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PARIS - Iranian dissidents in France denounced on Monday a planned visit to Tehran by French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine, saying it betrayed democratic values.
This visit sacrifices the principle of inalienable human rights to short-term economic interests, the Iranian National Resistance Council said in a statement.
It said Tehran was still severely repressing opponents of the government as well as religious minorities, and summary executions were commonplace. It said that since President Mohammed Khatami came to power a year ago, 250 people had been executed in public and seven stoned, while 27 political dissidents had been assassinated abroad.
Under these circumstances, shaking hands with the leaders of a religious dictatorship goes against the supreme interests of the Iranian people and will only encourage the mullahs to continue committing atrocities...and exporting terrorism and fundamentalism, the Council added.
Khatami "Knuckled Under Pressure", Reuter, August 3
TEHRAN - Iranian President Mohammad Khatami's long-promised economic address, delivered late on Sunday, was forged more in the heat of political battle than in cool, collected policy debate, economists said on Monday.
Iranian economists, including some close to the process, said Khatami had knuckled under pressure from conservatives, who forced him to issue his prescriptions without time to resolve factional disputes within his cabinet.
The result, they said, was a "hodge-podge" of contradictory goals, wrapped in a vague promise of future administrative guidelines and policies.
"Apparently he fell into the trap prepared by the (conservative) rival faction, and this inevitably will damage him because there were no clear guidelines to address the problems," Jamshidi told Reuters.
Independent economist Fariborz Raisdana, who contributed to Khatami's original policy review, said the 68-minute address on Sunday night was long on diagnosis but short on remedies.
"He was quite vague, with no clear policies and a lot of contradictions...People want to know what kind of policy he is going to implement."
Khatami, speaking on the eve of his first anniversary in office, reviewed the ills plaguing Iran's economy, including high unemployment, stagnant investment and falling prices for the oil that drives much of the state budget.
But he offered little new in the way of immediate steps to arrest the economic rot, saying detailed policies would follow.
Economists were also disappointed at the lack of clear policies on improving tax collection, reducing government monopolies and red tape and reining in the big state-affiliated charities that run economic empires virtually unregulated.
"It was a hodge-podge of different economic advisers' viewpoints," said Jamshidi.
The address, already delayed by factional fighting within the cabinet, followed weeks of public criticism from conservatives that Khatami's political and social reforms were proceeding at the expense of the faltering economy.
"Lack of Enthusiasm" By Foreign Investors, Agence France Presse, August 2
TEHRAN - Iran has postponed an offer to put up around 20 oil and gas projects for international tender because of poor response, a newspaper said Sunday.
The Iran News, an English-language daily close to the government, said the delay had been caused by a "lack of enthusiasm" from potential bidders.
The oil ministry had initially announced the projects would be unveiled in Tehran in August. But Western energy sources said few countries had shown interest because of falling oil prices.
Iran Foreign Exchange Revenue to Drop Sharply, Reuter, August 3
TEHRAN - Iran's foreign currency earnings are expected to drop to $10.5 billion in the current Iranian year from around $16 billion a year earlier, a senior Central Bank official said in remarks published on Monday.
Iran's economy has been hit hard by the slump in oil prices.
"In order to compensate for the shortages in earnings, we have sold $1.2 billion worth of oil in advance on the European market and we will sell another $1 billion in the next stage," Mojarrad said.
On August 1, the Reuter, quoting another Iranian officials reported that "Exports of companies affiliated with Iran's Ministry of Industries dropped by more than 25 percent in the first quarter of the Iranian year which began on March 21."