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| FarsiNet News Archive
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July 2000, Week 2 |
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Weather forcast of 50 cities in Iran
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Official Says Iran Ready to Improve Relations with U.S.
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BERLIN (AP) -- Iran would welcome U.S. investors after two decades of frozen relations and is waiting for the United States "to make the first step," the country's foreign minister was quoted Saturday as saying. "From our side the way is open for American companies to come to Iran and become active here," Kamal Kharrazi told the German weekly Der Spiegel in an interview. Kharrazi's comments came on the eve of a visit to Germany by Iranian President Mohammed Khatami, part of the moderate cleric's efforts to revive ties with western Europe since his 1997 election. Enmity has marked U.S.-Iranian ties since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution overthrew the Shah and Islamic militants held 52 Americans hostages at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran for 444 days. But Kharrazi said Iran wants to look to the future. Iranians "are a people that can forget very quickly and thoroughly when the other side shows sincerity and friendliness toward us," he told Der Spiegel. "But now it is up to America to make the first step." The Clinton administration lifted an import ban on Persian carpets, caviar and pistachios from Iran last March as an overture toward Tehran. But contrary to European governments, the United States has still blocked major business deals, specifically in the oil industry. Kharrazi invited Germany to boost economic ties with Iran, saying that current Iranian plans call for investments totaling $13 billion. "And we expect that such a range of projects is of interest for many countries," including Germany, he said. Western Europe froze ties with Iran after a 1997 German court ruling that the 1992 slayings of four Iranian dissidents in Berlin had been ordered at the highest level in Tehran. But Kharrazi said that was all in the past now. "There's no question about that," Kharrazi told Der Spiegel. "We want to look to the future and would rather look at possibilities that can bring us closer together."
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Iranian Police Open Fire on Rioters
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TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Police opened fire on rioters Saturday as they tried to end a violent clash between hundreds of pro-democracy students and hard-line vigilantes armed with rocks and chains. At first, police had fired tear gas and formed a human chain to separate the two sides, but they began to fire gunshots when the rioters attacked the security forces. Amid the tumult outside the Tehran University campus in the capital's downtown district, it was not immediately clear if police were firing live ammunition or rubber bullets, or whether anyone was hurt. Thousands of rioters responded by smashing shop windows and chanting slogans against Iran's Islamic government. They burned bundles of hard-line newspapers, chanting "death to the clerical government." The shots rang out near the end of a day that saw a commemoration of last year's bloody police raid on a university dormitory degenerate into violence and chaos. Hundreds of students chanting "death to dictators" -- a reference to hard-line opponents of moderate President Mohammad Khatami -- clashed with vigilantes numbering no more than 60. The vigilantes were chanting slogans supporting hard-line supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Nearly all the vigilantes were armed with iron chains; few of the students had anything more than rocks. It was unclear how many people were injured, but several people bloodied from the fighting were seen being carried away, most with head injuries. Meanwhile, both sides continued to hurl rocks over the heads of the riot police. Bystanders fled the scene but some 5,000 people later gathered to watch the brawl from balconies, pedestrian bridges and sidewalks. The day's violence began earlier, when vigilantes attacked a separate demonstration by students chanting slogans in support of reform and political freedoms. Witnesses said police did not intervene earlier as the vigilantes punched and kicked students in the face. No severe injuries were reported. The demonstration was called to mark the anniversary of the July 9, 1999, raid on a Tehran University dormitory: In that attack, hard-line security forces and vigilantes stormed the dorm and killed one person hours after students rallied against the banning of a liberal newspaper. A police chief and 19 subordinates have stood trial in connection with the hostel raid and are awaiting verdicts. The raid triggered six days of nationwide protests by tens of thousands of students -- the worst unrest in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Hard-liners, who control the police, judiciary and broadcast media, have been trying to stem the push for reform led by Khatami. They say his attempts at broadening social and political freedoms conflict with the country's Islamic ideals. In Saturday's earlier demonstration outside the dormitory, police arrested a number of students, saying the gathering took place without Interior Ministry permission, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported. It gave no other details. Students at the demonstration demanded the release of Heshmatollah Tabarzadi, leader of the Islamic Students Association, who was jailed last month and still has not been charged. The clashes disrupted student plans to mark the anniversary of the raid peacefully by handing out flowers in Tehran's streets and lighting candles. Representatives of the Office for Fostering Unity, Iran's largest student group, visited the homes of leading jailed reformers, writers and political activists and gave their families flowers as a gesture of solidarity, group member Nima Fateh told The Associated Press. "Our response to violence is offering flowers. We seek to promote the culture of tolerance and respect for opposing views in our society," he said. Khatami warned in remarks published Saturday that oppression of opposing views does not promote power or stability and could lead to a social explosion. "To be strong does not mean that if the people don't follow the establishment they should be suppressed by the use of force. ... Public dissatisfaction will eventually lead to explosion," Bahar newspaper quoted Khatami as saying. He was speaking Thursday during a tour of central Iran, the paper said. In a rare public criticism of the immensely popular president, hard-line cleric Mohsen Doagoo was quoted Saturday as calling Khatami's administration a "national disaster." In the past three months, the conservative judiciary has closed 19 newspapers, most of them pro-reform, and has ordered the detention of several journalists and political activists. The moves are widely seen as a bid by hard-liners in the government to halt Khatami's reformist movement.
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Solidarity Rally in New York, Monday, for Iranian Jews
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WHEN:
Noon, Monday, July 10, 2000 WHERE: First Avenue and 42nd Street, New York City Speakers and attendees will include leaders of the North American Jewish community, government officials, politicians, inter-religious leaders, human rights advocates and members of the families of the Iran 10. This event is co-sponsored by United Jewish Communities, along with the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, UJA-Federation of New York, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations Solidarity Gatherings will also take place across North America and around the world, in Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Denver, Detroit, London UK, Los Angeles, Omaha, Philadelphia, Miami, San Antonio and Toronto. Logistical details for these Gatherings may be found at www.ujc.org
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Wiesel Seeks Meeting in Iran Over Convicted Jews
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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel will seek permission from the Iranian government to travel to Tehran to appeal in person for the release of 10 Jews jailed for spying for Iran's arch-foe Israel, the World Jewish Congress (WJC) said Friday.
A spokesman for the New York-based activist group said Wiesel hoped to lead a WJC delegation as part of intensifying international pressure on Iran to release the men, who Jewish community leaders say are not spies. The ten Jews and two Muslims, a military officer and a defense contractor, were sentenced Saturday in the southern city of Shiraz to two to 10 years in prison for spying for Israel. Three Jews and two Muslims were found not guilty. "A World Jewish Congress delegation, to be headed by Elie Wiesel, will seek permission from the Iranian government to travel to Tehran and make the case -- directly to the Iranian authorities -- for the release of the convicted Jews," according to a statement issued by the Israeli Prime Minister's office that was provided by the WJC. The WJC also provided a copy of a letter it said would be distributed to 200,000 Jewish activists around the world. The WJC spokesman said the letter was an "urgent call to action" with just two weeks left before the convicted Jews' right to appeal expires. The letter states the Jews were convicted at "a show trial" in which international law and Iranian law was not adhered to. It said "not a shred of proof was introduced as evidence" in Shiraz. President Clinton met relatives of three of the 10 Iranian Jews in Washington Wednesday and told them the United States would do all it could to seek their release. Many Jewish-American groups and black civil rights leader Jesse Jackson have also appealed for their release since they were arrested more than a year ago.
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