IRAN GROK Daily News – Excerpts from International Media Reports
[Links to full articles were active on the date posted here]
Iran Says U.S. Not Yet Ready for Nuclear Disarmament [May 30]
“Iranian Majlis (Parliament) Speaker Ali Larijani criticizes the United States for its refusal to commit to a definite timetable for complete nuclear disarmament at the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference which wrapped up in New York on Friday. “They (U.S.) were not ready to have a timetable for disarmament and the treaty has been changed into a proposal,” the speaker said in a Saturday press conference held in Tehran. The 189 signatories to the NPT adopted a detailed plan of nuclear disarmament after a month of negotiations. Under its action plan, the five recognized nuclear-weapon countries — the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China — commit to speeding up arms reductions and taking other steps to diminish the importance of atomic weapons. The final document also calls for convening a conference in 2012 “on the establishment of a Middle East zone free of nuclear weapons and all other weapons of mass destruction.”..” [Complete Report]
General McChrystal Says Afghan Insurgents Trained in Iran [May 30]
“Afghan insurgents are being trained inside Iran and given weapons to fight security forces, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces said on Sunday, joining a rising drumbeat of criticism of Iran’s role in the country. General Stanley McChrystal said coalition forces were working to stop Iran from giving material help to the Taliban who have stepped up the campaign to force foreign forces out of Afghanistan in a nine-year conflict. “The training that we have seen occurs inside Iran with fighters moving inside Iran,” he said at a news conference in response to a question on Iran’s influence. “The weapons that we have received come from Iran into Afghanistan.” The United States, battling a Taliban insurgency at its worst, has frequently accused Iran of providing some assistance to insurgents in Afghanistan, although Washington says it has not been nearly as important a factor as in Iraq, Iran’s other neighbor, where U.S. troops are waging war..” [Complete Report]
China Offers Billion-Euro Loan for Iran Projects [May 30]
“Beijing has offered a loan of one billion euros (1.2 billion dollars) to fund projects in Tehran, a report said on Sunday, in a sign of increased Chinese participation in the Iranian economy. Iran’s Fars news agency, quoting a senior official from Tehran municipality, said the loan would have a repayment period of three to four years. “The one-billion-euro Chinese funding is materialising,” Hossein Mohammad Pourzarandi said, adding that the loan would be used for several construction projects, including road networks, undertaken by the municipality. In recent years China has emerged as Iran’s main trading partner, with increased exposures in key economic sectors of the Islamic republic, including oil. Several Western energy companies have left Iran amid the increasing possibility of a new round of UN sanctions against Tehran for pursuing its controversial nuclear programme of uranium enrichment..” [Complete Report]
Iran Opposition Not Dead, Mousavi Says Before Vote Anniversary [May 30]
” Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi said the country’s opposition movement is not dead and will continue its “fight for freedom and justice,” as Iran nears the one-year anniversary of the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. “The Green Movement is a current that will neither be stopped by jailing and threatening nor by killing people,” Mousavi said in a statement late yesterday on his website, Kaleme, referring to the broad coalition born out of the protests that followed the June 12 election, which it claims was rigged. “This movement takes over the four seasons, it renews and expresses itself in various ways,” said Mousavi, a former prime minister who ran against Ahmadinejad. Mousavi and Mehdi Karrubi, another former presidential candidate and opposition leader, have called on supporters to attend a protest rally on the anniversary should the government grant permission for it..” [Complete Report]
