TEHRAN, Nov. 26--A senior official said on Sunday when President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appoints a minister, it does not mean that the person should keep the post till the end of the government’s tenure.
Ali Saeedlou, vice president for executive affairs, also told Mehr News Agency that what matters is serving people and the cabinet reshuffle is not important.
Commenting on his duties as vice president, Saeedlou enumerated them as expediting the government’s ratifications, organizing the president’s provincial tours, presiding over the supervisory board of foreign trips, overseeing the government’s selection board, attending sessions of Economic Council and supervising meetings of ministries.
Asked whether the repeated reshuffle of economic portfolios means the government’s lack of success, Saeedlou rejected the same and said he does not believe that cabinet changes are significant.
“The chief executive has tried to appoint those who work with more dynamism and make greater efforts,“ he said.
Saeedlou rejected the rumors regarding his appointment to a ministerial post.
Referring to President Ahmadinejad’s visits to 21 provinces, he said one of the effects of these visits is that the president and his ministers are closely acquainted with the people’s problems.
The ministers of cooperatives and welfare, as well as the head of Management and Planning Organization, were recently changed.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks at the Conference of Basij in Tehran, Nov. 26. (IRNA Photo)

TEHRAN, Nov. 26--President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday Iran uses all its potentials to promote peace and friendship in the international community.
“The Iranian nation is seeking peace and tranquility all over the world, particularly in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf,“ the president said while addressing the Conference of Basij (volunteer forces) at the mausoleum of the father of Islamic Revolution, the late Imam Khomeini, IRNA reported.
The president stressed that in the course of history, Iran has never committed aggression against another country.
“The Iranian nation has always used its power to assist all nations and its defensive, scientific and technological capabilities are in the service of securing tranquility and progress of regional nations,“ he said.
Ahmadinejad, who also heads the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), said, “Today, the Iranian nation and other freedom-seeking nations need the Basiji line of thinking.“
The Basiji thinking implies rendering humanitarian services and defending justice and rights for all.
Ahmadinejad hoped that foreign troops from the Middle East would withdraw. The conference, dubbed “Glory of Resistance to Aggression“, was held on the anniversary of the day when the late Imam Khomeini established the volunteer forces to defend the country in the face of Iraq’s surprise invasion of Iran in 1980.
The president also reviewed the parades of Basiji troops.

MANAMA, Bahrain, Nov. 26--Bahrain’s Shiite opposition has won at least 40 percent of seats in parliament in polls that attracted a high turnout, after a boycott of the last elections in 2002, official results showed Sunday.
Women fared less well at the polls, with the only candidate winning a seat after having run unopposed before Saturday’s polls, AFP reported.
The success of the opposition comes against the background of the Shiite rise to dominance in Iraq and Shiite Iran’s defiance of western demands over its nuclear ambitions.
Sixteen of the 17 candidates fielded by the Islamic National Accord Association (INAA)--the main formation of Bahrain’s Shiite majority--won seats in the 40-member parliament, according to the official results.
Senior election official Walid Buallai put the turnout at 72 percent.
The results give INAA control over 40 percent of the elected chamber, a share set to grow in a second round scheduled for December 2.
Meanwhile, the two main Sunni Islamist groups, which together had 13 seats in the outgoing chamber, clinched eight seats in the first round, with three others reaching the next round.
The National Islamic Tribune Association--which represents the Muslim Brotherhood--retained four of seven seats, while the Salafi Assala (Authenticity) Association held two of six seats and won two others.
The remaining seats were won by independents, while 10 seats are to be re-contested.
Newspapers and state-run television pointed out that the 72-percent turnout was 18 percent higher than at the last polls in 2002, which were boycotted by the Shiite and leftist opposition.
Some 295,000 voters were entitled to elect 39 MPs, or one for each constituency, out of a total of 206 candidates, including 16 women.
One seat already went to Latifa Al-Qouhoud who stood unopposed in her constituency, making her the first woman MP in Bahrain’s history. But all other female candidates were eliminated in the first round.

Babak Bayat

TEHRAN, Nov. 26--Babak Bayat, the noted Iranian music composer, died of liver failure on Sunday at Iran Mehr Hospital.
Three generations of Iranians have shared their sweet and sad moments with songs created by Bayat during his 40-year artistic life.
Bayat, 60, was born in Tehran and entered Tehran Music School at the age of 20. After five years of studying and taking part in operas, he was inclined toward film music and his first film as composer was Sun in Lagoon.
Mohammad Oushal, musician and conductor of Folkloric Jazz Orchestra, and Iraj Jannati-Ataei, contemporary poet, composer and playwright, influenced Bayat’s artistic profession.
While many of his colleagues left the country after the 1997 Islamic Revolution, Bayat never yielded to numerous tempting invitations from abroad and preferred to carry on with his profession despite numerous ups and downs.
Bayat received the top prize at Fajr International Film Festival twice for composing the music of ’The Bride’ directed by Behrouz Afkhami (1991) as well as the ’Land of Sun’ by Ahmad Reza Darvish (1997).
Corrupted Hands, Two Women, The Travelers, Two Films With One Ticket, Beyond Fire, Day of the Angel, Marriage of the Blessed, The King and the Shepherd, and Changalak were among other movies and TV serials honored by the name of Bayat as music composer.
Bayat’s unforgettable works will remain forever in the soul of listeners.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Nov. 26--Indonesia’s Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono, here Saturday said that given the unique geographical status of Iran in the Persian Gulf and that of Indonesia in southeastern Asia, the two countries should expand their defense cooperation.
He made the remark in a meeting with Iran’s visiting deputy defense minister, General Ezzati, who heads a delegation to the ongoing defense industry exhibition, IRNA reported. He noted that the significant position of both countries can prepare the grounds for closer defense collaboration between Iran and Indonesia.
For his part, the Iranian deputy defense minister declared the country’s readiness for broader cooperation with Indonesia’s Defense Ministry.

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Nov. 26--Lebanon’s political divide reached a dangerous deadlock Sunday after pro-western ministers defied their pro-Syrian rivals to take the next step in ratifying an international court into ex-premier Rafik Hariri’s 2005 murder.
Prime Minister Fuad Siniora convened an emergency meeting of his rump anti-Damascus cabinet Saturday evening to approve the tribunal blueprint for submission to parliament, AFP reported.
He did so against the opposition of both key pro-Damascus figures in Lebanon’s power-sharing system--President Emile Lahoud and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri--who accused him of violating the constitution and made clear they would not recognize the meeting’s decision.
Ministers had been determined to press ahead amid the outrage sparked by last Tuesday’s murder of industry minister Pierre Gemayel, the sixth critic of Damascus to be killed in two years.
But the opposition of Berri, whose support will be essential if the court blueprint is to make progress through the legislature, risks reducing the cabinet’s decision to a meaningless gesture.
The stalemate comes against the backdrop of mounting tensions between the two sides’ supporters since the six pro-Syrian ministers quit two weeks ago in protest at the failure of cross-party talks to agree on a new national unity government.
Hundreds of thousands of people poured on to the streets Thursday in a mass funeral for Gemayel that anti-Syrian leaders turned into an outpouring of anger against Damascus and its local allies--particularly Lahoud and Shiite militant group Hezbollah.
Hezbollah warned Sunday that the anti-government factions had not given up on their own plans for mass demonstrations in protest at what they see as the prime minister’s violation of the power-sharing arrangements in force since Lebanon’s devastating 1975-90 civil war.
The planned campaign had been postponed after Gemayel’s murder but Hezbollah warned it would go ahead once the customary mourning period for the slain minister ends next Thursday, a week after the funeral.