Nation Independent Of Economic Powers

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran has gained independence and disentangled itself from the influence of economic powers.
Speaking at the inaugural ceremony of two petrochemical projects in the southern city of Assalouyeh in Bushehr on Wednesday, he said "Iran's efforts to proceed with giant national oil, gas and petroleum projects by using [Iranian] expertise have cut the dependence on other economic powers and multinationals," IRNA reported.
"Iran's moves to complete the remaining phases of Assalouyeh have not only brought achievements for Iran but also for other countries," he said.
Assalouyeh is located in the giant southern oil and gas fields in southern Iran.
After the UN Security Council passed a new sanctions resolution in June, the US and EU also adopted unilateral measures against Tehran, which include a ban on investment in the country’s oil and gas industry and sale of energy related equipment.

More Determined
Iran says such unilateral measures will make it more “determined and self-sufficient”.
"Sanctions will bear no fruit (for the West)…Rather it will further promote the cause of self-sufficiency of the Iranian people and deprive Europe and the West of the opportunity to cooperate with a regional power which has high political, economic and cultural potential," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said Tuesday.
Ahmadinejad warned that if foreign companies do not put an end to the unilateral and cruel conditions [in dealing with Iran’ nuclear program], they will also lose markets in other countries.
He slammed the sanctions saying "we do not welcome sanctions but we declare that the Iranian people have mobilized their efforts to reach the zenith of progress”.
Under the current global conditions colonial powers are doomed, he said. "Colonial powers have no strong status and their foundations are shaky.”
As things stand now “They [US and West] cannot threaten a nation, particularly the proud, determined and civilized people of Iran”.
He condemned the US and western powers for looting the wealth of other nations, and said they will face the consequences of their actions when justice is finally established across the world.

British MPs To Launch Afghan War Inquiry

Lawmakers in London said Wednesday they will start an inquiry into the Afghanistan war, examining why British troops remain there nine years after the invasion and whether they have been successful.
The move came in the wake of allegations of a cover-up of civilian deaths highlighted in leaked US documents published by the WikiLeaks website this week.
The House of Commons defense select committee has called for written evidence on "the justification for the continued participation" of Britain's 10,000 troops in the international coalition in Afghanistan, AFP reported.
Amid polls showing a lack of public support for the mission, the members of parliament (MPs) will also examine "the success of the government in communicating this to the UK public".
Prime Minister David Cameron has called for British combat troops to be out of Afghanistan by 2015, and the MPs will scrutinize this timetable, as well as success in the training of Afghan forces which could allow this to happen. In addition, they will investigate the issue of Afghan civilian casualties in the war, and the success of stabilization and reconstruction efforts.

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152 Killed in Pak Plane Crash

A passenger jet crashed into the hills surrounding Pakistan's capital amid poor weather Wednesday, killing all 152 people on board and blazing a path of devastation strewn with body parts and twisted metal wreckage.
Initial interior ministry reports that five people survived the Airblue crash were wrong, said Imtiaz Elahi, chairman of the Capital Development Authority, which deals with emergencies and reports to the ministry.
"The situation at the site of the crash is heartbreaking," Elahi told The Associated Press. "It is a great tragedy, and I confirm it with pain that there are no survivors."
Local TV footage showed twisted metal wreckage hanging from trees and scattered across the ground on a bed of broken branches. Fire was visible and smoke rose from the scene as a helicopter hovered above. The army said it was sending special troops to aid the search.
"I'm seeing only body parts," Dawar Adnan, a rescue worker with the Pakistan Red Crescent, told the AP by telephone from the crash site. "This is a very horrible scene. We have scanned almost all the area, but there is no chance of any survivors."
Search Hampered
The search effort was hampered by muddy conditions and smoldering wreckage that authorities were having trouble extinguishing by helicopter, Adnan said.
The cause of the crash was not immediately clear, but Defense Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar said the government does not suspect terrorism.
The plane left the southern city of Karachi at 7:45 a.m. for a two-hour scheduled flight to Islamabad and was trying to land during cloudy and rainy weather, said Pervez George, a civil aviation official. Airblue is a private service based in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, and Wednesday's flight was believed to be carrying mostly Pakistanis.
Rescue workers scouring the heavily forested hills recovered 50 bodies from the wreckage, said Ramzan Sajid, spokesman for the Capital Development Authority.
"The plane was about to land at Islamabad airport when it lost contact with the control tower, and later we learned that the plane had crashed," said George, adding the model was an Airbus 321 and the flight number was ED202.

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Israeli Forces Bulldoze 40 Bedouin Homes

Around 300 Bedouins living in Israel’s Negev desert were left homeless on Tuesday after hundreds of police raided their village and demolished their homes, rights groups said.

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Iran’s Biggest Telescope Unveiled

Iran has unveiled its largest domestically-manufactured telescope, as part of an overall policy to achieve self-sufficiency in the field.

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$8.1b in Iraq Aid Missing

The US Department of Defense has called in forensic accountants to help track $8.1 billion (£5.2 billion) of $9.1 billion in Iraq's oil revenue entrusted to it after the fall of Baghdad, following an official audit that revealed the money was missing.
The funds were to be used for spending on reconstruction during 2004-07, a period when Iraq was under weak transitional rule, The Guardian newspaper reported.
The report was issued Wednesday by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, which had previously criticized poor book-keeping by senior officials throughout the last seven years.
Iraqi officials said they knew nothing about the missing billions and had no means to find where they had been spent. "We will speak to the oil ministry finance committee tomorrow about this," said a spokesman for Iraq's oil minister.
The revelation was made against a backdrop of limited services nationwide made worse by a summer that has seen demand for electricity well exceed Iraq's meager means to supply it through weeks of staggering heat.
The reconstruction of Iraq's worn-out infrastructure was to be a central plank of the US military's achievement. However, as combat forces steadily withdraw from the country to meet a 31 August deadline of only 50,000 troops remaining – mostly engineers and trainers – Iraqis are pointing to a dearth of the services that they were promised.

Archival Accounting
The Pentagon pledged to undergo a process of "archival accounting" to track missing funds, some of which is thought to be a result of shoddy book-keeping. However, the audit could not find any documentation to substantiate how the Pentagon spent $2.6 billion. An additional $53 billion has been allocated by Congress to rebuilding Iraq and the audit committee is examining whether those funds can be accounted for. "I will need a lot of convincing," said Adnan Makhoul, a businessman from the Baghdad suburb of Karrada. "In fact I will never believe it, look around and tell me how any money has been spent."

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Opposition to Sanctions

Russia says it remains opposed to additional
sanctions announced by the European Union and the United States. See Page 3

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Early Talks

Stalled talks between Iran and world powers should begin again as quickly as possible but must focus on Tehran’s nuclear program, European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said on Wednesday.

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Steel Gloom

Steelmakers painted a gloomy picture of the short-term prospects for the industry on Tuesday as global prices have fallen and industrial demand is not recovering from the recession as quickly as expected.

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Peace Carpet

Iranian artist Shahab Mohammadi has decided to donate his “Peace Carpet” to the Hiroshima Peace Center in memory of Sadako Sasaki, one of the victims of the atomic bomb.

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5 Plays

Five plays are having performances at Tehran’s City Theater. Veteran Iranian director and actor, Davoud Rashidi, is staging ‘Minus Two’ at the theater’s
Main Hall.

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IRAN DAILY

Number 3738 ● Thursday July 29, 2010 ● Mordad 7, 1389 ● Shaban 17, 1431 ● Price 2,000 Rials ● 12 Pages