. They should also fulfill their responsibilities because intimidation and threats would not bear any fruit,“ he said.
Asefi reiterated that all nuclear activities of the Islamic Republic are and will be peaceful and under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
|
|
|
New Saudi King Vows to Serve People
|
|
King Abdullah
|
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Aug. 3--Saudi Arabia’s new King Abdullah vowed on Wednesday to work for justice and serve his people in his first address to the nation after succeeding his late half-brother Fahd.
“I pledge to God, and then I pledge to you that I take the Qur’an as my constitution, Islam as my program and to work for justice and serve all citizens without discrimination,“ he said, AFP reported.
“I feel that the burden is heavy, and that the responsibility is great,“ he said in a speech aired on state television after receiving the pledge of allegiance from the Saudi people, officials and religious leaders.
King Abdullah, who succeeded Fahd after his death on Monday but has been de facto ruler for a decade, asked the Saudi people “to help me and support me in carrying out this responsibility“.
“I ask for God’s assistance, and I ask him to give me the strength to pursue the same path as the founder of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the great king Abdel Aziz Al-Saud.
“I ask God to protect the security, safety (of Saudi Arabia) and to protect it and its people,“ said the new king sitting behind a desk and reading the speech.
Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdel Aziz praised Fahd as the “pioneer of the revival“ of Saudi Arabia in a 23-year reign and hailed his role in serving Arab and Muslim causes.
|
|
|
Tsunami Warning Useless
Without Plans
SYDNEY, Australia, Aug. 3--A sophisticated network of ocean sensors at the heart of an Indian Ocean tsunami warning system will be useless without matching emergency and evacuation plans, the head of a UN oceanographic body said on Wednesday.
Oceanographic experts have gathered in the west Australian city of Perth to discuss the technical and scientific requirements still needed for the system set up to avoid a repeat of the devastating Dec. 26 tsunami, Reuters reported.
Delegates from 27 Indian Ocean countries at the three-day meeting, the first of the UNESCO-backed Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System group, heard reports on the progress and needs of nations within the system.
Widening a high-tech array of wave, tide and pressure sensors being deployed in the Indian Ocean has been identified as the main priority.
But the head of the group coordinating the system said detection technology must be matched by emergency plans in each nation.
“You can have the best and most sophisticated detection network and risk assessment, but if you don’t have emergency and evacuation preparations, you are dead,“ Patricio Bernal said.
“They are significant logistical issues, these are major undertakings that require a specialist,“ Bernal, head of the
UN scientific body’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC), told Reuters from Perth.
As part of plans to prevent similar disasters, UNESCO’s IOC in June set up a group to coordinate the warning system, which is comprised of a network of national systems linked through a regional base that has yet to be established.
Bernal said good progress had been made but each nation had different capabilities and some had been lagging behind in their emergency plans.
“The group had already held discussions with the Federation of Asian Broadcasters and individual broadcasters on dissemination of emergency information,“ he said.
|
|
|
IRNA Chief Resigns
TEHRAN, Aug. 3--Managing Director of the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) Abdollah Nasseri-Taheri resigned from his post and Culture Minister Ahamd Masjed-Jamei accepted his resignation, IRNA reported on Wednesday.
Nasseri-Taheri had earlier discussed his decision to resign due to his plans to pursue academic and research activities.
Based on the decree issued by Masjed-Jamei, Gholamhossein Eslamifar, deputy head of IRNA for news affairs, will be the acting managing director while retaining his post until the new managing director is appointed.
Some websites reported that Mohammad Taqi Roghaniha, IRNA’s deputy managing director, has been appointed as the new managing director after Nasseri-Taheri’s resignation.
However, the head of IRNA’s Public Relations Office, Mahmoud Sharif, denied this and said Roghaniha is currently on vacation.
“Roghaniha is working on a scientific project and the news mentioned in some websites is not true,“ he said.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
High Marks
By M. Mohammad Ali
It cannot be doubted that Mohammad Khatami, the fifth president of Iran and the ever-popular personality in our history, is among the statesmen who upheld values and the ethics of power and politics in the most decent manner possible.
Identified more with culture and philosophy, he did not draw on or used politics, which normally goes with conspiracy and stratagem, in his discourse and endeavored to rewrite in his own way the literature of politics compatible with reformist ideals.
This is one premise on which informed observers assert that Khatami’s political vision was similar to his religiosity and vice versa. The chief executive, whose two-term embattled presidency ended today, resorted to the pen to confront his powerful opponents. He never threatened his detractors by using his legitimate powers as president.
In the eight difficult years during which there was no shortage of crisis for his government and senior aides, Khatami did not waver nor give the impression of losing patience. A strong proponent of understanding and non-violence, by virtue of his broad vision and toleration he taught future generations that violence should not necessarily be responded with violence.
Perhaps his huge reservoir of goodwill and reconciliatory attitude provoked his rivals to pursue their agendas with more arrogance and less responsibility.
But he showed foresight and made known in unambiguous terms that he seeks compromise and the good of the nation above all else.
Sadly enough, some of the most influential political players in the country, including conservative think tanks, remained silent vis-ˆ-vis ominous incidents such as the serial murders of dissidents, intellectuals and writers, the unacceptable bans on the independent media...By doing so, the different powerhouses that always claimed to uphold the general good seemed to endorse the action of the obstructionists and their minions out to stop and reverse the pro-reform process.
Some people considered one of Khatami’s key slogans ’long live my opponent’ as a gesture of support for the opponents of the establishment. However, he preferred silence towards developments of the sort and other ill attempts aimed at discrediting him and his moderate government.
Given the former president’s greatness and search for a common purpose to move the nation forward with honor and dignity, he chose not to trade the best interests of the Islamic system for personal gain and remained content with the divine court of justice making the final decision about his enemies.
All these show the high moral ground and ethical superiority of Khatami who will undoubtedly go down in history as a unique personality.
|
|
|
|
|
|
