Summary of Iran Stories in Today's BroadcastsBehnam NateghiFriday, March 14, 2003
<b>Russia Urges Iran to Agree to Unannounced IAEA Inspections of Atomic Sites</b>
* One day after US President George Bush declared that the Islamic regime posed an "unusual and extraordinary threat" and renewed sanctions barring US firms and citizens from oil dealings with Iran, Russian deputy foreign minister Georgy Mamedov told Iranian ambassador to Moscow on Friday that Iran should comply with all international agreements on nuclear disarmament, including the supplemental protocol that IAEA director Muhammad Elbaradei had asked Iran to sign during his visit to Tehran two weeks ago. (Nazai Azima)
* Russian atomic energy minister Alexander Rumyantsev said today that the shipment of atomic fuel for Bushehr nuclear power plant would not be shipped next May, as had been scheduled. (Maryam Ahmadi)
<b>Family Has No News of Jailed Dissident Shaoleh Sa'adi</b>
* Wife of Qasem Shoaleh Sa'adi, who was arrested three weeks ago at the Tehran airport, as he was returning home from a trip to Paris, tells <b>Radio Farda</b> that she has not been permitted to visit her husband in jail since his arrest. She adds that Shoaleh Sa'adi may have gone on hunger strike to protest his captivity. Shoaleh Sa'adi issued a widely distributed statement, two months before his arrest, in which he attacked the policies of the Supreme Leader, and questioned the Supreme Leader's qualification as a religious source of emulation, a constitutional requirement of the job. (Siavash Ardalan)
<b>Tehran Youth Use Shiite Mourning Ceremonies to Mingle</b>
* As mourning ceremonies, marches and wakes were being held across Iran on the anniversary of the death of the Shiite's third Imam, Hussein-ibn-Ali, a centerpiece of the Shiite mythology, young Tehranis took advantage of the carnival atmosphere in the city and came out in droves to form impromptu coed parties on street corners, crowded squares and circles of northern Tehran, according to Tehran-based journalist Shayan Jaberi, who tells <b>Radio Farda</b> that young boys and girls used the occasion to exchange of phone numbers and addresses with newfound friends, in defiance of the Islamic ban against any social contact between sexes. (Siavash Ardalan)
* New York-based economy professor and author Behzad Yaghmaian tells <b>Radio Farda</b> that in his book <i>Social Change in Iran</i>, published by the New York State University Press, he has devoted a chapter to the Tehran youth's subversion of religious mourning ceremony into a cheerful, city-wide co-ed party. (Behnam Nateghi, New York)
<b>Radio Farda Roundtable: The Impact of Iraq War on US-Iran Relations</b>
* Geneva-based monarchist and former minister of information and tourism under the Shah Dariush Homayoun; Berlin-based nationalist activist Ahmad Tahmasbi, a former Tehran Melli University political science professor; and Mohsen Sazegara, secretary-general of the new dissident "national coalition of freedom-seekers," comment on the impact of the possible US war to disarm Iraq on the US policy towards the Islamic regime. (Amir-Mosaddegh Katouzian)
<b>The Week in Review</b>
* <b>Radio Farda</b> reviews the events of the week in its weekly half-hour program. (Amir-Mosaddegh Katouzian)
<b>IRGC to Prosecute Basij Unit Members Unauthorized Enforcing Islamic Code</b>
* In an unusual move, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) that its would prosecute members of its volunteer unit Basij for unauthorized enforcing of Islamic rules against drinking alcohol and social contact between opposite sexes. Tehran-based lawyer Nemat Ahmadi tells <b>Radio Farda</b> that violent public resistance against the individual Basij members led to squabbles that in some cases turned fatal. He adds that the Basij members used the enforcing of Islamic code as an excuse to wield power and arrest citizens. (Siavash Ardalan)
<b>British MP Urges International Support for Iran on Iraqi Refugees</b>
* MP Tony Baldry, head of the British parliament's select committee on refugees, tells <b>Radio Farda</b> that Iran cannot be expected to shoulder the entire burden of the refugees from the possible US war against Iraq. (Shahran Tabari, London)
روسيه در آنچه به نظر مي‌آيد تغيير موضع اين کشور در مورد همکاري‌هاي هسته‌اي‌اش با ايران باشد از جمهوري اسلامي خواست آنگونه که آمريکا درخواست کرده، به بازرسي هاي فشرده تر و غير مترقبه بازرسان بين المللي از تاسيسات اتمي خود تن دهد. ديدار امروز گیورگی ممداف، معاون وزير امور خارجه روسيه با غلامرضا شافعي، سفير ايران در مسکو، يک روز پس از آن صورت گرفت که جرج بوش رئيس جمهوري آمريکا، ايران را تهديدي نامعمول و خارق‌العاده توصيف کرد و مجازات‌هاي تحريم نفتي نسبت به ايران را بار ديگر تمديد کرد. ممداف امضاي پروتكل هاي الحاقي سازمان انرژي اتمي را كه بازرسي هاي سرزده را مجاز مي سازد، يادآور شد.
