Iran Daneshjoo Organization News Service
"Iran Daneshjoo Organization News Service"
News Edition of Wednesday
April 26, 2000 (Our silence will break ..) -
http://www.iran-daneshjoo.org Azadi e Andishe, Hamishe...!
Hamishe...! Freedom of Thought, For Ever...! For
Ever...! Welcome to this edition of the News provided by
the "Student Movement Coordination Committee for Democracy
in Iran". There are 19 articles in this news edition:
1) AFP: Students pursue protests as press court continues
campaign 2) SMCCDI: SADF (Iran): Our silence will break
3) Reuters: Students across Iran protest press bans 4) NY
Times (US): Iranian Students Protest Crackdown on Newspapers
5) Sobh E Emrooz (Iran): No Normal Treatment for Ganji in
Prison 6) AP: Supreme leader in Iran endorses media
crackdown 7) Iran News (Iran): IRIB's Role in Newspaper
Closures 8) AFP: German government "following situation
in Iran closely" 9) AP: Iranian hard-liners annul another
election won by a moderate 10) Reuters: Reformers say
Iran's hardliners plan revolt 11) IRAN (Iran): Please Keep
Your Calm 12) BBC: How far will Iran's conservatives go?
13) NY Times (US): Trial of Jews: Clue to Iran's Direction?
14) IPS: Hajjarian's alleged killers go on trial amid
controversy 15) AFP: Iranian pro-reform cleric rejects
charges against him 16) IPS: Defiant Yusefi Eshkevari says
Clergymen's court is illegal 17) AFP: Saudi rules out any
defence accord with Iran 18) Reuters: Iran rial weaker but
stocks shrug off political row 19) Financial Times (UK):
Iran puts its pride and joy on the road
A) More news:
http://www.iran-daneshjoo.org/news 1- Financial
Times (UK): Tehran students protest at closure of
reformist media 2- AFP: Iranian Jews trial to reopen
May 1 3- Reuters: Iran Press Court Warns President's
Brother 4- Tehran Times (Iran): Salimi on Democracy,
Cultural Ministry's Treatment of Print Media 5-
AFP: Khamenei proclaims full backing for Khatami 6- Par
Daily (US): Saeed Asgar Is A Happy Terrorist! 7-
Reuters: Iran to hold parliamentary run-offs May 5 - radio
8- Tehran Times (Iran): Guardian Council Confirms 185
Mps-Elect For Parliament 9- AFP: Iran sets May
5 as date for second round of elections 10- Tehran Times
(Iran): IRIB Supervisory Board to Respond to
Khatami 11- Reuters: Russia criticises Washington over
Iran sanctions 12- AFP: Plane crash kills two: radio
13- Reuters: ANALYSIS-Watershed time for Caspian oil and gas
14- Reuters: U.S. critic pays tribute to 'overlooked' films
15- Reuters: Four immigrant men charged with Sweden disco
arson 16- AFP: Haider blasts "decadent" EU's welcome for
Putin B) Urgent Actions:
http://www.iran-daneshjoo.org/urgentaction/ 1- Closing
of Reformist Publications, Detention of Journalists,
Annulment of People’s Parliamentary Vote 2- The World
Must Support the Democracy Movement in Iran C) German
articles:
http://www.iran-daneshjoo.org/articles/german.shtml 1-
FR: Studenten protestieren gegen Zeitungsverbote 2-
TAZ: Haftbefehl für Reformer 3- NZZ: Maulkorb für
Khatamis Reformpresse in Iran D) Swedish articles:
http://www.iran-daneshjoo.org/articles/swedish.shtml
1- TT-AFP: Andra omgången i Irans parlamentsval 5 maj E)
French articles:
http://www.iran-daneshjoo.org/articles/french.shtml
1- Liberation: Les étudiants dans la rue en Iran
===================================================================== Students
pursue protests as press court continues campaign TEHRAN,
April 26 (AFP) - Iranian students pursued peaceful protests
Wednesday against a ban on most of the pro-reform press as
the conservative courts continued their campaign with a
formal warning to President Mohammad Khatami's brother, head
of one of the few dailies to be spared so far. Meanwhile
the foreign ministry hit out at foreign criticism of the
crackdown, calling it interference in Iran's internal
affairs. Several hundred students gathered at the
technical faculty of Tehran University to show their concern
at the suspension by the press court of nine dailies and
four periodicals which support Khatami. They made no
speeches and shouted no slogans but held a silent prayer
session. Another rally was announced for later in the day
at Tehran University, where the first protests were staged
early Tuesday. Similar peaceful demonstrations were
reportedly held in the holy city of Mashhad in the east of
the country, at the Ferdossi University and the medical
school. Police have stayed away from the meetings and
there have been no confrontations, unlike last July, when
violent police intervention against a student protest at the
closure of the pro-reform daily Salam sparked off serious
public unrest. The demonstrations had no effect on the
press court, whose redoubtable judge Said Mortazavi stepped
up the pressure by issuing a formal warning to Mohammad-Reza
Khatami as director of the daily Mosharekat. In a letter
to Khatami, quoted by the radio, Mortazavi said that the
daily had changed format without official authorization.
"In its editions Monday and Tuesday, Mosharekat made
substantial changes in its layout, content and headlines,"
the judge was quoted as saying. "Should this court
warning be ignored, the appropriate decisions will be taken
regarding the coming editions," the judge said.
Mosharekat, which has a circulation of 150,000, is the
organ of the Islamic Iran Participation Front (IIPF) of
left-leaning reformers which was the big winner in the first
round of parliamentary elections on February 18.
Mohammad-Reza Khatami himself won 62 percent of the votes
in Tehran, the best showing for a candidate in the capital,
according to unofficial results announced by the interior
ministry. Analysts said a ban on the IIPF's newspaper
would inflame the conflict between conservatives and
reformists that has grown since the February polls.
Reformists led by the president have appealed for calm as
conservatives have stoked the fires, hoping to avoiud
trouble until the new parliament sits. On Wednesday their
2nd of Khordad Front, of which the IIPF is the main
component, urged "young people and especially students to
restraing themselves in the face of provocations whose sole
aim is to create social tension." Also Wednesday the
interior ministry finally announced that the second round of
the elections would take place on May 5. The conservative
elections body, the Council of Guardians, had been refusing
to approve a date on what was seen as another tactic to
rattle the reformists. In another development, foreign
ministry spokesman Hamdi-Reza Asefi played down the
crackdown on the press and rejected foreign criticism, the
official news agency IRNA reported. "Freedom of
expression and the press are the fundamental rights of
Iranian citizens and are assured by the constitution. The
existence of different tendencies in Iran prove the success
of the Islamic republic in building a pluralist and
democratic society," he said. "We expect foreign
countries to speak realistically and attentively about Iran,
and refrain from interfering in our internal affairs."
France and the United States, as well as various human
rights and press freedom bodies, have criticised the
measures against the press.
===================================================================== Our
silence will break SMCCDI News Service April 26,
2000 The Student Association for Defense of Freedom, based
in Tehran, warned the Islamic republic of breaking its
silence and calm. Part of the statement says: " If we kept
our silence and calm in the Serial murders case, in the
attack of our Dorms and peacefull protest, in the
imprisonment of our friends... We will keep our calm in
the present condition but we warn about the moment that the
silence will
break.." ===================================================================== Students
across Iran protest press bans TEHRAN (Reuters) Apr. 26 -
Students in five cities across Iran, from southern Hormuzgan
province to Hamedan in the west, held protests against the
closure of 13 pro-reform publications, the official IRNA
news agency reported. The protests, like similar gatherings
in the capital Tehran, all passed off without incident, IRNA
said. "Should the ban on the dailies continue,
gossip-mongering and underground publications will appear,"
a university lecturer told students in Bandar Abbas, the
administrative centre of Hormuzgan province and Iran's
biggest port. Students at the rallies on Tuesday chanted
slogans backing freedom of the press and denounced the state
broadcast service, which is controlled by hardliners, for
what they said was political bias. In the central town of
Kashan, protesters criticised the out-going parliament's
recent move to tighten further existing press
restrictions. Iran's hardline judiciary banned without
trial nine dailies and four journals for having "disparaged
Islam and the religious elements of the Islamic revolution."
The move, which aimed at the heart of the reform
programme under moderate President Mohammad Khatami, has so
far failed to elicit the impassioned response that greeted
the sudden closure last July of the reformist daily Salam.
Then,a pro-democracy rally was set upon by the security
forces and hardline vigilantes, touching off the worst
unrest since the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Reformist forces, mindful of last summer's violence, have
appealed repeatedly for calm. Besides protests in
Hamedan, Bandar Abbas, Kashan and Tehran, thousands of
students rallied for press freedom in the central city of
Yazd and in Shiraz, in the south.
===================================================================== Iranian
Students Protest Crackdown on Newspapers The New York
Times By SUSAN SACHS April 26, 2000 TEHRAN, Iran, April
25 -- With the reformers they supported under siege by
conservative judges and clerics, students at two Tehran
universities held peaceful demonstrations today to denounce
the widening crackdown on the nation's independent press.
As the students protested, a judge in the capital closed
another liberal newspaper -- the 13th to fall silent on
orders from hard-line judges in just two days. And another
court issued an arrest warrant for a popular moderate cleric
who was accused of insulting Islam because he attended a
recent conference in Berlin on democracy. Several
reform-minded clerics are already in prison, convicted on
similar charges, based on their open questioning of the
Iranian religious establishment's political power. With
unease mounting here in the capital, the student rallies
were watched with trepidation by reform leaders. They have
repeatedly warned their supporters to avoid any disturbance
that could bring even harsher retaliation from conservatives
or delay the opening of a new reform-dominated Parliament
next month. The warnings appear to have been heeded, so
far. But students at the Khajeh Naseer Technical University
in the capital found a way to express themselves. "The
people's silence," read one of their banners today, "is not
a sign of their consent." President Mohammad Khatami,
whose pledges of wider political freedoms inspired the
reform movement and an explosion of feisty newspapers, has
also remained silent in the face of the recent assault on
liberal newspapers, editors and clerics. He has defended
the notion of a free press in recent speeches but has not
commented publicly on the closure of nearly every national
newspaper that supports him. The reform forces have been
locked in a perilous war of nerves with their hard-line
opponents for two months, since pro-Khatami candidates won a
decisive majority in the first round of parliamentary
elections on Feb. 18. The reformist tide swept nearly
every conservative incumbent out of office. But since the
first round, reformers have suffered a series of blows.
First, one of the president's closest allies, Saeed
Hajjarian, was gunned down on a Tehran street, barely
surviving a bullet fired into his face. The trial of eight
men accused of the assassination attempt opened today in a
Tehran court. Although many of the reform newspapers
speculated that the shooting was the work of anti-Khatami
extremists in the security forces, one defendant told the
court today that he fired the shot but did not act on behalf
of any group. The newspaper run by Mr. Hajjarian, which
has the largest daily circulation in the country and is a
constant irritant to the hard-liners, was ordered last night
to shut down, although the order was rescinded. The
Khatami forces' preliminary election victory also has been
chipped away by the ultra-conservative Council of Guardians,
which has annulled the results of 11 provincial races won by
pro-Khatami candidates, the latest one today. What
worries the reformers more than the voided races is the
council's delay in certifying the election results and
scheduling a final round of voting. The runoff will decide
about 80 seats for which no candidate received 25 percent of
the vote outright in the first round or for which the
results have been nullified. Time is growing short: the new
Parliament, which presumably will give Mr. Khatami his first
working majority since his election in 1997, is supposed to
begin work on May 28. "What's important for us is the
date," said Shahidi Shaban, the deputy minister for press in
the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance and a Khatami
ally. "It must be respected." He said that under the law,
the Parliament can open with two-thirds of its 290 members,
a possibility that would require certification of all the
seats decided in Tehran in the first round of elections.
But the conservative council is still recounting ballots
in Tehran, where reformers won 29 out of 30 seats outright
in the first round. The council secretary, Ayatollah Ahmad
Jannati, predicted today that the recount would lead to
"different results," according to a report from the official
Iranian news agency IRNA. So far, Mr. Khatami has been
able to maneuver between the expectations of his supporters
and the barely hidden hostility of the conservatives, who
risk losing their grip on judicial and political power under
a reformist program. In Iran's system of government,
which divides authority between competing institutions that
answer to different groups, the president holds relatively
few cards. He appoints the ministers, who must be approved
by Parliament. But the military, security and courts are in
the hands of a Muslim cleric who is called the supreme
leader. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the current leader, is
widely considered a conservative but also a practical
politician who recognizes Mr. Khatami's popularity.
Because he is the ultimate authority over the judiciary,
though, many people have wondered what role he played in the
recent ban on reformist newspapers and trials of reformist
writers. "Nothing is really clear," said one Western
diplomat based in Tehran. "We are in a game that is going
faster and faster. We all are waiting for the next play."
===================================================================== No
Normal Treatment for Ganji in Prison Sobh E Emrooz April
26, 2000 Akbar Ganji has been arraigned in jail pending a
massive bail. In a meeting with his espouse across a
screen, he said that his guards did not provide him with
newspapers and books. He has been also been refused paper
and
pencil. ===================================================================== Supreme
leader in Iran endorses media crackdown TEHRAN, Iran (AP)
Apr. 26 - Iran's supreme leader on Wednesday endorsed the
recent crackdown on reformist newspapers, describing the
publications as "deviant" and urging his supporters not to
remain silent. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei condemned what he
called "a deviant media movement that is trying to shape
public opinion and turn it against Islam, the revolution and
the Islamic Republic." Khamenei's comments came as local
media reported that a court dominated by hard-liners had
sent a warning to the brother of reformist President
Mohammad Khatami to rein in his liberal newspaper,
Mosharekat, or face sanction. Press Court Judge Saeed
Mortazavi wrote Tuesday to Mohammad-Reza Khatami, objecting
to his newspaper's publishing several editions a day. He
said it amounted to Mosharekat's putting out several other
newspapers under its name. "If this legal court notice is
ignored in the next editions, appropriate decisions will be
taken against your newspaper," Mortazavi said in his letter,
the daily Kayhan reported. Khatami is a close ally of his
elder brother, the president, and his newspaper is one of
only three reformist papers to survive the recent closures,
which follow nationwide elections two months ago that ousted
hard-liners from their long-held majority in parliament.
Thirteen newspapers have been closed in recent days and
two leading pro-reform journalists have been detained, as
hard-liners seek to hold back the popular movement toward
more democracy and openness. Khamenei, the country's
supreme leader and a champion of hard-liners, said reformers
were undermining the principles of the 1979 revolution and
the teachings of the imam, the late Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini. "All persons, groups, and factions loyal to
Islam must come out and take strong positions against those
... who are attacking the revolution, the path of the imam,
the constitution and the role of the supreme leader,"
Khamenei told a meeting of religious authorities.
"Revolutionaries must not remain silent against these
truths," he added in what appeared to be a green light for
further measures. Reformist allies of Khatami have
appealed to supporters, including university students, not
to take to the streets. "The hard-liners are trying to
create a crisis to use that as a pretext for an even larger
crackdown," said Karim Arqandehpour, a senior editor at
Mosharekat, and deputy chief of the reformist Press Guild.
"The people should remain calm, because the reforms are
not in a life-or-death situation. They are now embedded in
the hearts of the Iranian people, and cannot be choked," he
told The Associated Press. Students at Tehran's Amir
Kabir Technical University stayed away from classes
Wednesday for a second day. In the central city of Shiraz,
all 17 universities were shut in support of the reformers.
The crackdown is aimed at rolling back the reforms
initiated by President Khatami who, since coming to power in
1997, has loosened Iran's social, political and cultural
restrictions. Following their overwhelming defeat at the
polls, the hard-liners have been hitting back through their
control of the judiciary, the state broadcasting media and
the Guardians Council, which supervises elections. The
council has annulled the results in 12 legislative seats won
by Khatami allies, awarding two of them to hard-line
candidates. It has also claimed vote fraud in Tehran, where
reformers won 29 of the 30 seats, and suggested that the
results could be changed. On Wednesday, the council
announced that run-off elections would be held May 5 for 66
seats that were not decided in the elections for the
290-member parliament.
===================================================================== IRIB's
Role in Newspaper Closures Iran News Editorial April 26,
2000 Following the recent abrupt wholesale closure of
pro-reform newspapers, the people concluded that a
pre-determined scenario was being acted out by the opponents
of President Khatami's policies. They believe that the
Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) played a major
role in preparing the ground for these dubious closures by
blowing out of all proportion the Berlin Conference where
reform-minded Iranian journalists were invited earlier this
month for a round table discussion. IRIB then kept harping
on what it called the un-Islamic and anti-revolutionary
behavior of the participants, and then tried to take
advantage of the atmosphere it had created to discredit the
pro-reform newspapers. One of the reasons, not necessarily
the major one, for IRIB's enmity toward the newly
established reform press is that by practicing a more
genuine brand of journalism they had captured the majority
of IRIB's audience who were tired of it's biased and boring
programs, specially its news and political analyses. The
politically aware people of Iran have forsaken the national
television and have opted for reform and independent
newspapers as their main ource of information. When the
electorate, despite the efforts of IRIB, voted
overwhelmingly in favor of the reformists in two major
elections, IRIB, in its infinite wisdom, decided to enter
the arena of the printed press thinking that it can
influence public opinion by the written word instead of
broadcast. IRIB managers think that they can grab the
audience of the press by participating in the campaign to
shut down all pro-reform and independent newspapers. On the
surface, this two-pronged IRIB strategy to become the only
game in town seems to be working so far with the
wholehearted support of President Khatami's
opponents. However, IRIB chiefs are under the wrong
impression that if they clear the field of their competitors
people will have no choice but to watch their programs
regardless of their content. This will not happen,because
the people of Iran have become highly politicized and know
what they want. Limiting their sources of information will
not force them to opt for the second best, which in this
case is the absolute
worst. ===================================================================== German
government "following situation in Iran closely" BERLIN,
April 26 (AFP) - The German government is "following with
great attention" the situation in Iran, where there has been
a crackdown on pro-reform newspapers, government deputy
spokesperson Charima Reinhardt said Wednesday. "The
government express the hope that the Iranian president
(Mohammad Khatami) will find the right way for the
continuation of reforms," she said in a statement. "The
German government ... considers the freedom to inform to be
a reliable yardstick of the observation of human rights,"
the statement went on. The statement said that, in line
with article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
of the United Nations, the government "fundamentally rejects
censorship, intimidation and repression of the media."
===================================================================== Iranian
hard-liners annul another election won by a moderate By
Afshin Valinejad TEHRAN, Iran, (AP) Apr. 26 - Hard-liners
have stepped up pressure on President Mohammad Khatami,
annulling another election result in a legislative district
won by a moderate Khatami ally. Alarmed by the sound
beating they took from reformists in February's legislative
elections, Iranian hard-liners are trying to roll back
Khatami's reforms. In addition to annulling election results
in 12 districts where seats were won by Khatami allies, they
have closed 13 pro-democracy publications and jailed two
journalists in recent weeks. The crackdown reflects the
considerable power hard-liners in the ruling clergy still
wield in Iran. State-run radio said yesterday that Iran's
Guardian Council had annulled the election of reformist
Mohammad Farrokhi to represent the town of Jiroft in
southern Kerman province. In addition, the radio quoted a
statement from the hard-line council as saying that final
results for Tehran, where the pro-Khatami Interior Ministry
says the reformists won 29 of 30 seats, have been delayed.
After yesterday's statement was broadcast on radio,
Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, head of the Guardian Council,
denied that there was any plan to annul results in Tehran,
the capital. But the official Islamic Republic News Agency
quoted Jannati as saying that "there are irregularities
which may lead to minor changes." Two of the 12 seats from
the districts where reformists' victories have been annulled
have been given to hard-liners. The others are to be
contested in a new election. At several universities
around Iran, students demonstrated yesterday against the
newspaper closures and in favor of Khatami. In the
southern city of Shiraz, more than 3,000 students rallied at
the Medical Science University, journalists there said.
At the Khajeh Naseer Technical University in Tehran, more
than 300 students cut classes and assembled outside the main
building. Speakers addressed the demonstrators through
loudspeakers. "Stand firm, Khatami, stand firm, Khatami,"
the young men and women chanted as they sat under the
morning sun. On the green iron fence around the university
in Tehran hung the last issues of the 13 publications that
were shut down Sunday and Monday by order of Iran's
hard-line judiciary. The newspapers had turned Khatami, who
speaks of democracy and the rule of law, into a national
hero. Only two reformist newspapers - Mosharekat and Bayan -
escaped the ban. It was not clear why. The ban on a 14th
newspaper, Sobh-e-Emrooz, was lifted late Monday, but the
reason was unclear. Since his election in 1997, Khatami
has sought to loosen restrictions that have been in place
since Islamic hard-liners seized power in Iran in the 1979
revolution. He has been opposed by conservative clerics.
===================================================================== Reformers
say Iran's hardliners plan revolt By Jonathan Lyons
TEHRAN, April 26 (Reuters) - Iran's reformers say they have
learned of a "master plan" by hardliners in the security
forces and their allies to crush the movement for change and
even topple the government of moderate President Mohammad
Khatami. They say some elements of the elite
Revolutionary Guards, the police and the state broadcast
monopoly have formed a "crisis committee" to fan social,
political and religious tensions and pave the way for a
possible coup d'etat. "The Crisis Committee, or creating
crises?" asked an editorial earlier this week in Sobh-e
Emrouz, a reformist daily with good sources in the
intelligence service. The newspapers have not named the
figures in question and the conservative newspaper Resalat
on Wednesday dismissed such charges as fantasy. "Where is
the Crisis Headquarters?" it asked in a front-page headline.
"Why don't the gentlemen answer?" Last week, a statement
from the Guards denied a coup was in the works, saying "coup
d'etat is a meaningless, alien and irrelevant word." But a
leading reformist said he had been given notes from a tape
made at a recent meeting of the committee, detailing a
three-stage programme to weaken the reformers, halt their
advance and then eliminate them. A copy was made
available to Reuters by the reformist figure, who asked not
to be identified. "The revolution, Islam and the blood of
the martyrs are endangered," the notes quote a senior Guards
commander as saying. "One option is to sit and watch, the
other is create a strong executive headquarters. In the
first phase, we weaken the other side. In the second, we
stop them from advancing and in the third phase we remove
them from the scene." STEPS OUTLINED Specific steps
said to have been outlined at the meeting included: --
Arrest and prosecution of leading reformers, who would be
branded "foreign agents or spies". -- Closing 18
reformist publications to interrupt the flow of information
to the people. -- Bullying intellectuals into remaining
silent. -- Convincing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei of the dangers to the Islamic system posed by the
reform movement. -- Disruption of the Tehran bazaar and
the religious seminaries to provoke senior clerics. --
Deploying terror to force many Khatami supporters to "stay
silent or pull aside". According to the notes, the
meeting concluded with a debate on the timing and wisdom of
an anti-Khatami putsch. When objections are raised that
the majority of the army and the Revolutionary Guards
supports the president, one commander counters that the
"adventurous atmosphere" of a coup would win over the
younger recruits. "A coup d'etat on what pretext?"
presses his interlocutor. "The grounds could be that some
of these (reformers) are foreign agents or spies," comes the
reply. In the 10 days since the meeting recorded in the
transcript, the judiciary has banned 13 reformist
publications. The ban followed a speech by Ayatollah
Khamenei in which he said the reformist press had become
"bases of the enemy". Several reformist journalists have
been detained for trial or sent to prison, while the
Revolutionary Court has summoned for interrogation
reformists who took part in a seminar in Berlin, which
conservatives have branded counter-revolutionary.
INTERIOR MINISTER SOUNDS ALARM A strike was called in the
Tehran bazaar last Thursday and in the seminaries in the
holy Shi'ite Moslem city of Qom on Monday to protest foreign
meddling, and fresh graffiti around Tehran have accused the
press of housing anti-Islamic elements. Pro-reform
newspapers and government officials first began warning of a
"crisis committee" earlier this week, but there has been no
confirmation that such a body is at work behind the scenes.
"Has this committee been created in coordination with
security officials and the Supreme National Security
Council, or does it intend to create crises instead of
preventing them?" Fath daily on Monday quoted reformist
Interior Minister Abdolvahed Mousavi-Lari as saying. "The
sudden closure of...newspapers and publications must be seen
in line with the acts of the crisis-creating committees,"
said Sobh-e Emrouz. "(Recent events) show the target of
these crises is the reformist front and the pious forces
supporting reform." But the conservative Resalat said the
reformers were unable to substantiate their claims. "The
gentlemen who claim a crisis headquarters and power mafia
exist do not say where this committee is and who its members
are," it
said. ===================================================================== Please
Keep Your Calm IRAN April 26, 2000 Four banned dailies
have issued a joint statement. "The latest confrontation
cannot freeze the deep reforms that are under way in our
society," said the statement, adding that the people should
remain calm in order to avoid
violence ===================================================================== How
far will Iran's conservatives go? BBC World By Jim Muir in
Tehran April 26, 2000 The recent developments in Iran
- the banning of 13 newspapers and arrests of journalists -
have all the hallmarks of a right-wing backlash in the wake
of the reformists' sweeping general election victory.
There's no doubt that the conservatives were taken aback
by the magnitude of their defeat in the February elections.
Now the signs are that they have regrouped for a
counter-attack. The question is how far they intend to
try to go. The events of the past week or two have left
Iranian observers divided. Some believe that what they
are seeing is the more hardline right-wingers trying
desperately to do as much damage as they can on their way
out. Others argue that the hardliners have no intention
of giving up power and that the closure of many reformist
publications is merely a prelude to a complete shutdown to
cover an attempt to prevent the new parliament from being
inaugurated at the end of May. That period between the
February elections and the May inauguration was always going
to be a tense one. But it's been made doubly so by
unusual elements of uncertainty. Delays The
conservative-dominated Council of Guardians, which
supervises elections, has only just set a date for a long
overdue second-round run off, and it has still not validated
the results for Tehran's 30 seats. All this has raised
suspicions in reformist minds that the hardliners may be
striving to deny them their election victory. With
political tension extremely high, there's been inevitable
speculation about some sort of coup by hardline commanders
of the Revolutionary Guards. That's been ruled out by the
guards themselves, taking their cue from the supreme leader,
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He has stated very clearly that
nobody must step beyond the law. It was his attack on the
reformist press last week that appeared to set the scene for
the latest crackdown. But he also stood firmly beside the
reformist president, Mohammad Khatami. Some Iranian
analysts believe it's the leader himself who is restraining
the real hardliners from making a serious attempt to oust
the popular president and to crush the reformists, whatever
the cost. As for them, their tactic is to keep things as
calm as possible, to avoid offering any kind of pretext for
stopping them taking over parliament. Until that day
comes, the situation is likely to remain extremely
tense. ===================================================================== Trial
of Jews: Clue to Iran's Direction? The New York Times By
NEIL MacFARQUHAR April 26, 2000 The pending trial in
Iran of 13 Jews on espionage charges is being monitored
outside the country as a gauge of the evolving balance of
power between the forces of tolerance and the Islamic
revolution's more zealous adherents. Since the charges were
brought in March 1999 against the Jewish men, as well as
eight unidentified Muslims, the case has generated questions
from a broad range of governments and organizations. Top
officials in Western Europe, Japan, the United Nations, the
Arab world and particularly Russia have openly expressed
qualms about what the outcome of the trial might be. The
extensive lobbying by Russia was especially curious, because
Jews suffered discrimination in the Soviet era, with those
applying to emigrate usually denied permission and often
losing their jobs. The Russian foreign minister, Igor
Ivanov, inquired about the trial during a visit to Iran in
November, said an official at the Iran desk at the ministry.
"He talked to the leaders of the Iranian government." the
official said, "and told them that although we recognize
that this is their internal affair, we hoped that this trial
would be conducted in a fair and transparent manner."
Artur Chilingarov, a deputy speaker of the Russian
Parliament, made a similar appeal last year during a meeting
with the Iranian ambassador to Moscow, as did Vladimir
Gusinsky, an influential Russian tycoon who is also
president of the Russian Jewish Congress. Other
government officials also made inquiries, with Russian
officials saying they had been asked to intervene by the
United States and Israel. In Washington, State Department
officials said the issue of the Iranian Jews had come up in
discussions with their Russian counterparts on a host of
unrelated issues, like the conflict in Kosovo. One senior
State Department official said Russian participation on this
case could be traced to a number of factors. Russia has long
sought a larger role in Middle East peace talks, and Russian
Jewish groups are becoming more vocal. Russia has hardly
been alone. The governments of Canada, Britain, France,
Holland, Germany and Japan, among others, have all said they
were disturbed by the arrests, often in the kind of terse
language that diplomats avoid. The French prime minister,
Lionel Jospin, declared the charges "totally fabricated,"
while Canada has emphasized that maintaining good relations
depends on a fair resolution of the case. Although the
United States has no diplomatic relations with Iran, the
Clinton administration has made its thoughts known. "We
look to the procedures and the results of this trial as one
of the barometers of U.S.-Iran relations," Secretary of
State Madeleine K. Albright said in a speech in March
marking the lifting of Washington's two-decade ban on
Iranian carpets and food products. The step was taken to
ease the longstanding tension between the two nations. A
stream of contradictory statements about the defendants from
various branches of the Iranian government has heightened
interest in the case as a means of assessing what is going
on inside the country. In the last year, hard-line Shiite
Muslim clerics have echoed the statement of Ayatollah
Muhammad Yazdi, who said the detainees should be "sentenced
to death -- not once but several times." On the other
hand, Hossein Sadeqi, the new spokesman for Iran's
judiciary, said last month, "We hope and desire that none of
them is convicted, and hope that they are all innocent and
will be acquitted." Foreign governments and human rights
organizations, among others, expect the outcome of the trial
to give some indication of whether the hard-line elements in
the government can still thwart attempts by moderate
elements to develop more neighborly international ties.
The question of which side can exert more influence was
sharpened by the results of parliamentary elections in
February, when moderates trounced the hard-liners. "There
is a fear that the internal struggles within Iran are being
played out in this case," said Hanny Megally, the executive
director of Human Rights Watch for the Middle East and North
Africa. "If there is going to be a trial, how that process
goes -- whether it is fair and open and public -- will be a
strong indication of how far Iran has come." The question
remains what effect, if any, the international outcry has
had on the trial. Some officials say they believe that the
questions from foreign governments have served to mitigate
the charges against the Jews, making it unlikely that they
will face capital punishment. Others say too much
attention has been focused on the case, potentially
contributing to Iranian suspicions that some among the
country's 35,000 Jews have ties to outside powers. Diplomats
and human rights officials noted that other protests against
religious prosecution in Iran, notably against the Bahai
minority, had been carried out much more quietly. "It is
extremely hard to measure what impact foreign comments on
something like this trial have actually had in practice,"
said Maurice Copithorne, a Canadian jurist who serves as the
United Nations human rights investigator for Iran although
he has not been allowed to enter the country. On April 13
an Iranian judge in the city of Shiraz postponed the trial
of the 13 until May 1, to give defense attorneys more time
to prepare and out of deference to the Passover holiday,
said Hossein Ali Amiri, the chief of the judiciary in Fars
Province. Three of the defendants were released on bail
in February. The rest remain in prison. The accused Jews --
most are merchants or schoolteachers, with the youngest of
them a 17-year-old student -- are charged with spying for
Israel, but no evidence against them has been made public.
Some may have had contact with relatives or the exile
community there, but Israel has denied any connection with
the men. Iran has said religion has no bearing on the
case, noting that some Muslims were arrested at the same
time as the Jews more than a year ago. But the Muslims have
never been identified, with diplomats and human rights
officials expressing doubt they exist. Foreign
governments, Jewish groups and human rights organizations
have all been pressing the government of Iran to allow their
representatives to attend the trial, to be held in the
normally closed revolutionary court. They all believe that
this is the only way any evidence will be known. So far
there has been little indication that this will be allowed.
"There is a widespread perception that these are unlikely
spies to begin with, so the basis of the allegations is
considered suspect by many observers," said Mr. Copithorne.
===================================================================== Hajjarian's
alleged killers go on trial amid controversy TEHRAN 25TH
Apr. (IPS) The first session of the hasty arranged trial at
the Islamic Revolution Court of the men alleged to be
involved in the assassination attempt against Mr. Sa'id
Hajjarian, the vice Chairman of the Tehran City Council
(TCC) and a close friend and adviser to President Mohammad
Khatami started without the participation of the victim's
family. Mr. Hajjarian was shot at close distance on 12th
March as he was entering the TCC and seriously wounded.
Taken to hospital, he is still under treatment. According
to the pro-government official news agency IRNA, eight
people, among them; ++ 20 years-old Sa'id Asgar, a student
of chemical engineering at Islamic Azad (Free) University,
said to be the one who shot Mr. Hajjarian; ++ Mohsen
(Morteza) Majidi, 30, driver of the powerful motorcycle used
by the assailant, a high school student and doing his
military service who became a non-commissioned officer of
the Revolutionary Guards operating a shop selling spare
parts and repairing powerful motorcycles that are used only
by security services and patrols; ++ Mohammad Ali
Moqaddam, 22, accomplice, finished guidance school;
implicated by other suspects as the one who provided the
group with information as to the time of Mr. Hajjarian's
arrival to his office at the TCC and the one who stopped the
Publisher of the outspoken reformist daily Sobhe Emrouz by
handing him a letter, thus providing the assailant the
opportunity to shoot at Mr. Hajjarian; ++ Mehdi Rowqani,
23, an accomplice; ++ Mousa Jan-Nesari, 23, a staff member
and a student at Tehran University; ++ Safar Maqsoudi, 28,
with record of involvement in illicit dealings, murder,
theft and armed robbery, the one who the revolver used in
the failed assassination; ++ Alipour-Chalu'i, 24, a Kung
Fu coach at a sports club used by the Guards, expelled from
high school for misconduct and ++ Sa'id Gagonani, 19, a
high school graduate. Eyewitnesses at the trial told Iran
Press service that Mr. Asgar confessed to shooting at Mr.
Hajjarian as well as to two other cases of murders, saying
he was obeying to religious order provided by a
cleric. Despite Mr. Asgar's confessions, sources,
including Mr. Hajjarian's family and friends have expressed
doubts, as his father, in a letter to the authorities, has
indicated that his son was at home at the time of failed
assassination. Reformists immediately speculated that the
aim of the conservatives for attempting at the life of Mr.
Hajjarian, considered as the "architect" behind the victory
of Mr. Khatami in the May 1997 presidential elections and
the February parliamentary race was to create a situation
giving them the possibility of proclaiming emergency state
and shutting all institutions, including the Majles. But
the hard liners counter-charged by claiming that the
assassination plot was the work of people and groups close
to the president, naming Mr. Hakimikpour, a TCC member who
took Mr. Hajjarian to hospital. The trial started amid
bitter controversy, as Mr. Hajjarian had asked the
authorities to postpone the trial until he is fit to attend,
but the Islamic Kjudiciary that is controlled directly by
the leader ignored his plea. Sources say one reason behind
the leader-controlled Judiciary to ignore Mr. Hajjarian's
demand is that the conservatives are keen to wrap the case
while the political atmosphere is filled with tension
created following the closure of 14 pro-reform publications,
the arrest of three prominent journalists, the outcry
orchestrated by the leader-controlled Television over the
Berlin Conference and the confusion surrounding the
inauguration of the next reformists-controlled Majles as a
result of the leader-controlled Council of Guardians
annulling election results in several districts, including
Tehran, where all the 30 seats except one were swept by
pro-Khatami candidates. >From the outset, the failed
assassination attempt became a subject of controversy and
couter-accusation between the reformist camp and the
conservatives led by Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i. According
to evidences brought by journalists, the murderers, most of
them forming a gang, would operate for the Intelligence
Department of the Revolutionary Guards. That was the
reason that from the outset, and like the case of the murder
by high ranking officials from the Intelligence Ministry of
five nationalist intellectual and politician dissident in
November 1998, Mr. Khameneh'i accused "foreign hands and
their local agents". But since the Guards who,
unexpectedly and surprisingly, had rounded up the killers
refused to hand them over to the Intelligence Ministry, it
became clear that they had called on the leader to save them
from the same mess and shame and humiliation that afflicted
the Intelligence Ministry after it confessed to the
involvement of its senior members in the "chain
murders". That was done after Mr. Khameneh'i ordered the
newspapers not to write anything about the Hajjarian case
that do not come from official sources. In several
speeches afterward, including the last he made to the Basij,
he accused the independent press of accusing the Guards
"without having any proof or document". That address
served as a basis for the Judiciary to order the closure of
all but a few reform seeking publications.
===================================================================== Iranian
pro-reform cleric rejects charges against him PARIS, April
25 (AFP) - Iranian pro-reform cleric Hassan Yussefi
Eshkevari rejected Tuesday charges brought against him by
hardline Tehran clerics and described the accusations as
"strange and incredible". Iran's Special Court for Clergy
issued an arrest warrant against Eshkevari for having
attended a controversial seminar in Berlin on April 7 and 8,
the official Iranian news agency IRNA reported earlier
Tuesday. The court's prosecutor, Mohammad-Ibrahim Nekunam,
confirmed Tuesday the charges against Eshkevari include
spreading propaganda against the regime, insulting Islamic
values and acting against national security interests. The
charges carry a minimum of 10 years in prison if
proven. "As usual, these are very general and ambiguous
accusations which lend themselves to every abuse and
interpretation," Eshkevari said in an interview with Radio
France International's Persian service. Eshkevari, who is
on a private visit to Paris, said he has not decided when he
will return to Iran. He is also charged with conduct
unbecoming a cleric, two days after writing a letter
accusing state television of trying to damage pro-reformist
President Mohammad Khatami by broadcasting pictures from the
seminar. The conference, where members of the armed
opposition People's Mujahadeen put in an appearance and a
woman danced with bare arms, has outraged
conservatives. "We suffered attacks during the conference
because we defended the system and now, here we are,
confronted by these accusations," said Eshkevari. "The
idea that someone could threaten the security of a country
by speaking before a conference seems to me strange and
incredible," said Eshkevari. "I am not questioning
religion by saying that wearing the chador or Islamic dress
should not be compulsory and should be a deliberate choice
by Iranian women," said Eshkevari, referring to comments he
made in Berlin. "To question Islamic dress does not mean
rejecting the fundamental principles of the religion," he
added. President Khatami said Saturday that he was
"totally opposed" to the manner in which pictures of the
Berlin conference had been broadcast on Iranian TV. "What
happened in Berlin is also not acceptable," Khatami then
added. Iran's main reform party described the showing of
selected extracts from the conference as "provocative" and
accused the conservative television management of intent "to
sow discord among the political forces" of Iran and "damage
national unity and security." Iran's hardline
revolutionary court has summoned several people to appear
over the
conference. ===================================================================== Defiant
Yusefi Eshkevari says Clergymen's court is illegal PARIS
25TH APR. (IPS) Hojatoleslam Hasan Yusefi-Eshkevari, a
prominent Islamist reformer rejected Tuesday charges filed
against him by the controversial Clergymen's Special
Tribunal (CST) reiterating that since he considers this body
as unconstitutional, therefore its rulings are also
illegal. Hojatoleslam Mohammad Ebrahim Nekoonam, the
leader-appointed Prosecutor General of the CST told the
official Iranian news agency IRNA that Mr. Yusefi-Eshkevari
was charged with "action against national security,
propaganda against the system, insult to and rejection of
the absolute sanctities of Islam, and behaviour not
befitting the clergy" and would be arrested upon his return
to Iran. In interviews with Persian services of BBC and
Radio France Internationale (RFI), Mr. Yusefi-Eshkevari who
is presently in Paris said charges as action against
national security or propaganda against the system or even
insult against Islam are very general, vague and broad-based
that one can not logically answer them. "Such accusations
are not new, but anyhow, since the CST is not legal in the
one hand and the charges (brought against him) are of
political nature, they should therefore be addressed in
legal and competent courts but not this one", he
observed. Mr. Yusefi-Eshkevari was the only cleric who
alongside 16 other Iranian pro-Khatami personalities
attended the now famous Berlin Conference on the "Aftermath
of Parliamentary Elections", a venue that served as a
pretext for hard liners to organise the mass closure of
reformist and moderate publications. In a move
unprecedented in the 160 years history of the Iranian press,
the Islamic Judiciary, acting on instructions from Ayatollah
Ali Khameneh'i, ordered Monday the closing of Asre Azadegan,
Akhbare Eqtesadi, Fath, Gozaresh Rouz, Bamdad No, Aftab
Emrouz, Arya, Azad, Iran Farda, Payam Azadi, Aban, Payam
Hajar and Arzesh, most of them if not all representing the
religious-nationalist movement. Ever since their historic
defeat at the last February polls, the conservatives were
sparing no efforts in attacking the reformist press they
justly consider as the main instrument of the pro-reforms
candidates who swept of the next Majles seats. Observers
noted that after the Islamic Guidance Minister Ata'ollah
Mohajerani ignored "diplomatically" the leader's desire to
see the independent press, particularly the most outspoken
among them, muzzled, if not closed, Mr. Khameneh'i had "no
choice but to express his intentions publicly and charge the
Judiciary to do the job", as he did in his last address to
the Basijis, or the volunteers, qualifying these
publications as "the internal base" for the enemy's
propaganda machine against Islam and the failed Islamic
revolution. They also observed that the new offensive
against both President Mohammad Khatami and the reformists
took a new dimension after the vertiginous fall of Ayatollah
Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani in the elections. "As a
result of this historic defeat, Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani
openly sided with the conservatives and injecting new blood
in their the campaign against the reformist camp, he also
devised plans and directed the orchestra from behind the
scene, letting the role of prima dona to Khameneh'i", one
journalist analysed, asking for anonymity. Referring to
the screening of parts of the Berlin Conference by the
leader-controlled Television, Mr. Yusefi-Eshkevari wondered
how people speaking in an open forum could have acted
against the interests and stability of the system? "In
order for the people to understand what really happened
there, in order for the public to realise that not only what
the participants said was nothing more than what they had
expressed in Iran, not only they did nothing amounting to
activity against the security of the regime, but also the
courage with which they defended the government and reforms
initiated by President Khatami amid demonstration and
protest staged by Iranians opposed to the Islamic Republic",
he pointed out. He said he ignores was it is taking place
behind the scene, but there is no doubt the final aim is to
stop the democratisation and reforms process by cancelling
the last Majles election. "This is another wave and like
others, it will end to vanish on its own", Mr.
Ysefi-Eshkevari added, confirming that he would go back to
Iran after he finishes the series of conferences and
meetings he is scheduled to attend in several European
cities and undergoing medical check up for the chronic
diabetes he suffers from. The outrageous footage, the
leader-controlled Council of Guardians changing the results
of the elections in some voting districts in favour of the
conservatives, the closure of independent newspapers and
other pro-reform publications and the jailing of three
prominent journalists were strongly condemned by Grand
Ayatollah Hosseinali Montazeri as well as several Iranian
and foreign human rights organisations and governments,
including France, the United States, Germany and
Sweden. The Iranian Islamic Human Rights Organisation, the
pro-Khatami Association of Combatant Clergymen, the
New-York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, the
Paris-based Reporters Without Borders, the Guild of Iranian
Journalists and the Islamic Association of Students were
among groups the anti-reform moves by the
conservatives. In a written answer to questions addressed
to him by the Persian service of RFI, Ayatollah Montazeri
said all these moves were against the fundamental laws and
spirit of the Islamic Republic and would boomerang against
those who initiates and carry it. Because of open critics
against the lavish, "kingly" lifestyle of Mr. Khameneh'i and
his constant meddling in the daily affairs of the
government, Mr. Montazeri has been placed in house
arrest. "Short of being able to murder Ganji, Shams, Latif
Safari and other journalists and intellectuals fighting for
democracy in Iran as they did with Dariush and Parvaneh
Foruhar and other intellectuals and writers, and failing in
assassinating Sa'id Hajjarian, the conservatives are now
shutting their voices", said the Paris-based League for the
Defence of Human Rights (LDHRI) in Iran. In a communiqué
received by IPS in London, Dr Karim Lahiji, the President of
the LDHRI expressed his concern over the situation in Iran
as a result of the closure of reformist publications and
imprisonment of three journalists and called on the world's
public opinion and international organisation to "rush" to
defend the freedom movement of the Iranian
people". ===================================================================== Saudi
rules out any defence accord with Iran RIYADH, April 26
(AFP) - Saudi Defence Minister Prince Sultan bin Abdel Aziz
on Wednesday ruled out signing any kind of defence agreement
with Iran. "Any direct cooperation with Iran to guarantee
the protection of the Gulf is quite inadmissible," Prince
Sultan told journalists after inaugurating in Riyadh a
Franco-Saudi symposium on satellite technology. But he
added, "We cannot abandon Iran, this great neighbouring
Muslim country," just one day after meeting his Iranian
counterpart Ali Shamkhani, currently in the kingdom on a
visit to examine Saudi-Iranian cooperation in security and
defence. In reaction to Iraqi charges that Riyadh and
Tehran were forging a strategic alliance, Prince Sultan
ruled out any new "regional axis" while saying Iraq was not
raised in his talks with Shamkhani. Rear-Admiral
Shamkhani, who was accompanied by a high-level military
delegation, said on departure from Tehran to Riyadh that the
aim was "to create a climate of confidence with Saudi
Arabia, which will benefit the whole of the region". Last
week the Saudi government, ahead of Shamkhani's three-day
visit, tasked Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdel Aziz
with negotiating a bilateral security accord with
Iran. The accord will focus on the fight against drug
trafficking, Prince Nayef said in Saudi newspapers on
Monday, while diplomatic sources in Riyadh said it was to be
signed when the interior minister visits Tehran in
May. ===================================================================== Iran
rial weaker but stocks shrug off political row TEHRAN,
April 26 (Reuters) - Iran's currency has lost ground on
concerns about a political row after the closure of
reformist newspapers but Iranian stocks made gains on
institutional demand for shares, dealers and economists said
on Wednesday. The rial, recently at an 11-month high, has
lost more than two percent against the U.S. dollar in the
past few days. Dealers charged 8,650 rials for each dollar
on an illegal but active black market, up from about 8,450
rials on Monday. They said there was higher demand for
hard currencies, bought by many ordinary Iranians as a hedge
against inflation, after moves in recent days by the
conservative-led judiciary to close down 13 reformist
magazines and dailies. The decision has sparked student
protests across Iran. "The dollar has also gone up because
(state) banks have not been offering enough hard currencies
for sale," one trader said. Iraj Jamshidi, editor of the
pro-reform economic daily Abrar-e Eqtesadi, said: "The rial
gained strength recently on hopes that the country was
headed for peaceful change, now we see the opposite because
of concerns about the political situation." London-based
Iranian money dealer Ali Pakpour said the rial fell to as
low as 8,750 rials per dollar in Europe, where Iran's
currency is often slightly weaker. "This is all because of
the political situation. People in Iran are worried about
political problems and some buy foreign currencies as
safety," Pakpour told Reuters in Dubai. In early March,
the rial had risen to an 11-month high of about 8,150
against the dollar on strong oil prices and optimism ahead
of a move by the United States to lift its ban on imports of
Iranian luxury goods. Despite the political concerns, the
Tehran Stock Exchange's all-share index firmed. The index
closed the week to Wednesday 19.04 points higher at 2,302.71
points, the official IRNA news agency reported. The index is
up 15.7 percent this year, after gaining 30 percent in
1999. "Most dealings were by institutional buyers after
last week's index decline of more than six points. There is
still optimism in the market despite the political
problems," one broker, who declined to be named, told
Reuters. "Many believe revenue from strong oil prices will
help government efforts to end the recession," the broker
added. ===================================================================== Iran
puts its pride and joy on the road The Financial Times By
Guy Dinmore in Tehran April 25 2000 It has been a
long, hard road but the X7, the prototype of Iran's national
car, co-designed with British expertise, stands gleaming on
a factory floor near Tehran where three years ago grass
grew. Not exactly sleek, but roomy and with ample
headroom, the family saloon has the appearance of a Vauxhall
Vectra crossed with an Audi or a Rover. Powered by a 2000cc
Peugeot engine and built under the motto "national vehicle,
national pride", the car represents Iran's response to
insatiable domestic demand and, perhaps one day, an export
that will wean the country off its dependence on oil exports
and establish it as a rival to Turkey as the biggest car
producer in the Middle East. Iran Khodro, Iran's main
vehicle manufacturer which is in effect under state control
but has private shareholders, hopes to start production next
year. The design capability of the tooling is based on
200,000 units a year. Manoucher Gharavi, president of Iran
Khodro, says a robotised production line is being built with
South Korea's Hyundai, using Iranian software and
electronics from Siemens. But the X7 was the brainchild of
First Automotive, a private British vehicle-engineering
company based in Coventry. An earlier concept of the car had
been intended for Taiwan but the Taiwanese partner failed
and First Auto approached Iran, Argentina and China. An
agreement was signed with Iran Khodro in May 1995. The
design and tooling centre, built from scratch with First
Auto's expertise and input from other foreign specialists,
has state-of-the-art technology. The computer processors in
a giant tooling machine were so powerful the sale had to be
approved by the British cabinet because of a ban on the sale
of technology with possible military applications. Mike
Ross, First Auto's representative in Iran, admits the
project has not been plain sailing. "We've had our ups and
downs," he says diplomatically. "But we are still partners."
The shape of the X7 - which will probably be called the
Paykan 2000 - went through various stages, as seen in an
earlier, more bulbous prototype with enhanced headroom. Mr
Gharavi says the final version is of a completely Iranian
design and a dozen cars are being tested in Britain.
First Auto says Iran with its population of 63m has
"terrific market potential" and notes that the political
climate with Britain has improved. Iran, it says, could
compete with low-cost markets such as China. But it
warns: "This is not a get-rich-quick market," and frankly
lists the many problems in doing business with Iran, such as
an initial lack of trust between the two sides,
over-expectations, confusion over the project's aims and a
lack of understanding by Iran Khodro of the scale of the
project and the costs of added value from its western
partner. As First Auto also notes: "Time has a different
dimension in Iran." That Iran needs to develop its car
industry is not in doubt. Market demand is estimated at
500,000 cars a year. Current production levels by the three
main manufacturers is about half that. The most popular car
in the country is the Paykan (Arrow), scion of the 1960s
British Hillman Hunter - rugged and easily fixed but
inefficient and grossly polluting. But whether Iran needs
a national car is debatable. The country appears to be
following the path taken by Malaysia which developed the
Proton but could only ensure its survival by imposing
restrictive barriers to imports. Iran Khodro already
produces the Peugeot 405 under licence with the French
carmaker and has recently reached agreement to start
assembly of the Peugeot 206 next year. With more than 10,000
workers, the giant carmaker also makes the Peugeot RD - a
Peugeot body with Paykan engine - and is soon to start
production of the Peugeot Persia, a restyled 405 with petrol
injection engine. Workers at the Iran Khodro plant admit
that quality control is a big concern for Peugeot.
Following the global trend, Iran is consolidating its car
industry. Last month Saipa, the country's second-biggest
carmaker, together with a state social security fund, bought
85 per cent of Pars Khodro, the third largest carmaker, for
the equivalent of about $82m. Officials admitted the deal
was more of a merger than a privatisation and said the
government would retain management control. Pars Khodro
was previously owned by General Motors but was nationalised
after the 1979 Islamic revolution. Industry sources said GM
last year held talks with Pars Khodro, expressing an
interest in returning to the Iranian market, if and when,
the US lifts its economic sanctions. Industry experts are
not convinced that Iran has a clear strategy for its car
sector, noting Saipa's recent agreement with Citroen to
assemble the Xantia, the same family of car as the Peugeot
405 but too upmarket for the average Iranian earning less
than $100 a month. Despite the uncertainty, foreign
carmakers are beating a trail to Iran. Fiat was recently in
talks to buy a 20 per cent stake in Pars Khodro and is said
by industry sources to be continuing talks with Saipa
despite Fiat's new alliance with GM, which could conflict
with US-imposed sanctions on investment in Iran.
Volkswagen was also in negotiations to produce a model of
the Skoda with Pars Khodro but those talks appear to have
broken down. First Auto summed up its thoughts after four
years of dealing with Iran: "The potential market makes it
worth taking a chance."
===================================================================== Rooz
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