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Source: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL)

October 22, 2010

An Israeli grandmaster has taken the Guinness record for simultaneous chess games away from the previous holder, who is Iranian.

Alik Gershon, 30, is now the record holder after winning 454 of 523 games he played against opponents over the course of nearly 20 hours.

The previous record holder was Morteza Mahjoob, who won 397 of 500 games against opponents in August 2009.

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By Moahammad Reza Yazdanpanah

Source: Rooz Online

October 21, 2010

While state-run media are boasting a historic reception for ayatollah Khamenei in his visit to Qom, an informed source who participated in the welcome ceremony told Rooz that the Islamic republic supreme leader’s reception was “much less” than compared to previous visits.

He added that, as it can been seen on numerous official photographs from the ceremony, many of the participants in the ceremony as well as during Mr. Khamanei’s speech were African and Arab immigrants residing in Qom, particularly immigrants from Iraq many of whom are supporters of Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shiite Iraqi cleric currently residing in Qom.

As noted by this informed source, none of the official photographs appearing on state-run media outlets show an aerial view of the street where the welcome ceremony was held. Almost all of the released photographs are taken from close range or with wide camera lenses. The aerial photographs released are taken either from very far away or very close to the ground and do not reveal any conclusive information.

Rooz’s eyewitness source also stated that none of the grand ayatollahs residing in Qom, even those who are known for supporting the Islamic republic supreme leader, attended the welcome ceremony or subsequent meetings with the Islamic republic supreme leader.

Previous reports had revealed intense pressure on grand ayatollahs to coerce them into attending Mr. Khamenei’s welcome ceremony.

Only three out of the ten grand ayatollahs currently residing in Qom made remarks in support of ayatollah Khamenei’s visit. However, neither these three grand ayatollahs nor the remaining seven attended Mr. Khamenei’s welcome ceremony.

One informed source who attended Mr. Khamenei’s welcome ceremony told Rooz, “Yesterday’s reception of Mr. Khamenei was the coldest and least passionate reception of the Islamic republic supreme leader compared to all his previous visits.”

According to him, “At most, thirty to forty thousand people attended the ceremony, which is les than five percent of Qom’s more than one million inhabitants.”

He added, “The planning and intense organizing of Mr. Khamenei’s reception was in effect carried out by three military-security organizations: Jaish al-Mahdi, the Qods Army and Mr. Khamenei’s personal security team.”

While in Qom, the Islamic republic supreme leader delivered a fiery speech, noting, “Last year’s sedition actually vaccinated the country against microbes, which can be political or social microbes,” adding, “The post-election sedition, contrary to the enemy’s expectation, increased the insight of the Iranian people.”

Mr. Khamenei’s office has announced that the supreme leader will visit Qom for nine days. None of the supreme leader’s previous official visits to Qom lasted longer than three days.

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By Mohammad Reza Yazdanpanah

Source: Rooz Online

October 21, 2010

At the end of the second day of ayatollah Khamenei’s visit to Qom, some clerical leaders and senior ayatollah’s visited the office of Iran’s leader in this holy city and held discussions with him. While the official news site of the leader of the Islamic republic wrote that Jaafar Sobhani, Makarem Shirazi and Shobeiri Zanjani were the three clerics who along with other “teachers and clerics of Qom Theological Center” visited Khamenei on his second day in the city, semi-state Fars news agency reported that in addition to the three clerics mentioned above, Sadegh Amoli Larijani, Ibrahim Amini, seyed Ahmadi Khatami and Abbas Kaabi also met with the Khamenei.

Neither the news website of ayatollah Khamenei’s office nor Iran’s official radio and television network, along with other official news agencies, have reported on the contents of these meetings. But an analysis of the photos and images from the meetings, it is clear that these engagements were public with no private meetings between Khamenei and the senior clerics.

In the absence of such news, it is not clear what discussions may have been held between the clerics and the leader. All that has been reported is that the exchanges between them were confined to pleasantries and formalities, commonly known as taarofate akhoondi,” i.e., clerical pleasantries, in Persian.

Meeting with the Critical Clerics

On the fist night of ayatollah Khamenei’s visit to Qom, two senior clerics ayatollahs Noori Hamedani and Javad Amoli, met with the regime’s leader. But as in the earlier visits and meetings till now, no press releases or any news coverage of the contents of these meetings have emerged or been provided to the media. It should be noted that some of the senior clerics who did meet ayatollah Khamenei are known to be critical of the policies and practices of the regime, particularly post-2009-election.

Ayatollah seyed Mousa Shobeiri Zanjani is the most prominent cleric critical of the regime residing in Qom and he did meet with ayatollah Khamenei on Wednesday. It should be noted that Shobeiri Zanjani was elevated to his senior position in 1993 after ayatollah Araki died, putting him at the level of the other six Shiite grand ayatollahs. But despite this senior cleric’s criticism of the regime’s policies and the behavior of its senior leaders, a view he acquired because of the influence of Najaf’s (in Iraq) interpretation of Shia Islam and the views of senior ayatollah Abolghasem Khoi, he enjoys extraordinary respect in Khamenei’s office and household because he happens to be the teacher of the leader’s three sons.

It is because of this proximity that ayatollah Shobeiri Zanjani played a successful role in ending the official cordoning of the late ayatollah Montazeri’s residence. In his 777-page memoirs, Montazeri references a letter that ayatollah Zanjani had written and sent to ayatollah Khamenei protesting the blocking of his (Montazeri’s) house.

Following the announcement of the June 2009 presidential election results, which led to massive, popular and unprecedented protests in the Islamic republic, followed by a violent government crackdown, ayatollah Shobeiri Zanjani engaged in extensive consultations with other senior ayatollahs in Qom and Najaf, including ayatollah Sistani (in Iraq), ayatollah Safi Golpaygani, ayatollah Montazeri and ayatollah Mousavi Ardebili with the purpose of ending the crisis that had erupted after the 2009 election. It is also reported that he wrote two strongly worded protest letters to ayatollah Khamenei in which he strongly criticized the oppressive tactics used by the security and military forces of the Islamic republic under his command.

At that time, Moj Sabz Azadi website wrote that during a meeting with ayatollah Safi Golpaygani, ayatollah Shobeiri Zanjani had even fallen into tears because of his unhappiness with the way protestors and people were killed in the streets after the elections. He is among those clerics who believed in ayatollah Montazeri’s views and following the latter’s death last year, conducted special prayers at his memorial. In the photographs that have been published on Khamenei’s current meetings with senior clerics in Qom, ayatollah Shobeiri Zanjani appears furthest from ayatollah Khamenei and at the end of a line of people.

Three Resigned Friday Prayer Leaders

Ayatollah Javadi Amoli and ayatollah Ibrahim Amini are also two senior clerics who after the official announcement of last year’s presidential election in which Ahmadinejad was announced as the winner, took a critical position on the post-election behavior of the regime, both of whom resigned from their Friday leader position in Qom after holding those posts for years.

After ayatollah Montazeri’s death last year, Najaf-born ayatollah Amini campaigned vigorously with senior and influential government authorities to calm down the memorial and burial ceremonies of Montazeri.

Ayatollah Reza Ostadi is another resigned Friday prayer leader of Qom who like ayatollah Amini and Javadi Amoli is a senior member of the Qom Seminary Teachers Association who supported Mohsen Rezai’s presidential bid in 2005. He met with ayatollah Khamenei on the latter’s current visit to Qom.

Khamenei: Martyrdom is an Established Issue for Iranians

Aside the absence of any published news on the contents of the meetings that ayatollah Khamenei has had with the senior clerics in Qom, the leader delivered a speech to the family members of martyrs and war veterans. According to the official news site of the office of ayatollah Khamenei, the leader praised Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s recent trip to Lebanon. He said the people’s welcome of Ahmadinejad was “enthusiastic and extensive,” and also “worthy of review and analysis.”

According to Khamenei, “These realities” are indicative of the attraction and grandeur of the Iranian nation in the eyes of the nations of the world.”

The leader of the Islamic regime also asserted that the issue of martyrdom had been settled and clear for the Iranian nation, adding, “We must ponder about this central question that why has the Iranian nation become so popular in the eyes of nations and also so influential in the various events of the world while it lacks the complex and advanced military and propaganda instruments.”

He mentioned the “numerous” plots of the enemy against the Iranian people after the death of ayatollah Khomeini and said, “Opponents of the Iranian nation have got nothing other than failure through those plots and from now on too will not attain any [positive] results.”

Ayatollah Khamenei’s visit to Qom has been announced to take nine days.

Meeting With Foreigners

Unofficial news reports wrote that the German parliamentary delegation that is currently visiting the Islamic republic to consult with them over the release of two German reporters held in Iran secretly met ayatollah Khamenei in Qom.

While this delegation’s visit of Qom and meetings with some clerics in the city have been confirmed, no confirmation has come to support the assertion that the German group met with ayatollah Khamenei as well.

While Iranian news sources had reported earlier that visiting Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez had also met with ayatollah Khamenei on Wednesday, this visit of Qom never took place and Chavez was seen off in Tehran by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and flew to Damascus, Syria.

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One women's rights activist says the new official figures suggest that efforts by Iran "to eliminate women from universities" have been successful.

Source: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL)

October 20, 2010

The head of Iran’s Research and Planning Organization of Higher Studies has said that the number of male and female students in the Islamic republic is now equal.

Massoud Hadian Dehkordi has said that there are currently 3,790,859 students in the country, of which he said about 50.5 percent are men and about 49.5 percent women.

Previously it had been reported, based on official figures, that women made up 60-65 percent of university entrants.

Some Iranian officials had expressed worry over the rising numbers of women at universities, and said that it represented a threat to traditional values and that it would limit women’s marriage opportunities.

In 2008, the Research Center of the Iranian parliament expressed concern over the trend, which it described as “alarming” and called on the government to stop it.

The center said that over the last two decades there’d been a 23 percent increase in the number of girls taking university entrance exams, with the number of girls who passed the tests nearly doubling — to 65 percent — over the same period.

The government had proposed measures to stop the trend, including through the implementation of quotas for enrollment in some fields including medicine, where women were reportedly outnumbering men.

Women’s rights activist Shadi Sadr says the new official figure of female students seems to suggest that efforts by Iran “to eliminate women from universities” have been successful.

“The most important policy is the policy of gender quota that has been implemented in the last five years in some fields, including medicine and engineering,” Sadr told RFE/RL’s Radio Farda.

“A limit is being imposed on the number of women who want to study in fields that are considered manly or the government believes that it is more [important] for men to study these courses than women.”

Another policy that has been promoted, Sadr said, is pushing women to study at universities in their hometowns in provinces and smaller cities.

Officials have said in the past that the measures were not discriminating against women .

But women’s rights activists have long protested against the moves, which they believe is a continuation of state repression of women and efforts aimed at keeping them at home.

– Golnaz Esfandiari

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Iranian women's cycling team

Source: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL)

October 20, 2010

The new police chief of the Iranian city of Esfahan says it is a crime for women to cycle or roller-skate in public, RFE/RL’s Radio Farda reports.

The two were among a range of women’s activities deemed criminal by Hassan Karami in an announcement on October 18.

Further criminal activities include singing near Esfahan’s famous Khajoo Bridge and playing volleyball in public. Karami also said that it is a crime for either sex to play cards in public parks.

Karami said police will “severely prosecute” offenders. He added that the number of police stations and patrols in Esfahan should be increased in order to combat crime in the city.

Tehran-based lawyer Ahmad Bashiri told Radio Farda on October 19 that for an act to be considered a crime, there must be a defined punishment under the law, so that the crime can be prosecuted.

“Singing is not in itself a crime,” Bashiri said. “But if it inconveniences the public, or if the song contains obscene words, then it can be considered a crime.”

By contrast, playing cards or gambling in public is considered a crime under Iranian law, Bashiri added.

Whether women should be permitted to ride bicycles has been a controversial issue in Iran for a long time. One month ago, Tehran Friday Prayers leader Ahmad Khatami said he had received “worrying news” about women riding bicycles on the streets of Tehran. Following his statement, Tehran police began confronting women cyclists.

Bashiri said that when someone says it is a crime for a woman to ride a bicycle, he should explain the legal basis for that statement. The police have no right to make arbitrary decisions based on their own interpretation of the law, Bashiri claimed.

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Ahmad Ghabel (file photo)

Source: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL)

October 21, 2010

Jailed Iranian religious scholar Ahmad Ghabel has appeared in court where he again denied charges of acting against national security, his wife has told RFE/RL’s Radio Farda.

Ghabel was arrested in December on his way to the funeral of senior dissident cleric Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri. He spent six months in jail before being released on bail, then was rearrested last month in Mashhad, northeastern Iran.

His wife, Marzieh Pasdar, said the October 20 hearing was held in branch five of the Revolutionary Court in Mashhad in the presence of Ghabel’s lawyer, Saleh Nikbakht, and family members.

Pasdar said there was no representative for the prosecutor present at the session.

“Ahmad Ghabel was only questioned about his intentions behind [the charge of] acting against national security, in response to which he denied the charges completely and emphasized that he had in fact acted against those who act against the principles of Islam and law,” Pasdar told RFE/RL.

Pasdar said Ghabel’s actions were more in favor of national security and the government than against them.

“The judge postponed the case for another 10 days due to the absence of the representative of the prosecutor and the objection of Ghabel’s lawyer regarding that matter,” she said, adding that he has been asked to submit his defense in writing to the court by then.

A critic of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Ghabel was also arrested in 2001 after writing an open letter critical of him. Ghabel then spent 125 days in solitary confinement in Tehran’s Evin prison.

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Russian President Dmitry Medvedev with the leaders of France and Germany in Deauville. 14:59 19/10/2010 © RIA Novosti. Vladimir Rodionov

Source: RIA Novosti

October 19, 2010

DEAUVILLE – Russia, France and Germany plan to encourage Iran to begin full-fledged cooperation, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said at talks in Deauville, France, on Tuesday.

“This discussion shows that we look at many issues in the same way. This gives us an opportunity to coordinate our positions and to reach rather specific results,” Medvedev told journalists after a summit with the leaders of France and Germany.

The Russian leader said the negotiations focused on regional issues, the Middle East and Iran. Speaking on Iran, he said the sides have “agreed to try to stick to the approaches that were earlier elaborated.”

“On the one hand, we should follow the sanctions that have been approved. On the other hand, we should push and impel Iran to cooperate in all the issues,” Medvedev said.

The West suspects Iran of seeking to build nuclear weapons under the guise of its nuclear program, which Tehran says is aimed at the peaceful generation of civilian energy.

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A Japanese oil tanker arrives at the Emirati port of Fujairah

Source: Agence France Presse (AFP)

October 21, 2010

DUBAI — The United Arab Emirates has opened a naval base on its east coast as part of efforts to secure its ability to export oil in the event Iran closes the strategic Strait of Hormuz, local media said on Thursday.

Almost all oil exports from OPEC’s fourth-largest producer now go through Gulf waters and the narrow strait which separates the UAE from Iran before reaching the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean.

The opening ceremony for the new base, in the emirate of Fujairah on the Arabian Sea, was held on Wednesday.

The base will “provide a quick response to natural and man-made disasters that may occur at sea, in addition to… ensuring safe and quick passage for its oil exports,” the official WAM news agency said.

The emirate of Abu Dhabi, which holds more than 90 percent of UAE crude reserves, is reportedly building a huge oil export facility and an oil storage terminal in Fujairah, and an oil pipeline to it.

Having “a naval base in Fujairah would give the UAE more capabilities to protect its economic zone and its strategic facility, the port down there, which will be a major point of export for oil and gas,” Riad Kahwaji, founder of the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis in Dubai, told AFP.

Kahwaji said that two pipelines from Abu Dhabi to Fujairah — one for oil and another for gas — have been announced.

“There’s an oil pipeline from Abu Dhabi to Fujairah port, and there’s the Dolphin project, which is a gas pipeline between Qatar, Abu Dhabi, then Fujairah and then on to Oman,” he said.

Iran has repeatedly threatened to block navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 60 percent of the world’s oil supplies pass, if it is ever attacked by the United States or Israel.

Many Western states believe Iran’s nuclear programme may be a covert bid to make a nuclear bomb, a charge Tehran denies. The United States and Israel have not ruled out the possibility of a strike against Iranian nuclear facilities.

“We’ve heard over the news for the past few years the threats directly and indirectly from Iran of closing the Strait of Hormuz if it was attacked,” Kahwaji said.

“Countries like Qatar, the UAE, Kuwait and Bahrain and Iraq… are really blocked in if the Strait of Hormuz is closed,” he said.

“It is natural to see these countries come up with contingency plans that coincide with heightened threat perceptions” so “they would continue to be able to export their products and even import as well,” even if the strait was closed.

The UAE, a federation of seven emirates with Abu Dhabi as its capital, has good relations with Western countries, but also maintains close trade ties with Iran.

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Source: United Press International (UPI)

October 21, 2010

WASHINGTON — OPEC has been called on to make sure Iran plays “a more constructive role in the region” when it takes over the presidency, the U.S. State Department said.

Members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries during their regular meeting in Vienna last week said Iranian Oil Minister Masoud Mir Kazemi would take over the rotating presidency of the cartel in March. The OPEC presidency term is for one year.

Mark Toner, a deputy spokesman for the State Department, told reporters during his regular press briefing that OPEC members need to put pressure on Tehran.

“We would look for the other members of OPEC to remind Iran that it could play a more constructive role in the region,” he said. “And certainly, that’s probably going to be a topic of our discussions bilaterally with individual members of OPEC.”

The United States isn’t a member of OPEC, which controls oil production quotas from major oil-producing nations in an effort to influence the price of crude.

The United States and the European Union in July imposed unilateral sanctions on the Iranian energy sector because they feel Tehran isn’t cooperating with the international community in regards to its nuclear program.

Iran claims the No. 3 spot in world crude reserves.

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Source: Agence France Presse (AFP)

October 21, 2010

Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani was sentenced to death by two different courts in 2006

BERLIN — German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said Thursday that two Germans arrested in Iran who reportedly interviewed the son of a woman sentenced to death by stoning were “doing well under the circumstances”.

Westerwelle told reporters that the Germans, who have been detained since October 10, met with a representative of their embassy in Tehran, which he said was still working to secure their release.

“Following very intensive and very difficult discussions, an official at the German embassy in Tehran received consular access today to the two German citizens who are in custody in Tabriz,” Westerwelle said.

“Our fellow citizens are doing well under the circumstances. We are still doing everything we can to ensure that the two can return safe and sound to Germany as soon as possible.”

An Iranian foreign ministry spokesman had said Tuesday that Tehran granted consular access to the two Germans, who were arrested in Tabriz in the northwest of the country.

The Germans, who have not been identified, were reportedly interviewing Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, whose mother is facing death by stoning on charges of adultery.

Westerwelle last Friday asked his Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki during talks in Brussels to help secure the release of two Germans.

And a visiting parliamentary group from Germany on Monday asked Iran’s parliament speaker Ali Larijani to intervene in the case.

Iran’s public prosecutor Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie said Friday the two defendants “who came to Tabriz in cooperation with hostile groups based abroad” had admitted to having committed an offence, Iranian news agencies reported.

The Germans, who entered the Islamic republic on tourist visas, reportedly work for the Springer group in Germany. Foreign reporters need special press visas to be able to work in Iran.

Mohammadi-Ashtiani was sentenced to death by two different courts in Tabriz in separate trials in 2006.

The first death sentence, by hanging, for her involvement in the murder of her husband, was commuted to a 10-year jail term by an appeals court in 2007.

But the second, by stoning, was on a charge of adultery levelled over several relationships, notably with the man convicted of her husband’s murder, and was upheld by another appeals court the same year.

Since July, Iran has repeatedly said that the stoning sentence has been stayed pending a final decision, amid international outcry over the case.