Russia and Iran maintain a cooperative/competitive arrangement. The countries discussed in the following text are also being courted by the United States and China. One reason the United States is trying to gain influence in the region is to install missile defense bases in order to contain Iran. #msg-3534540 #msg-3972175
Note on Armenia:
Watch for Bush to keep troops in Iraq and a concentrated effort to bring Armenia under U.S. dominance thus securing Iran’s northern border. #msg-3912582
In 1997, Armenia and Russia signed a friendship treaty, under which they provided for mutual assistance in the event of a military threat to either party. The pact also allows Russian border guards to patrol Armenia’s frontiers with Turkey and Iran. #msg-3912582
Currently, there are 2,500 Russian military personnel stationed in the country. Recent military materiel shipped to Armenia includes MiG-29 jetfighters and S300 PMU1 air defense batteries, an advanced version of the SA-10C Grumble air defense missile. Russia’s Federal Border Guard Service is also deployed to guard Armenia’s borders with Turkey and Iran. http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav091404.shtml
-Am
Ayatollahs play in Russia's backyard By Sergei Blagov
September 16, 2004
MOSCOW - Amid growing Western pressure over Iran's nuclear ambitions, Tehran is losing no time in boosting its clout north of its frontiers. Furthermore, Iranian President Mohammad Khatami toured three former Soviet states when their former "big brother", Russia, was distracted by terrorist attacks and domestic political reforms.
During a three-day official visit to Tajik capital Dushanbe this week, Khatami and his counterpart President Emomali Rakhmonov discussed energy and infrastructure projects. The two nations also clinched a deal to launch a joint venture that would finalize construction of the 670-megawatt Sangtudin hydropower station in Tajikistan.
Last December, Tajikistan and Iran agreed to launch a consortium to raise funds to complete the Sangtudin plant. On Monday, Rakhmonov said Iran would bear 51% of the total construction cost, estimated at about US$500 million. Forty-nine percent of the project is to be funded by Tajikistan and other countries, including Russia. Moscow has put up $100 million for the project.
Khatami is also reported to have observed the construction site of the five-kilometer-long Anzub Tunnel crossing the Gissar mountain range, which is slated to be part of a highway project to link Tajikistan and Iran via northern Afghanistan. The tunnel is being built by Iranian firm Sobir, which won an international tender by pledging to complete construction by the end of 2006 for $39 million. The 110km road from Iran to Herat, Afghanistan, has already been built. Khatami also pledged that Iran would invest more than $700 million in the Tajik economy in the coming five years.
Subsequently, Iran's leader opted to come up with some diplomatic overtures toward Moscow. On Sunday, Khatami told journalists in Dushanbe that cooperation with Russia had benefited the region. He hailed Iran's nuclear plant deal with Moscow, and lauded Russia for continued ties with Iran, despite US pressure. "We need cooperation with Russia for safeguarding stability in Central Asia, the Caspian and Caucasus regions," Khatami was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying.
Nevertheless, Khatami's tour of the former Soviet states could be viewed as Tehran's attempt to poach a territory still considered by Moscow as "near abroad", at a time when Russia is overwhelmed by its terrorist outbreaks.
From last Thursday to Saturday, Khatami visited Belarus, where he met with President Alexander Lukashenko, Prime Minister Sergei Sidorsky and other top Belarusian officials. Iran has close relations with Belarus, which is regularly under verbal attack from the West for the authoritarian regime of Lukashenko. Russia has also been struggling to create a "union state" with Belarus. And despite Western criticism, Belarus sold Russian-made conventional military equipment and spare parts to Iran.
While in Belarus, Khatami took the opportunity to criticize the US-led "war on terror", saying that "crises and tensions in the Middle East only serve the illegitimate interests of outsiders", and that "countries that prevent others from living in peace" in their homelands are the real members of the "axis of evil". He also claimed that "injustice and discrimination" were the causes of terrorism.
"Those who illegally occupy land belonging to others and those who fuel chaos and extremism worldwide are the main components of the axis of evil," Khatami said. Leaving no doubt whom he bore in mind, Khatami also lashed out at "the Zionist regime".
Top Belarus officials told Khatami that they shared Iran's opposition to unilateralism and believe that countries that label others as members of the "axis of evil" do so just to pursue their own interests. Incidentally, some years ago, Lukashenko gained international notoriety by suggesting that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler had certain merits for restoring order in Germany and making the economy grow.
Prior to the Belarus visit, on September 8-9, Khatami traveled to yet another former Soviet state, Armenia, mainly driven by economic reasons. Khatami and his Armenian counterpart Robert Kocharian signed a framework treaty on the "principles and bases" of bilateral relations. They also formalized the release of a $30 million Iranian loan to Armenia, to be used for construction of a gas pipeline that will link the two neighboring countries. The construction of the Armenian section of its gas pipeline with Iran is expected to begin by the end of next month. Iranian company Sanir is to become a subcontractor for the project.
Hence Armenia is limiting its dependence on Russian energy supplies. In May, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh traveled to Armenia and signed an agreement on the construction of the 114km Iran-Armenia gas pipeline that would cost $120 million. Iran reportedly agreed to supply 1.27 trillion cubic feet (36 billion cubic meters) to Armenia from 2007-27.
The Iran-Armenia pipeline could also be extended through Georgia to Ukraine and on to the European Union. The Iran-Armenia-Georgia-Ukraine-Europe gas pipeline, with a 550km underwater section from the Georgian port of Supsa to the Crimean town of Feodosia, has been estimated to cost $5 billion. The planned gas supply would amount to 2.12 trillion cubic feet (60 billion cubic meters) per annum, including 353 billion cubic feet (10 billion cubic meters) for Ukraine.
Russia has been wary that Armenia's extended pipeline could be used to funnel Iranian gas to European markets. It could also allow Turkmenistan to circumvent Russia's gas-pipeline network. Presumably fearing Moscow's wrath, Armenia is yet to make a decision on the extended pipeline.
Meanwhile, Russia has reiterated its proactive approach in the "near abroad". Last Thursday, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated that Russia is ready to face Western competition in the former Soviet states. "Our world is being globalized and one need learn to compete," he told Voice of Russia Radio. "We have to defend our line in the pursuit of energy and other natural resources, we have capabilities for it," Lavrov said.
It remains to be seen, however, whether Russia is prepared to face non-Western competition, such as Iran.
Sergei Blagov covers Russia and post-Soviet states, with special attention to Asia-related issues. He has contributed to Asia Times Online since 1996. Between 1983 and 1997, he was based in Southeast Asia. In 2001 and 2002, Nova Science Publishers, New York, published two of his books on Vietnamese history.
(Copyright 2004 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact content@atimes.com for information on our sales and syndication policies.)
Although the MKO was designated a "foreign terrorist organization" by the US State Department in 1997, and it retains that status some US commentators have recommended using the MKO against Iran, citing concerns about Iranian activities in Iraq. A recent example is the commentary by Fox News military analysts Thomas McInerney and Paul Vallely in The Wall Street Journal on September 8. Citing former MKO spokesman Alireza Jafarzadeh as an "Iranian expert", they wrote that it is time to create an "armed resistance movement" by removing the MKO from the terrorist list. "It's time to rearm [MKO's] 4,000 trained fighters."
Using terrorists for the self-interests of Washington is something in which Bush is highly practiced. In the same manner Bush’s thinker, Perle, believes the overthrow of the government in Iran could be bloodless as in using a terrorist organization such as MKO. Bloodless does not take into account any injuries or deaths inflicted on foreigners. "There may be ways to get other resources to opponents," he said. If not support or propaganda other resources would most probably refer to weaponry.
"We should be doing everything we can to encourage the centrifugal forces" of change there. - Perle
-Am
Iranian Mujahideen at the crossroads By Bill Samii
September 30, 2004
Demonstrations against perceived US injustices are nothing new in Iran. The demonstration that took place on September 9 in front of the US interests section of the Swiss Embassy in Tehran, however, was different. This time, relatives of Iranian oppositionists who are based in Iraq were demanding help from the US and the International Committee of the Red Cross in getting information about their family members, according to media reports. The oppositionists - members of the Mujahideen Khalq Organization (MKO or MEK) - are located at Camp Ashraf, which is some 100 kilometers north of Baghdad.
The MKO was designated a "foreign terrorist organization" by the US State Department in 1997, and it retains that status. The MKO is known by a number of other names, including the National Liberation Army of Iran (the militant wing of MKO), the People's Mujahideen of Iran, the National Council of Resistance, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, and the Muslim Iranian Student's Society (a front organization used to garner financial support). The European Union (EU) designated the MKO's military wing as a terrorist organization in May 2002.
The MKO was created in the 1960s and its ideology combines Islam and Marxism. It was involved with anti-US terrorism in the 1970s, and it initially supported the 1978-79 Islamic revolution in Iran. In June 1981, it staged an unsuccessful uprising against the Islamic regime; many members were imprisoned while others fled the country.
The MKO transitioned from being a "mass movement" in 1981 to having "all the main attributes of a cult" by mid-1987, Ervand Abrahamian wrote in his book Radical Islam: The Iranian Mojahedin (1989). It referred to its head, Masud Rajavi, as the rahbar (leader) and imam-i hal (present imam), had a rigid hierarchy, created its own vocabulary, and had its own calendar.
After being run out of Iran, the MKO launched a number of attacks against the regime leadership: a 1981 bombing killed president Mohammad Ali Rajai and prime minister Mohammad Javad Bahonar, in 1992 it attacked 13 Iranian embassies, and it is behind other mortar attacks and assassination attempts in Iran.
Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein granted the MKO refuge in Iraq, and from there the organization fought Iranian forces in the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s. Hundreds of MKO members reportedly died in the July 1988 Foruq-i Javidan military operation against Iran. The MKO helped suppress the 1991 Shi'ite uprisings in southern Iraq and Kurds in the north.
But Operation Iraqi Freedom brought the MKO's idyll to an end. US and British aircraft bombed MKO bases in late March 2003 and again in early April. On May 10, the MKO agreed to turn over its weapons to US forces. As these events were taking place, there was speculation that the Iranian military would strike at MKO bases. It did not do so, and Tehran offered an amnesty instead.
Ahmad Rahimi, spokesman for Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security, said in a March 28, 2003 telephone interview with Dubai-based al-Arabiyah television that members of MKO could come back to Iran if they voiced regret for their "crimes" against the Islamic Republic, media reported. "The Islamic Republic of Iran, out of pity, gave them this new chance," Rahimi said. "We guarantee their life and will not arrest them, although there are some people who committed special crimes inside and outside Iran. If they voice regret for what they did and do not repeat these mistakes, then we will help them solve the problem and lead a respectable life in their country," he added.
Other Iranian officials repeated the amnesty offer throughout the year. Intelligence and Security Minister Hojatoleslam Ali Yunesi said on April 5 that 100 MKO members had returned to Iran already, the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported, and he urged others to return and live a normal life. Yunesi added during a May 10 press conference that many MKO members had returned to Iran and provided the government with information. Government spokesman Abdullah Ramezanzadeh said on June 23, 2003 that Iran would treat any returning MKO members with "Islamic compassion" and he stressed that they would not encounter any problems in Iran, IRNA reported. President Mohammad Khatami expressed similar sentiments in Geneva on December 11, 2003.
The offer did not apply to MKO leaders, however. "Monafeqin [hypocrites; MKO] ringleaders who have directly been involved in terrorist operations and crimes against the Iranian people" are not eligible for the amnesty, Ramezanzadeh added.
The Iraqi Governing Council, furthermore, announced in December 2003 that all MKO members would have to leave Iraq by the end of the month. The expulsions never occurred, and the occupation forces in Iraq were not clear on how to deal with the MKO. In July 2004, MKO members in Iraq were granted "protected status" under the Geneva Conventions. It is not clear, furthermore, how many MKO members took advantage of the Iranian amnesty offer, nor is it clear how they are being treated.
The case of two MKO members who were forcibly returned to Iran from Syria could be instructive. Damascus sent Ebrahim Khodabandeh and Jamil Bassam to Iran on June 12, 2003. During a February 2004 trip to Iran, Baroness Emma Nicholson, deputy chairwoman of the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, saw the two men. She reported that they were in good health and had no complaints about their treatment, but were still awaiting trial. Nicholson met with Khodabandeh again in Tehran in March. The MKO dismissed her comments as lies and said the men were being tortured and faced execution.
Ann Singleton, author of a book on the MKO entitled Saddam's Private Army, wrote in June that she and British members of parliament Sir Teddy Taylor and Win Griffiths, an independent British reporter, and two Iranian lawyers met with Khodabandeh and Bassam in Tehran's Evin prison. Khodabandeh told the visitors that he would not return to the MKO. Bassam said he still regarded himself as an MKO member.
An imprisoned former MKO member, Arash Sametipur, was quoted in The Christian Science Monitor on December 31, 2003 that the organization is "a mixture of Mao and Marxism, and leader [Masud] Rajavi acts like Stalin". Another former MKO member, Hora Shalchi, told the newspaper that the organization's leadership promised that the Iranian people would welcome her actions, but a mob chased her down when her mortar attack on a military base went awry. "We weren't accepted by anybody," Shalchi added. "There was no support." Both said that the Iranian government does not consider the MKO a serious threat, and the executions that MKO told them to expect never took place. According to the many people interviewed by The Christian Science Monitor, imprisoned MKO members are treated like people who need help.
Yet this was not always the case, and MKO warnings were based on fact. Many MKO members who were imprisoned in the early 1980s were tortured into recanting, Ervand Abrahamian wrote in his Tortured Confessions (1999). Furthermore, in early or mid-1988, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued an order establishing special commissions tasked with executing imprisoned mujahideen as muharib (at war with God) and leftists as mortad (apostates from Islam). In July 1988, the commissions began isolating and questioning the imprisoned MKO members and executing the unrepentant ones. The total number of executed mujahideen is estimated to be in the thousands. The mass executions stopped in less than a year and the logic behind them is not known, but Abrahamian wrote that this was Khomeini's way of testing the dedication of regime supporters. Others linked the executions with the MKO's unsuccessful July 1988 attack on Iran. And if executions became less commonplace, the use of torture did not.
In 1989 the regime gave amnesty to many political prisoners. It produced one high-ranking MKO member, Said Shahsavandi, who in television interviews, lectures and open letters denounced the MKO and accused its leadership of imprisoning, torturing and executing dissidents. Shahsavandi traveled to Europe to deliver the same message. The MKO has denounced Shahsavandi for alleged involvement in the torture and execution of MKO members.
This policy of granting amnesties reflected a new regime tactic rather than a sense of mercy. The regime sought to portray the MKO as "the principal violators of human rights in Iran", Reza Afshari wrote in Human Rights in Iran (2001). Moreover, it tried to portray itself as a defender of human rights. The regime subsequently trotted out allegedly repentant MKO members, as well as relatives of individuals who allegedly died at the MKO's hands, when United Nations human rights investigators visited Iran.
As of late September, the future of the MKO is unclear. Iraqis continue to have suspicions about the organization. Baghdad's al-Mutamar reported on July 31 that people in Diyala governorate suspect the MKO is "fomenting the ongoing struggle between the new Iraqi government and the armed terrorist groups", and others suspect that Ba'athist officials are hiding in Camp Ashraf. The newspaper added that the MKO is not confined to Camp Ashraf and also runs Camp Habib, 35 kilometers north of Basra; Camp Homayun and Camp Muzarmi, near the city of Amara; Camp Fayzah, near Kut; Camp Ulwi, near Miqdadiya; Camp Anzali, near Jalul; and "scores" of offices and safehouses in Baghdad, Basra and Diyala.
Some US commentators have recommended using the MKO against Iran, citing concerns about Iranian activities in Iraq. A recent example is the commentary by Fox News military analysts Thomas McInerney and Paul Vallely in The Wall Street Journal on September 8. Citing former MKO spokesman Alireza Jafarzadeh as an "Iranian expert", they wrote that it is time to create an "armed resistance movement" by removing the MKO from the terrorist list. "It's time to rearm [MKO's] 4,000 trained fighters."
Regardless of Iranians' disgust for this organization, such calls have some resonance in Iran. Jomhuri-yi Islami claimed in an August 5 commentary that an arms shipment seized at the Iranian border was somehow connected with MKO activities, US hostility, and Iraqi claims about Iranian interference.
The MKO, meanwhile, continues its activities against the Iranian government. Approximately 5,000 of its supporters demonstrated in Brussels on September 13 as EU foreign ministers discussed Iran, Agence-France Presse reported. The so-called International Committee for the Support of Victims of MKO condemned the Belgian decision to permit this rally, IRNA reported. The committee said in a letter to Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel that the MKO recruited Afghans and other refugees to participate in the rally by paying for their food and accommodation.
Bill Samii is a regional analysis coordinator with RFE/RL Online and editor of the RFE/RL Iran Report. He earned his PhD at the University of Cambridge. His research articles have appeared in the Middle East Journal, Middle East Policy, and the Middle East Review of International Affairs Journal. He has contributed to several books about the Middle East.
Reference: Behind a recent, highly controversial indictment by the US Department of Justice, the administration of President George W Bush is maneuvering to revive military ties with the Indonesian armed forces (TNI, for Tentara Nasional Indonesia), one of the world's most oppressive institutions.
In fact Bush is so great a patron of terrorism he is proposing the use of taxpayer money to fund the terrorist organization, AUC. #msg-3967170
He is also backing the separatists and the establishment of a Uighur Government-in-Exile in Washington which is an attack on the sovereignty of China. #msg-4098311
The Uighur situation is extremely reminiscent of Bush harboring the Chechen terrorist Akhmadov, an accomplice of Basayev whose bloody trail has lead to the heinous attack in Beslan resulting in the deaths of a large number of Russian school children, an attack in which Bush must share blame. #msg-4031479 #msg-3986860 #msg-3953878 #msg-3967170 #msg-4106028
Next on Perle's list would be Iran.
"It's part of the problem, not part of the solution," he said. Perle's approach to Tehran would be different. He asserts the people of Iran are increasingly disaffected toward their government and favorable to the United States. That instinct could be "encouraged" with propaganda and support to political opposition groups.
"There may be ways to get other resources to opponents," he said.
Perle believes the overthrow of the government in Iran could be bloodless.
"We should be doing everything we can to encourage the centrifugal forces" of change there.
Perle said the United States should then turn its attention to longtime allies, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. – excerpt: Top Bush Adviser: 'Get Saddam Out Violently', NewsMax.com
Russia will resume nukes cooperation with Iran 10/7/2004 1:00:00 PM GMT
Iran's Bushehr nuclear power reactor under construction in southwestern Iran.
Russia will resume its nukes cooperation with Iran, a top Russian official said Thursday, despite international pressures on Tehran over its nuclear program.
"We have been cooperating and will continue to cooperate with Iran in the peaceful usage of nuclear energy," Interfax news agency quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Alexeyev as saying.
"It does not matter if there is pressure or not, but it does matter that we will comply with all legal commitments in cooperation with Iran."
Russia is completing work on an $800 million deal to construct a nuclear facility at Bushehr in southern Iran.
The U.S. and Israel claim that Iran is secretly developing nuclear weapons. Iran denies the allegations and insists that its program is mainly aimed at the peaceful generation of electricity.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has been investigating Iran’s nuclear activities for almost two decades.
Last week, IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said that Iran is not developing any nuclear weapons program and that the issue of Iran’s nuclear file must be resolved diplomatically to avoid going through a similar bitter experience like Iraq.
Russia has repeatedly stressed that Iran has the right to develop a peaceful nuclear energy program, but it had urged Iran to voluntarily suspend all activities related to uranium enrichment as a goodwill gesture.
U.S. possesses 200 nuclear air bombs in Western Europe
The American administration is worried about the deployment of nukes in Russia's Kaliningrad region, whereas Russia denies the nuclear presence in the region and reminds Washington of the 200 B-51 nuclear air bombs it possesses in Western Europe.
The Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control, Stephen Rademaker, said that the U.S. administration is seriously concerned with Russia's failure to reduce tactical nuclear weapons in Europe.
The United States announced in 1991 that the American tactical nuclear weapons in Europe would be considerably reduced. At the same time, Russian President Boris Yeltsin said that he would reduce nuclear arms, but the U.S. administration believes that Russia failed to fulfill its commitments.
Rademaker said that U.S. specialists suspect that many Russian companies are providing assistance to Iran in the development of long-range missiles. He noted that Iran possesses 2,000-kilometer distant missiles, which cannot reach the USA but warned that the range could be increased in the future.
Rademaker's statements have probably been timed to the upcoming visit of the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to Iran. The visit is planned for October 10-11 and the talks will focus on the nuclear cooperation between Iran and Russia.
The Russian Foreign Ministry did not comment on Rademaker's statements.
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