Transcript
NEWSWRAP June 24, 2008
Rice: U.S. “determined” to reach out to Iranian people
Secretary of State Rice, while en route to Berlin, said yesterday that the United States was determined to engage the Iranian people. Rice added, “These are people who deserve better. The United States has been, for some time, trying to reach out to the Iranian people in various ways.”
An editorial published in the Washington Post yesterday said the idea of opening an interest section staffed by US diplomats “could be adopted within weeks”.
IRNA quoted an unnamed Iranian foreign ministry official as responding to the Washington Post's idea: "These are media reports and the motive behind their publication is not clear."
Iran rejects EU sanctions move as "double standard"
Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Mohammad Ali Hosseini, today, denounced an EU decision to expand sanctions against Iran, targeting institutions the West says are connected to Iran’s nuclear and military programs.
Hosseini was quoted as saying, “This illegal and contradictory approach of double standards - at a time when [the EU and Iran] packages are being studied - is meaningless and is strongly denounced. This kind of behavior will make the Iranian nation and government more determined in obtaining their rights."
The EU yesterday published and added the names of 20 Iranian individuals and 15 institutions to its sanctions. The 27-member bloc of nations agreed yesterday to expand sanctions against Iran—including the country’s largest bank, Bank Melli—for the country's refusal to heed UN Security Council demands to halt uranium enrichment.
UK lifts ban on Iranian resistance group
British lawmakers today lifted a ban on the Iranian resistance group the Muhajedeen-e Khalq (MEK) after the Court of Appeals in May upheld a ruling that found no evidence the group was “concerned in terrorism.”
The decision will give the group more freedom to organize and to raise money in the UK.
The MEK was first blacklisted in Britain in 2001, and remains on the terrorist lists of both the US and EU.
Last week, the administration of Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki voted to classify the group as a "terrorist" organization.
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