Frenzied political activity has returned to Iran ahead of legislative by-elections which have pitted the two main factions of the Islamic republic against each other in a bitter confrontation.

The rivalry turned violent on Monday when hardliners attacked 3,000 Islamic students gathered in front of Tehran university…. Several people were wounded in the clashes and scores more arrested.

Interior Minister Abdollah Nuri, a cleric close to Khatami, condemned the attack and vowed to help bring fundamentalist "agitators' to justice….

Several MPs and officials, including Culture Minister and government spokesman Ataollah Mohajerani, have also condemned the violence….

But the hardliners, backed by the conservative press, defended their attack, accusing the students of seeking to undermine the legal institutions of the Islamic theocracy….

The Council [of Guardians] said Wednesday it had rejected 118 of the 229 people who had signed up for the polls, which will elect five deputies from Tehran and the provinces.

In the capital alone, 82 people were rejected after tight screening to ensure candidates meet the political, moral and ideological requirements of the Islamic regime….

 
Interior Minister Harshly Attacks Top Judge for First Time, Reuter, March 4

Iran's Interior Minister Abdollah Nouri on Wednesday launched a rare attack on the country's top judge for an alleged campaign against a key political supporter of Khatami.

Nouri, appointed by Khatami to his cabinet last August, said an investigation Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, head of the judiciary, was carrying out into Tehran mayor Gholamhossein Karbaschi and his aides was misplaced….

Iranian analysts and journalists said that Nouri's comments were a clear warning to the judiciary to lay off Karbaschi, one of the president's closest advisers.

In last Friday's prayer sermon broadcast on Tehran radio, Yazdi denounced the mayor's aides….

Nouri responded at Wednesday's news conference: "I recommend to Yazdi that when he makes speeches he should speak more cautiously...the head of judiciary must not be contradictory and bring anxiety into the system," according to an unofficial translation of his comments….

Karbaschi's top aides have been jailed and received flogging sentences for graft. A closed court last year banned the mayor himself from travelling abroad and only freed him on bail of five billion rials ($1.7 million).

Nouri made it clear he backed Karbaschi and his aides….

Ever since the May election, Karbaschi has been in the firing line of conservatives who lost out at the polls but still control large parts of the Islamic justice system and many other levers of power….

 
There Is Still Time To Prevent Nightmare, The Jerusalem Post, March 4

… Today, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's adviser Uzi Arad begins talks with US special envoy Robert Gallucci regarding ongoing efforts to convince Russia to clamp down on the transfer of missile technology to Iran….

Also today, Industry and Trade Minister Natan Sharansky returns from his meetings with Russian leaders on this same subject. On his second visit as a minister…Sharansky warned that "we have a very serious time limit" in which to stop the Iranian missile program….

After going to the brink of war with Iraq in order to prevent Saddam Hussein from developing weapons of mass destruction, it is somewhat bizarre that the US seems reluctant to use economic tools to accomplish the same goal in Iran….

There is still time to prevent the security nightmare of an aggressive Iranian regime armed with missiles that can reach both Israel and Europe….

 
Ukraine Designing Turbines For Iran Nuclear Plant, Reuter, March 4

KIEV—A Ukrainian state-owned factory that makes equipment for atomic power stations has begun work on designing a turbine for Iran's first nuclear plant, Interfax-Ukraine news agency said on Wednesday.

The reported project appeared to fly in the face of U.S. opposition to any foreign assistance for Iran's fledgling nuclear power program on the grounds that this could help Tehran develop atomic weapons.

Ukraine's neighbor Russia has been under heavy U.S. pressure to sever its energy links with Iran, which the Americans regard as a rogue state that sponsors terrorism and seeks to build up a nuclear arsenal….
 

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