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MOSCOW - Russia responded defiantly on Thursday to U.S. sanctions and a threat of further action over alleged Russian exports of missile and nuclear technology to Iran, and said inept U.S. spying might explain the row.
Moscow gave no sign of curtailing cooperation with Iran, and the Atomic Energy Ministry said it planned to more than triple its staff of nuclear workers in Bushehr, Iran, where it is building a civilian reactor.
Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), a descendant of the Soviet-era KGB, took a swipe at its old rival on Thursday, saying the U.S. moves might be due to sloppy American spy work.
"We hope that such a situation is the result of a misunderstanding, and perhaps, defective work of the American special services," the agency said in a statement.
At the Atomic Energy Ministry, spokesman
Yuri Bespalko said Russia would increase its staff at Bushehr, site of
an $800 million nuclear energy reactor under construction, to 1,000 people
from about 300 now.
Power Struggle Intensifies, Some May Have Requested Parliament to Dismiss Khatami as Incompetent, Xinhua, January 14
TEHRAN - A major Iranian conservative leader Thursday denied the reports that he is trying to undermine President Mohammad Khatami following revelation of involvement of some intelligence agents in political killings.
Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, secretary of the Guardians Council, dismissed the foreign media reports as "false and unfounded."
The reports said Jannati visited Qom recently to obtain permission of senior clerics to present a bill to the Majlis (parliament) to declare Khatami incompetent to administer the country.
Jannati expressed "deep regret" over the reports, saying these "mischievous" reports only aims to weaken the president and his administration, thus add to the problems of the country, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
Another aim of the reports is to weaken the morale of the people of Iran in the wake of the recent developments in the country, he added.
The reports on Jannati's efforts to undermine Khatami came after a conservative official accused Khatami's supporters of being behind the mysterious murders.
In an interview with the Islamic Republic
of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) on Monday, Rowhollah Husseinian, head of the
Islamic Revolution Documents Center and former Deputy Intelligence Minister,
said the killers are Khatami's supporters who attempt to seize the intelligence
ministry.
On Recent Murders by Intelligence Agency, Tehran Times, January 12
TEHRAN -- Persian daily Iran has interviewed a number of political experts and Majlis deputies on the motives behind the spate of recent murders in the country.
Managing Director of weekly "Arzeshha," Ahmad Poorzanjani, said that people expect these events not to occur and are most concerned when hearing the murders have been carried out by self-centered forces within the country's Information Ministry.
He said such events are observed in
many other countries but are clamped while in the case of Iran the brave
declaration that the murders had been committed by self-centered elements
in the Information Ministries a source of national pride for the country.
Another Daily Forced to Close Down Due To Culture Ministry's Apathy, Tehran Times, January 12
TEHRAN - A Persian daily Gozaresh-e Ruz (day's report) stopped publication as of today because of financial problems, it was announced yesterday.
Daily's Managing Director Ali Mohammad Mahdavi Khorrami, talking to the Tehran Times said, We have been forced to stop publication of our daily because the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance did not assist us financially.
The facilities that are at the ministry's disposal are expected to be used for cultural development, Khorrami said. But, unfortunately the ministry is using its leverage to control the media rather than to develop the culture, he said.
The ministry gives financial aid to those periodicals which it favors, he noted but declined to give the names of those periodicals, saying, "in due course, I will make these facts public."