Back to Brief on Iran
TEHRAN - A newspaper photograph of an Iranian youth exchanging knowing looks with a group of young girls drew a stern warning from Iran's culture ministry Saturday.
The newspaper concerned was hauled up by the ministry for attacking "decency and Islamic values," with the picture and accompanying headline, which read "Getting to know each other in fear," press reports said.
Under the Islamic law in force in Iran, young women must be veiled, young people are not allowed to touch each other, and unmarried couples who go out together risk arrest.
In April, parliament passed a law calling for the ministry, which oversees the country's press, to take tough action against press photographs judged anti-Islamic.
To Justify Iran's Nuclear Plans, the Minister Praises Pakistan Nuclear Test, Reuter, June 1
ISLAMABAD - Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said Monday Pakistan's nuclear capability would counter Israel's and make Muslims more confident.
Muslims "now feel more confident that Pakistan's nuclear capability would play a role of deterrence to Israel's nuclear capability," Kharrazi told reporters on arrival at Islamabad.
"Israel is the only country in the Middle East which has nuclear capability," the official APP news agency quoted him as saying….
Muslims worldwide were reported to be happy that Pakistan had nuclear capability but regretted the tension the tests had generated, Kharrazi said.
Iran launched a nuclear program in the 1970s but slowed it after the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Experts say it could accelerate the program now .
Clerics Denounce Pro-Khatami Rally, Agence France Presse, May 31
TEHRAN - Iranian clerics staged a demonstration in the holy city of Mashhad on Sunday to protest against celebrations held for the first anniversary of the election of Mohammad Khatami as president, the official IRNA news agency reported.
Islamic teachers and students in Koranic schools in Mashhad, Iran's second largest city, also chanted slogans denouncing Interior Minister Abdollah Nouri and called for his resignation, IRNA said.
Tens of thousands of conservative Iranian clerics and religious students staged a rally in the holy city of Qom on Tuesday to protest against the "behavior" of Tehran University students celebrating Khatami's election.
At a May 23 gathering at Tehran University, the mostly young crowd clapped, whistled and cheered Khatami as he pledged to press on with his program of political and social reform.
The Western-style cheering by tens of thousands angered many fundamentalists -- particularly during the solemn month of Moharram when Shiite Moslems mourn the death of their seventh century leader Imam Hossein.
Iran Sunni Moslem Cleric Assassinated, Reuter, June 1
TEHRAN - A Sunni Moslem cleric was assassinated in southeastern Iran, an area which has been the scene of tensions between Sunnis and the country's majority Shi'ite Moslems, the Iranian news agency IRNA said on Monday.
It said unknown assailants fled after killing Molavi Imambakhsh Narouei on Sunday. Narouei was the Friday prayers leader of a town in Sistan-Baluchestan province which borders Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The official agency gave no further details.
The remote province, home to Iran's ethnic Baluchi minority who are mostly Sunnis, has been the scene of some sectarian tensions and sporadic unrest.
Iran has blamed armed militant Sunni groups from Pakistan and exiled Iranian opposition groups for some of the unrest.
Iran to Import Three Million Tones of Grain, Agence France Presse, May 30
TEHRAN - Iran plans to import three million tones of grain during the Iranian calendar year which began in March, Deputy Commerce Minister Mohammad Memarzadeh said Saturday.
Memarzadeh also told the evening daily Kayhan that Iran would import 850,000 tones of vegetable oil, 550,000 tones of rice and 900,000 tones of sugar during the Iranian calendar year 1377, which began March 21.
The Islamic republic has budgeted 3.5
billion dollars this year for the purchase of food products for its population
of 64 million.