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SUBJECT: AUSTRIAN MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS: January 30, 2007 
 
 
Strache Dismisses Neo-Nazi Claims 
 
¶1. The leader of Austria's Freedom Party, Heinz Christian Strache, 
has said he never was a neo-Nazi and would never be one. Strache 
spoke at a press conference called to answer allegations he had 
links to the far-right scene, after a series of photographs 
surfaced, one of which appears to show him giving a neo-Nazi salute. 
He said that the photos had been taken about 20 years ago. Pictures 
which had come to public attention earlier appear to show the 
Freedom party leader taking part in paramilitary exercises. One of 
the men seen with him was later convicted of neo-Nazi activities. 
All Austrian media continue to report on the controversy over the 
emergence of photos of FPOe boss Strache, taken about 20 years ago 
and showing him giving a neo-Nazi salute and participating in 
paramilitary activities. Mass-circulation provincial daily Kleine 
Zeitung comments that Strache's rejection of claims of past or 
present neo-Nazi affiliation, "had to be expected.  The right-wing 
populist Strache, who ran election campaigns with xenophobic 
slogans, is trying to survive politically and simultaneously soothe 
those public prosecutors who may have turned their attention to the 
FPOe boss." However, those who "witnessed Strache's press conference 
yesterday, can only come to the simple, and deflating conclusion" 
that he is "behaving like all died-in-the wool opportunists: As soon 
as it appears convenient, they adapt to any new situation" and claim 
they never were part of any dubious activities or groups. 
 
 
Coalition Government Gets Down to Work 
 
¶2. The new SPOe-OeVP coaliton government will pass its first laws in 
a session in Parliament today. The federal ministry law, which 
determines individual ministries' authorities and responsibilities; 
new regulations on responsibilities of the Austrian state 
secretaries; and climate change - an issue tabled by the Greens -- 
 
SIPDIS 
will be on the agenda at today's meeting. 
Meanwhile, in an interview with semi-official daily Wiener Zeitung, 
Minister for Women's Issues Doris Bures (SPOe) explains she is 
banking on cooperation with other ministries: "Without a budget, the 
Ministry for Women's Issues cannot accomplish much, but in 
cooperation with the Ministry for Justice, family laws can be 
changed; together with the Social Ministry we can fight female 
poverty; and working with the ministries for Education and 
Infrastructure, we can get girls and women jobs in so-called 
'untraditional professions.'" Among Bures' key goals is increasing 
both employment rates among women and women's incomes and improving 
the situation for working mothers, the Wiener Zeitung quotes. 
 
 
US Rejects Iran Time-Out 
 
¶3. The US is rejecting a call from the International Atomic Energy 
Agency for a time-out in the dispute over Iran's nuclear ambitions. 
IAEA head Mohammed ElBaradei said last week that Iran's nuclear work 
and UN sanctions could be simultaneously stopped. The US Ambassador 
to the United Nations, however, has now said the sanctions are not 
open to re-interpretation. Tehran has meanwhile announced it will 
install three thousand centrifuges in its nuclear facility at 
Natanz, thus dramatically increasing its ability to produce enriched 
uranium. 
Analyses in independent provincial daily Salzburger Nachrichten 
indicate that the social situation and growing poverty in Iran is 
threatening to alienate even President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's 
supporters. While Ahmadinejad is trying to demonstrate -- with tough 
statements on the impending destruction of Israel and the US -- that 
he intends to follow his foreign policy course, behind the scenes 
the number of his critics is growing steadily. Among them are former 
President Ali Rafsanjani and Ayatollah Ali Montazeri, who have 
deplored the growing poverty in Iran, the lack of freedom and 
Ahmadinejad's political style. So far, repressions at home and the 
international ostracism have angered only the Iranian middle class, 
but now the President's power base -- the socially disadvantaged, 
whom he promised to reward with profits from oil sales -- appears to 
be crumbling: A drastic rise in staple food and apartment prices, 
steep inflation and high unemployment, and mounting international 
pressure on the financial front has led a leading Iranian journalist 
to warn the country was "sliding into an abyss." 
 
 
Bush Warns Iran over Iraq 
 
¶4. US President George Bush has warned Iran against expanding its 
military activities in Iraq. In an interview on Monday, Bush said 
the US would react with force to such a move on the part of Tehran. 
His statements came after Iran had announced it would step up its 
influence in Iraq. Should Iran "expand its military operations in 
Iraq to the disadvantage of US troops or of innocent Iraqi 
citizens," the United States would react with determination, the US 
President underscored. 
ORF online news writes that in its "search for a way out of the 
troubled situation in Iraq, the US may be facing another unwelcome 
opponent in the future": Iran. Tehran's ambition to increase its 
influence in Iraq, to support Iran in its struggle for greater 
stability and to expand its economic tries with Baghdad, have caused 
the US President to issue a strong warning against Tehran. 
In an interview with mass-circulation tabloid Oesterreich, war 
correspondent Antonia Rados explains her view of the tensions 
between the US and Iran, and why members of the Shiite faction so 
often become the victims of attacks in Iraq: "Sixty percent of 
Iraqis are Shiites, which is why there are more Shiite victims of 
attacks - it's a simple calculation. The second factor is that we 
are all highly focused on the Shiites, and the reason is Iran. It is 
becoming increasingly clear that Iraq is turning into a war by proxy 
between Iran and the US. The Shiites dominate in Iran, and they are 
supporting the Iraqi Shiites. (...) In the meantime we have come to 
understand that everything in Iraq will have repercussions on the 
entire region." 
McCaw