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TEHRAN - A representative of the Islamic Consultative Assembly (Majlis) said that conditions of the present crucial juncture demand that various factions in the country recognize rights of each other…
In other words, he said, they should differentiate between factional and national interests. Tehran Deputy Mohsen Yahyavi who was addressing a recent session of the Central Council of Islamic Association of Engineers, further stressed that convergence among factions supporting the Islamic Revolution will deprive the aliens from taking advantage of situation.
Pointing to the plots of the enemies, Yahyavi told the gathering that all should admit that enemies of Islam have planned for escalation of internal disputes, … and weakening potentials of defensive and security forces….
He said false groupings in the past which were dubbed as left and right or progressive and reactionary are no more effective at present, adding that now it should be specified who is friendly and who is not.
Stressing that friends and foes of the revolution should be identified, he terms as dangerous the provocations by certain foreign radios in dividing domestic political forces into the "reformist" and "conservative" groups.
In view of the enemy, the Majlis representative
added, those who stand against Imam and the system are reformist whereas
those who defend the system and revolution are conservative. He called
on all to assist the president… and said such a target cannot
be realized unless provocative elements who escalate tension among factions
are checked.
Japan Minister to Voice Missile Concerns With Iran, Reuters, August 9
TOKYO - Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura will convey Japan's concern over Iran's missile development program when he visits there next week, ministry officials said on Monday.
Iran test-fired a ballistic missile in July last year believed to be based on technology from North Korea.
Komura's visit comes amid rising concern that North Korea, which exports missiles and missile technology, may be set to test-launch a new ballistic missile capable of reaching parts of the United States.
Japan, along with the United States and South Korea, has repeatedly warned North Korea to refrain from a launch and Komura is expected to tell his Iranian counterparts of Tokyo's concern about Tehran's missile program and the proliferation of North Korean technology.
Japanese media reports said Komura
will tell Iranian President Mohammad Khatami and Foreign Minister Kamal
Kharrazi that Japan will lift a freeze on concessionary loans for a dam
construction project suspended in 1993.
Another Student Arrested, State-Controlled Daily Neshat, August 9
TEHRAN - Abolfazl Pasbani, an active member of the Islamic Association of Tehran University, was summoned of the Revolutionary Court and Interrogated. He was sent to the Evin Prison following the interrogations.
The situation of the other members
of the Islamic Association, Izadi and Asadzadeh who were arrested on August
6, is unknown.
Mullahs Give in to Economic Pressure, Lift Trade Ban On Norway, Agence France Presse, August 9
TEHRAN - Iran said Monday it will lift
all trade restrictions on Norway that were imposed in 1995 over what Tehran
said was Oslo's support for the Iranian opposition as well as British writer
Salman Rushdie, the official IRNA news agency reported.
Iran to Hold Closed Trial for German, Reuters, August 9
TEHRAN - A German businessman accused of having sex with a Moslem Iranian woman out of wedlock is to stand trial behind closed doors in Tehran on Wednesday, Iran's state news agency IRNA said.
"The charges against (Helmut) Hofer are of a nature that have to be investigated behind closed doors," IRNA quoted judiciary spokesman Saeed Nobari as saying on Monday.
Hofer's return to Evin prison followed the announcement last month that German authorities had arrested an Iranian national for allegedly spying on Iranian dissidents in Germany.
Germany had been Iran's biggest trading partner until 1997, when relations became strained after a German court in Berlin found that Iranian officials had ordered the murder of Iranian Kurdish dissidents in a local restaurant.