Kayhan international

Archive:

Monday, October 10, 2011

Europe Set to Follow Suit:
Protests Spread to Over 1,000 U.S. Cities

WASHINGTON (Dispatches) -- Widening U.S. protest rallies against the prevalence of top-level corruption, poverty, and social inequality in America, which began two weeks ago in New York, have now spread to more than 1,000 cities across the country, Press TV reports.
Protest superstars such as Green Party leader and former presidential candidate Ralph Nader have boosted protester enthusiasm.
The "Occupy Wall Street" movement began demonstrations against corporate greed and unemployment in mid-September and has continued staging protest rallies.
The website "Occupy Together", a hub for nationwide events in solidarity with "Occupy Wall Street", reported gatherings in 1,000 cities.
Demonstrators are protesting the U.S. financial system, corporatism, and joblessness, among other things.
They blame Wall Street practices and corporate influence on White House policies for the deepening of U.S. economic crisis.
"We need to stop investing in privatization. We need to start worrying about the 99% of the population. We need to start investing our money into social welfare programs,” one protester said.
The members of the Occupy Wall Street movement have vowed to stay on through the winter.
Protesters use the slogan "We are the 99%” to call attention to the fact that they are not part of the one percent of Americans in possession of the nation's wealth.
On Saturday, protesters raised the ante, clashing with security staff when they tried to enter a museum in the U.S. capital.
Authorities shut down Washington's popular National Air and Space Museum after antiwar protesters tried to enter the building and clashed with guards, a museum spokeswoman said.
One person was arrested during the melee at the Smithsonian museum, spokeswoman Isabel Lara said.
Protest organizers said the attempt to enter the museum on the National Mall was part of the Occupy D.C. antiwar demonstrations that began on Thursday on the 10th anniversary of the start of the Afghanistan war.
"Along with the Occupy Wall Street movement, it represents an upswell of people taking to the street around the country to demand social and economic justice as well as an end to the immoral wars in Iraq and Afghanistan," organizers said in an e-mail sent to Reuters.
"It is outrageous that the security guard of a major museum in America pepper sprayed Americans as they entered the museum. The drones housed in this museum and the pepper spraying of Americans at the door are clear evidence of repression in America," Retired Colonel Ann Wright said in the e-mail.
Drones are armed tactical unmanned planes used by the U.S. government to track and attack targets overseas.
The museum, which draws eight million visitors a year and is the most visited Smithsonian Institution museum, was shut down. Lara said it would reopen on Sunday.
Anti-Wall Street protests continued in New York City on Saturday and in other U.S. cities.
"We're tired of other people controlling, or thinking they control, our lives and our livelihoods," said Kristin Thompson, a 22-year-old preschool teacher and one of 100 protesters in Mobile, Alabama.
In Santa Fe, New Mexico, protesters lined the streets outside a Bank of America branch, waving signs at passing vehicles.
Participants said they had been summoned via social network Internet sites, labor organizers, the liberal website MoveOn.org and members of the local Green Party.
Protestors, angered by government bailouts of banks based on Wall Street, began to gather in New York on September 17, leading to continuous, increasingly high-profile demonstrations. The protests have since spread to other U.S. cities.
Meanwhile, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez condemned the "horrible repression" of anti-Wall Street protesters.
"This movement of popular outrage is expanding to 10 cities and the repression is horrible, I don't know how many are in prison now," Chavez said in comments at a political meeting in his Caracas presidential palace shown on state TV.
"Poverty's growing, the misery is getting worse," he said, referring to the causes of the U.S. protests. "But that empire is still there, still a threat ... (President Barack) Obama is on his way down, for lots of reasons. He was a big fraud."
Grassroots political activists in Switzerland are also planning to copy the Occupy Wall Street protests by staging a demonstration against their country's banks.
A call on the social networking site Facebook to occupy Zurich's Paradeplatz has generated hundreds of responses.
The protest in Zurich is one of several being organized across Europe for Oct. 15.

President: Time to Present New World Order
Kayhan Int'l Political Desk

TEHRAN – President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday said the current world order is on its last legs, calling for a substitute system to run global affairs.
"The existing order has to go and we must present a replacement which is nothing other than the rule of the Imam of the Age," the president said, referring to the 12th infallible Imam of Shia Muslims who will reappear from occultation and usher in a government of global justice and peace.
Ahmadinejad criticized Christian clergy, saying they "cannot claim to (follow) Jesus Christ and at the same time remain silent toward tyranny, discrimination and killing of the people".
The president touched on his keynote speech at the UN General Assembly this year, saying much of the audience now understand whenever he makes a reference to Imam Mahdi (May God Hasten His Re-Appearance).
"My speech at the United Nations always began and finished with the name of the Imam and many of those in attendance initially were said not to be comprehending that. However, we have seen recently the effects which the mention of the Imam's name have had."
Ahmadinejad made the remarks during an international cultural festival in the holy city of Mashhad.
On Sunday, Vice President for science and technology Nasrin Soltankhah stressed the importance of producing home-made advanced laboratory equipment in Iran.
"Nanotechnology is one of the technologies that has attracted much attention in our country although it is not more a decade old. However, we have succeeded in possessing a desirable rank in this technology through the policy-making and progresses made by Iran Nanotechnology Initiative Council," she said.
Elaborating on Iran's world rank in nanotechnology, Soltankhah said, "We obtained the rank 14 in the production of science. In the first half of 2011, our position went up 2 levels and we stand in the 12th place at present."
Iran plans to launch into space the first satellite that is completely designed and built by Iranian experts by the next four months, it was announced on Saturday.
The satellite, christened Navid (Herald), weighs 50 kilograms and can take pictures in low altitudes of about 250 to 375 kilometers from the earth, the dean of the Science and Technology University Muhammadsaeid Jabalameli said.
“This project has been carried out by Iranian scientists and young researchers of this university. We have not received any help from anyone outside the country … we can say that all the parts and subsystems have been designed and produced inside the country,” Jabalameli said.
Officials at the Science and Technology University say the preliminary tests on Navid satellite have been successful and the satellite was delivered to the launch center to be put into space by the next three to four months.

Iran, Russia to Debate 'Step-by-Step' Plan

TEHRAN (Dispatches) -- Iranian and Russian experts will hold a series of meetings in the near future to study and discuss the details of a "step-by-step" proposal offered by Moscow to end the nuclear standoff between Iran and the West, Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi announced here on Saturday night.
Speaking at a joint press conference with his visiting Kazakh counterpart Yerzhan Kazykhanov, Salehi said Tehran accepts and welcomes the Russian proposal "in principle".
"This proposal displays the Russians' goodwill for ending this superficial nuclear case of Iran," Salehi stated.
He said the Russian proposal has many details, and that the two countries have decided to put it into further discussion.
The foreign minister underlined that Tehran would accept and welcome any kind of proposal with a fair approach and respect for Iran's rights.
"We emphasize our right to use peaceful nuclear energy as much as we are loyal and committed to the (International Atomic Energy) Agency's statute," the Iranian foreign minister reiterated.
On July 13, the Russian foreign minister proposed a new "step-by-step" approach toward Iran's nuclear program that would enable the Islamic Republic to take steps to address questions raised by the IAEA.
According to the proposed plan, Iran can revive negotiations to alleviate individual concerns of the IAEA about its nuclear activities and be rewarded along the way by the partial removal of sanctions.
The approach would start out with the easiest questions and move on to more complicated ones that would require a longer time for a response.
Iran has repeatedly stressed that according to the modality plan agreed by the Islamic Republic and the IAEA in 2007, the agency should close Iran's nuclear dossier since Tehran has addressed and resolved all issues of contention.
Separately, Salehi said Iran would not withdraw from its national principles even one iota regarding the issue of the S-300 air defense systems delivery to Iran by Russia.
Salehi attended the Iranian parliament to answer questions of Iranian MPs over the cancellation of a deal by Russia to sell the S-300 air defense missile systems to Iran.
Referring to Russia’s failure to fulfill its commitments based on previous agreements made by the two countries, Salehi said the foreign ministry “has made due political and legal measures simultaneously” to follow up the case.
“Iran will firmly insist on its legitimate rights and will not withdraw its national principles even one iota regarding the issue of the S-300 missiles,” Salehi stressed.
He said that the Russian ambassador in Tehran was summoned to the foreign ministry at the time when Moscow announced it had decided not to deliver the S-300 systems to Tehran.
In different meetings with Russian officials, the Iranian side has made it clear that Moscow should even compensate Tehran in case of not fulfilling its commitments on S-300 missiles’ delivery to Iran.
Iran lodged a complaint with the International Court of Arbitration against Russia after Moscow refused to deliver the S-300 air-defense systems to Tehran in compliance with the two countries' contract which was signed in 2007.
Based on the deal, Russia was required to provide Iran with at least five S-300 air-defense systems.
However, Moscow's continued delays in delivering the defense system drew criticism from the Islamic Republic on several occasions.

Jamaran Sets Sail on First Int'l Mission

TEHRAN (Dispatches) -- Iran's domestically-built Jamaran destroyer on Sunday began its first international mission, heading to the northern Indian Ocean, Navy commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said.
The Iranian avy dispatched the 16th flotilla of its warships, including Jamaran, to the waters after the 15th flotilla, comprising Alvand and Bushehr destroyers, came back home earlier in the day.
Sayyari said the presence of the Iranian navy in international waters and the Indian Ocean is not merely aimed at fighting against piracy but displaying the Islamic Republic's naval power.
He stated that some 20 to 25 countries are currently pursuing their interests in the region, and Iran's presence will display to them the might of the Islamic Republic.
Sayyari repeated that the Jamaran destroyer has been completely manufactured by Iranian experts, adding Iran seeks to achieve self-sufficiency in defensive fields.
Iran has started a self-sufficiency campaign in the defense industry and has launched numerous military projects since the victory of the Islamic Revolution over 30 years ago.
The Iranian navy launched Jamaran in February 2010. The Mowj-class vessel has a displacement of around 14,000 tons and is equipped with modern radars and electronic warfare capabilities and is armed with a variety of anti-ship, surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles.
Jamaran is also equipped with torpedoes and modern naval cannons, as well as a powerful smart missile named Nour (Light).
It has a top speed of up to 30 knots and has a helipad. Last month, the Iranian navy installed a highly advanced radar on Jamaran.
Sayyari said as a peaceful country, Iran has the undeniable right to be present in international waters.
“Based on international law, presence in international waters is the indisputable right of Iran and no country can deprive it of this right,” he said.
He dismissed Western claims about Iran's inability to send a fleet to the Atlantic Ocean, stressing the Iranian army is determined to be present in all international waters based on the guidelines of Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, Mehr news agency reported.
The Iranian commander emphasized that the Islamic Republic will not carry out an act of aggression against any country and vowed to resist the enemies.
On July 18, Sayyari announced the army's plans to send a fleet to the Atlantic Ocean after its successful presence in international waters.
“Presence in the Mediterranean Sea, the Suez Canal, south of the Indian Ocean and in international waters is at the top of the Navy's agenda,” he stated, explaining that Iranian warships would be equipped with Nour long-range anti-ship cruise missiles.
In February, two Iranian Navy ships, Khark and Alvand, passed through the Suez Canal, a strategic international shipping route in Egypt, for the first time since the 1979 victory of the Islamic Revolution.
Early in July, Iran's Yunes submarine, sailing alongside the Iranian Navy 14th fleet warships, returned home following an almost two-month-long mission in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
The deployment of Iranian military submarine in the Red Sea was the first such operation by the country's navy in far-off waters.
Rampant piracy off the Indian Ocean coast of Somalia has made the waters among the most perilous in terms of pirate activities. Iran has also deployed warships in the Red Sea to combat Somali pirates.

Kazakh FM Told:
Foreign Presence Root Cause of Insecurity

TEHRAN (IRNA) – Iran's Parliament speaker Ali Larijani said here on Sunday that presence of foreign forces in the region is the root cause of all problems, calling for expansion of all-out cooperation among independent states to maintain regional security.
Larijani made the remarks in a meeting with Kazakh Foreign Minister Yerzhan Kazykhanov during which he highlighted the significant role of the Islamic Republic of Iran and Kazakhstan in the region as well as the Muslim world.
He said Iran always looks forward to expansion of relations and cooperation with Kazakhstan in various fields.
Spread of terrorism and drug trafficking are among main problems of the region, he said, calling for expansion of multilateral cooperation in dealing with the phenomena.
Expressing satisfaction with growing relations between the two countries, he said the two sides should make use of all opportunities to bolster friendly ties between the two nations.
The Kazakh foreign minister, for his part, expressed his country’s willingness to expand friendly relations with Iran. He said Kazakhstan sees no limits to expansion of relations and cooperation between the two countries.
Iran and Kazakhstan believe that the problems facing the region will be resolved through collective cooperation of regional countries, he said, adding that the two sides share close stands on many regional and global issues.
Kazakhstan’s foreign policy is based on bolstering development, stability and tranquility of the region, he said, adding that cooperation with Iran is of prime importance tor Kazakhstan.
Highlighting Iran’s prominent role in the region, he said as the two countries share many commonalties in region, it is very important to have close consultations and exchange views in this regard.
Construction of Iran-Turkmenistan-Kazakhstan railroad plays a significant role on expansion of economic cooperation among the three countries, he said.