Back to Brief on Iran
LONDON - Britain's efforts to forge closer diplomatic and commercial ties with Iran were condemned on Tuesday by a majority of members of parliament who asked the government to reconsider its stance.
Leaders of the 330 strong cross-party group of MPs who signed the statement said Britain should not have changed its policy toward Iran until there was clear evidence of greater freedom of expression and human rights.
"Why have we become friends with one of the nastiest regimes in the world? Where is the evidence of change? The hangings go on, the stonings go on, the persecution of writers goes on," Labor MP Robin Corbett told reporters.
He said the group was seeking a meeting with Foreign Secretary Robin Cook in the hope of persuading him to change Britain's position.
The statement said little had changed since President Mohammad Khatami came to power 18 months ago and quoted a report from pressure group Amnesty International condemning the Iranian justice system.
"The UK should not give any trade concessions, credits or loans to a regime which is incapable of change and which is under increasing social and economic pressures from the people to whom it brutally denies basic rights and democratic representation," the statement said.
It followed a similar declaration signed
by a majority of members of the U.S. House of Representatives last year.
Mullahs' Regime Boycotted King Hussein's Funeral, Agence France Presse, February 9
TEHRAN - Iran had planned to send a government minister to join world leaders at the funeral of Jordan's King Hussein, but pulled out in a protest boycott, a Tehran newspaper reported Tuesday.
Industry Minister Gholam-Reza Shafei, who heads an Iran-Jordan joint commission, had been due to attend the funeral in Amman Monday, the English-language Tehran Times said.
Tehran "remains a threat to the security
of certain Gulf countries," the London-based Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat
quoted the king as saying last week.
Under Public Pressure Khatami Accepts The Sham Resignation of Intelligence Chief, Agence France Presse, February 9
TEHRAN - Mohammed Khatami accepted the resignation of his intelligence minister Tuesday.
The minister, Qorbanali Dorri-Najafabadi, had resisted repeated calls to step down but in the face of mounting tension over the issue, Khatami put pressure on Dorri-Najafabadi to resign, sources close to the government told AFP.
Khatami thanked Dorri-Najafabadi "for your great efforts and services" and expressed appreciation for "the valuable endeavors of our colleagues at the intelligence ministry who are the defenders of the revolutionary values as well as national security and the rights of the citizens."
Khatami hinted he might find Dorri-Najafabadi another job in government. "Of course the government and the nation will certainly benefit from your knowledge and experience and capabilities elsewhere and in an appropriate manner," he said.
Dorri-Najafabadi will remain a member of the key political arbitration body, the State Expediency Council, and will be appointed an adviser to the president, the Tehran Times said.
The government newspaper Iran Daily reported that Ali Yunesi, another conservative cleric and member of a committee investigating the recent murders, was the most likely candidate to succeed him.
Since the 1979 Islamic revolution Yunesi
has held a number of senior positions -- he headed the powerful Tehran
Revolutionary Court and helped set up the intelligence ministry with the
arch-conservative cleric Mohammad Mohammadi Reyshahri.
Regime Says Seeking $1.5 Billion in Foreign Credit, Reuter, February 9
TEHRAN - Iran hopes to receive another $1.5 billion in external credit after rescheduling $2 billion of its foreign debt, Central Bank Governor Mohsen Nourbakhsh said in remarks published on Tuesday.
Iran, severely hit by low oil prices, has reportedly sought $3 billion in new loans from its main creditors -- Italy, Germany and Japan -- to avoid defaulting on debt payments.
Nourbakhsh put Iran's debt at around $12 billion, but he said an additional $11 billion dollars was owed in connection to foreign purchases made through the Central Bank.