Back to Brief on Iran
WASHINGTON - U.S. congressmen Thursday appealed to visiting Italian Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema to temper his country's dealings with Iran.
In a letter sent one day before D'Alema is to meet President Clinton at the White House, they expressed concern about Italy's invitation to have Mohammed Khatami visit Rome and about a $1 billion oil deal involving Tehran and an Italian company.
"We are convinced that the Iranian regime remains an international outlaw despite the apparent promises of reform after the election of President Khatami," said the letter from Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fl., Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y., and other legislators.
"However after almost two years the evidence indicates there have been no substantive improvements in the ruling regime's conduct, internally or internationally," they wrote.
They accused Tehran of pushing ahead with a program of acquiring weapons of mass destruction, of accelerating development of long-range missiles and of "rabid opposition" to the Middle East peace process.
"Unless there are substantive improvements in Tehran's conduct, we believe that trade ties (with Iran) and official visits are unwise and counterproductive," the congressmen said.
"Experience has shown us time and again
that the most effective policy to contain this rogue regime is to continue
to deny Iran any concessions," they said.
Iran Says US Sanctions Hurt Petrochemical Industry,
Reuter, February 28
TEHRAN - Iran's petrochemical industry, eager to attract foreign investment, has been a hampered by U.S. trade sanctions, according to a senior energy official.
In a rare admission, Mohammad Reza
Nematzadeh, deputy oil minister for petrochemical affairs, said at the
weekend that U.S. laws keeping American firms out of Iran had reduced competition
for investment in its petrochemical sector.
Iran Charity Fears Lives Endangered by UK Probe, Reuter, March 4
LONDON - Supporters of a charity established to provide aid to victims of alleged persecution by Iran said on Thursday an investigation by a British charity watchdog could endanger the lives of hundreds of Iranians.
The organization is concerned that records held by Iran Aid, a London-based charity, could fall into Tehran's hands and spark reprisals after the Charity Commission launched an investigation last May.
"Iran Aid is adamant that the Charity Commission should not divulge details of those who have been receiving its support," Sir John Vinelot, a retired High Court judge and member of Friends of Iran Aid told a news conference.
The charity said the Iranian government executed some 30,000 political prisoners in 1988 in less than two months and was persecuting the victims' families.
Iran Aid was set up after the Iranian revolution two decades ago to channel aid through a secret distribution network to the families of thousands of Iranian who had been executed or imprisoned.
Britain's efforts to forge closer diplomatic
and commercial ties with Iran were condemned by a majority of members of
parliament last month, who said Britain should not have instituted a thaw
in relations until there was clear evidence of greater freedom of expression
and human rights.
New Meaning of "Freedom of Press", Agence France Presse, March 4
TEHRAN - Iran's Islamic hardliners launched a fresh crackdown on a cleric as pressure mounted Thursday for the release of one of his jailed associates.
A special religious court barred Iran's newspapers from citing Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri, a leading dissident who has regularly denounced the conservatives' stranglehold over the Iranian regime, press reports said.
The court, in an official ruling submitted
to the ministry of culture and Islamic guidance, warned that any paper
which even mentions Montazeri will be prosecuted.
… And "Freedom of Expression" Under Khatami, Iran Zamin News Agency, March 4
On March 3, Arya, a state-controlled daily, reported: "A representative of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the northern provincial universities denounced intellectuals as people who 'talk too much.'"