Germany Denounces Iran "Blackmail" on Ambassador, Reuter, May 1 

BUCHAREST - German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel on Thursday denounced as improper Iran's refusal to accept the return of its ambassador and said his country would not submit to "blackmail."

"We will not impose our ambassadors on Tehran," Kinkel told a news conference at the close of a two-day visit to Romania. "We Germans won't let ourselves be blackmailed or divided."

Kinkel said he believed statements in Tehran that neither the German and Danish ambassadors were welcome in Tehran were motivated by a European Union decision this week to send the envoys back….

He suggested EU countries would not now send their ambassadors back.

"European solidarity will be shown again and for that I am thankful," he said. "We will not allow Iran to continue its election campaign at our cost and we will evaluate the situation after the elections in Iran."

Iranian news media quoted Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati on Wednesday as saying Tehran would not object if the German ambassador did not return and "may even be...pleased." He said the same applied to the ambassador of Denmark, which has been critical of human rights standards in Iran….

Kinkel had been a leading proponent of "critical dialogue" with Iran…

After the Iranian statements, the Netherlands as current EU chairman asked member statements not to send their envoys back to Iran.

This would prove to Iran, a Dutch statement said, that the EU was unanimous in rejecting "arbitrary measures against some member states."…

 

State Department Again Lists Iran as Chief Terrorism Sponsor, The Washington Post, May 1 

The U.S. State Department said yesterday that Iran remained the chief sponsor of international terrorism in 1996, a year in which deaths from what it described as terror attacks nearly doubled…. "Since 1990," said Phillip C. Wilcox, Jr. the State Department's coordinator for counter-terrorism, "we estimate - and indeed, we have solid information - that Iran was responsible for over 50 murders of political dissidents and other others overseas," crimes for which he said Iran's top leaders are responsible.

"The decision-making process in Iran is a collective one in which the most senior members of the government participate," Wilcox said. "These acts of Iranian-sponsored terrorism abroad are not the result of rogue elements within the Iranian bureaucracy; they are sanctioned at the very highest levels."…

 

Turkish Generals Call For Sanctions, The Associated Press, April 30

ANKARA, Turkey - Setting up a new confrontation with the Islamic-led government, Turkey's top generals have called for political and economic sanctions against Iran and Syria, accusing them of supporting terrorism…

The generals' position conflicts with that of the government, which wants to improve relations with its Islamic neighbors. When Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan came to power last year, his first trip abroad was to Iran.

Erbakan's attempts to raise the profile of Islam in Turkey have run afoul of the powerful military, which considers itself the defender of the country's secular tradition.

"Iran wants to push Turkey into Islamic terrorism, of an Algerian type," said Gen. Kenan Deniz, another commander who joined the briefing…

Dogan accused Iran of providing support to radical Islamic groups, saying, "Iran-backed groups have engaged in many murders in Turkey."

 

Iran Emerges as a Mystery Big Buyer in World Wheat, Reuter, May 1

LONDON - Iran is emerging as the world's biggest wheat importer in a development that puzzles trade analysts.

A report on Thursday by the London-based International Grains Council, which put a spotlight on Iran's surging imports, also forecast a record global harvest this year of coarse grains -- mainly maize….

But the IGC does not venture an opinion on why Iran's imports should be running at more than double the previous year's estimate.

Trade analysts suspect that some of the wheat may be re-exported elsewhere in central Asia, possibly to war-racked Afghanistan….

Its emergence as such a big player in the grains trade raised fears of disruption to the international….

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