American journalist expelled from Iran

Iran has expelled for three months American journalist Dan De Luce, who worked for the British newspaper The Guardian, for his violation of the Iranian legislation, a spokesman for the Iran Ministry of Islamic Culture & Guidance.

"The American journalist decided to make use of the trustfulness of the official bodies and to deceive them and, as a result, has violated the rules and the legislation of the Islamic Republic," the spokesman said.

According to him, the ministry planned the visit by foreign correspondents to the Iranian town of Bam, ruined by an earthquake, on the occasion of the 40 days that have passed since the tragedy. But the Interior Ministry of the country did not allow the trip "for certain reasons." (According to the data of the Iranian side, the ruining earthquake, in the centre of which was the town of Bam with its 100,000 population, took the toll of up to 40,000 lives; the town was practically razed to the ground. This earthquake can be compared only with the 1988 earthquake in the Armenian towns of Spitak and Leninakan.) Yet, Dan De Luce got a permission to visit the region of the natural disaster under the pretext that he wanted to render humanitarian aid to the earthquake victims," the ministry spokesman said.

However, instead of keeping his promises, the journalist collected the information he needed and sent it to the newspaper which published it, the spokesman said.

The 38-year-old American journalist has already left Iran for London.

After three months the journalist can return to Iran and try again to get accreditation in the Iranian ministry.

However, it seems that the cause of the dissatisfaction of the Iranian side is not connected with the nationality of the journalist. (Though Iran's relations with the USA have become somewhat warmer, Teheran still regards it as "a big Satan," jointly with "a small Satan" - the Zionist regime, which has not given up its strategic aim of overthrowing "the ayatollah regime" in Iran.) The point is that local press published critical materials about the insufficient efforts of the authorities in abolishing the consequences of the earthquake.