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Posts Tagged ‘president mahmoud ahmadinejad’

Khatami calls for Iran referendum

July 20th, 2009 | No Comments

Mohammad Khatami casts his vote in the Iranian presidential elections on 12 June

The former president of Iran, Mohammad Khatami, has called for a referendum on the legitimacy of the government, following June’s disputed elections.

Mr Khatami, quoted on Iranian websites, said millions of Iranians had lost faith in the electoral process.

The Iranian opposition, including Mr Khatami and the defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, say the election was rigged.

Only the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, can organise a referendum.

He has already declared the elections, won by the incumbent, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as valid.

Thousands of opposition supporters took to the streets after the poll results were announced, to protest against what they saw as mass fraud.

At least 20 people are thought to have died during weeks of clashes.

The authorities banned all gatherings and the protests have died down in recent weeks. </p

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

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Iran bails UK embassy employee

July 19th, 2009 | No Comments

Protesters in Tehran, Iran, on 17 July 2009

Iran has released on bail the last of the British embassy employees arrested in Tehran in connection with last month’s election protests.

He was one of nine local embassy staff originally held, and has been charged with inciting the unrest over President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election.

The man – the embassy’s chief political analyst – is due to stand trial.

Britain has denied Tehran’s accusations that embassy staff had been involved in instigating mass demonstrations.

Opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi says the vote was rigged in favour of Mr Ahmadinejad.

The president and Iran’s main election body, the Council of Guardians, have rejected the charge. </p

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

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Call for Iran protesters’ release

July 17th, 2009 | No Comments

Mir Hossein Mousavi speaks to supporters at a rally in Tehran on 15/6/09

Iran’s opposition leaders are making a public appearance at Friday prayers for the first time since the disputed vote.

This comes amid warnings from the intelligence minister against turning the occasion into a protest and or "stage for undesirable scenes".

Mir Hossein Mousavi, the defeated presidential candidate, is making his first official public appearance.

Former President Ali Akbar Rafsanjani also gives his first sermon since the post-election unrest.

Meanwhile, Iran has announced a new atomic chief following the resignation on Thursday of Gholam Reza Aghazadeh.

Ali Akbar Salehi, Iran’s former envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), will take up the post, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government announced.

It is not immediately clear why Mr Aghazadeh, the long-serving head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation, stood down from the job, but he is said to be close to Mr Mousavi.

‘Protecting rights’

Mir Hossein Mousavi said on his website on Wednesday that he would attend the Friday Prayers at Tehran University – a weekly event that is attended by thousands and broadcast live to the nation.

Iranian nuclear chief steps down

File photo of Gholam Reza Aghazadeh

His fellow pro-reform presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi is also expected to attend.

It is also the first time in two months since Mr Rafsanjani has led the prayers.

Mr Rafsanjani is a dominant force in Iranian politics and a rival of President Ahmadinejad.

Although he did not voice his opinion during the unrest that followed the election, members of his family – including his daughter Faezeh – openly supported Mr Mousavi.

This could be a key moment in the confrontation between President Ahmadinejad’s government and members of the opposition, BBC Tehran correspondent Jon Leyne says.

They are waiting to hear from Mr Rafsanjani, but no-one knows whether he will support the opposition or offer a compromise, our correspondent says.

Intelligence Minister Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejehi on Thursday urged the "wise Iranian people" to be "vigilant that the Friday prayers not be turned into a stage for undesirable scenes".

Violent street protests broke out in Iran amid accusations of fraud after President Ahmadinejad was re-elected in the 12 June election.

At least 20 people died and hundreds were arrested in the days that followed the poll.

The country’s most senior political figure, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, upheld Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s landslide victory and demanded an end to protest.

Despite this, Mr Mousavi has remained defiant – demanding a re-run of the vote and describing the new government as illegitimate.

Announcing his decision to attend Friday prayers, Mr Mousavi said on his website, "I feel obliged to respond to the call of companions on the path to protecting rights to a noble and free life". </p

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

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Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie Appointed Iran’s First Vice President

July 17th, 2009 | No Comments

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has appointed Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie to be the country’s new first vice president, AFP reports. Mashaie came under fire in Iran last year for saying the nation was a friend of Israel.

Mashaie a year ago …

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Ultra-orthodox Jews visit Hamas

July 17th, 2009 | No Comments

Anti-zionist ultra-orthodox Jews in front of a picture of Dome of the Rock mosque, during Gaza visit

Four members of a group of ultra-Orthodox Jews opposed to the existence of Israel have visited Hamas in Gaza.

The men, clad in the traditional ultra-Orthodox garb of black hats and coats and with long side-curls in their hair, met Hamas leader Ismail Haniya.

The Neturei Karta believe that a Jewish state can only be established by the Messiah and thus denounce Israel as heretic and embrace its enemies.

Mr Haniya welcomed them, saying Hamas rejects Zionist ideology, not Jews.

"We feel your suffering, we cry your cry," the Associated Press quoted Rabbi Yisroel Weiss as saying.

"It is your land, it is occupied, illegitimately and unjustly by people who stole it, kidnapped the name of Judaism and our identity."

The representatives entered Gaza, which is under a strict Israeli embargo, with a convoy of activists who travelled through Egypt.

‘Heroes’

Neturei Karta, Aramaic for "Guardians of the City" was founded some 70 years ago in Jerusalem.

Estimates of the group’s size range from a few hundred to a few thousand – some in Israel, others in the UK and US.

Members have praised Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for saying Israel should be erased from the pages of history – sometimes translated as "wiped off the map".

They have also attended a Holocaust denial conference in Tehran and held a prayer vigil for the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat as he lay on his death bed.

Mr Haniya described the men as "heroes", according to Palestinian media reports.

"Our problem is with the occupation, that stems from the Zionist ideology and its desire to disperse all the Palestinians," he said.

"Those religious figures that express their objection to the siege, the aggression and the crimes – we can’t help but respect them and for their beliefs and their culture."

Israel and most Western countries regard Hamas as a terrorist group and refuse to deal directly with it.

The movement is sworn to the destruction of Israel in its charter and backs attacks on Israeli civilians, although has offered a long-term ceasefire in exchange for a Palestinian state on the full territory of the West Bank and Gaza.</p

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

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Iran unrest dead may reach hundreds

July 16th, 2009 | No Comments

Woman claims to have seen piles of corpses, as tension rises in Tehran over Rafsanjani speech

Hundreds more people may have died in Iran’s post-election unrest than the authorities have admitted, amid allegations that the death toll has been obscured by hiding victims’ bodies in secret morgues.

Human rights campaigners say anecdotal evidence suggests the number of demonstrators killed in clashes with government forces after last month’s poll was far higher than the official death toll of 20 and may amount to a “massacre”.

Suspicions have been fuelled after one woman described seeing corpses piled on top of each other in a refrigeration depot while searching for a missing relative. Another woman was shown pictures of between 50 and 60 people, all said to have died, while searching for her son.

The claims came as Tehran prepares for another day of tension tomorrow when the influential former president Hashemi Rafsanjani addresses Friday prayers at Tehran University. Hardline supporters of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – who was controversially re-elected in the election on 12 June that opponents say was “stolen” – have threatened to disrupt the event, at which Rafsanjani is expected to speak in support of his ally Mir Hossein Mousavi, the defeated reformist candidate, who will attend the event.

The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran accused the government of obfuscating casualty numbers by frightening victims’ families into silence. The true picture had emerged from hospital statistics and testimony from families who refused to keep quiet, it said.

“It’s hard to put a figure on it because most of the families involved are scared to talk,” Aaron Rhodes of the campaign told the Guardian. “But if you put together the evidence of the families that have spoken, along with eyewitness reports and data from hospitals, there could be well over a hundred fatalities.”

The campaign said that on 20 June – the day after Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned that the demonstrations must stop – three Tehran hospitals placed a total of 34 dead demonstrators in their morgues.

The authorities put that day’s fatalities at 11. Doctors have reported being stopped from signing death certificates by military commanders, who then ordered the corpses removed.

The security forces have acknowledged carrying out more than 2,000 arrests during the crackdown on the mass protests against Ahmadinejad’s re-election. Some detainees have been released but many are still unaccounted for.

The Norooz website – linked to Iran’s largest reformist party, the Islamic Participation Front – described how a mother searching for her missing child was sent to a facility normally used for preserving fruit and dairy produce on the outskirts of Tehran. After leafing through a photograph album of presumed victims, she was shown into a room containing what she described as “hundreds” of dead bodies. “Although I didn’t find my child’s body, on seeing all those corpses dumped on top of each other, I passed out,” the unnamed woman said.

Mousavi showed solidarity with relatives of the dead earlier this week when he visited the home of Sohrab Aarabi, 19, whose body was recovered nearly a month after he died of gunshot wounds at a mass demonstration in Tehran on 15 June.

Aarabi’s mother, Parvin Fahimi – a member of an organisation called Mothers for Peace – has described how after weeks of searching for her son she was summoned by a revolutionary court and shown pictures of between 50 and 60 people, all said to have died. The pictures included Sohrab, whom she had previously thought might be in detention.

Some families have reported being harassed into signing pledges agreeing that their loved ones died accidentally or of natural causes. Others say they have been forced to declare that the victims belonged to the Basij militia, which was used to suppress the demonstrations.

In one case, a family reported receiving their son’s corpse encased in concrete to hide signs of injuries.

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Iran plane black boxes ‘damaged’

July 15th, 2009 | No Comments

Damaged black boxes have been recovered from a Caspian Airlines plane that crashed in north Iran with the loss of all 168 people on board, say officials.

Investigators who scoured scattered body parts and metal fragments for the data recorders hope they will salvage a clue as to the cause of the crash.

The wreckage was spread over a large area of farmland in Qazvin province, 120km (75 miles) north-west of Tehran.

The Tupolev plane was flying from the Iranian capital to Yerevan in Armenia.

In pictures: Iran plane crash

Map

Witnesses said the 22-year-old Russian-made aircraft, which had 153 passengers and 15 crew, nose-dived from the sky with its tail on fire.

Flight 7908 crashed 16 minutes after take-off from Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran, officials said.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad offered his condolences to the bereaved families and ordered a transport ministry investigation into the tragedy.

‘Heads, fingers, passports’

Farsi Majidi, head of the investigating committee, told Associated Press TV News: "Thank God, we succeeded in finding two of the three flight data recorders or black boxes.

ANALYSIS

Jon Leyne, BBC NewsIran has a notoriously bad air safety record. Because of sanctions imposed by the United States, Iran relies on an increasingly ageing fleet of airliners, and has trouble buying spares.

There are tales of aircrew buying spare parts on flights to Europe, then sneaking them back to Iran in the cockpit. While those sanctions don’t apply to aircraft from Russia and Ukraine, many planes from those countries in the Iranian fleet also appear well past their best.

For some people, flying in Iran can be a nerve-wracking experience. Stepping on board, it often becomes quickly apparent you are in a plane that has done many years service.

There are also frequent delays because of the shortage of aircraft. Iranian engineers and aircrew do their best to keep their fleets in service.

Jon Leyne

"Although they are damaged we are hopeful that we can extract information from them."

Eight members of Iran’s national junior judo team and two coaches were on the flight, heading for training with the Armenian team.

Among the mainly Iranian passengers were about five Armenian citizens and two Georgians.

Search teams picked through an area 200m (660ft) wide in a field at Jannatabad village, where the plane gouged out a huge smoking crater.

A relief worker, standing next to a body bag of human flesh, told AFP news agency: "There is not a single piece which can be identified."

Mostafa Babashahverdi, a local farmer, told Reuters news agency: "We found severed heads, fingers and passports of the passengers."

Witnesses said the Tu-154 had circled briefly looking for an emergency landing site. One man described it exploding on impact.

"I saw the plane crashing nose-down. It hit the ground causing a big explosion. The impact shook the ground like an earthquake," Ali Akbar Hashemi told AP news agency.

IRANIAN PLANE CRASHES

  • Feb 2006: Tupolev crashes in Tehran, kills 29 people
  • Dec 2005: C-130 military plane crashes near Tehran, kills 110
  • Feb 2003: Iranian military plane crashes, kills all 276 on board
  • Feb 2002: Tupolev crashes in west Iran, kills all 199 on board

Air disasters timeline

Part of the Caspian Airlines plane on farmland near Qazvin city, Iran, on 15 July 2009

At Yerevan’s airport, one woman wept as she said her sister and two nephews, aged six and 11, had been on the flight.

"What will I do without them" said Tina Karapetian, 45, before collapsing.

It was the third deadly crash of a Tupolev Tu-154 in Iran since 2002.

The BBC’s Jon Leyne says Iran’s civil and military air fleets are made up of elderly aircraft, in poor condition due to their age and lack of maintenance.

Since the Islamic revolution of 1979, trade embargoes by Western nations have forced Iran to buy mainly Russian-built planes to supplement an existing fleet of Boeings and other American and European models.

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This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

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US offer to Iran ‘not indefinite’

July 15th, 2009 | No Comments

US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is to warn Iran that the US will not extend its offer of engagement "indefinitely".

In a foreign policy speech to be delivered later, Mrs Clinton will say that Iran needs to respond to President Barack Obama’s overtures now.

If it does not, Iran could face more penalties and isolation over its nuclear programme, she will say.

She will say Iran used "deplorable" means to quash post-election protests.

Violent street protests broke out after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was re-elected in the 12 June disputed election.

Some 17 people were thought to have died during days of clashes.

"Neither the president nor I have any illusions that direct dialogue with the Islamic Republic will guarantee success."

Hilary Clinton

Mr Obama has talked of engagement with Iran but has not made clear how that might take place.

Shortly after coming to office in January, Mr Obama said: "If countries like Iran are willing to unclench their fists, they will find an extended hand from us".

In her speech in Washington on Wednesday, Ms Clinton will say: "We remain ready to engage with Iran, but the time for action is now.

"The opportunity will not remain open indefinitely."

The US fears Iran’s nuclear programme is a cover to build atomic weapons, a charge Iranian officials deny.

Enriched uranium can be used to make atomic weapons, but can also be used in nuclear power plants.

Mrs Clinton will say the Bush administration policy of isolating Iran did not stop it moving towards developing nuclear weapons.

"Neither the president nor I have any illusions that direct dialogue with the Islamic Republic will guarantee success.

"But we also understand the importance of trying to engage Iran and offering its leaders a clear choice: whether to join the international community as a responsible member or to continue down a path to further isolation."</p

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

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