Mohammad Ali Jafari

TEHRAN, Sept. 25--A top military commander said the strategy of the Islamic Revolution’s Guards Corps should change according to the status quo.
Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, IRGH commander, said on Tuesday the IRGC Strategic Center should devise new strategies for the revolutionary organization, IRNA reported.
He was speaking in the inauguration ceremony of the new Joint Chief of Staff and the center’s new director.
“The IRGC has managed to take effective steps in the development [of the 1979 Islamic Revolution values] while keeping its revolutionary spirit,“ he said.
Jafari added that IRGC strategies change as conditions change.
“Circumstances changed after the end of the Iraq-imposed war [1980-88]. Cultural and later political threats against the revolution became serious [after 1988],“ he said.
Jafari noted that enemy threats have taken a military nature after the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Leader of the Islamic Revolution and Commander in Chief of Armed Forces Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei appointed Brigadier Admiral Ali Akbar Ahmadian and Brigadier General Seyyed Mohammad Hossein-Zadeh Hejazi respectively as the new director of the IRGC Strategic Center and Joint Chief of Staff in September 20.

TEHRAN, Sept. 25--Former nuclear negotiator said further cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency will change the current ambience in favor of Iran.
Hassan Rohani also told reporters on Tuesday that pulling Iran’s nuclear case out of the United Nations Security Council is very difficult and needs a “political deal“, ISNA reported.
“We should be realistic while we should not fear Western threats. Iran’s nuclear case will return to the IAEA only if the Security Council issues a resolution for such a move,“ he said.
He noted that the five great veto powers should reach consensus to return Iran’s nuclear case to the IAEA.
Rohani said continuing negotiations with the UN nuclear watchdog and resolving pending issues are a “very good“ idea that will favor Iran.

TEHRAN, Sept. 25--A lawmaker said US President George W. Bush and his country may face the fate of executed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and communism.
Mostafa Mohammadi also said on Monday the Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei’s remarks calling for the trial of Bush were similar to the late Imam Khomeini’s message to former Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev, which predicted the demise of communism, IRNA reported.
Condemning the US action in branding the Islamic Revolution’s Guards Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist group, he said all nations know which countries support state terrorism.
The MP, who represents the Kurdish city of Paveh in Majlis, added that Iran, thanks to its youth, has managed to acquire peaceful nuclear technology and the West should not try to adopt a double standard over this development.
Mohammadi pointed to the efforts made by Iranian Kurds to defend the Iranian territory, noting that the enemies should learn from their defeats in confronting Iran.

AMMAN, Jordan, Sept. 25--A Jordanian government spokesperson dismissed the news report that it has granted asylum to members of an Iranian terrorist opposition group as “utterly baseless“, the local Jordan Times reported on Tuesday.
Jordan “did not receive any leader or member of Mujahideen Khalq Organization (MKO), and does not allow the organization to operate on Jordanian soil as claimed by Iranian news reports“, government spokesperson Nasser Judeh was quoted by the newspaper as saying, Xinhua reported.
He said such allegations and the media campaign targeting Jordan are aimed at “attacking the Kingdom and casting doubts on its stands“.
Such reports fly in the face of the efforts of Jordan’s King Abdullah to build brotherly relations between the two countries based on mutual respect and understanding, he added.
MKO is a terrorist organization that advocates the overthrow of Iran’s Islamic government. It is listed as terrorist group by both the European Union and the United States.

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Sept. 25--Five major border crossings between Iran and Iraq’s Kurdish region remained closed for a second day on Tuesday, after Iran shut them down to protest the US arrest of an Iranian official.
Crossing points elsewhere along the 900-mile (1,445-km) border were operating normally, AP reported.
The Iranian, identified by Iran’s semi-official Mehr News Agency as Mahmudi Farhadi, was detained by American troops last Thursday at a hotel in the northern Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah.
In New York, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Monday the border closure was intended to protect religious pilgrims and that freight transactions are continuing.
But Kurdish merchants and officials in Sulaimaniyah said hundreds of trucks were backed up on the Iranian side and no goods were being allowed across.
This would badly hurt the economy of the region, the most prosperous and stable part of the country. The Kurds are also the most pro-American community in Iraq, and the US relies heavily on Kurdish politicians as mediators.

NEW YORK, Sept. 25--Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki here on Monday addressed a high-level event entitled, “The Future Is in Our Hands: Addressing the Leadership Challenge of Climate Change“.
According to IRNA, Mottaki said as a member of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and Kyoto protocol, Iran continues to cooperate with the international community to tackle the problem of climate change and implement the provisions of these two multilateral legal instruments.
“Climate change as a global challenge deserves proper attention and requires international cooperation, a collective response and comprehensive and practical solutions to the benefit of present and next generations as well as the environment,“ he said.
“To tackle this challenge of global nature, we should attach great importance to the internationally agreed principles, such as the principle of ’common but differentiated responsibilities’ as a basis for our future negotiations.“
He noted that industrialized countries should take the lead in mitigating the emissions.
“The industrialized countries, particularly countries that are releasing high volumes of emissions and have not yet joined the Kyoto Protocol, should seriously fulfill their responsibilities. It is time to translate words and slogans into action,“ he said.
The minister stressed that the adverse ramifications of climate change and its impacts on developing countries must be taken fully into consideration in any envisaged legal framework for the post-Kyoto era aimed at tackling the problem of climate change.
Mottaki announced Iran’s willingness to actively participate in negotiations during the upcoming Conference of the Parties to UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change in Bali with a view to exploring arrangements for the post-Kyoto era.

TEHRAN, Sept. 25--MP Abdolmajid Shoja said on Tuesday the offensive behavior of Columbia University Chancellor Lee Bollinger toward President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad betrayed the US administration’s weakness in facing Iran.
Shoja also told IRNA that all nations worldwide respect their guests, but Bollinger insulted the high-ranking Iranian official in a country which claims to be the cradle of democracy, culture and civilization.
“They could have expressed their criticisms and views in the form of questions,“ he said, adding that the US academic could have spoken to Ahmadinejad more politely.
He said that the US tries to wage a propaganda campaign to throttle Iran’s voice, adding that Iran is the symbol of rightness in the world, therefore the US does not want its voice to be heard by other nations.
“Nations around the world will support right words if they hear them,“ he said.
President Ahmadinejad questioned the official version of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and defended the right to cast doubt on the Holocaust in a tense appearance on Monday at Columbia University, whose president accused him of behaving like “a petty and cruel dictator“.
Ahmadinejad smiled at first but appeared increasingly agitated, decrying the ’insults’ and “unfriendly treatment“.

TEHRAN, Sept. 25--Iranian researchers have mastered the technology of keeping ova for a long time by freezing them.
Secretary of the Fertility and Non-Fertility Center Ahmad Hosseini said in a press conference on Monday the ova can be preserved by the vitrification method.
“This method is now totally indigenous,“ he said, adding that the frozen ova can be kept for over 1,000 years.
Iran is the first Middle East country to have mastered this technology. Other countries include South Korea, America, Britain, Japan and Germany.
Hosseini said ova are fertilized in 15 days, adding that even after the death of the woman, the ovum can be fertilized through the vitrification method.
On the expenses of vitrification, he said keeping the ovum costs two million rials in the first year and one million rial in the following years.
As per international figures, 10 to 12 percent of couples worldwide suffer from non-fertility. In Iran, about two million people are non-fertile.
Hosseini said at present 95 percent of non-fertility cases can be treated.
Women before undertaking chemotherapy to treat cancer can use the vitrification method to conceive later.

TEHRAN, Sept. 25--An Interior Ministry official said North Khorasan governor general has resigned because of personal problems.
Mohammad Hossein Mousapour, deputy interior minister for legal and parliamentary affairs, also said on Tuesday the Interior Ministry considers the capability of people in appointing them as governor generals and managers in provinces and it does not pay attention to their political tendencies, IRNA reported.
“The former North Khorasan Governor General Seyyed Mohammad Mehdi Moravejol-Sharieh is currently working as Khorasan Razavi’s deputy governor general following his resignation,“ he said.
Referring to the bill on reducing the age of voters from 18 to 15 years, The Interior Ministry official noted that the bill will be presented to Majlis and urged MPs to vote in favor of the bill.
Mousapour further said Iraq has closed its border with Iran at the Chazzabeh checkpoint for building a terminal there.