Progress Demands Holistic Approach

Compiled by Mohammad Fazaeli

The Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei says recovering from the historic and enemy-imposed intellectual and scientific backwardness, demands hard work and sincere effort by those in charge, the elite and intellectuals.
In a meeting with young scholars in Tehran on Wednesday, he described science as the backbone of Iran’s prowess. “Authorities, scholars and intellectuals as well as respectable Iranians should work very hard to compensate the scientific backwardness that has been imposed on the country by the enemies for so many years,” www.leader.ir reported.
Ayatollah Khamenei pointed to the scientific achievements by Iranians in the past decade and said the successes are a sign of the youths’ talents that have augmented hope in a brighter future for the nation.
“While keeping up our hopes, we must rely on our own capabilities and without wasting time, we should work closer together to accelerate the pace of development and growth,” the Leader noted.
He referred to achievements namely in nuclear energy, stem cells, nanotechnology and environmental techniques and said, “To extend such advances to other fields, we need to create a holistic system to spread and nurture knowledge.”
Achieving the lofty goals of science and progress demands untiring efforts by all sections of the society, particularly the elite and scholars, he told the visitors. He urged heads of universities and those in charge of higher education to pay “special attention” to the higher centers of learning as places where talent is trained and identified.
The Leader said fulfilling the needs of intellectuals and providing them the “hardware and software” they require is the best way to support them. “Scholars are working to move the country forward…the necessary grounds must be created” their efforts”.
Iran has a different view and vision compared to West when it talks about scientific progress, growth and development, the Leader was quoted as saying.
He recalled the disasters caused by the West on its path toward scientific progress.
“The West’s main aim in scientific advancement was to acquire wealth…On this path they never were committed to moral values nor respected the rights and beliefs of other nations in the Indian peninsula, Africa, East Asia or Latin America.”

Karzai Gov’t, Taliban in Peace Talks

The Taliban and the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai have begun high-level talks over a negotiated end to the war in the country, the Washington Post said.
Citing unnamed Afghan and Arab sources, the Post said the talks are believed, for the first time, to involve representatives authorized by the Quetta Shura, the Afghan Taliban group based in Pakistan, and Taliban leader Mohammad Omar.
"They are very, very serious about finding a way out," a source close to the talks told the Post, referring to the Taliban.
Omar and other Taliban leaders on both sides of the border have insisted for years that no peace talks were possible before foreign fighters had left Afghanistan.
But sources told the Post that the leadership knows "that they are going to be sidelined," and was negotiating to ensure their positions were protected. "They know that more radical elements are being promoted within their rank and file," the source said.
"All these things are making them absolutely sure that, regardless of [their success in] the war, they are not in a winning position."
The negotiations involve agreements to allow Taliban leaders positions in the Afghan government and the withdrawal of US and NATO forces, the newspaper said.

Haqqanis Excluded
But the talks are believed to exclude representatives of the Haqqani group, which the Post said was the target of recently escalated US drone attacks.

US General David Petraeus, the commander of NATO troops in Afghanistan, said last week that the Taliban was approaching the Afghan government and foreign forces with “overtures” about quitting the fight.
“There have already been 20 or so overtures from small groups around the country,” he told AFP, referring to a program aimed at reintegrating mid-level Taliban commanders and grassroots fighters back into Afghan society.
A Taliban spokesman dismissed Petraeus’s comments as “completely baseless,” however, saying the insurgents would not “negotiate with foreign invaders or their puppet government.”
Petraeus also said NATO supported efforts by Karzai to open peace talks with the Taliban leadership, and in some cases had helped the process along.
“President Karzai has established very clear red lines for it, and in this case we support what it is the Afghan government is doing, and in some occasions facilitated as well,” Petraeus said in the interview with AFP.
But European officials told the Post that US representatives had been lukewarm to the idea of negotiations until this summer, fearing the US domestic repercussions of talking to the Taliban.
That changed this summer, European sources said, when escalated combat in Afghanistan produced disappointing results and US public opposition to the war ramped up.

Nation Urged to Help Reform World

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad urged Iranians on Wednesday to stand up to help reform the world. He made the call in a meeting with the elite and scholars...
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad urged Iranians on Wednesday to stand up to help reform the world.
He made the call in a meeting with the elite and scholars in the northern province of Golestan where he is currently on tour in the framework of the third round of his provincial tours, IRNA reported.
“With God’s help, capitalism and capitalists will soon belong to history…Signs are emerging of the end of their era,” he said.
He referred to Iranians as a nation that could help save mankind.
To this end, a concrete and tangible pattern is needed, which can be created by Iranians.

US Ploys
In a meeting with families of martyrs and war veterans on Tuesday, Ahmadinejad said the US had failed in its attempts to discredit Iran during his presence in New York last month to attend the United Nations General Assembly.
“The US government and its rulers are dominating American society and the activities of all Americans are under control.
We were supposed to encounter this situation. Prior to our trip [to New York], they had planned to suppress and marginalize Iran,” said the president, Presstv reported.
He said his interaction and meetings with a broad spectrum of the US media rendered Washington’s ploys futile and turned “conspiracies into opportunities.”
The president attended the 65th meeting of the UN General Assembly in mid-September.
His address to the world body, in which he questioned the monopoly over the leadership of the world by superpowers and raised doubts about the root causes of the September 11 attacks, challenged the US government and attracted international attention.
Hours after his UN speech, President Barack Obama denounced as “hateful and inexcusable” remarks by his Iranian counterpart that suggested the US government was involved in the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

Iranian Scientist Wins European Award

An Iranian scientist received a plaque of honor and special statuette from the
European Respiratory Society (ERS) for his efforts to treat respiratory diseases.
An Iranian scientist received a plaque of honor and special statuette from the European Respiratory Society (ERS) for his efforts to treat respiratory diseases.
Dr. Mohammad Reza Masjedi, deputy director of the National Research Institute of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease at Masih Daneshvari Hospital, has been selected as a honorary member of ERS for his national and international endeavors in the fields of tuberculosis and respiratory diseases, IRNA reported.
ERS is a non-profit Switzerland-based organization founded in 1990 to pursue respiratory medicine.
The organization was formed with the merger of the Societas Europaea Physiologiae Clinicae Respoiratoriae (founded in 1966) and the European Society of Pneumology (founded 1981).
The organization’s membership is made up of medical professionals and scientists working in the field of respiratory medicine.
ERS publishes research in academic journals and hosts events aimed at educating health professionals.
The organization’s stated goal is to “alleviate suffering from respiratory disease and promote lung health through research, sharing of knowledge and through medical and public education”.
More that 20,000 doctors participate in its annual conferences.

Militants Blow Up More NATO Oil Tankers

Pak Taliban Pledge to Intensify Attacks

Militants in Pakistan's northwest said Wednesday they had again blown up NATO oil tankers to avenge US drone attacks.
The militants opened fire on a depot housing 40 tankers on the outskirts of the southwestern city of Quetta, killing a member of staff and destroying at least 18 vehicles, in the fourth such attack in a week.
"There were about eight to 10 attackers. They came in two cars and started shooting tankers and set them on fire," police official Hamid Shakeel told AFP.
Pakistani Taliban militants claimed responsibility for the Quetta attack and other raids this week in which nearly 60 trucks were torched and three people died.
They vowed more attacks to disrupt NATO's supply route through Pakistan and to avenge a new wave of US drone strikes targeting Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants linked to the alleged terror plot against European cities.
"We claim responsibility for attacking and torching NATO tankers in Quetta today," Tehreek-e-Taliban spokesman Azam Tariq told AFP. "We will further intensify attacks with the intensification of US drone strikes on us."

Drone Campaign
The United States has massively ramped up its drone campaign in Pakistan's lawless northwest tribal region on the Afghan border, which it calls the global headquarters of Al-Qaeda.
Pakistani authorities have reported 24 attacks since September 3 which have killed more than 140 people in the region, a hub for homegrown and foreign militants fighting in Afghanistan.
Pakistan's US envoy said Wednesday that the increase in drone strikes was linked to an alleged Mumbai-style terror plot targeting Europe.
The Al-Qaeda plot conceived in Pakistan reportedly targets Britain, France and Germany with a wave of commando-style attacks on key landmarks including Paris's Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame Cathedral and Berlin's Brandenburg Gate.

Plot Uncovered
French police on Tuesday arrested 12 people and seized guns in a series of anti-terror raids.
The ambassador in Washington, Hussein Haqqani, told the BBC that the increase in strikes in North Waziristan came after intelligence agencies uncovered a plot to "attack multiple targets in Europe".
He also said that a drone strike on Monday in the district which killed eight militants, including five Germans, was linked to the plot.
"I think that the activity we see in North Waziristan in terms of strikes... is connected to the terrorist warnings that we have heard about potential strikes in Europe," he said.
British-Pakistani militant Abdul Jabbar was killed in another US drone strike last month, according to the BBC, which said he was being groomed to head a new Al-Qaeda splinter group in Britain tasked with attacking Europe.
The United States does not as a rule confirm drone attacks, but its military and the Central Intelligence Agency operating in Afghanistan are the only forces that deploy the pilotless aircraft in the region.

Main Land Route Blocked
The latest tanker attack came as the main land route for NATO supplies crossing from Pakistan to Afghanistan remained closed for a seventh day running.
Pakistan shut the route in protest at a cross-border NATO helicopter attack that officials blamed for the deaths of three Pakistani soldiers. The alliance has said it shot back in self-defense.
Some 6,500 lorries are at a standstill, waiting for the reopening of the route, Shakirullah Afridi, president of the Khyber transport association told AFP by telephone.
“The problem is that American drone attacks are increasing and the Taliban are now taking revenge on us. We have no place to go,” said Afridi. A Pakistani Frontier Corps official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the border authorities were working to improve security for the drivers.
He said officials were waiting for a joint statement by the Pakistan government and NATO forces on the helicopter firing, before reopening the crossing. Since the key route closed, tankers carrying fuel to the 152,000-strong NATO forces fighting the Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan have been attacked near the capital Islamabad, in Baluchistan and in Pakistan’s south.

Asia Floods Spread Death, Destruction

Helicopters dropped food to isolated villages and security forces helped clear debris and search for survivors as the number of people killed by floods and landslides across Asia climbed Wednesday to nearly 110.
Three-quarters of the deaths were in eastern Indonesia, where days of torrential downpours caused mud and debris to crash into hillside villages, damaging thousands of homes. Twenty-six fatalities were reported in Vietnam, AP reported.
On the nearby Chinese island of Hainan, 64,000 people had to be evacuated.
The greatest panic was caused when a river burst its banks in the hardest-hit Indonesian village of Wasior early this week, sweeping away residents in a fast-moving wall of sludge, rocks and heavy logs that left thigh-high water in its wake.
"Many people didn't have time to save themselves," said one woman, Ira Wanoni, adding that others were screaming "Flood! Flood!" as they tried to scramble to high ground. "It was such a sad scene," said Arbi Korain, whose three children were all at school at the time. "My wife and I climbed onto our roof. We just sat and watched as cars, motorcycles ... and bodies ... drifted past."
With roads and bridges across West Papua province impassable or completely destroyed, it took days for help to reach many of the victims.
It wasn’t until a navy ship arrived Wednesday, carrying soldiers, police and health workers, that the extent of the damage became clear, said Sutrisno, the deputy head of the National Disaster Management Agency.

Hospitals Overwhelmed
Eighty-three bodies have been pulled from the mud and the wreckage of crumpled homes, he said, adding that with 80 percent of the houses in six villages suffering damage, the death toll was expected to rise.
Another 90 people were hospitalized, many with broken bones. Some had to be evacuated by helicopter and, as hospitals in the district of Manokwari became overwhelmed, others were taken by ship to neighboring provinces.
“There are just too many injuries,” said Dortheis Sawaki, heading local relief operations, adding that some medical facilities had been hit by power outages and downed phone lines. “We can’t handle it alone.”
Rain continued to pound the area Wednesday, adding to the misery of more than 4,000 displaced, even as soldiers unloaded sleeping mats, instant noodles, clean water and other supplies from waiting trucks. In Vietnam, 11 bodies were recovered in the worst-hit province of Quang Binh, where authorities were also searching for five sailors from a sunken barge, disaster official Nguyen Ngoc Giai said.
At least seven other bodies were found in Ha Tinh province, five in Nghe An and three in Quang Tri, officials there reported, as floodwaters slowly started to recede.
On China’s nearby island province of Hainan, meanwhile, seven straight days of heavy rains left two people missing and forced 64,000 to evacuate, said an official in the provincial flood control office who gave only his surname, Wu.
Seasonal rain across Asia causes floods and landslides every year, killing hundreds of people across the region.

Terrorism, Resistance Poles Apart

Compiled by Davood Baqeri

The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), in an annual meeting of the UN Legal Committee in New York, has strongly condemned state terrorism.
Iran’s permanent envoy to the UN, who was representing NAM in the committee, underlined NAM’s stance against terrorism -- including state terrorism, calling it a violation of international law and human rights, IRNA reported on Tuesday.
Mohammad Khazaei stressed the need of making a clear distinction between terrorist acts and legitimate resistance of nations under the yoke of foreign occupation.
Representing 118 NAM states, Khazaei decried attempts to relate terrorism with religions, nationalities, and ethnicities, saying, “Legitimate campaign by the people under colonial dominance or foreign occupation should not be misconstrued as terrorism because they have the right to decide their own fate.”
He called for strong and effective measures to curb terrorism and urged governments to confront terrorists as per international law and to fund any such group.
The UN Legal Committee, which is currently discussing “fight against terrorism”, opened a weeklong meeting on Monday.
Since last year Iran has been working as the coordinator of NAM legal affairs.
The UN General Assembly issued a resolution in 2008 calling on member states and appropriate international, regional and sub-regional organizations to step up their efforts to implement the strategy in an integrated manner.
The strategy was adopted unanimously by the General Assembly in September 2006 and remains the strategic framework on joint efforts by the international community to counter terrorism.

Time to Deliver
Speaking at the UN General Assembly session on Tuesday, Khazaei called on the world body to play a “determining and constructive” role in the international arena.
“We believe that the United Nations has a commitment to world nations based on principles and plans approved by member states,” IRNA quoted Khazaei as saying.
“The UN Charter calls on the secretariat to supervise these principles and implement plans impartiality and precisely,” he added.
He criticized the UN decision-making process, stressing that it needs “serious changes.”
“In fact, the UN General Assembly is the representative of all peoples of the world and not of a small group comprising a few countries”.
“We regard multilateralism as the core of the UN activities and this organization should be considered as a body which is owned by all members,” he noted.
The envoy expressed regret that the UN has no effective role in key global issues, namely security, economic crisis, disarmament, terrorism and rights of nations.

Economic Woes

Financial woes continue to dog the global economic recovery, the IMF said on Tuesday, as it warned about considerable uncertainty ahead.
Financial woes continue to dog the global economic recovery, the IMF said on Tuesday, as it warned about considerable uncertainty ahead.
More than two years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the International Monetary Fund said the financial system was still the “Achilles’ heel of the economic recovery”.
In a report days before finance chiefs from around the world gather in Washington from Friday, the fund warned that government budgets remained “highly vulnerable to growth shocks” and the banking system was still vulnerable.
Particularly at risk are the richest regions--Europe, Japan and the United States--while emerging markets remain “very resilient”.
“Policymakers in many advanced countries will need to confront the interactions created by slow growth, rising sovereign indebtedness and still-fragile financial institutions,” the report said.

Problems Proliferate
While the European debt crisis had eased slightly in recent months, the IMF said “sovereign risks remain elevated as markets continue to focus on high public debt burdens.”
A debt crunch in Greece had roiled global markets as Athens’ budget looked increasingly unstable and the risk of default threatened to poison Europe’s banking system.
Meanwhile, “pockets of vulnerability” remain in the US financial system and Japan faced the longer-term risk of of a debt crunch, as an aging population no longer props up Japanese bonds.
In the private sector, the IMF warned around $4 trillion in bank debt will need to be rolled over in the next 24 months, prompting a call for government support for the sector to be phased out gradually.
“Exits from extraordinary financial system support, including the removal of government guarantees of bank debt, will have to be carefully sequenced and planned.”

IMF Warning
IMF Director General Dominique Strauss-Kahn has urged governments in a newly published interview not to use their currency’s exchange rate as a weapon amid tough economic times.
“There is clearly the idea beginning to circulate that currencies can be used as a policy weapon,” Strauss-Kahn told the Financial Times.
“Translated into action, such an idea would represent a very serious risk to the global recovery ... Any such approach would have a negative and very damaging longer-run impact,” he warned.
Following remarks by Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega about the potential for a currency ‘war’, the IMF chief said, “We have seen reports that some emerging countries whose economies face big capital inflows are saying that maybe it is time to use their currencies to try to gain an advantage, particularly on the trade side.
“I don’t think that is a good solution.”

Fed, ECB Criticized
Ultra-loose monetary policies by the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank are throwing the world into chaos rather than helping the global economic recovery, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said on Tuesday.
A flood of liquidity from the Fed and the ECB is bringing instability to foreign-exchange markets, forcing countries such as Japan and Brazil to defend its exporters, Stiglitz told reporters in a conference at Columbia University, Reuters reported.
“The irony is that the Fed is creating all this liquidity with the hope that it will revive the American economy,” Stiglitz said. “It’s doing nothing for the American economy, but it’s causing chaos over the rest of the world. It’s a very strange policy that they are pursuing.”
The US dollar has weakened about 6.5 percent against a basket of major currencies since the beginning of September as prospects for further monetary easing by the Fed have led investors to seek higher returns elsewhere.
That flow of dollars caused currencies to appreciate in many emerging market countries such as Brazil, which offers strong growth prospects. The Japanese yen has also hit record highs against the dollar on expectation of additional greenback weakness.
Recent actions by those countries to curb the strength of their currency were ‘necessary’, Stiglitz added. “It’s natural in that context for them to say--we can’t just let our exchange rates appreciate and destroy our exports”, he said.
On Monday, Brazil doubled a tax on foreign investment into local government bonds, while Japan lowered the target for its benchmark interest rate to a range between zero and 0.1 percent.
The Bank of Japan also pledged to buy 5 trillion yen ($60 billion) worth of assets, in a strategy similar to the one adopted by the Fed to pump funds into the economy.
But additional monetary stimulus will clearly not solve the problems caused by lack of global aggregate demand.
“Lowering the interest rates may help a little bit, but that’s much too weak to address the problems facing the United States and Europe,” Stiglitz said. “We need fiscal stimulus.

Yemen Attack

Gunmen fired a rocket against a convoy carrying a senior British diplomat in Yemen’s capital on Wednesday, damaging a car and wounding four people amid heightened fears about growing...
Gunmen fired a rocket against a convoy carrying a senior British diplomat in Yemen’s capital on Wednesday, damaging a car and wounding four people amid heightened fears about growing Al-Qaeda influence in the impoverished Arab nation.
Also, a gunman shot and killed the French manager of Austrian oil and gas company OMV. The attacker was believed to be a security guard at the company’s compound outside Sanaa. The motive was not immediately clear, AP reported.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack on the British convoy, but Yemeni authorities recently boosted security around embassies in Sanaa after receiving information that the terror network was planning an attack.
The vehicle was on its way to embassy with five staff members on board when it came under fire, Britain’s Foreign Office said in a statement. One embassy official suffered minor injuries and was undergoing treatment, while the rest were unharmed, the statement said.
A Foreign Office official said the embassy’s deputy chief of mission was in the car, but not injured. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with department policy.
The embassy’s armored car was struck by shrapnel and three bystanders also were wounded, a Yemeni security official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.
The explosion came a day after a visit by third-ranking US diplomat William Burns to discuss the security situation and less than six months after a suicide bomber attacked the British ambassador’s car in Sanaa.
The attacks have cast doubt on the effectiveness of the Yemeni government’s US-backed campaign against Al-Qaeda militants, who have found a haven in parts of the rugged, mountainous nation where the central government’s control is weak.
In April, the British ambassador was targeted by a suicide bomber who blew himself up near the diplomat’s armored car in a poor neighborhood of the capital. The ambassador was unharmed.
Yemen says it is waging an aggressive campaign to uproot Al-Qaeda, and Washington has earmarked some $150 million in military assistance to the government to help combat the threat with training, equipment and intelligence help.
Burns said on Tuesday that the US will continue to support in its fight against terrorism.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, an offshoot of Osama bin Laden’s terror network, was formed more than a year ago when Yemen and Saudi militant groups merged. Militants are believed to have built up strongholds in remote parts of the country, allying with powerful tribes that resent the government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Kandahar Blasts

Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the “enemies of Afghanistan” on Wednesday after roadside bombs killed nine people, including five children, as insurgents fight intensified NATO-led operations in the south.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the “enemies of Afghanistan” on Wednesday after roadside bombs killed nine people, including five children, as insurgents fight intensified NATO-led operations in the south.
Meanwhile, NATO and Afghan forces reported killing 16 militants--including a ‘shadow’ governor of a northern province, AP reported.
In the roadside bombings on Tuesday night in Kandahar city, Interior Ministry said nine people were killed and 30 injured, including many police officers. The blasts targeted a police vehicle and ripped through an intersection--a day after four officers died in coordinated bombings that were also aimed at police.
“The enemies of Afghanistan, far from following Islamic principles, are targeting civilians including children,” a statement from his office said.
Control of Kandahar, the Taliban movement’s birthplace, is seen as key to reversing Taliban momentum in the war. Afghan and NATO forces are engaged in a major operation there, dubbed Dragon Strike, to keep insurgents from staging attacks inside the city.

Intensifying Campaign
In response, Taliban have intensified a campaign targeting police and local officials.
On Monday, Noor Ahman, deputy mayor in Kandahar, was also killed in an insurgent attack, and later in the day, Habibullah Aghonzada, a former district chief in Arghistan, was gunned down by assailants as he prayed at a packed mosque.
NATO described the two as “dedicated public servants who sought to improve the lives of their fellow countrymen.”
The Taliban said on Tuesday the NATO-led operation was doomed to fail.
“America is operating in the districts of Kandahar, but the result will be that they will walk out with blood-filled, empty hands,” Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef said. “They could not achieve victory in nearly a decade ... this shows they never will.”
Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said the operation was scattering insurgents from the restive region.
“Dragon Strike is continuing to put the pressure on these guys. Those who have remained and dug in and who are determined to fight are feeling enormous pressure ... The Taliban is clearly feeling it.”
The NATO coalition is also fighting an uphill battle to win the allegiance of people in Kandahar.
“When only the Taliban were ruling our land there was peace and tranquility. Since the Americans have set foot on our land, we don’t have work and our health is no better,” said Naseebullah Ghamjam, a 38-year-old laborer. “All we have seen is that Americans have constructed exceptionally massive compounds for themselves.”

Other Violence
In other violence, a powerful roadside bomb destroyed a civilian vehicle on Wednesday, killing three fruit farmers in southeastern Afghanistan. The blast occurred as the farmers were taking their products to market, said Mohammad Jan Rasoulyar, spokesman for Zabul province’s governor.
The nine-year war has inflicted a mounting toll on Afghan civilians. The United Nations says insurgents are responsible for most civilian deaths and injuries. However, noncombatants are also killed in NATO military operations.
Separately, a NATO airstrike killed Qari Ziauddin, identified as the Taliban’s ‘shadow’ governor of Faryab province, and four other insurgents Tuesday, the alliance said.
Joint NATO-Afghan operations resulted in the deaths of 11 other militants, the Afghan Ministry of Defense said. Six insurgents died in a raid in southern Kandahar’s Zhari district, four militants were killed in Kunar province’s Ghazi Abad district, and one died in Andar district in eastern Ghazni province over the past 24 hours.

Shiraz Sites

The destruction of historical sites in the ancient city of Shiraz has raised the ire of cultural heritage lovers. Recently, 87 historical sites, including a number of ancient houses...
The destruction of historical sites in the ancient city of Shiraz has raised the ire of cultural heritage lovers.
Recently, 87 historical sites, including a number of ancient houses, baths and a mosque, were destroyed in Shiraz to make way for the construction of commercial and lodging centers in the vicinity of Shah-e Cheragh Mausoleum.
According to Mehr News Agency, the Cabinet, during its latest trip to Shiraz, ratified the renovation of historical sites spread over 57 hectares in the perimeters of the mausoleum, which led to the destruction of the historical sites.
Alireza Golgoli, the head of the national plan titled “Documentation of Iranian Historical Houses”, said the historical site of Shah-e Cheragh had become a refuge of addicts and criminal gangs, which triggered the complaints of citizens.

Cabinet Ratification
The plan titled “Bein-ol-Haramein” was ratified by the Cabinet following the citizen’s complaints and aimed to improve the condition of the place.
The official noted that those involved in the plan aim to replace the old texture of the area with modern buildings, pointing out that there are over 900 historical buildings near the mausoleum, of which 500 are among the most attractive monuments of the city.
“Such a plan will damage the city’s cultural heritage because the monuments situated near Shah-e Cheragh are among the most important historical sites of the province and can boost tourism in case of renovation,” he said.
Golgoli said that while there is a significant difference between historical sites and old texture, some officials consider them to be the same.
He noted that renovation projects have become more popular in Shiraz in recent years while Shiraz is an ancient city and its historical sites must be preserved for the next generation.
Pointing to the destruction of 87 historical sites in the vicinity of Shah-e Cheragh, Golgoli said all the monuments are registered on the National Heritage List.
He criticized the government’s decision and said that destroying historical sites to build modern buildings is not a proper decision and the government must take another decision to improve the condition of the area.
“Addicts and criminal gangs can be found in every part of the city and this is not a good excuse for destroying the sites,” he said.
ICHHTO Responsible
The official stressed that more destruction can be expected in the future.
“Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization (ICHHTO) is responsible for safeguarding historical sites but shortage of fund prevents the organization from interfering in this plan and stopping new constructions,” he said.
Golgoli said ICHHTO was against the destruction of historical sites in the vicinity of mausoleum, but it could not take any effective measure due to shortage of funds.
While many cultural heritage experts are against the destruction of historical sites in the ancient city of Shiraz, some officials have claimed that such places pose a threat to citizens.
Earlier, an official in Shiraz had claimed that in case of an earthquake, the old texture in the vicinity of Shah-e Cheragh will destroyed entirely and endanger people’s lives.
Cultural heritage experts believe historical sites must be safeguarded for future generations.
Shiraz Monuments
As one of the most ancient cities of Iran, Shiraz attracts many tourists and pilgrims every year. It boasts of world-known historical sites such as Persepolis and Pasargad.
Shiraz is also home to many monuments dating back to Zandieh and Qajarid dynasties, which include Shiraz Bazaar, Kolah-Farangi Mansion and Eram Garden.
Shah Cheragh is a shrine and mosque in Shiraz, housing the tomb of the brothers Ahmad and Mohammad, sons of Imam Musa Al-Kazem and brothers of Imam Reza (AS). The two took refuge in the city during the Abbasid persecution of Shiite Muslims.
The tombs became celebrated pilgrimage centers in the 14th century when Queen Tashi Khatoun erected a mosque and theological school in the vicinity.

iran daily

Number 3794 ● Thursday October 7, 2010 ● Mehr 15, 1389 ● Shavval 28, 1431 ● Price 2,000 Rials ● 12 Pages