Back to Brief on Iran
TEHRAN - Iran, fighting to contain steep price rises, warned merchants on Tuesday they would face "maximum penalties" if convicted of violating price controls. Under Iranian law, offenders could also face flogging or jail sentences.
The evening daily Ettelaat said on Tuesday the Commerce Ministry had decided to raise the prices by up to 60 percent.
If confirmed, the price increases on heavily-subsidized bread -- a main staple of the Iranian diet -- could sharpen a public outcry over the price rises.
Newspapers have reported a 40 percent increase in the price of basic foodstuffs and said Tehran taxi fares were up 50 percent since mid-March ahead of annual fuel price rises in the new Iranian year which started on March 21.
Iranian Factories Below Capacity - Labor Official,
Reuter, April 21
TEHRAN - Some factories in Iran are laying off workers and running far below capacity, the secretary-general of the House of Labor, a state-affiliated workers organization, said in remarks published on Tuesday.
"A number of factories are dismissing their employees," said Alireza Mahjoub.
He said the low purchasing power of the people, the high rate of interest in trade and other problems as the cause for the stagnation of production in Iran.
"On average, production units are running at 40 percent
of their full capacity," Mahjoub was reported by Tehran newspapers as saying….
Iran Rejects U.S. Terrorism Accusations, Agence France Presse, April 21
TEHRAN - Iranian state radio on Tuesday rejected US accusations that the Islamic republic sponsors terrorism.
"These type of lists have no judicial or international worth and only serve the interests of Zionist circles that have infiltrated the American administration," said the radio, referring to the list of countries supporting terrorism published by the US State Department each year.
US State Department spokesman James Rubin said Monday that Iran had continued to support terrorism in 1997, implicitly confirming that Iran would be on the 1998 list.
"The American government does not have the right to impose its point of view on this issue on other countries," said the radio, adding that "what the Americans call terrorism is called freedom struggle in other countries."
The Islamic republic insists its support for radical Lebanese and Palestinian groups, such as Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad, is the legitimate funding of nationalist liberation movements against Israeli oppression.
Iran Paper Blasts Britain's Blair as "Old Fox",
Reuter, April 21
TEHRAN - A hard-line Iranian newspaper criticized British Prime Minister Tony Blair Tuesday, describing him as "the old colonial fox" over his peace efforts in the Middle East and Northern Ireland.
The daily Kayhan referred to Blair's visit to Israel during which he urged Middle East countries to follow the example of peace negotiations in Northern Ireland.
The Irish troubles had spread "to the headquarters of the old colonial fox, London," the Persian-language daily said.
Kayhan said the British wanted security for London as the financial center for Europe and the world and, since Frankfurt was a serious rival, any lack of security in London could lead to the transfer of the financial center to Frankfurt….
German WestLB Bank Says $90 Million Iran Loan Cancelled,
Reuter, April 20
DUBAI - A controversial loan arranged by German bank WestLB for the development of Iran's Soroush oilfield has been cancelled, the vice chairman of WestLB's managing board said on Monday.
"The loan did not come into effect. Finally the parties didn't want to make use of the facilities and we cancelled," Hans-Henning Offen told Reuters in an interview.
"The decision was on the Iranian side, not the side of the consortium. That was fixed. We don't know what the problem was," he said.