Britain's public inquiry into the Iraq war has invited internation-al lawyers to comment on the government's decision to join the US-led invasion in 2003, its chairman said on Tuesday.

Tony Blair, prime minister at the time, sent 45,000 troops to Iraq to help topple Saddam Hussein seven years ago, a decision that deeply divided his Labor party, Reuters reported.

Blair, who testified before the inquiry in January, defied mass protests to join the invasion despite the lack of a second UN res-olution to justify the use of force.

The inquiry, chaired by former civil servant John Chilcot, was set up last year by Blair's successor Gordon Brown with the task of learning lessons from the conflict.

"The inquiry has issued an open invitation to international lawyers to comment on the grounds relied on by the British gov-ernment in undertaking military action in Iraq," Chilcot said in a statement.

His five-person panel resumed public hearings on Tuesday after a break to cover the period of last month's election when Labor lost power to a Conservative-Liberal Democrat coali-tion.

The panel traveled to France and the United States last month to hold talks with officials including former US diplomat Paul Bremer who governed Iraq's Coalition Provisional Authority af-ter Saddam was toppled.

pperspective

Kyrgyzstan’s new constitution was endorsed by 90 percent of the vot-ers while the issue of reforms has raised questions among experts waiting to see how the new constitution come into effect. It is gen-erally believed that the people and government in the Central Asian republic will face serious challenges in the coming months due to in-ternal strife and regional conditions.

The referendum for the new constitution was held Sunday amid tight security and from among the 2.5 million eligible voters almost 60 percent cast ballots. Based on the new constitution, the authority of the president has been curbed and parliament is enhanced.

It is written in a manner that it prevents accumulation of power in one person. The president loses judicial immunity and his/her family members no longer benefit from the state budget. The leader of the government lives a life commensurate with the salary for that post.

One primary feature of the new constitution is that presidential power is significantly curtailed to the benefit of the parliament. Fur-thermore, no single political party can occupy over 50 seats in the 90-seat chamber.

Supporters and members of the interim government, which came to power in April led by Roza Otunbayeva, are the main advocates of the new constitution. They understandably maintain that the legitimacy of the government in the eyes of world depends on a strong and effec-tive legislature.

Otunbayev has described approval of the new constitution as a vic-tory for her people over authoritarian rule and underlined that security and stability will not return to the troubled republic without funda-mental changes at the top. Her opponents say constitutional reforms at this juncture hardly help resolve deep problems and the most im-portant function of the state should be to restore stability and normal-cy in that country of 5.5 million people.

Some observers say holding a referendum and implementing con-stitutional reforms can be harmful and dangerous for the country, as it is still not prepared for structural change given the traditional power structure and the lack of maturity in society.

The Kyrgyz ExperimentBy Daruish Safarnejad

Chilcot Inquiry SeekingInt’l Legal Feedback

Number 3717 ● Wednesday June 30, 2010 ● Tir 9, 1389 ● Rajab 17, 1431 ● Price 2,000 Rials ● 12 Pages

Sturdy RelationsPresident Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday attempts by enemies of Iran and Bahrain for creating rifts between the two neighbors are in vain. See Page 2

Talks Planned With Turkey, Brazil

oreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Tuesday resumption of talks on uranium fuel exchange demands an

introduction and that being coordination among Iran, Turkey and Brazil.

“In the past few days, there have been contacts between the foreign ministers of the three countries and we have reached an understanding that a trilateral meeting of the ministers be put on the agenda. I think the date of the meeting will be specified in the next few days,” Mottaki told a press briefing at IRNA headquarters.

He said President Mahmoud Ahmadine-jad has set the end of August as the time for negotiating with the G5+1.

“Setting the stage for the trilateral foreign ministerial meeting is a time-consuming process. Whenever this date is clarified we will announce it,” he noted.

Asked what the difference between talks on fuel exchange and talks with G5+1, he said “In the former we talk about swap-ping fuel. But the G5+1 negotiations will be focus on commonalities in the proposed packages (by the two sides). The Tehran declaration can serve as a yardstick if swap-ping fuel is still on agenda of the Vienna Group.”

Asked if Iran would stop producing ura-nium after its demand for 20 percent ura-nium for the medical reactor is fulfilled, Mottaki said, “There is no need that this production line always remain active. Pro-duction of 20 percent uranium will be acti-vated when necessary.”

Uranium is refined at 20 percent for a specific need, he stressed.

“We have defined this production for our needs and we produce when we have a need.”

Letters from his ministry have been sent to members of the UNSC, he said.

The letters were sent to countries that voted for and against the US-drafted reso-lution calling for tougher sanctions against Tehran for refusing to reverse its nuclear program.

Mottaki said Iran sees no chances for the US attacking it, let alone for its illegitimate child, the Zionist regime, which is grappling with major internal and regional problems.

Regarding the psychological war in the region about the US and Israel attacking Iran, he said “Threatening to use force against Iran, before being a reality is a mi-rage. It also was regularly raised during the last two years of George Bush’s presiden-cy.”

Mottaki said Iran’s ties with Britain should be redefined.

“In the past 200 years, successive British governments have acted against Iran’s in-terests. We see a big track record of British governments in their hostile policies toward Iran. Last year we saw how the UK played a role in the tensions in the country. The British have a octopus-like and complicat-ed relations and still perceive that they can continue (normal) relations with all coun-tries. Ties between Iran and Britain should be reciprocal,” he pointed out.

UNSC ResponsibilityIn a separate development on Tuesday, in

a joint press conference with his Bahraini counterpart, Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmad bin Mohammad Al-Khalifa, Mottaki said if the UNSC had confronted and condemned Is-rael’s catalog of crimes in the past, the oc-cupying power would not dare to commit new crimes on a daily basis.

Regarding threatening remarks made by some officials of the Zionist regime about Iran’s decision to send humanitarian aid to Gaza, he said, “Such remarks by the Zion-ist officials is not new. The UNSC should take accountability for Zionist crimes.” Is-raeli officials said recently if Iran decides to send aid to Gaza those involved in the proc-ess will never return home.

France, Germany, and the United Kingdom use foreign intelligence obtained under torture in the fight against terrorism, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on Tuesday.

The 62-page report, "No Questions Asked: Intelligence Coopera-tion with Countries that Torture," analyzes the ongoing cooperation by the governments of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom with foreign intelligence services in countries that routinely use tor-ture. The three governments use the resulting foreign torture infor-mation for intelligence and policing purposes. Torture is prohibited under international law, with no exceptions allowed, Reuters report-ed.

"Berlin, Paris, and London should be working to eradicate torture,

not relying on foreign torture intelligence," said Judith Sunderland, senior Western Europe researcher at Human Rights Watch. "Taking information from torturers is illegal and just plain wrong."

Lacking Instructions The intelligence services in France, Germany, and the UK do not

have detailed instructions on how to assess and follow-up on infor-mation coming from countries that torture, Human Rights Watch said. Parliamentary oversight in each country is also inadequate.

Intelligence services in all three countries claim it is impos-sible to know the sources and methods used to acquire shared information.

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Iran’s Health Minister Marzieh Vahid-Dastjerdi said Iran ranks first in medicinal production among regional countries.

Iran Top Medicinal Producer in Region

first in medicinal production among 08

New Crisis

Russian Spy Ring

AIDS Campaign

JKD Style

Governments must slash budget deficits decisively and central banks should not wait too long to raise borrowing costs as side-effects from measures prescribed to

tackle the global recession...

Russia on Tuesday said US allegations that it had broken up a major Russian

spy ring just days after President Dmitry Medvedev met Barack Obama in Wash-

ington were baseless and improper.

Iran’s successes in controlling AIDS are an example for other regional countries, said World Heath Organization’s repre-sentative in Tehran, Ambrogio Manenti.

Jeet Kun Do (JKD) is the name of Bruce Lee, the world’s renowned martial artist,

gave to his combat system and philosophy in 1967.

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Mottaki at IRNA