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Weather Guide
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Tehran
High: 29 - Low: 15
Abadan
Arak
Iranshahr
Qom
Semnan
Kabul
Kuwait City
New Delhi
Sofia
Tokyo
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Identification
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Published by the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA)
Address:
Iran Cultural & Press Institute, #212 Khorramshahr Avenue Tehran/Iran
Chief Editor:
Amir Ali Abolfath
Editorial Dept. Tel: 88755761-2
Editorial Dept. Fax: 88761869
Subscription Dept. Tel: 88329002-4
Advertising Dept. Tel: 88500616-7
Internet Address:
www.iran-daily.com
E-mail Address:
iran-daily@iran-daily.com
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Iran Presents
Package of Proposals
Iran’s package of proposals has been presented to four international personalities, said head of media affairs of the Supreme National Security Council, Ahmad Khademolmelleh, on Wednesday.
Ali Asghar Khaji, Iran’s ambassador to the European Union, presented the new package of proposals on Tuesday to solve the world’s “collective challenges“, including the country’s nuclear case, a statement said.
Khaji gave the package to EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana during talks on Tuesday, the embassy statement said.
The proposals contained “the country’s viewpoint on global challenges regarding political, security, economic and energy issues, and the issue of the peaceful use of nuclear energy“, he said.
Speaking to reporters, Khaji was hopeful that the package would be ’welcomed’ by the world powers and they would consider it seriously.
He said the package, which was also handed over to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, officials in China, Switzerland and Russia, called for an overhaul of an international treaty meant to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.
Speaking to Fars News Agency, Khademolmelleh added that the package has been presented to UN secretary-general, rotating secretary of the Security Council, secretary of European Union’s foreign policy committee and Swiss foreign minister.“
He recalled that the package consists of four main pivots, namely democracy, energy security, economic cooperation and constructive collaboration in the field of nuclear technology.
“Each of the said issues has an annexation. The main texts and annexations will be gradually released if the issue is pursued seriously,“ he said.
The Iranian official also said that the package would also be presented to Chinese foreign minister and secretary of Supreme National Security Council or foreign minister of Russia.
He emphasized that Iran has compiled and presented a comprehensive package in line with the regional and international realities.
“We believe that Iran and Europe can build a paradigm on the four pivots mentioned earlier. As the president said on Tuesday, the world presently encounters serious problems, for the resolution of which Iran has compiled a new package. If the package is implemented, mutual interests will be guaranteed. The materialization of the package entails a positive impact on global security, economic growth, regional safety and reduction of economic problems all over the world,“ he said.
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On 60th Anniv. of Nakba
Palestinian Protestors Attacked
Mourning the 60th anniversary of the loss of their motherland to the occupation regime of Israel, hundreds of Palestinian refugees were attacked by Israeli soldiers at military checkpoints in the West Bank on Wednesday.
Six people were reportedly injured at the Qalandia checkpoint, north of Beit-ul-Moqaddas, as Israeli troops fired rubber bullets and tear gas at the protestors, DPA reported.
Clashes also erupted at a number of other checkpoints, including Abu Dis and Shu’afat, to the east and northeast of Beit-ul-Moqaddas and Hawara, near the northern West Bank city of Nablus.
The Palestinian refugee camp residents were responding to calls by local leaders to stage a symbolic march to the homes they, their parents or grandparents lost 60 years ago in what is now Israel.
Hundreds of residents of camps in Lebanon also protested near Israel’s northern border, waving Palestinian and United Nations flags.
The Zionist regime declared statehood on May 14, 1948, a day before the expiry of Britain’s UN-mandate over Palestine.
It celebrated the 60th anniversary of its foundation last week, according to the Jewish calendar.
But although small-scale events began on Wednesday, the Palestinian Authority is to formally mark what is known to Palestinians as the Nakba (catastrophe in Arabic) on Thursday, the anniversary of the start of the first Arab-Israeli war in 1948.
In Gaza, meanwhile, senior Hamas official Mahmoud Al-Zahar told a conference commemorating the Nakba that his Islamic movement would ’never’ recognize Israel.
“On this occasion, the occasion of the Nakba, we reiterate that we will never recognize the aggressor enemy. We will never recognize Israel,“ Al-Zahar told the cheering people.
“Our lands are not for sale or for trade, and the right of resistance is holy,“ he said. “Israel is going to disappear one day and the Palestinian people will remain to fully liberate all their occupied lands,“ he told the conference entitled “Sixty years since the Nakba--the return is imminent.“
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Nakba Commemorated
Palestinian children hold Nakba (catastrophe in Arabic) posters on May 14, during a protest rally in the West Bank city of Ramallah. As the Zionist regime celebrates its 60th anniversary, Palestinians commemorate the Nakba over the expulsion of several millions of people since the 1948 war, which is at the core of the decades-old Middle East conflict.
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Disappointment
By Tahmineh Bakhtiyari
In January 2003, George W. Bush showed up at the Congress to deliver his state of union speech and said the attack on Iraq was inevitable. He declared that Saddam’s regime has tried to purchase uranium from Nigeria for producing nuclear weapons.
On February 5, the then US secretary of state, Colin Powell, in a meeting of foreign ministers of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council in New York, presented photos, which he claimed were taken from Iraq’s chemical arms laboratories. He even presented a recording of the conversation between a few Iraqi officials to prove that Iraq was seeking banned weapons.
Five years have passed since then. During this period, Iraq has been invaded and occupied by the US. At a time when the Iraqi nation has paid a very high price for their country’s occupation, Bush suddenly on Tuesday announced that he felt disappointed in “flawed intelligence“ before the war on Iraq.
Apart from its aftermath, the Iraqi war had one main characteristic: it was invaded within the framework of the doctrine of preemption. Before 9/11, the US statesmen perpetually justified the military presence of America in other countries by resorting to the issue of upholding national interests or the interests of allies. This is while the destruction of World Trade Center showed that the enemy could fight Americans not just in the Middle East or Africa, but also inside the US.
The Bushies replaced the doctrine of deterrence with that of preemption to prevent another 9/11 and tested the new doctrine in Iraq for the first time. As per this doctrine, the governing principle is to read the enemy’s mind and collect intelligence. In other words, if the US statesmen are assured about the hostile attitude of a target country and if intelligence verifies the threat, a preemptive attack can be carried out.
The poll indicates that Abbas would lose narrowly against the Hamas leader in Gaza, Ismail Haniyah. It also indicates that jailed Palestinian uprising leader Marwan Barghouti is the most popular Palestinian politician and would beat any challenger, including Abbas, in a presidential race.
The survey also shows that the approval rating of the Abbas government has dropped from 31 to 20 percent since January. The poll had an error margin of 3 percentage points.
Now that Bush has admitted that the intelligence on Iraq before the war was flawed, the very foundation of the notion of preemption has collapsed.
If the highest executive official of the US thinks that intelligence report was not reliable, why did the US attack Iraq?
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