TEHRAN, July 30--Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said on Monday the Persian Gulf littoral states should themselves stabilize security in the strategic waterway.
Najjar noted that the US is instigating an arms race in the Middle East to prevent its big arms companies from going bankrupt.
The comment came after the American media reported the US government is expected to announce arms deals worth at least $20 billion with Saudi Arabia and five other Persian Gulf states, IRNA reported.
The minister, however, noted that Iran is not worried by “Muslim, friendly and brotherly“ countries’ efforts to strengthen their defense capabilities, saying this is akin to boosting the defense capabilities of the Muslim world.
“Every country has the right to produce or buy the arms it needs in order to strengthen its defense capabilities,“ he said.
The Zionist Israeli regime and Egypt are seeking US aid commitments for the next 10 years. The total for Israel would rise from $2.4 billion to about $3 billion a year, and Egypt would continue to receive $1.3 billion a year.
Najjar pointed out that these regimes are cherishing the “From the Nile to the Euphrates“ dream and encroach on the sovereignty of Muslim countries.
“In selling arms to regional countries, Americans always act in a way that protects the military superiority of the occupier Zionist regime,“ he said.
Meanwhile, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said the US arms supply to regional countries is aimed at spreading fear and concerns in the Middle East.
Speaking at a weekly news conference, the spokesman added that the region needs peace, stability and security, Iran Daily’s Farzaneh Shokri reported.
Commenting on the US arms offer to regional countries, Hosseini said, “Such offers were made on the eve of visits to the region by the US secretaries of defense and state.“
Hosseini noted that while IAEA inspectors are visiting the Arak heavy-water plant, talks are underway to fix a date for the next round of talks between Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani and European Union’s foreign policy chief Javier Solana.

Ayatollah Ali Meshkini

TEHRAN, July 30--Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in separate messages condoled religious authorities, seminaries, the nation and family of the late Ayatollah Ali Meshkini on the senior cleric’s demise.
The president in his message said, “Ayatollah Meshkini will always remain a model for clerics to serve people,“ IRNA reported.
Ayatollah Meshkini, head of the Experts Assembly, passed away at a Tehran hospital on Monday.
“The prominent cleric died at 16:30 hours local time,“ Dr. Jafar Aslani, head of the late Ayatollah’s team of attending physicians said.
The senior cleric was suffering from a pulmonary disease.
Ayatollah Meshkini, 64, was the Experts Assembly’s chief for three consecutive terms. He had authored some 28 books on Islamic jurisprudence and other religious issues.

A view of Arak heavy-water facility, 320 kilometers south of Tehran

TEHRAN, July 30--IAEA inspectors on Monday visited the 40-megawatt nuclear research reactor at Arak, 320 kilometers south of Tehran, an official said.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the inspection took about five hours, IRNA reported.
The inspection followed the recent agreement between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency to resolve the remaining issues in Iran’s peaceful nuclear program.
Following the issuance of UN Security Council Resolution 1747 against Iran’s nuclear program, Tehran suspended its compliance with Clause 3-1 of IAEA Safeguard Agreements.
Iran’s decision deprived the IAEA inspectors of access to Arak facility, but following the proposal of Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani in Madrid on resolving the remaining issues, Tehran once again proved its goodwill and allowed IAEA inspectors to visit the Arak heavy-water plant.
The Arak reactor substitutes Tehran’s Research Reactor to provide isotopes for more than 200 hospitals in the country.

TEHRAN, July 30--Iranian researchers designed an advanced apparatus for delivering a stent into an ostium for treating patients suffering from tightness of vein linking kidney to other parts of the body.
Dr. Arashmidos Sanati told IRIB that the stent operation was for the first time carried out on an Iranian kidney patient in Tehran’s Milad Hospital.
“A total of 150,000 patients need to undergo operations to overcome kidney malfunctioning,“ he said.
Sanati pointed out that in the conventional method, ordinary stents were used that had many side-effects and, for the same reason, work on the design of a new type of funnel-shaped stent called “root stent“ started three years ago.
“The advantage of this type of stent over the old one is that it can be inserted in the vein once again,“ he said.
Sanati further said the apparatus includes a catheter including a proximal end, a distal end, and proximal and distal balloons disposed adjacent one another on the distal end.
He pointed out that the balloons are expandable independently of one another, and a stent is provided surrounding the balloons.
Sanati pointed out that this kind of stent, which is domestically produced by Iranian experts and physicians, will be used in Germany after Iran and then in other countries.
“Kidney diseases of this type are either congenital or acquired. The congenital disease is seen in women and children. This is while the acquired disease is seen in men due to high blood pressure and high cholesterol,“ he said.
Sanati further said this kind of treatment can also be used for other veins of the body, including coronary and brain diseases.

TEHRAN, July 30--The Cabinet on Monday approved the privatization of 17 companies affiliated to Oil Ministry, Iran’s Privatization Organization announced.
The deadline has been specified while the percentage of shares will be fixed either in the stock exchange or in public tenders, PIN reported.
Companies, which will be fully privatized in the year to March 2008, include North Drilling Company, Engineering and Turbine Company, Petroleum Transportation and Logistic Company, PetroIran and Petro Pars. These firms are subsidiaries of the National Iranian Oil Company.
Also, 100 percent of the shares of some companies affiliated to the National Iranian Gas Company will also be transferred to the private sector.
Hamedan, Semnan, Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari, Zanjan Gas Company and Bidboland Gas Refinery are among those listed in the group.
Isfahan and Tabriz oil refineries, affiliates of the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company, will be fully privatized.
Some 100 percent of the stocks of Tondgouyan Petrochemical Company and Bisotoun Petrochemical Company will be offered to private investors.
Some 49.99 percent of the shares of Fanavaran Petrochemical Company and 49 percent of stocks of Amir Kabir and Ghadir petrochemical companies will be transferred to private ownership.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, July 30--Sudan’s Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Hussein said 24 Jewish organizations are fueling the conflict in Darfur.
Speaking in an interview after an official visit to Saudi Arabia, Abdul Rahim Hussein added that Jews are making the largest amount of noise over the issue, QODSNA reported.Ê
“The Darfur issue is being fuelled by 24 Jewish organizations, which are making the largest amount of noise over the issue, and using the Holocaust in their campaigns,“ he said.Ê
Hussein noted that the Darfur conflict was driven by tensions between farmers and herders.
One of the biggest problems concerns water, which is used to exploit their differences and fuel the conflict.
“The Jewish groups provide political and material support through their media control and across American and British circles,“ he said, adding that Jewish groups were using all means to fuel these conflicts.

MANILA, Philippines, July 30--Southeast Asian foreign ministers called Monday for a phased withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq, saying they were deeply concerned about continued instability in the country.
“We believe that the phased and calibrated withdrawal of foreign forces in Iraq, taking into account the conditions on the ground, will contribute toward bringing normalcy,“ the foreign ministers of the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations said in a statement after their annual meeting, AP reported.
Philippine Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo, chairman of the meeting, said ASEAN was not calling for a specific timeframe for the troops’ withdrawal, but was stating “a desire of all, and I might say including the United States and their allies“.
He said the US government does not object to a calibrated withdrawal of forces from Iraq, but is against putting a timeframe on the pullout.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
ASEAN is the founder of Asia’s top security group, the ASEAN Regional Forum, which will meet on Thursday. ARF has 27 members, including the US, Australia, Canada and the European Union.
European Union High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana will lead the EU delegation to the forum.
Security issues, terrorism, energy security, North Korea and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction are on the agenda of the meeting.
“Iran will also be an important issue. People will like to know where we are in the dialogue with Iran,“ said Christina Gallach, Solana’s spokeswoman.

BOUAKE, Ivory Coast, July 30--Ivory Coast’s president and prime minister have set fire to stockpiled weapons to symbolize the end of the two men’s five-year conflict.
It was the first time that President Laurent Gbagbo had gone to the former rebel-held north since 2002, when an uprising against him split the country.
“People of Ivory Coast, the war is over,“ he said in Bouake, BBC reported.
Gbagbo signed a peace deal in March with ex-rebel leader Guillaume Soro, who was later named as prime minister.
“By setting fire to these guns which were the seeds of destruction, we are marking the end of the war,“ Soro said.
He added that Gbagbo’s visit to the former rebel New Forces base mean the country was reunited.
The visit comes just a month after rockets were fired at Soro’s plane as it landed at Bouake’s airport, in what he said was an assassination attempt.
Security is tight and is being provided by both loyalist troops and ex-rebels, backed up by UN and French peacekeepers.
The president, who has declared Monday a public holiday, has invited leaders of other African nations including Burkina Faso, South Africa, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Mali, Senegal.
The “flame of peace“ is then to be carried to all 19 regions of Ivory Coast to symbolize national reconciliation.
New Forces rebels seized northern Ivory Coast in September 2002 and accused President Gbagbo of discriminating against northerners and Muslims.
Following a peace agreement in March this year, brokered in Burkina Faso, Gbagbo appointed former rebel leader Guillaume Soro as prime minister.
A new government was formed, and an amnesty law created by presidential decree which covered almost all crimes committed by both belligerent parties.
Gbagbo and Soro agreed a deal to reunite the country and hold elections, which have repeatedly been cancelled, by early 2008.

BAGHDAD, Iraq, July 30--A prominent Iraqi cleric dismissed allegations that Iran is interfering in Iraq’s domestic affairs.
Head of the Sunni clerics in southern Iraq, Sheikh Khalid Abdul Wahhab Al-Mala, said those who accuse Iran are “puppets of the Iraq’s dismantled Baath party“, an old enemy of Iran.
Sheikh Al-Mala said Iran has been wrongly accused of fueling insurgencies in Iraq while the US, Britain and the Zionist Israeli regime’s interference is ignored, IRNA reported.
He added that they are trying to poison public opinion against the Islamic Republic by portraying it as the enemy of Iraq to justify the eight-year war between the two countries.
The cleric insisted that the eight-year war during the 1980s, during which Saddam Hussein’s regime attacked Iran, was against the will of the Iraqi nation.
Sheikh Al-Mala noted that the occupiers are pitting Sunnis against Shiites to divert attention from the reality in Iraq.