TEHRAN, Feb. 26--Government Spokesman Gholamhossein Elham said Iran does not pose a threat to other nations and is not facing a military threat.
In his weekly press conference on Monday, Elham, who was recently appointed as justice minister, told reporters that Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has given a clear response to the enemy’s psychological war.
He made the remarks when questioned over recent statements of a deputy foreign minister about Iran preparing for a war.
Commenting on Iran’s nuclear activities, Elham said the suspension of uranium enrichment contradicts the national will, since the country’s nuclear activities are being conducted within the framework of international law and under strict IAEA supervision.
Asked about the price of gasoline in the next Iranian year (to start March 21), the official said the government is strictly opposed to increasing the gasoline price which, according to the Majlis Joint Commission’s proposal, should be set at 1,500 rials per liter.
Gasoline is presently distributed at 800 rials per liter.
“We believe that increasing the gasoline price is to the disadvantage of the nation. The government insists on regulating gasoline consumption and producing dual-fuel vehicles,“ he said.
Elham noted that the budget for the next year has been devised to prevent inflationary pressures on the low-income strata.
The inflation rate since the beginning of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s tenure has been 12.1 and 11.1 percent in 2005 and 2006 respectively.
Asked about any difference of opinion among officials on the nuclear program, he said Ayatollah Khamenei sets the main policies of the state while the Supreme National Security Council discusses them and issues ratifications that are confirmed by the leader.
“Officials are united with the nation and working under the framework of laws. There is no schism among Iranian officials,“ Elham said.

Bosnian Muslim women cry as they are surrounded by coffins of Srebrenica victims at a cemetery in Potocari, eastern Bosnia.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands, Feb. 26--The International Court of Justice ruled Monday that the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica was genocide, while clearing Serbia of genocide during the war in Bosnia.
It is the first time that the ICJ, the UN’s top court set up to deal with disputes between states, has ruled in a genocide case, AFP reported.
Genocide was made an international crime under a 1948 treaty.
The UN’s top court on Monday cleared Serbia of genocide during the war in Bosnia, but said Belgrade did breach international law by not acting to prevent the 1995 genocide at Srebrenica.
Bosnia, the plaintiff, had accused Serbia of masterminding the widespread “ethnic cleansing“ during the brutal 1992-95 war that left over 200,000 Bosnian Muslims and Croats dead.
The court judged there was only one act of genocideÑthe Srebrenica massacre--but found there was not enough evidence to suggest Belgrade was directly responsible for the killing of 8,000 Muslim men and boys by Bosnian Serb troops.
“All indications are to the contrary: that the decision to kill the adult male population of the Muslim community in Srebrenica was taken by some members of the main staff of the (Bosnian Serb army) but without instructions from or effective control by (Serbia),“ the court said.
However, under the 1948 genocide convention, Belgrade was also obliged to do everything within its power to prevent genocide, especially because it did have influence over the Bosnian Serb leadership.
Instead, the ICJ called on Serbia to fully cooperate with the ICTY and deliver Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic, indicted for genocide over the Srebrenica massacre to the war crimes court along with other suspects.
In an initial reaction, Phon van der Biesen, a lawyer with the Bosnian team in The Hague, said the judgment was historic.
“This establishes what really happened in Bosnia, Belgrade cannot deny there was a genocide in Srebrenica,“ he said.
Although the court rejected Serbian claims that it did not have jurisdiction to rule in the matter, the Serbian team called the final verdict ’balanced’.
Serbia under then-president Slobodan Milosevic was the main backer of ethnic Serb forces in Bosnia, and Milosevic is seen as the architect of their campaign to forcibly expel non-Serbs from swathes of the Bosnian countryside. He died in UN custody last year before any verdict could be reached on the genocide and war crimes charges against him in the ICTY.
Muslims and Croats accuse Belgrade of failing to own up to the crimes committed in the nationalist cause of a “Greater Serbia“ in the 1990s.

TEHRAN, Feb. 26--A parliamentarian said on Monday 12 trillion rials will be allocated next year for constructing nuclear power plants and conducting related studies.
Talking to reporters, Mohammad Mehdi Mofatteh, a member of Majlis Joint Commission, also said that 1,200 billion rials of this budget will be spent on training specialized workforce and boosting the efficiency of employees in the nuclear sector, Mehr News Agency reported.
He noted that 40,000 billion rials will be paid to retirement funds and foreign debts, adding that $300 million will be allocated to cooperatives and private sector for constructing power plant.
“More than 12,000 billion rials will be reimbursed to repay foreign debts by selling the shares of government-affiliated organizations as of March 21,“ he said.
Mofatteh also said executive organizations have been obliged to set aside 1-4 percent of their resources for research activities, adding that such a budget will exceed 10,000 billion rials.
Three percent of research budget will be allocated to religious fields.
The lawmaker further said National Iranian Oil Company and National Iranian Oil Production and Distribution Company have been authorized to invest in constructing refineries in Isfahan and Tabriz, and developing North Pars, Golshan and Ferdos oilfields.
Mofatteh announced that $200 million will be allocated to reduce electricity cuts and boost the efficiency of power plants.

TEHRAN, Feb. 26--President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called on his Iraqi counterpart Jalal Talabani over phone late on Monday to enquire about his health.
According to ISNA, Ahmadinejad stressed Talabani’s important role in fighting against Saddam Hussein and in the successes of the Iraqi nation.
He wished Talabani a speedy recovery and the Iraqi nation prosperity.
Talabani, for his part, said he was satisfied with his health condition as well as the fact that ties between the two nations are friendly.
Earlier, Iraq’s Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told reporters during a visit to Denmark that Talabani’s condition is ’stable’.
“We spoke to his staff this morning. He’s doing well,“ AP reported.
Talabani, 73, fell ill on Sunday and was unconscious when he was rushed to a hospital in Baghdad. But he recovered sufficiently to be flown to neighboring Jordan later in the day for extensive examination.
“He’s in good spirits. He’ll be back in Baghdad soon to resume his responsibilities,“ Zebari said.
“The decision to take him to Amman was a precautionary one.“
In another development, Iraq’s vice president escaped an apparent assassination attempt Monday after a bomb exploded in municipal offices where he was making a speech--knocking him down with the force of the blast that left at least 10 people dead.
Police initially blamed the attack on a bomb-rigged car, but later said explosives were apparently planted inside the building.

TEHRAN, Feb. 26--Health Minister Kamran Baqeri Lankarani denied the prevalence of bird flu in the northern city of Amol in Mazandaran province.
Reports had earlier quoted officials of Amol Animal Husbandry Organization as saying that bird flu was reported in the city situated near the Caspian Sea, IRNA reported.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a medical gathering on Monday, Lankarani said no case of human or bird flu has been reported in Amol.
“Presently, many countries neighboring Iran have reported bird flu while we are clear of the killer disease,“ he said.
The minister added that preventive measures have been taken to halt the spread of H5N1 virus in border areas.
“Border markets have been closed and people have been familiarized through educational programs to prevent the avian flu,“ he said.
Referring to people’s cooperation with the Health Ministry in preventing the spread of bird flu, Lankarani called on people to regard the issue seriously and avoid hunting migratory birds.
Lankarani urged his deputy for food and pharmaceutical affairs to prepare the ground for making medicines more accessible.
According to Lankarani, the private sector is authorized to import medicines through legal channels, according to related rules and regulations.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 26--To the deafening roar of warplanes taking off from the nuclear-powered US aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis, US military commanders insist that intimidating Iran is not part of their mission in the region.
The carrier and its battle group has been in the Sea of Oman since February 19, anchored about 120 nautical miles off the coast of Pakistan, in what the US Navy says is a mission to provide support for ground forces operating in Afghanistan and Iraq, AFP reported.
The Stennis has joined the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in the area, fuelling speculation that Washington could be preparing for a military strike against arch-foe Iran over its controversial nuclear program.
But the carrier’s commanding officer Captain Bradley E. Johanson said the vessel was in the region to reassure Washington’s key oil-rich Arab allies in the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council.
“We have received very explicit guidance that we will not assume any sort of escalatory posture with Iran,“ Johanson told AFP as an F/A-18F Super Hornet took off heading north in the direction of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn

MOSCOW, Feb. 26--Nobel laureate Alexander Solzhenitsyn, in the preface to a newly republished article about the revolutionary turmoil of 1917, warns that Russia is still struggling with challenges similar to those that led to the demise of the czarist empire.
The article which will appear Tuesday in the influential government daily Rossiyskaya Gazeta--analyzes the roots of the February revolution 90 years ago that forced the abdication of the last czar, Nicholas II, and helped pave the way for the Bolsheviks, AP reported.
“It’s all the more bitter that a quarter of a century later, some of these conclusions are still applicable to a disorder threatening us today,“ Solzhenitsyn wrote in a preface to the article, which was first published in Russia in 1993.
Solzhenitsyn’s wife, Natalya, said it should serve as a reminder to Russia’s political class about the dangers stemming from the huge gap between the rich and the poor and the stark contrast in lifestyle and moral attitudes between the glitzy Russian capital and far less prosperous provinces.
“Alexander Isayevich is deeply worried by this gap,“ Natalya Solzhenitsyn told a news conference Monday. “It’s necessary to pay attention to that. If the government fails to do that, consequences would be grave.“
Solzhenitsyn won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1970, and four years later was expelled from the Soviet Union.
Returning to Russia in 1994 to find a country in deep disarray, Solzhenitsyn’s dismal view of 1990s Russia, along with his nationalism and hope for a resurgence of his country, has aligned him with President Vladimir Putin, who has presented his time in office as a period of recovery following economic and social turmoil at home and weakness on the world stage that Russia suffered after the 1991 Soviet collapse.
In rare print or broadcast interviews, Solzhenitsyn has lamented the state of Russian politics and government, but has also praised Putin despite the president’s KGB background.

DOHA, Qatar,
Feb. 26--The Persian Gulf emirate of Qatar, which hosts the command headquarters for US forces in the Middle East, warned on Monday of the dangers of a military confrontation between the United States and Iran.
“If the situation escalates to a dangerous level, then this will have an impact on the entire world,“ Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabr Al-Thani told a conference in the capital Doha, AFP reported.
“The nuclear dispute troubles us and we hope it is ended through diplomatic means, but we have yet to see this happen,“ Sheikh Hamad told the conference organized by US business magazine Forbes.
The minister said both Washington and Tehran were playing a game of brinkmanship and trying to identify each other’s “red lines“.
He urged the two governments to use “more wisdom and less anger“ and reach a peaceful solution, warning that “the region could not bear the strain of another conflict“.
Sheikh Hamad was speaking as representatives of six major powers gathered in London to discuss their next step after Iran again defied a UN Security Council ultimatum to suspend uranium enrichment.
Washington is pressing for additional sanctions to be imposed against the Islamic Republic.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said Washington is open to talks with Tehran if it first suspends uranium enrichment. And US Vice President Dick Cheney reiterated on Saturday that no option had been ruled out, including military action.