Canadian Armed Forces Station in Afghanistan

On the second day of a two-day visit to Iran, Al-Malik was quoted as saying on June 8 that he "will not allow Iraq to become a platform for harming the security of Iran and neighbors."

After talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki late on June 7, Iran's state-controlled media quoted al-Maliki as saying his government placed great value on Iran's security. State broadcaster IRIB said on its website that al-Maliki also met Iran's Intelligence Minister Gholam Hossein Mohseini Ejehi.

Iran opposes the negotiations going on between Baghdad and Washington, which are aimed at regulating the presence of American forces in the country after their United Nations' mandate expires at the end of 2008. Iran says it will lead to permanent U.S. bases on its doorstep in Iraq.

Iran's concerns come amid renewed international tensions over its nuclear program, which the United States fears is aimed at making atomic weapons, a charge Tehran rejects.

The Iraqi and Iranian sides were also due to discuss alleged Iranian interference in Iraq, including Tehran's support for Shi’ite militias, who have fought bitter battles with U.S. and Iraqi government forces earlier this year.

The U.S. allegations were reinforced on June 8 when the military announced the arrest in Baghdad of an Iraqi arms dealer and "assassination squad" leader responsible for trafficking Shi’ite militants in and out of Iran for training.

The visit to Iran is the second this year by al-Maliki, who is also a Shi’ite political leader, while Ahmadinejad made a landmark visit to Iraq three months ago.

During the Saddam Hussein era, Iran and Iraq fought an eight-year war that killed some 1 million people. But after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam's regime, Iraq's Shi'ite-dominated government brought improved ties with Tehran.

Compiled from agency reports

In an interview with the "Yedioth Ahronoth" newspaper to be published on June 8, Mofaz is quoted as saying, "If Iran continues with its program for developing nuclear weapons, we will attack it."

Iran denies that its nuclear program is aimed at developing nuclear weapons, saying it is for peaceful civilian purposes only.

Asked for a response to Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad's statement that Israel should be "erased from the map," Mofaz said Ahmadinejad "will disappear before Israel does."

Mofaz is formerly chief of staff of the Israeli Defense Forces and a former Israeli defense minister. His remarks are the most explicit threat yet against Iran from a member of the Israeli government.

Some political observers suggest Mofaz's comments are meant for domestic political consumption. They say Mofaz and other senior members of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Kadima party could be preparing to run for the top office in case a corruption scandal forces Olmert to resign.

The Israeli government has never gone on record about specific military plans against Iran. Its official position is that military options must not be ruled out if UN sanctions against Iran are to be effective.

compiled from agency reports

"Combating organized plots that push Iranian youth toward carnal desires, drugs, or sexuality is a prime duty of the Iranian people and especially the young," said Khamanei, who has the final say on all matters in the Islamic republic.

He made his remarks on the 19th anniversary of the death of Ayatollah Ali Khomeini, his predecessor as Iran's supreme leader.

More than 60 percent of Iran's population is under 25 years old, and there are almost 8 million young people eligible to vote. Iran's youth played a vital role in the Islamic Revolution and have demontrated their power to bring change to the political system. Disillusioned with the restrictions the ayatollahs imposed on their lives, young people were instrumental in bringing reformist President Mohammad Khatami to the presidency in 1997.

The potential power of Iran's youth has led Iran's political and religious leaders -- such as Khomeini and Khamanei -- to try to gain the support of the country's younger generation. Khamanei wrote on his official website last month that in a mosque where he used to be the prayer leader, "the youth constituted about 80 percent of the people there, and this was because I always kept in contact with the youth."

The supreme leader even praised Iranian young people as "fashionable" and said they should not be judged by their clothes or physical appearance.

Increasingly Frustrated

Many Iranian youth -- especially in Tehran and other big cities -- have become increasingly frustrated by the social restrictions that hard-liners have brought into their everyday lives. The restrictions are everywhere -- women have to obey an Islamic dress code, music is prohibited, and people are jailed for drinking alcohol.

Mohammad, a young Tehran resident, told RFE/RL that even websites which have nothing to do with politics and Islamic values have been blocked by authorities.

"It's really ridiculous how websites are filtered here," Mohammad said. "Don't think that the authorities have only filtered sex-related sites. No, rules and laws do not apply here. News, music, and photos are all filtered. Until last week, I used to download music from some sites, but now they are blocked, too. They were Iranian music sites."

So-called morality police are stationed in every crowded place in Tehran, and they stop young women who violate a dress code by wearing tight overcoats or skimpy headscarves. Young men are not allowed to wear ties or to get a "funky" hairstyle.

Twenty-four-year-old Sitareh, one of the "dress-code offenders," says she has been detained and fined by the morality police.

"I was stopped in the street because my trousers were slightly short and my ankles were showing," Sitareh said. "Several other women were also detained. We were transported to the police station and police officers called my family. I spent a few hours in the detention center, and they would bring more girls from the streets. The police treated us in a somehow insulting and rude manner."

Sitareh said she has become more careful after the arrest but still pushes "the dress-code boundaries."

Want To Enjoy Their Youth

Mohammad and Sitareh say that, like young people elsewhere in the world, they want to enjoy their youth by dressing the way they like, listening to music, going to parties, dating, or surfing the Internet without having to deal with blocked websites.

In many countries, that's not too much to ask. But in Iran, a young woman who holds hands with a man who is not related to her can get arrested by the morality police, who seem to be increasingly present.

There are many young Iranians -- especially in the provinces -- who genuinely support the country's hard-line leaders. In cities like Qom and Mashhad, even local residents stop and reprimand women whose hijabs do not "sufficiently cover their bodies." Most of them regard Khomeini and Khamanei as iconic figures who are above the law, and everything else.

But many others find the social restrictions frustrating and suffocating. Younger women especially have been expressing their exasperation with the Islamic regime.

Raha, a Tehran-based young professional, told RFE/RL that "indeed, Iranian women have the right to education and work, but still there are many rules and laws that have turned the women into a half person."

"On the surface, it looks like we have the right to education. In reality, however, husbands have the right not to allow their wives to continue their education, and the government and the law take the sides of the husbands," Raha said. "It is written that women have the right to work but, in reality, the husband can take that right away from his wife."

Iranian student Kiyan told RFE/RL's Radio Farda that, for him, Khomeini's name is related to war and poverty.

"It's very easy to judge what we see here today. It's unemployment, devastation, a failed economy, war with the whole world," Kiyan said. "The foundation of all of these things was formed at the beginning of the Islamic Revolution. I think Mr. Khomeini's responsibility for problems that we face today should not be underestimated."

'Losing Patience'

Mohammad said he "couldn't care less about the supreme leader's speeches or warnings." Mohammad insists he is not interested in politics; however, he is "losing" his patience with the political and religious leaders "who are interfering in people's lives and taking away their most basic freedom, such as the freedom to listen to music."

It was social restrictions that caused students to spill into the streets throughout Iran in 1999 in the most serious unrest in the country since the Islamic Revolution.

There has been an upsurge in student activities and protests in Iranian cities in recent years. In recent months, officials have arrested dozens of leftist student groups whose main slogan is "Freedom and Equality."

Radio Farda contributed to this report

The report helps determine whether the United States imposes sanctions or other punishments on countries that are seen as not doing enough to fight the practice. The report puts countries in one of three levels, or "tiers," that represent how well the United States views such efforts: Tier 1 for those doing a good job, down to Tier 3 for those doing an unacceptable job.

Virtually all of the nations of Eastern, Central, and Southeastern Europe are in Tier 2, while Russia and Tajikistan are on the so-called "watch list" of Tier-2 countries because they could slip to Tier 3. Uzbekistan is among four countries that have moved up. It used to be designated as a Tier-3 country, and now is on the Tier-2 "watch list." Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are in Tier 2, except for Turkmenistan, which is listed as a "special case" because of the lack of information from the country.

Georgia in classified as Tier 1, while Armenia and Azerbaijan are on Tier-2 "watch lists."

Afghanistan is classified as Tier 2.

Iraq and Kosovo are listed as "special cases" due to their political transitions.

On May 29, the UN issued a report declaring that the rate of crimes against people and property in the Balkans has improved to the point that the Balkans are considered safer than Western Europe. But the State Department report says human trafficking remains a problem in the Balkans, particularly in Moldova.

"Moldova fell to Tier 3 for the first time, reflecting its government's failure to tackle trafficking-related corruption, as reflected in the handling of several high-profile cases of complicity by government officials in trafficking," said Mark Lagon, the State Department's senior adviser on trafficking in persons. "This failure created a significant impediment to the government's ability to fight trafficking overall."

May Lose Financial Assistance

Lagon said the State Department hopes the new government in Moldova will root out corrupt officials, improve the country's weak law enforcement, and make other efforts to protect victims of human trafficking.

Until then, Moldova -- along with Fiji and Papua New Guinea -- may lose some U.S. financial assistance that isn't involved in trade or humanitarian aid.

In releasing the report, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice noted that since the United States began issuing the annual reports in 2000, an increasing number of governments around the world have given greater attention the problem of human trafficking.

"Today -- because of our efforts, the efforts of our allies, and reports like the one we are releasing today -- there is much greater global awareness about the brutality of human trafficking," she said. "Globally, human trafficking is a multidimensional threat. It deprives people of their human rights and dignity, it increases global health risks, it bankrolls the growth of organized crime, and it undermines the rule of law."

But Rice said the more governments delve into the problem, the more trouble they find. Certainly, she said, traffickers have always found ways to kidnap and transport people for labor and prostitution, and there's never been a shortage of victims in regions such as Southeastern Europe, India, China, and the Philippines.

But Rice said that even in countries where such practices are uncovered, the people responsible for this 21st-century slavery too often go free.

"For the first time, in this year's report we closely examined prosecution data and made a disturbing discovery," Rice said. "Although more countries are addressing sex trafficking through prosecution and convictions, the petty tyrants who exploit their laborers rarely receive serious punishment. We see this as a serious shortcoming, and as we move our efforts forward, we and our allies must remember that a robust law enforcement response is essential."

NGOs Not Properly Trained

What's equally disturbing is that nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) -- which frequently offer the first refuge for victims who manage to escape the traffickers -- aren't trained or otherwise equipped to handle the victims.

Lagon said that last winter he met two young Romanian women at a shelter in Bucharest for survivors of sex trafficking in Western Europe. They finally escaped to the care of an NGO in the West, then were repatriated to the Bucharest shelter. But Lagon said that once the two women were back in their native country, one was eventually found to have an advanced case of tuberculosis, and the other was suffering from severe syphilis.

"Why weren't these women given proper medical attention before they were repatriated? The time loss made their conditions immensely worse," Lagon said. "Despite increased attention by law enforcement to sex trafficking, we are not seeing -- as the findings of this report [show] -- significant victim protection and victim services provided. This trend has to be reversed or we'll never be able to help significant numbers of victims become survivors. The dehumanized must be restored to their full humanity."

Lagon said the purpose of the report is to diagnose the problem of human trafficking and, from year to year, to track progress -- or lack thereof -- in combating it. In compiling the report, he said, he's highlighted five trends in worldwide human trafficking that need special attention by governments.

"Weak prosecution of labor-trafficking offenses. Secondly, weak trafficking-victim protection. Third, forced labor creeping into new growth industries. Fourth, domestic servitude, and luckily problems there are gaining recognition," Lagon said. "And fifth, closing a window of vulnerability for migrant workers is an imperative."

But Lagon said the thread that unites these five trends is something even more disturbing -- the demand for slave laborers and sex workers.

Rice made her comments in a speech June 3 to the annual policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a pro-Israel lobby group in Washington. Her remarks broke no new ground, but her words were blunt and sometimes scathing.

Rice referred to calls from some quarters, including the presumptive Democratic nominee for U.S. president, Barack Obama, for face-to-face talks with Tehran. Obama is due to address AIPAC himself on June 4.

"I know that there is a serious debate right now, both in our country and in Israel, about how to address the threat posed by the Iranian regime," Rice said. "This debate, though, should not be about whether we talk to Iran. That's not the real issue. Diplomacy is not a synonym for talking. True diplomacy means structuring a set of incentives and disincentives to produce change in behavior."

Until that behavior is changed, Rice said, Western nations should put more pressure on Iran for flouting three UN Security Council resolutions that demand it suspend its nuclear program.

'Anytime, Anywhere'

Rice reminded AIPAC members that she's offered to meet with Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki, if only his government would comply with the UN resolutions.

"I have said that if Iran suspends its [nuclear] enrichment and reprocessing activities, I will join my UN Security Council colleagues, I'll meet with my Iranian counterpart. I'll do it any time, anywhere, on any issue," Rice said. "It's harder to be much clearer than that. And we would welcome a change in Iran's behavior because America doesn't have permanent enemies. We would be willing to meet with them, but not while they continue to inch closer to a nuclear weapon under the cover of talk."

Rice noted that Iran says its nuclear program is meant for peaceful, power-generating purposes, not to make weapons. Why then, she asked, do Iran's leaders reject offers of incentives, such as help with reactors needed only for nuclear power? Why, she asked, did Tehran reject Russia's offer to enrich uranium on Iran's behalf?

"Why -- as the [International Atomic Energy Agency's] most recent report shows -- is Iran continuing to enrich uranium, in violation of UN Security Council resolutions?" she continued. "Why, as the IAEA also suggests, are parts of Iran's nuclear program under the control of the Iranian military? Why is Iran continuing to deny international experts full access to its nuclear facilities? Well, ladies and gentlemen, it's just hard to imagine that there are innocent answers to these questions."

'Simply Unacceptable'

Rice repeatedly referred to U.S. efforts to strengthen Israel's security. At one point, she said the thought of Israelis living in fear and insecurity was "simply unacceptable.”

Rice also referred to statements by Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad that Israel should be erased from the map, and his convening of a conference that questioned the Holocaust. She also accused Iran of involvement in the sectarian bloodshed in Iraq.

Iran, she said, poses a threat both to Israel and the entire Middle East.

"A regime that denies the Holocaust, threatens, murders its neighbors’ citizens, and seeks to destroy a member of the United Nations should not be allowed to cross the nuclear threshold," Rice said. "As President [George W.] Bush told the Knesset, 'For the sake of peace, the world must not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.'"

Ahmadinejad is currently in Rome for a three-day UN conference on the global food crisis, where he has criticized wealthy nations for subsidizing their own farmers at the expense of the poor.

While in Rome, Ahmadinejad also spoke of his dispute with Washington over Iran's nuclear program.

"Mr. Bush is very much interested in attacking Iran," Ahmadinejad said. "He has tried many times to come up with different excuses. He has failed each and every time. The issue of our nuclear energy is not a new excuse."

Ahmadinejad also said he expects Israel will "disappear" -- without Iran's help.

Unlike the former Yukos oligarch, however, Jazaeri is not known to have harbored political ambitions. Also unlike Khodorkovsky, whose case serves as a reminder of the cost of running afoul of the Kremlin in the Putin era, Jazaeri has twice been the beneficiary of courts interceding on his behalf.

Last week, an Iranian court reduced Jazaeri's already-shortened 14-year prison term to 11 years.

The 36-year-old Iranian is serving a prison term for his involvement in a high-profile corruption case involving politicians and the family members of many famous Iranian clerics, including the supreme leader's brother.

But Jazaeri's ability to run his multimillion-dollar business activities from prison and two reductions in his sentence for white-collar wrongdoing raise questions about the authorities' seriousness in dealing with corruption.

President Mahmud Ahmadinejad and his allies have made corruption a frequent theme of their attacks against entrenched political rivals and a convenient whipping boy during the president's whistle-stop tours to drum up support for his policies.

But the leniency now being afforded to Jazaeri could prompt public skepticism of the authorities' willingness to tackle corruption, particularly since it appears that no officials have ever been prosecuted in the case.

Jazaeri reportedly confessed during his 2001 trial to paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to Hadi Khamanei -- the brother of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei, who holds ultimate political and religious power under Iran's Islamic constitution -- as well as to former parliament speaker Mehdi Karrubi.

Karrubi has denied any suggestion of bribery and described the claim as a politically motivated attack on the legislature, the Majlis.

The scandal has mostly been linked to reformist politicians, but allegations of cash for favors in Jazaeri's case have extended to both reformists and conservatives alike.

Jazaeri was arrested in 2001 and charged with a long list of crimes including bribery, forging official documents, and massive embezzlement of state money and assets.

Key details of Jazaeri's alleged illegal activities were not disclosed during his trial, sparking speculation that officials were trying to cover up their own involvement in the case.

Qasem Sholeh-Saadi, an Iranian lawyer and former legislator, tells RFE/RL's Radio Farda that although Jazaeri was found guilty of bribing some officials, not a single official has been tried or punished in any way for taking the bribes.

"Only Mr. Shahram Jazaeri has been prosecuted and convicted," Sholeh-Saadi says. "I have never heard of any of those people who received this illegal money -- or bribe -- have been prosecuted or convicted."

Jazaeri emerged from modest beginnings and worked as a shopkeeper in the western city of Ahvaz until his mid-20s.

By the time he was arrested in 2001, at the age of 29, Jazaeri had made some $180 million by his own account. Many of his business activities are unknown, but he has founded several successful enterprises and worked as a broker in the oil business.

His 2002 trial reportedly involved 50 defendants -- many of them the sons of prominent clerics. Jazaeri was convicted and initially sentenced to 27 years in prison. In 2004, his sentence was partially overturned and reduced to 14 years.

In February 2007, Iran's Special Judicial Complex for Economic Affairs announced that Jazaeri had escaped while being transferred for a hearing before an expert financial committee.

Reports have suggested that Jazaeri had previously been allowed leaves from prison, a privilege unavailable to most inmates.

Iranian media suggested that some clerics were involved in aiding that escape. Iran's judiciary fired several officials who were involved in his case, including the head of Tehran's vaunted Evin Prison and a number of judges.

Soon afterward, Iranian security services confirmed that Jazaeri had been arrested in an Arab country, with some reports saying he had been hiding in a remote village in Oman.

Many Iranian prisoners suffer desperate conditions with little access to the outside world. But Jazaeri reportedly has access to a laptop computer and mobile phone while in jail, where he continues to manage his business interests.

In the new park, called "Mothers' Paradise," women can walk, jog, and engage in other athletic activities without having to cover their heads.

Men can reportedly not see inside the park since it is surrounded by green walls and covered by bright-colored materials.

Some Tehran residents welcomed the launch of the park as an opportunity for women to act freely. Many others, however, criticized it as yet another step in what they call widespread discrimination against women.

Sex segregation -- which has been a controversial issue in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution -- increased after hard-liner Mahmud Ahmadinejad came to power in 2005. Before becoming president, Ahmadinejad was mayor of Tehran. One of his first decisions as mayor was to introduce female- and male-only elevators. Later, Iran launched women-only buses and taxis.

Segregated Cities?

Nasrin Sotodeh, a Tehran-based lawyer and women's-rights activist, told Radio Farda that such moves represent clear discrimination against women.

"They set up separate taxis for women, separate parks for women, separate hospitals for women," Sotodeh says. "Female patients can only be attended to by female medical workers. In the short-term future, we may see entire cities being divided into women's sections and men's sections. Or how about creating women-only and men-only cities? The [sex-segregated park] contradicts the international convention on human rights."

"Mothers' Paradise" is not the only sex-segregated park in Iran. Similar parks exclusively for women have already been established in other Iranian cities, including Mashad and Qom.

When the development of a new, 110-hectare women's park in the northeastern city of Mashad was announced three years ago, Iranian officials were quoted as saying that men can't even see inside the park from above.

"According to the studies that we have carried out, even from an aircraft flying over the park, women will not be seen because of the special arrangement of plant and trees," said Sedigheh Ghannadi, the head of the National Council of Women. "We have chosen trees that have greater covering and they will be planted in four rows and form a green wall."

Spying On Women

Likewise, men in Tehran cannot easily see inside the "Mothers' Paradise" park since its fencing is covered with white and orange canvas.

Tehran resident Ali says some curious men go to great lengths to try to take pictures of women inside the park, however. "Some men film women-only swimming pools using long-lens cameras or other means," he says. "It's going to be the same with the new women's park."

It is not clear if only female gardeners have been hired to take care of the park grounds.

Radio Farda correspondent Farin Asemi contributed to this report

Ahmadinejad's comments came on May 14 as several world leaders -- including U.S. President George W. Bush -- gathered in Israel to take part in the anniversary celebrations.

Speaking in northern Iran, Ahmadinejad said, "The Zionist regime is dying. The criminals assume that by holding celebrations they can save the sinister Zionist regime from death and annihilation." Iran does not recogize Israel, and Ahmadinejad was internationally condemned in 2005 when he said in a speech that Israel should be "erased from the world map."

Ahmadinejad has also downplayed the Holocaust, suggesting it is a "myth." He even called for Israel to be moved to another part of the world, saying, "Well, if you have committed a crime [against the Jewish people, such as the Nazis did during World War II], then give them a part of your own territory -- a part of the U.S. or Europe or Canada or Alaska -- so they could create their state there."

Such statements have been strongly condemned by the West. The Australian government said on May 14 that it is contemplating a case at the International Court of Justice against Ahmadinejad for inciting violence against Israel.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the Iranian leader's "extraordinary statements -- which are anti-Semitic and express a determination to eliminate the modern state of Israel from the map -- are appalling by any standard of current international relations."

The Hague-based UN court settles disputes between states in accordance with international law.

Rudd said his government is taking legal advice on the launching of a criminal case. He told Australian television, "It's not just a hyperbole from the bully pulpit of Tehran. It's the roll-on effect across the Islamic world, particularly those who listen to Iran for their guidance."

Israel considers Iran a threat because of Tehran's controversial nuclear program and its arsenal of long-range missiles, including the Shahab-3, which is capable of striking the Jewish state. Shahab-3 missiles, which can be fitted with nuclear warheads, have a range of 2,000 kilometers. Israel is about 1,000 kilometers from Iran.

Iran denies the accusation that it is trying to build nuclear weapons and says its nuclear activities are only for peaceful purposes. Israel is also widely believed to have a stockpile of nuclear weapons but has neither acknowledged nor denied having a nuclear-weapons program.

The report also lists Syria, North Korea, Cuba, and Sudan as among the top state sponsors of terrorism in 2007. The report says there was a 16-percent increase in terrorist attacks in Afghanistan between 2006 and 2007 due to resurgent extremist activity there and in Pakistan.

The State Department also says attacks in Iraq dropped between 2006 and 2007 but still accounted for 60 percent of worldwide terrorism casualties. The report concludes that the Al-Qaeda network and its affiliates remain "the greatest terrorist threat to the United States and its partners."

RFE/RL Washington correspondent Andrew F. Tully spoke about the report with Dell Dailey, the coordinator of the State Department's Office for Counterterrorism.

RFE/RL: In your presentation at the State Department, you referred to Iran as the world's "most-active" state sponsor of terrorism during 2007. Why?

Dell Dailey: They support the Taliban in Afghanistan. They support militant militias in Iraq. They support Hizballah, obviously, and they support Syria in its activities in Lebanon. So those four areas show that Iran's busy. It's busy meddling. It's busy in the terrorist business. And since they are a nation state, there's a certain amount of omnipotence that you can't do with a nation state that you might be able to do with a nonstate actor. So that's kind of why we put them at the very top.

RFE/RL: What was the state of terrorist activity in Iraq during 2007, and what groups are responsible?

Dailey: Since Iraq has turned out to be a very, very active battlefield, and [with] the success of our Iraqi armed forces and the presence of coalition forces, there's a pretty powerful conventional [military] presence. Now this compels the insurgents, the militant militias, and Al-Qaeda in Iraq to go to what we assume as nonstandard or asymmetric warfare techniques, like suicide bombing and terrorist attacks, because they can't go straight at a unit with forces on the ground because coalition forces are so powerful. They work that to their advantage and they go after both the civilian population and the coalition forces. And about 5,500 Iraqis -- civilians, nearly all Muslims -- [have been] killed by these terrorist groups. So because there's that much activity going on, we think that Iraq turns out to be the centerpiece for the activity.

RFE/RL: Afghanistan, of course, was the safe haven for Al-Qaeda when it mounted the attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001. What was the state of terrorism there last year?

Dailey: The Taliban, as a result of a very aggressive drug-production process in some of the agricultural regions, have been able to revitalize their fundamentally unpopular position with all this money. Because drug money can buy people, buy weapons, buy information, buy supplies, buy protection, and the Taliban have taken drugs to do this for them. And with that they've had a resurgence.

Our advantage is that the [UN's International Security Assistance Force] -- with the rapidly and vastly developing Afghanistan military and Afghanistan law enforcement -- we've been able to go after these folks. So there's been a lot more contacts -- combat actions -- that increase the numbers as showing that there's a lot more activity going on.

But don't be misled. Many of those [contacts] are driven by the aggressive action by both ISAF and the other coalition forces. So my take is, there's more activity going on, we're driving most of it, but the fact that the Taliban got their hands on this massive drug-growing capability really turned out to be a disadvantage for us.

RFE/RL: Outside Afghanistan, were there significant terrorist movements in the former Soviet states in Central Asia in 2007?

Dailey: Kazakhstan has identified 14 organizations in one of its declaration orders as foreign terrorist organizations. Uzbekistan has a pretty repressive government and as a result has, I would say, been pretty aggressive on terrorism against itself. But we don't see a universal, uniting, overall terrorist effort in Central Asia right now.

RFE/RL: Overall, are governments improving their abilities to fight terrorist groups? Or are these groups developing faster than governments can cope with them?

Dailey: Unequivocally, the governments are improving in their abilities to fight terrorism. For example, we're improving our counterterrorism finance capability [to freeze terrorists' bank accounts with] the establishment of the Financial Action Task Force. Countries are passing their counterterrorism legislation to go after terrorism. And with that counterterrorism legislation in place, they now have moral justification to go after terrorism with these rules, with these laws, with this legislation.

Find them, put them in their judicial system, have good evidence, have good prosecutorial presentation, have good judicial review and oversight, and have appropriate type punishments if they're found guilty, and then, of course, incarceration systems to put them in, and then systems to rehabilitate them afterwards. These are all going on right now that weren't going on five or six years ago. So the countries are becoming better in that area.

Law enforcement. Information sharing on an international basis. Capacity-building for both military and police systems have all dramatically improved. So it's our preparation as individual nations with bilateral support from stronger nations. And our multilateral institutions -- for example, the UN's counterterrorism efforts and some of its Security Council legislation and its General Assembly counterterrorism strategy -- all of that makes it more powerful for us to fight terrorism -- by a country, in that area regionally, and internationally. So we certainly are better off.

The talks aimed to follow up on a package of political, security, and economic incentives offered unsuccessfully to Iran in 2006.

After the meeting, Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister He Yafei told reporters that the participants agreed "on the main content of a plan" to restart the lapsed nuclear negotiations with Iran. But he cautioned that "not all" problems had been resolved.

He did not go into any detail on what differences remain. But he said the officials will report back to their governments, and as soon as the oustanding issues are resolved, the proposals will be referred to the Iranian side.

The meeting involved the United States, Russia, Britain, France, and Germany, as well as China itself. A European Union representative was also present.

He Yafei said earlier, before the talks began, that the participants were determined to press ahead. "So, we are here today to discuss new developments surrounding the Iran nuclear issue," he said. "We are certain that we have agreed to continue our discussion on the proposals on resuming talks on the Iranian nuclear issue."

Tehran has spurned the aid offer, and for years has said it will never give up the independent ability to enrich uranium, which it is now developing. The international community fears that Iran may intend to put its enrichment capacity to military use, something which Tehran denies. The UN Security Council has imposed three sets of international sanctions against Iran in a bid to get it to obey resolutions ordering it to stop enrichment activity.

Iran is continuing its defiance of the UN, however, announcing only last week that it plans to install 6,000 more high-speed centrifuges at its Natanz uranium-enrichment plant.

Adding to the sense that Iran is in no mood to compromise was the cancellation without explanation of a meeting set for April 14 between Iran's top nuclear official, Gholamreza Aghazadeh, and the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Muhammad el-Baradei. El-Baradei was hoping to persuade the Iranians to allow his agency to make further investigations into Iran's alleged past program for nuclear weapons development.

Diplomatic Gamble

The IAEA chief will however be discussing the "Iran dossier" in Berlin on April 17 with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. His ministry said the two will also look at nuclear nonproliferation issues. They can also be expected to review what, if anything, transpired at the April 16 Shanghai meeting.

China has taken something of a diplomatic gamble in hosting this gathering. Previously, it has stayed on the sidelines of the debate on Iran's nuclear program, joining the UN sanctions drive only reluctantly. Chinese officials want to avoid offending Iran, which is China's third-biggest supplier of oil, while at the same time they do not want to offend the United States, which seeks stronger action against Iran.

For this reason, it has chosen to host the talks on a subject that has become a mere side issue -- namely, should the benefits package already offered be extended in scope. Given Tehran's repeated rejection of the package, it's hard to believe it would react positively to any likely sweetening of the offer.

"I was asked about my activities on the 'Change for Equality' and 'Zanestan' websites," Ardalan told Radio Farda after her court visit on April 5. "They asked about the content of some of my articles and, as a member of the editorial teams of both websites, I defended that content. I was charged with propaganda against the state, but I reject the charge."

Iranian authorities have summoned Ardalan to court at least three times on a variety of charges since February, when she won Sweden's Olof Palme Prize for her commitment to defending women's rights.

On March 4, the authorities prevented Ardalan from traveling to Sweden to receive the $75,000 prize, confiscating her passport a few moments before her plane was to take off. Ardalan said she still does not have her passport, and the travel ban is still intact.

Ardalan is a founding member of the One Million Signatures campaign, a movement set up in August 2006 to promote equal rights for Iranian women. The 37-year-old feminist has worked for a number of women's publications, including "Zanestan," "Zanan," and "The Feminist Tribune of Iran," focusing on the lives of Iranian women. All of the publications have been closed by the government. Ardalan is currently an editor of "Change of Equality," an online publication promoting women's rights.

40 Members Arrested

Although "Change of Equality" and the One Million Signatures campaign have somehow survived Iranian officials' attacks, Ardalan and her fellow members of the signature campaign have paid a heavy price for being involved in feminist activities.

While the campaign members insist their movement is a nonpolitical, purely social association that has nothing against the state and religion, some 40 of its members have been arrested by Iranian police and intelligence services. Most of them have been charged with acting against the state.

Two of the campaign supporters in Kurdistan Province, Ronak Safarzadeh and Hana Abdi, were arrested by security services last autumn and remain imprisoned. Both are in their early 20s. After spending several months in prison without formal charges and without access to lawyers and relatives, the women have recently been accused of cooperating with terrorists and illegal armed groups. Both deny the charges, which have been condemned by rights groups as baseless.

Last year, Ardalan was handed a 3 1/2-year suspended prison sentence for taking part in a demonstration in Tehran.

Tehran Wants 'Total Silence'

Reza Moeni is in charge of the Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan desk at the Paris-based rights group Reporters Without Borders. Moeni says the Iranian government has increased its pressure on the signature campaign and other feminists by "arresting the movement's members, filtering their websites, and closing down the women's magazines."

"The Iranian government wants total silence," Moeni says. "Even when they free a journalist or a feminist from prison, they set them free under heavy bails, and obviously such journalists or activists would hesitate to continue their activities."

However, Tehran's efforts to silence the rights' activists sometimes bring the opposite effect, and end up attracting international attention and support to the activists' cause.

"There is pressure from the government's side, but there is resistance from the opposite side," Moeni says. "A few days ago more than 1,000 human rights activists, feminists, and civil-rights groups issued a statement to support Safarzadeh and Abdi, who have been imprisoned in Kurdistan. The statement worked against the Islamic republic's efforts to say that the two women were involved in terrorist activities and cooperating with armed groups."

Ardalan says the government pressure has to some extent made the feminists' activities less effective. "The campaign doesn't have a newspaper, and it is very difficult to access and read our websites inside Iran," Ardalan says.

After spending a few weeks in prison or perhaps having a criminal case hanging over one's head, many members of the signature campaign have become more cautious in their activities. However, Ardalan says she and most of the Iranian rights activists are determined to continue to fight for equal rights, and they "have always known that there is a price to pay for such goals."