A majority of Iranian lawmakers have approved a bill that will fund a program intended to expose "breaches of human rights" in the US.
In a vote on Sunday, the parliamentarians voted by a margin of 189 to 21 to pass the bill which will allocate $20 million toward the efforts, reported the Iranian Labor News Agency.
"The Americans have repeatedly approved measures to assist Iranian opposition, especially recently [they approved] a $55-million allocation by the US Senate," said Alaeddin Boroujerdi, who head the influential Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee.
The new law consists of a single article, which stipulates: "To counter the unfair restrictions imposed by the United States and other Western powers in the arena of information technology, and in order to expose the numerous and increasing instances of breaches of human rights and to defend legal trends that stand against that country's methods, the sum of $20 million is allocated from the currency reserves fund."
In defending the measure, Boroujerdi called it "necessary" and said: "We must respond in kind to America's injustice and tyranny and the interference of this country against Iran."
"With the allocation of this budget," the senior lawmaker said. "We will show to the world that Iran's Majlis is active as a defender of the rights of the nation in the face of US greed."
An Iranian lawmaker brands the latest remarks by Angela Merkel regarding energy sanctions against Iran as part of the Western psychological warfare against the country.
"Those who are vulnerable and in need are the Europeans as their companies could not do without Persian Gulf petroleum should they seek to materialize their plans as they have done before," member of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission at the Iranian Majlis (Parliament), Mohammad Karami Raad, told Fars News Agency on Saturday.
The parliamentarian noted that the German Chancellor Angela Merkel had sought to gain herself some more votes in the forthcoming general elections through her irrelevant remarks.
Karami Raad also stressed that the West is well-informed of Iran's civilian nuclear activities, and documents prove no irregularities in the country's nuclear program. He said the Majlis (Parliament) will therefore assess Merkel's comments and accordingly review future Tehran-Berlin relations.
"If there is no progress, we would have to react with further sanctions," Merkel told the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
"What is clear is that Tehran, whose president constantly questions Israel's right to exist, must not get the atomic bomb," she said.
She noted that the six powers attempting to convince Iran to abandon sensitive nuclear work -- Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States -- would gather in September to discuss how to ratchet up pressure.
"I don't want to preempt the talks but economic sanctions dealing with the energy sector are on the table but we must wait to see what comes of the talks. We must also speak about them (possible sanctions) with our partners Russia and China."
Israel, the US and their European allies -- Britain, France and Germany -- accuse Iran of covertly seeking to build nuclear weapons, an allegation that Tehran vehemently denies.
The Islamic Republic of Iran insists its nuclear activities are merely aimed at using the civilian applications of the technology and generating electricity in a bid to meet its soaring energy demands.
While most Iranians are forced to negotiate a maze of regulations, paperwork and excessive collaterals for small home loans, 90 persons have managed to secure collective facilities totaling $8 billion from banks.
In a wide-ranging interview reported in the Etemaad newspaper on Saturday, a member of the Majlis (Iran's parliament) Planning and Budget Committee, Musa al-Reza Sarvati, disclosed the information.
He criticized various aspects of the government's economic policies, especially those that govern banking.
"Among the major causes of corruption in the banking sector is their being state-owned. Because state banks provide loans at 12 percent whereas the market rate is 24-25 percent, while most of these facilities are given to individuals who provide special fringe benefits for the banks themselves," Sarvati said.
"The resulting pressure from this contradiction adversely affects those who need far smaller facilities," he added.
"At present, banks have $27 billion unpaid, outstanding loans, which they cannot collect, while a delegate from our committee to the Financial Corruption Panel has reported that $8 billion worth of loans have been given to 90 people," he explained. "Through a rough calculation, we find that this is about $90 million per person."
"This is while no action has been taken about the repayments of these loans to the banks at all," Sarvati concluded.
Pointing to the huge increase in the money supply during the first term of President Ahmadinejad, Sarvati went on to say that, "increasing the money supply is a result of wrong financial and monetary policies."
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08/24/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
In other news, ZANU-PF loots gadzillions, bank-notes too expensive to print with all them zeros. I guess the 25% interest, (haram?), makes up for a lot of bad debt, but still leaves a short-fall, kaffir style.
Ah, the Islamic world of Kaffirdom.
[Bangla Daily Star] Iran yesterday accused Argentina of meddling in its domestic affairs after the south American country expressed outrage at the nomination of a man wanted for a 1994 bombing to be the next defence minister.
"The positions taken by Argentine officials obviously amount to meddling in the domestic affairs of the Islamic Republic and we strongly condemn these illegal actions," Iran's official IRNA news agency quoted foreign ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi as saying.
On Friday, Argentina strongly criticised Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's decision to put forward Ahmad Vahidi as defence minister in his new 21-member cabinet.
Vahidi is wanted by Argentina in connection with a 1994 bombing in Buenos Aires which levelled the seven-floor Argentine Jewish Mutual Association building, killing 85 people and wounded 300.
It was the worst terrorist attack in Argentina, which has the largest Jewish community in the Americas outside the United States, and the second large-scale anti-Jewish strike in Buenos Aires that decade.
In 2007, Interpol issued what it calls a Red Notice on Vahidi, a former head of Al Qods, an elite unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps. Under the notice, Interpol distributed Argentina's arrest warrant for Vahidi to member countries.
Ghashghavi said Argentina's stand against Vahidi was a result of "pressure, bribes and propaganda by Zionist lobbies."
"It is an insult to the intelligence of the people of Argentina."
Argentina's condemnation has cast further doubt on Ahmadinejad's cabinet nominations, some of which face stiff opposition from Iranian lawmakers.
Argentine prosecutors allege Iran masterminded the bombing in Buenos Aires and entrusted the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah to execute it.
In November 2006, Argentine prosecutors issued arrest warrants against several Iranians, including former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and former foreign minister Ali Akbar Velayati.
But Interpol's executive committee later withdrew warrants against Rafsanjani, Velayati and another Iranian.
Iranian lawmakers are set to vote on Ahmadinejad's cabinet line-up over a three-day period starting August 30.
Continued on Page 47
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08/24/2009 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
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