Top Iran cleric says British Embassy staff to go on trial

Brushing aside British and European efforts to seek the release of local British Embassy staff members held in Tehran, the Iranian authorities indicated on Friday that they planned to put some of them on trial — a move that could deepen a crisis in diplomatic relations with the European Union and provoke withdrawal of ambassadors.

In London, the Foreign Office said it was urgently checking reports that the Iranian authorities planned to put two of its local employees on trial.

Nine staff members were seized after the unrest sparked by Iran’s disputed presidential elections on June 12, and as many as eight of them were subsequently reported to have been released. But the precise number still detained was not clear.

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Iran tests missile that can hit Israel base

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday Iran had tested a missile that defence analysts say could hit Israel and US bases in the Gulf — a move likely to fuel Western concern about Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.

Ahmadinejad announced the test on the same day campaigning for the June 12 presidential election officially started. A US Defence official also confirmed the launch.

One Western expert saw the missile test as Iran’s response to the Israeli Prime Minister’s US visit this week.

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Egypt attacks Iran, allies in Arab world

Egypt aired its grievances against Iran, the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas and the Lebanese Shi’ite group Hezbollah, saying they worked together in the fighting over Gaza to provoke conflict in West Asia.

“(They tried) to turn the region to confrontation in the interest of Iran, which is trying to use its cards to escape Western pressure... on the nuclear file,” Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said in an interview with Orbit satellite channel broadcast on Wednesday.

Aboul Gheit also said that Egypt undermined Qatar’s attempts to arrange a formal Arab summit on Gaza earlier this month, arguing that it would have damaged “joint Arab action”.

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Drop Iran gas transit fee or we walk out IPI

New Delhi plans to issue an ultimatum to Islamabad on the proposed Iran-Pakistan-Indian at- rural gas pipeline later this week: drop transit fee or else India may exit the project.

Murli Deora's brief for talks with his Pakistani counterpart Khwaja Muhammad Asif on April 25 is succinct: "If transit fee is further added on to the already high cost of gas, the whole project might become unattractive for India as it would result in unacceptably high levels of rate of power. So any loading of transit fees by Pakistan on India might literally be the last straw on the camel's back and then India might have to reconsider its continued involvement in the project."

The confrontational stance was phrased after a meeting of the technical teams of both sides at Islamabad on April 16-17 where Pakistan stuck to its demand that India pay 10 per cent of the gas price as transit fees. India's position was that the fee be "nominal" considering the value it brought into the project by its participation.

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On bumpy nuclear-deal road, UPA switches on Left indicator

A Head of a Left-UPA meeting on the nuclear deal that coincides with sessions of the IAEA Board of Govenors and the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the Government is clearly trying to signal to its Left allies that it has not, as they have accused, bartered away its "independent foreign policy."

That signal is not so subtly couched in a series of carefully chosen steps which today included an unusually strong rebuff to Washington for commenting on the April 29 visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. And the cancellation of a joint media interaction on Konkan 2008, the Indo-UK joint naval exercise that gets underway the same day Ahmadinejad is in India. Significantly, USS Cole is in Indian waters as an observer.

"India and Iran are ancient civilizations whose relations span centuries.Both nations are perfectly capable of managing all aspects of their relationship with the appropriate degree of care and attention...Neither country needs any guidance on the future conduct of bilateral relations as both countries believe that engagement and dialogue alone lead to peace," said the MEA spokesperson in response to queries on remarks made in Washington last evening.

During the daily press interaction, US Department of State spokesperson, asked about Ahmadinejad's visit to India, said: "We would hope that the Indian Government or any government that was engaging with the Iranians, including with President Ahmadinejad, would call on him to meet the requirements that the Security Council and the international community has placed on him in terms of suspending their uranium enrichment activities and complying with the other requirements regarding their nuclear programme.

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Pak ready to lower transit fee for Iran gas to India

Ministers had expressed their keenness to put the pipeline project on stream as negotiations between the three countries have been stalled because of differences between Islamabad and New Delhi over transport and transit fee to be charged from India.

The trilateral has to be preceded by the bilateral meeting, but three fixtures were deferred due to the political conditions in Pakistan.

At the fourth bilateral in February 2007, Pakistan sought $1.57 per million British thermal unit (mBTU) for supply of gas over 1,035 km pipeline it would lay in Pakistan. India, using estimates prepared by consultant Gaffney Cline & Associates, offered a transmission charge of $0.69 per mBtu.

As for the transit fee, Pakistan wants it pegged at 10 per cent of the delivered price of gas to India which says it would pay 5 per..

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Image and Article source: Indian Express
Article taken from the issue: 4 Feb 2008