by Byrne » Tue Jan 24, 2006 3:35 pm
<br>From<br><!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=aci5UTEaO48Y&refer=top_world_news" target="top">www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=aci5UTEaO48Y&refer=top_world_news</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Iran <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Bomb Blasts Kill Six in Oil-Rich Ahvaz, Hurt 35</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> (Update2) <br>Jan. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Two bombs killed at least six people and wounded 35 others in the oil-rich Iranian city of Ahvaz in Khuzestan province, where President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was due to give a speech today. <br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa Pour Mohammadi said those responsible for the ``terrorist'' acts were trained ``outside'' Iran's borders</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->. One explosion occurred in a bank in Kianpour district in the southwestern city, and the other in Manabe Tabiee, state television said. <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Ahvaz is near the Iraqi border.</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> <br>President Ahmadinejad canceled his visit to Ahvaz because of bad weather, his press office said. The bombs didn't explode at the location where he was due to speak, the office said. <br><br>Iran holds the world's second-largest oil reserves and is the No. 2 producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Khuzestan, its largest oil-producing province, has witnessed unrest in recent months that the government attributes to ethnic Arab separatists. Arabs, who make up the majority in Ahvaz, account for 3 percent of Iran's population. <br><br>Most of Iran's crude oil reserves are in Khuzestan, which is located close to the border with Iraq and to the Persian Gulf. The province is also home to two of the country's largest undeveloped oil fields -- the Azadegan and Yadavaran deposits. <br><br>Iran has given Chinese state oil company China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. a 50 percent stake in the development of the Yadavaran oil field. Inpex Corp., Japan's biggest oil explorer, was awarded a $2 billion contract for the Azadegan oil field in February 2004. <br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Explosive Devices</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> <br><br>Several parcels of explosive devices shipped from abroad have been seized from terrorists, state television quoted Pour- Mohammadi as saying. The Interior Minister called on Iran's parliament to allocate more funds to reinforce the security at the Iran-Iraq border. <br><br>In October, four people were killed in two explosions that left 86 injured. Iran at the time accused British agents of detonating the bombs. The U.K. Embassy in Iran rejected the charge. <br><br>In early September, a series of bomb blasts in Khuzestan halted crude transfers from onshore wells. In June, one week before the country's presidential election, six people died after a series of explosions in Ahvaz. At least another five died in clashes in April in riots sparked by alleged plans to change the area's ethnic makeup. <br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Arab Grievances</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> <br><br>Arab Iranians ``complain that they have been marginalized by the government in terms of access to development funds, job opportunities and their ability to express their Arab identity and language,'' Control Risks, a London-based company advising businesses on investment hazards, said in an e-mailed note to investors today. <br><br>Iranian authorities closed down the Tehran office of Arab television channel Al-Jazeera after the April clashes because of claims its reports had exacerbated the violence. <br><br>The eight-year war with Iraq, which ended in 1988, severely affected Iran's oil production, particularly in Khuzestan where much of the fighting took place. As a result, Iran's production capacity has dropped to about 4 million barrels a day currently from 6 million a day in 1974.<br><hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--> <p></p><i></i>
