Students Protest Outside French Embassy TEHRAN (Dispatches) -- Iranian students protested outside the French embassy in Tehran on Thursday, a day after a French magazine published cartoons that ridiculed the Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him). The protesters shouted "Death to France, death to America" and held placards urging the French people to demand their government respect sacredness and humanity, Fars news agency said. Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast strongly criticized the insulting cartoons and blamed continued insults to Islamic sanctities on the silence and indifference of Western governments. He said the sacrilegious acts were "a Zionist plot" against the backdrop of a growing tide of Islamic Awakening. "The Islamic Republic of Iran strongly condemns insults to Islamic sanctities and sympathizes with the hurt feelings of the Islamic ummah. "The systematic and continued silence of the Western countries with regard to such abhorrent measures, which are in line with Islamophobia, is the main factor behind continuation of such sacrilegious acts," he said. Mehmanparast called on the French government to take appropriate measures to condemn the insulting acts. A senior Iranian military commander called on Muslim countries to boycott American goods in response to the U.S.-made film insulting the prophet of Islam. “To protest at this blasphemous move, Muslims can boycott American goods and call on their leaders to close the embassies of the US and Israel in their countries,” said Major General Yahya Rahim-Safavi, a senior military adviser to the Leader of the Islamic Revolution. He said that the global hegemony and the enemies of Islam dread the emergence of the Islamic world as a big power and thus resorted to the sacrilegious move in an attempt to mar the image of Islam. Having realized the great power of the Islamic Awakening and its opposition to the liberal-democracy current, the enemies planned to tarnish the image of Muslims by insulting the prophet of Islam, Rahim-Safavi said. He added that insulting Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was the same as insulting the prophets of all divine religions and added that Muslims will undoubtedly respond to the blasphemous move. The U.S.-made sacrilegious film has sparked a wave of outrage across the Muslim world, with protesters marching on the US embassies and torching U.S. flags in different countries. Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, last week described as "crazy and hateful" the anti-Islamic film that has sparked protests in several Muslim countries. For Muslims, any depiction of the Prophet is blasphemous. Millions of Iranians in Tehran and other cities across the country have held nationwide rallies in protest against the recent desecration of Islam. Envoy: Zionist Nukes Threaten Mideast VIENNA (Dispatches) — Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's chief IAEA delegate, said Thursday that the occupying regime of Israel's nuclear arsenal "continues to threaten ... (the Middle East) region and beyond". The Zionist regime is widely believed to have developed nuclear weapons in the late 1960s, although it has never publicly acknowledged them. Soltanieh made the statements to the 155-nation International Atomic Energy Agency general conference in Vienna. That view is shared by Arab nations which share with Tehran the common Muslim stance of denouncing the Zionist regime as the greatest nuclear danger. Top on the agenda of the conference was a resolution urging all Middle East nations to join the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty — an indirect jab at Israel, which is outside the treaty and is generally believed to have nuclear arms. The other item — a debate of "Israel's nuclear capabilities" — targeted the Zionist regime more openly on the same issue and resulted in the sharpest exchanges. As in past years, the resolution succeeded by a wide margin, with even the occupying regime of Israel abstaining instead of opposing it. Of the nations present, 111 voted for, with none against and eight abstentions. In return, Arab nations agreed to only push for a debate instead of a resolution on "Israel's nuclear capabilities". U.S. chief delegate Robert Wood criticized what he said was misuse of IAEA meetings "to single out Israel for censure". Soltanieh denounced the UN Security Council’s inaction on nuclear activities of the Zionist regime over the past decades. He said the Israeli regime’s existence is based on occupation, killing, oppression, aggression and threat, IRNA reported. “The possession of atomic weapons by such a regime will raise international concern by a hundred times,” he added. Soltanieh stressed the importance of implementing the global demand for Tel Aviv to join the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), saying the Israeli regime’s nuclear facilities should be monitored by the IAEA's comprehensive safeguards. The Zionist regime is not a signatory of the NPT and continues to defy international calls to join the treaty. The regime, which is widely believed to possess between 200 to 400 nuclear warheads, maintains a policy of deliberate ambiguity over its nuclear work. Armed Forces Monitoring U.S. Drills TEHRAN (Dispatches) -- A senior navy commander says Iran's armed forces fully monitor maneuvers of the United States and other countries in the Persian Gulf and other strategic waterways in the Middle East. “Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran have full intelligent awareness over the foreign forces’ moves,” Second Rear Admiral Hossein Azad told reporters on Thursday. He added that the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC)'s navy, along with the Islamic Republic of Iran's naval forces, is closely monitoring moves by foreign forces in international waters, northern Indian Ocean, Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf. The naval commander noted that the U.S. and its allies are performing the maneuvers near the Persian Gulf under the pretext of improving security but history has proven the falsehood of their claims. Azad emphasized that only regional countries can safeguard security in the region. The U.S. is conducting the anti-mine exercises near the Persian Gulf in cooperation with more than 30 countries. The maneuvers formally began earlier this week but only got under way at sea on Thursday. The U.S. navy claims that the exercises are purely defensive and not directed at any country. Washington had added five warships to its Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, in an attempt to bolster its military presence in the Persian Gulf. Over the past years, Iran has made important breakthroughs in its defense sector and attained self-sufficiency in producing important military equipment and systems. Tehran has repeatedly clarified that its military might is merely based on the nation's defense doctrine of deterrence and poses no threat to other countries. On Thursday, Iran’s navy commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said the Islamic Republic is on the threshold of self-sufficiency in the submarine industry. “Today, the Islamic Iran has reached the threshold of self-sufficiency in manufacturing, equipping and repairing the most complicated and modern types of submarines in the world,” Sayyari said. He added that the production of submarine equipment has also been completely localized over the past decade. Iran has so far launched different classes of advanced submarines including Fateh, Ghadir, Qaem and Nahang. On Tuesday, Iran's navy also launched the super-heavy Tareq 901 submarine, overhauled by Iranian experts. Over the recent years, Iran has made important breakthroughs in its defense sector and attained self-sufficiency in producing important military equipment and systems. The Islamic Republic has repeatedly made clear that its military might is merely based on the nation's defense doctrine of deterrence and poses no threat to other countries. Meanwhile, commander of the Iranian border guard units General Hussein Zolfaqari said that the country is closely monitoring its border regions through high-tech equipments, including optical and radar systems. Zolfaqari underlined the significance of the use of high-tech equipments and technologies in border control, adding that Iranian border guard units are using radar and optic systems to control the country's borders. Iran shares open borders in the west with Iraq and Turkey, in the east with Afghanistan and Pakistan, in the south with the Persian Gulf littoral states and the Sea of Oman, in the north with Armenia and Azerbaijan and the Caspian Sea, and on the northeast with Turkmenistan. Merkel: Diplomacy 'Best Way' on Iran BERLIN (IRNA) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel here Thursday reiterated the need for a political solution to the Iranian nuclear case. Talking to the private German television channel SAT 1, Merkel made it clear that diplomacy was still "the best way" to resolve the row over Tehran's nuclear program. She underscored that her country had a "basic interest" in seeing progress in the ongoing nuclear talks between the western powers and Iran. European Union's Foreign Policy chief, Catherine Ashton, met with Iran's top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili in Istanbul earlier this week, terming the talks as "useful and constructive". Ashton was meeting Jalili on behalf of the five permanent UN Security Council countries (the U.S., France, Russia, China, and Britain) plus Germany. Iran had expressed hopes ahead of Istanbul meeting that the encounter would lead to further talks and had urged the West to lift sanctions. Tehran has repeatedly said it needs nuclear energy to generate electricity and furthermore would not surrender its right to enrich uranium as entitled under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Iran's nuclear program has also been under the full control of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). While the West has stepped up the pressure on Tehran over its nuclear program, it has closed its eyes to the dangerous nature of Israel's secret military nuclear program. Meanwhile, Russia Foreign Ministry spokesman, Alexander Lukashevich said Thursday that Iran's nuclear issue can only be resolved through political and diplomatic tools. "Recent statement of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) about Iran's nuclear program proved that the diplomatic approach is fruitful in the case of Iran's nuclear program," he told IRNA. "Talks between Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, and EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, in Istanbul proved that claims about the halt of negotiations between Tehran and other sides were nothing other than propaganda." Speaking at a press conference after a bilateral meeting with Ashton, the Iranian negotiator described his meeting with Ashton as good. "We reviewed discussions raised in the Moscow talks and the contents of the experts meeting (in Istanbul in July), and we studied the common points which can serve as a platform for cooperation and further talks. "We are always ready for talks and we have declared that we are ready to hear your response to Iran's plan," Jalili added. He said Ashton is due to inform the Group 5+1 member-states (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany) of the conclusions reached in the Tuesday meeting. Quoting Ashton's remarks about the Tuesday night meeting, who had described the talks as useful, Jalili said, "We hope that we can help bring the viewpoints closer together." Draconian U.S. Sanctions Hit Academia WASHINGTON (Dispatches) -- Iranian students are having trouble attending the University of Florida and other U.S. institutions due to visa rejections and sanctions restricting the transfer of money. Bloomberg News first reported that growing tensions and sanctions over Iran’s nuclear program have spilled into academia. The Obama administration last year eased travel restrictions for Iranian students, but the U.S. president recently signed a measure denying visas to Iranians seeking to prepare for careers in energy or nuclear-related fields. The Bloomberg report found that Iranian graduate students couldn’t study engineering at major U.S. universities because their visa applications were rejected over concerns about espionage, sabotage or export of sensitive information. Five of the 23 Iranian graduate students expected to enroll at UF this semester failed to show up, according to the UF International Center. UF President Bernie Machen said that the problem is related as much to restrictions on the transfer of funds as rejected visas. Graduate students typically get teaching and research assistant positions, he said, but sanctions have made it difficult for them to access additional money needed to supplement their pay. “It’s a loss for us, it’s a loss for the students and frankly it’s a loss for our country,” he said. Machen was one of six U.S. university presidents to visit several Iranian universities on an eight-day trip in 2009. The trip, organized by the Association of American Universities, was meant to foster academic exchanges between Iran and the U.S. Machen said there are a number of Iranian students who would study in fields such as science, technology, engineering and mathematics and perhaps stay. “We think that they have some really good students … that can compete very well in our grad programs,” he said.