While the United States wants Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment project, which it fears could be used for making atomic weapons, Iran argues that its nuclear programme is meant for civilian use.

“Our concern is that,” Crowley told the BBC’s World Today programme, “that Iran’s response itself did not really address what is the core issue of the international community and the core concern, which is Iran’s nuclear ambitions.”

Iran has to prove that it is willing to live up to the commitments it had made, Philip Crowley told the BBC, adding that “one of the questions going forward will be to test Iran’s interest in actual engagement, either with the United States or with the international community, and obviously a core concern is in fact its nuclear programme.”

Mojtaba Samareh, an aide to the President of Iran, had earlier told the newspaper Washington Post in an interview that Iran will not abandon its nuclear programme but that the country was ready to work with the international community to get rid of nuclear arms.

Meanwhile, the reaction from Russia to Iran’s package of proposals on its nuclear plans has been more positive than that of the United States.

Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, is of the opinion that Iran’s latest proposals holds “something to work with” and, based on a brief review of the papers submitted by Iran, there is “something to use.”

The most important thing, Sergei Lavrov said in Moscow, is that Iran is willing to have a comprehensive debate on the situation. It is also clear that Iran is prepared to play a positive role in Iraq and Afghanistan in particular and the region in general.

According to political observers, since Russia’s attitude towards Iran’s overtures continue to differ from that of the Western nations, hitting upon a common ground on the vexed issue could be tricky.

It may recalled that United States President Barack Obama had warned the government of Iran earlier in 2009 that Washington would like to see a “positive response” to its friendlier propositions by the end of September 2009. And, if that does not happen by then, the United States would push for new sanctions against Iran, Obama had warned.

At the same time, Russia made it clear the other day, in the UN Security Council, that it would not support any new rounds of harsh sanctions against Iran.

Photo: Ahmad Vahidi, Iran's new defense minister, is a terrorism suspect

Iranian legislators voted overwhelmingly to accept Ahmad Vahidi as defence minister on cabinet nominations put forward by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran.

Photo: Marzieh Vahid Dastjerd, Iran's new health minister

Iran’s parliament, called the Majlis, and now dominated by conservatives, also voted to appoint a woman, Marzieh Vahid-Dastjerdi, a gynaecologist and obstetrician, as the minister for health.

Marzieh Vahid-Dastjerdi was one of three women whom President Ahmadinjad had put forward for parliament’s vote. The parliament rejected two other female nominees – for the posts of ministers of education and welfare.

Marzieh Vahid-Dastjerdi is the first female minister since the ‘Islamic revolution’ that took place in Iran in 1979.

While Iran’s parliament altogether dismissed three choices of President Mahmoud Ahmadinjad – the two female candidates plus Ahmadinjad’s choice for the minister for energy – it approved 18 nominees, including Massoud Mirkazemi as the minister for oil.

Iran’s state radio said that, despite Parliament’s rejection of President Ahmadinjad’s three minister-nominees, the cabinet can begin functioning.

President Ahmadinjad has scheduled the first meeting of the cabinet for September 6, 2009, the state radio added.

The selection of Ahmad Vahidi, who is one of the five prominent Iranians wanted by Argentina over the deadly car-bomb attack, had provoked indignation from Argentina in August 2009.

Argentina argues that Vahidi was “deeply implicated” in the bomb attack that took place in 1994, in which left 85 people were killed and 150 others were wounded.

The car-bomb attack on the building of the Israeli-Argentine Mutual Association (Amia) in Buenos Aires was the worst attack on a Jewish target outside of Israel since the World War II.

The government of Argentina, while condemning Ahmad Vahidi’s nomination as the minister for defence, has described it as an “affront” to Argentina’s legal system and also to the relatives of the 85 people who died and the 150 others who were wounded.

Interpol, the international police organisation, had, in November 2007, issued a ‘red notice’ for Ahmad Vahidi’s arrest. The ‘red notice’ alert issued to Interpol’s 187 member-nations is not an arrest warrant, though it is interpreted that way at times.

However, Iran has rejected complaints against Ahmad Vahidi and does not even acknowledge the existence of Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s Al-Quds Brigades – the terrorist group that Vahidi was said to be commanding at the time of the bomb attack in Buenos Aires.

Photo: Roxana Saberi, US journalist detained in Iran

AFP quoted Abdolsamad Khoramshahi as saying, “I met Ms Saberi yesterday (Sunday) at a revolutionary court. She appeared fine.”

He also said that he couldn’t comment on the accusation again her, and that he would meet her again in a couple of days.

According to reports, Roxana Saberi has been accused by the foreign ministry of indulging in illegal activities, and working even after the Government revoked her press credentials.

According to an Associated Press report, Mr. Qashqavi, the foreign ministry spokesperson, pointed out that Iran had revoked Roxana Saberi’s press credentials in 2006, but he refused to say whether the 31-year-old freelance journalist, who has reported for National Public Radio and other media, was in prison.

Reza Saberi, Roxana’s father has told the American press that his daughter had called from an unknown place in Iran, on February 10, 2009, telling him that she had been arrested for buying a bottle of wine. The person who sold her the wine  reported her to the cops who later arrested her.

Saberi said that Roxana had told him that she had already been held for ten days. She then called back later to say that she would be released in two more days. Neither her family in the US nor her friends in Tehran have heard from her since.

Mr Saberi said that he was going public with the information because of fears for his daughter’s safety.

She had stayed in Iran to complete her master’s degree in Iranian studies and International Relations, and to finish a book on Iranian culture and people.

This is not the first time that an American journalist has gone missing in Iran. In 2007, Iran arrested four Iranian-Americans, including the academic Haleh Esfandiari. They were released after several months of imprisonment and then sent to the US.

The presidential elections in Iran are scheduled for June 2009, during which at least two pro-reform candidates will be running against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In end-February 2009, students at Amirkabir University were arrested and put into the Evin prison. In the wake of such instability in Iran, it makes it tough for the US to find the missing journalist soon.

However the US is putting in efforts to come to Saberi’s rescue. “Our next step is to send a lawyer to the prison and we’ll see what steps they want us to take,” Reza Saberi had told AFP’s Chicago correspondent.

“We want a fair trial. That is what we want. They are accusing her of nothing. We want her to be tried fairly.”

Saberi said that he was counting on the news reports to keep himself aware of her daughter’s situation in Iran. “We have been very anxious and worried because they kept us completely in the dark,” he said.

In the past, Roxana Saberi has taken on subjects that challenges existing mores in the conservative Iran that Mr. Ahmadinejad hopes to continue leading. In 2007, Roxana Saberi produced a radio report for N.P.R. on women being arrested as part of “a new wave of Iran’s nationwide morality crackdown against fashions deemed un-Islamic.”

In 2006, Roxana Saberi had filed a report for the BBC, from Tehran, about the growth of Sufism in the country.

Mohammad Khatami’s presence in the elections now is seen as a critical juncture for the Islamic Republic and its relations with the outside world according to analysts.

“I strongly announce my candidacy in the election,” the cleric, 65, told reporters at the launch of a website for his political group, the Combatant Clergy Assn. “I had no hesitation from the very beginning.”

Iran’s political infrastructure is compartmentalized into theocracy and democracy. Regular elections are held for parliament candidates and presidency and all are vetted for loyalty by a powerful committee of jurists and clerics. But the ultimate power over military and security lies under the powerful leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

And in his speeches Mr. Khamenei was clearly more biased towards Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Mohammad Khatami’s declaration came as Iran prepares to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution this week.

If he is to take the next presidency of Iran then, as described by US President Barack Obama, he would ‘unclench the fist’ and improve Iran’s relations with U.S. Having said that, it would clearly mean that Iran will have to give up its nuclear ambitions. According to Iran it would develop Nuclear energy for civil purposes but it is suspected to do otherwise.

“The differences between Khatami and Ahmadinejad are bigger than between Obama and McCain,” said Mustafa Tajzad, a former minister. “The results of the Iranian election will matter for the whole world.”

During his eight-year stint as President from 1997-2005, Mohammad Khatami’s agenda was not in compliance with the clerics. His reformist allies in Parliament were barred from running for re-election, dozens of his allies were jailed, and pro-democracy publications were shut down.

“We feel instinctively that people are reformists now, especially after such bad government by Ahmadinejad. Poor people who used to support him have turned against him,” said Muhammad Atrianfar, a close ally. He also is optimistic about Khatami’s win this time which he revealed in talks with the Guardian Council.

It is not yet clear if the Guardian Council, a committee of clerics which is close to the supreme leader, has allowed the participation of Khatami in the upcoming elections.

Some fear Mohammad Khatami may have harmed his chances by hesitating for so long over whether to throw his hat into the ring, reinforcing his image as a has-been.

Ali Motahari, a leading conservative member of Parliament and an outspoken critic of Mr. Ahmadinejad, said in an interview with the daily newspaper Etemad Melli in January 2009, that although Mr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may not be deep in his thinking but the conservative politicians who criticizes his policies will now unite behind him.

“We prefer a reformed Ahmadinejad to Mr. Khatami,” he told the newspaper.

“Mr. Khatami would not be an appropriate president and there might be riots again if he gets elected,” he warned, referring to the pro-democracy demonstrations during Mr. Khatami’s presidency.

Khatami’s biodata:

NAME — Mohammed Khatami.

AGE — 65.

EDUCATION — Bachelor’s degree in philosophy, Isfahan University; also attended seminary at Isfahan.

CURRENT JOB — Head of the Tehran-based Baran Foundation, a think tank that promotes domestic and global dialogue.

POLITICAL PAST — President of Iran, 1997-2005; Cabinet member, 1981-1991; legislator, 1980-81.

FAMILY — Wife, Zohreh Sadeghi; two daughters; son.

QUOTE — “People want freedom. The most important manifestation of freedom is the exercise of their sovereign right to determine their own destiny,” Khatami told supporters in March 2008 in response to a decision to bar many reformists from running in parliamentary elections.