"We think it is essential to continue confidence-building measures," De Villepin

TEHRAN, April 24 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin called on Iran Thursday, April 24, to sign an additional protocol to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty that would allow unlimited inspections of any sites under suspicion, as he welcomed marked progress on rights and called on Tehran to "continue confidence-building measures" on its nuclear program.

"We think it is essential to continue confidence-building measures, in particular by signing the additional protocol of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty as demanded by Mr. ElBaradei," de Villepin told a press conference, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Mohamed ElBaradei has already urged Iran to sign the protocol allowing unlimited and surprise inspections by international experts of any suspect sites.

Iran has consistently rejected U.S. allegations and widespread suspicions that its nuclear program is aimed at producing nuclear weapons, insisting that it is merely trying produce nuclear energy for peaceful means.

Progress On Nuclear Issue, Human Rights In Iran

"Those among our Jewish compatriots who were in prison in Shiraz are now free," Kharazi said

De Villepin, during his visit to Tehran, said that he had seen progress with the Islamic republic on two major bones of contention - the nuclear issue and human rights.

In an effort highlighting France's determination to engage Iran, in contrast to Washington's bracketing of Iran as part of within an "axis of evil", the visiting minister welcomed marked progress on rights and called on Tehran to "continue confidence-building measures" on its nuclear program.

"We think it is essential to continue confidence-building measures," de Villepin said, welcoming public assurances from Iranian President Mohammad Khatami that the country is not seeking to develop nuclear arms and is acquiring nuclear power for peaceful purposes only, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

But the visiting foreign minister said in a joint press conference with his counterpart Kamal Kharazi that Tehran should go one step further, "in particular by signing the additional protocol of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty as demanded by ElBaradei."

Washington has also been seeking to pressure Russia, which is allegedly helping Iran build the Bushehr nuclear power plant, into ending atomic cooperation.

On human rights, De Villepin also said he "welcomed marked progress", adding that he hoped "this will continue".

France has been a driving force in the European Union's efforts to engage Iran in dialogue on human rights and other touchy topics in return for increased economic cooperation.

"Good News"

The Iranian foreign minister also announced during the press conference that the last five of a group of Iranian Jews convicted in July 2000 of spying for Israel have all been freed from prison.

"Those among our Jewish compatriots who were in prison in Shiraz are now free," Kharazi said.

"We hope that in the future we will not see such reprehensible activities that lead to imprisonments," he added, and de Villepin thanked him for the "good news".

Thirteen Iranian Jews and eight Muslims were arrested in the southern city of Shiraz in 1999, accused of working as a spy-ring for Iran's arch enemy Israel.
In July 2000, a closed-door revolutionary court sentenced 10 of the Jews and two of the Muslims to jail terms of between four and 13 years.

In September 2000, an appeals court reduced their sentences and two of the 12 were freed as they had served out their terms. Three more were released last October under a pardon from supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, leaving the fate of the last five Jews uncertain.

Iran has the Middle East's largest Jewish community outside Israel. Most live in Shiraz, Tehran and Isfahan. Israel, which Iran refuses to recognize, denied that the men were spying for the Jewish state.

De Villepin, who has also visited Turkey and Jordan during his tour, is scheduled to leave Iran later Thursday after a meeting with Khatami and powerful former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who now heads Iran's highest political arbitration body.

Warnings Reciprocated

Kharazi said other issues touched upon were the situation in Iraq, the Israeli-Palestinian crisis and Afghanistan.

"Such discussion, in the currently sensitive climate, are very important and highlight a new track in the relations between Iran and France," the minister said.

He also warned U.S. troops not to violate the "red line" of its border with Iraq, and voiced alarm over a reported ceasefire deal between the U.S. and the Iraq-based People's Mujahedeen armed opposition group.

Saying that U.S. forces on the border were "not a new phenomenon" since the beginning of the U.S.-led war against Iraq five weeks ago, Kharazi added, "it is clear that we are going to defend our frontiers, the red line passes along the line of our borders."

The warning came one day after a similar one by the United States, apparently alarmed at the possibility of Iraq's majority Shiites taking their lead from neighboring country, warned Tehran against "interfering" with its co-religionists in Iraq.

"We've made clear to Iran that we would oppose any outside interference in Iraq's road to democracy," said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, adding that infiltration of agents to destabilize the Shiite population would clearly fall into that category."