Irandaily | No. 4392 | National

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West Cannot Brook Dissent

A member of the Majlis Cultural Commission said the recent attack in Syria against Iranian TV channels proves the West ‘cannot tolerate any dissenting voice’.
“The West, through this measure, showed that, when it comes to freedom of speech, [it] has suffered bankruptcy, and cannot tolerate any dissenting voice,” Islamic Consultative Assembly News Agency (ICANA), Majlis official news agency, quoted Nasrollah Pejmanfar as saying on Sunday.
“Iranian channels have managed to ruin the West’s media imperialism and that is why the West has easily turned to the physical removal of these media,” he added.
The lawmaker also referred to the West’s ban on Iranian satellite channels, adding, “The free flow of information cannot be hindered,” and people seek ‘other means to have access to facts’.
On Friday, two young men, who were caught on camera, approached an SNG (satellite news gathering) truck belonging to Press TV and Al-Alam television networks in Damascus. One of them quickly attached an explosive device to the bottom of the vehicle near Press TV office and ran away.
The bomb exploded but no one was hurt as a result of the blast. Several other vehicles surrounding the area were also damaged.
The Syrian crisis began in March 2011, and many people, including large numbers of Army and security personnel, have been killed. Damascus says that the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and there are reports that a very large number of the militants fighting the Syrian government are foreign nationals.
Also on Friday, a US Senate approved a new round of sanctions against Iran over its nuclear energy program, which also imposed restrictions on the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) and its head, Ezzatollah Zarghami. The ratification is meant to block all the IRIB assets and prevent others from doing business with it.
In flagrant violation of freedom of speech, French-based satellite provider, Eutelsat ordered the media services company Arqiva on October 15 to stop the broadcast of several Iranian satellite channels.
The Iranian chancels subject of the restrictive order include Press TV, Al-Alam, Jam-e-Jam 1 and 2, Sahar 1 and 2, Islamic Republic of Iran News Network, Qur’an TV, and the Arabic-language channel, Al-Kawthar.
The decision follows months of jamming of Iranian channels by European satellite companies.
Meanwhile, the EU has denied claims by European satellite companies that it ordered the providers to take Iranian channels off air, saying that the companies have acted on their own accord.

German Banks Asked To Facilitate Medicine Sales to Iran

Germany has called on its banks to authorize financial transactions with Iranian banks in a bid to ease restrictions on the sale of much-needed medicines to Iran.
In a letter carried in the Sunday issue of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the German Foreign Ministry called on German banks to stop blocking transactions with Iranian banks for medicine sales.
The letter has been sent by German Foreign Ministry diplomat Emily Haber to President of the Federal Association of German Cooperative Banks (BVR) Uwe Frohlich.
The letter asked German banks to ‘look into how they can facilitate transactions between Germany and Iran for humanitarian purposes’.
“Obviously some German banks are refusing to process these transactions, with reference to the political situation and EU sanctions,” Haber wrote.
Iranian health authorities say recent illegal sanctions, imposed by the US and the EU, have made it impossible to obtain the medicines needed to treat some diseases.
A transplant surgeon recently told Press TV that the US-engineered sanctions against the Islamic Republic have caused a shortage of medicine in Iran, endangering the lives of many patients.
Millions of patients, suffering from diseases such as diabetes, kidney failure, hemophilia, multiple sclerosis, thalassemia, and leukemia, are affected by the sanctions.
The illegal US-engineered sanctions were imposed based on the unfounded accusation that Iran is pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program.
Iran rejects the allegation, arguing that as a committed signatory to Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), it has the right to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
In addition, the IAEA has conducted numerous inspections of Iran’s nuclear facilities but has never found any evidence showing that Iran’s nuclear energy program has been diverted toward military objectives.

Envoy: Support for Israel Isolating Washington

Iran’s Ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Ali Asghar Soltanieh said the US is bringing about its own isolation through unconditional support for the Israeli regime.
Referring to the US decision to cancel the international conference on establishing a nuclear weapons-free zone (NWFZ) in the Middle East, Soltanieh said, “This action showed that the United States is making itself more isolated every day because of its unconditional support for Israel,” Press TV reported.
In a unilateral move, the US announced that the conference, originally scheduled to be held in the Finnish capital of Helsinki in December, could not be convened at this point and that it should be postponed.
“All the members of the [IAEA’s] Board of Governors have expressed regret that the Middle East’s nuclear conference was postponed,” Soltanieh added.
The major event has reportedly been cancelled due to US worries that its long-time ally in the region, the Israeli regime, would come under fire as the only possessor of nuclear weapons in the Middle East.
Israel is widely known to possess between 200 and 400 nuclear warheads.
Referring to the Israeli warmongering rhetoric against the Islamic Republic, the Iranian envoy warned that Tehran’s response to any attack against the country would be firm.

Nuclear Technology Fully Mastered
Soltanieh added that Iran had ‘fully mastered’ the nuclear energy technology, adding that Iran could independently produce all the 90 pieces of centrifuges without foreign assistance.
He also pointed to western dispute over Iran’s nuclear energy program and said, “The objective of keeping Iran’s case open is to turn the IAEA into an espionage, intelligence and inspective organization.” Soltanieh said the issue of Iran’s nuclear energy program is totally technical-professional and one that only involves Tehran and the IAEA, but the case has been politicized over the past few years.
“Claims and allegation about Iran trying to conduct studies on military aspects are political and raised by hostile countries such as the US.”
He noted that Iran is ready to engage in negotiations ‘within a clear framework’ to clarify potential ambiguities regarding its nuclear energy program. The United States, Israel and some of their allies have repeatedly accused Iran of pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program.
Iran says its nuclear activities are entirely civilian, arguing that as a committed signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and a member of the IAEA, it is entitled to develop and acquire nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

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