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TEHRAN - Iranian President Mohammed Khatami's planned interview with US news organization CNN should not be misunderstood as a willingness to talk to the US government, the Iranian press said Saturday.
"As far as the American people are concerned, the Islamic republic, or the Iranian nation, has no grudge against them," the conservative Tehran Times said in an editorial.
"This has been announced by officials in Iran time and again -- most recently by (supreme) leader, Ayatollah (Ali) Khamenei," the paper said.
"Beyond a doubt, it should be made crystal clear to some Iranians and also the American administration that the time is not yet ripe for resumption of Iran-US ties.
"President Khatami is not going to have a dialogue with the Clinton administration as the latter expects ... Therefore there should not be any misunderstanding either at home or abroad on Iran-US relations," it said.
Khatami is due to be interviewed on CNN next week, the first such address by an Iranian leader since ties were broken following the 1979 Islamic revolution….
But Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei denied Friday that Khatami's comments constituted a move towards a rapprochement.
"It is propaganda like so much else, it is false. Among the Iranian leaders there are no favorable leanings towards the United States," he said.
His comments were taken up by much of the Iranian press Saturday.
"Any signal addressed to the United States in the current circumstances would be a betrayal of the heritage of imam Khomeini," said the hardline daily Jomhouri-Eslami referring to the Islamic republic's late founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
"There is no hope of Iran abandoning its principles under (Khamenei's) leadership," said the conservative daily Afarinesh.
Khatami's State Department Slams Jordanian Role in
Turkish-Israeli-US Joint Exercise, Agecne France Presse,
January 4
TEHRAN - Iran condemned as "unacceptable" Sunday Jordanian plans to take part as an observer in a joint exercise between Israel, Turkey and the United States planned for later this week.
"Participation of Jordan as an observer to the war game which has brought about opposition of all Moslem nations is an unwelcome measure to the world of Islam," foreign ministry spokesman Mahmoud Mohammadi told the official news agency IRNA.
"From the viewpoint of the Islamic Republic of Iran (it) is unacceptable," he said….
Clerics' Court Sentenced a Man to have his Eyes Gouged,
Associated Press, January 4
TEHRAN - A man sentenced by an Islamic court to have his eyes gouged out for blinding a co-worker could escape the punishment because no doctor will agree to carry it out, a newspaper reported Sunday.
The daily Iran said that three years ago, a man identified as Vahid Abdollahi blinded fellow worker Gholamhossein Maafi by splashing acid in his face during a quarrel over less than 25 cents.
Shortly after the attack, a court in Tehran ordered that Abdollahi should have his eyes gouged out under the principle of "an eye for an eye," which Islamic law has incorporated from the biblical teachings of Moses….
Convicts awaiting punishment are usually imprisoned, and it was unclear what would happen to Abdollahi if the sentence cannot be carried out.
Iran's Agricultural Exports Plunge 35 Percent,
Agence France Presse, January 5
TEHRAN - Iran's agricultural exports fell by 35 percent during the eight months ending in November 1997 amid a crisis affecting all the country's non-oil exports, an official said Monday.
Ahmad Qasemi, an official of the Exports Promotion Center, linked the dramatic agricultural exports drop mainly to an EU ban on pistachio imports from Iran.
But he also blamed poor transportation and higher costs of certain agricultural items for the drop during the period between March to November 1997.
The EU imposed the ban in early September because some of the imported nuts were allegedly contaminated with toxic material….
Iran's non-oil exports have sharply fallen in recent years because of strict government regulations imposed to control prices and stabilize the national currency.