BRIEF ON IRAN No. 478 Friday, August 16, 1996 Representative Office of The National Council of Resistance of Iran 3421 M Street NW #1032 Washington, DC 20007 Danish Foreign Minister Rejects "Critical Dialogue," Resistance Welcomes it, Agence France Presse, August 15 COPENHAGEN - Mr. Niels Helveg Petersen, the Foreign Minister of Denmark, in an interview announced that because Tehran has refused to revoke Salman Rushdie's death sentence, he has decided to end "critical dialogue" with Iran. Mr. Petersen said: "I do not believe critical dialogue with Iran will amount to anything... I do not see any reason for the dialogue to continue." In another related dispatch from Paris, AFP reported that the National Council of Resistance of Iran welcomed this decision: The Paris-based NCR in an statement urged "the Government of Denmark to take immediate, practical steps to end the policy of critical dialogue with the religious, terrorist dictatorship ruling Iran." "Doubtless, such an initiative would be welcomed by the Iranian people, who yearn for the overthrow of this medieval regime's and the establishment of democracy in their country," it said. The statement also called upon the European Union to abandon critical dialogue and join the trade sanctions against the mullahs. Dutch Companies Re-consider Ties with Iran, Iran Zamin News Agency, August 15 According to Dutch Het Parool, many Dutch companies are deciding to end purchasing oil products from Iran. The paper wrote: "Consignment organizations in the Netherlands... are determining to reject receiving petroleum shipments from Iran to avoid repercussions of U.S. sanctions." White House Calls Turkey-Iran Gas Deal 'Bad Policy', Dow Jones News, August 15 The Clinton administration regards the $20 billion gas deal between Turkey and Iran to be ''bad policy'' regardless of whether it technically violates newly enacted U.S. sanctions against Iran and Libya. ''We are disappointed that they have chosen to make this transaction whether it falls within the statute or without. Whether it is legal or not is one thing, but it is definitely bad policy,'' an administration official said.... Earlier this week, Senator Alfonse D'Amato sent a letter to President Clinton demanding that if it turns out that Turkey violated the Iran-Libya sanctions bill passed last week, that sanctions will be enforced against Turkey.... Senior Iranian Official Confers with Libyan Leader, Reuters, August 15 TEHRAN - A senior Iranian official has met Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in Tripoli to discuss ties between the two countries which face new U.S. sanctions, Iran's official news agency IRNA said on Thursday.... Iran and Libya recently moved to strengthen ties. In May, Tehran and Tripoli agreed to boost trade and cooperate in technical, political and cultural fields, which Iran said would "strengthen Islamic states, and enable them to resist pressures from colonial and arrogant powers." Tough Talks in Face of People's Rejection, Radio Israel, August 14 Mohammad Reza Mahdavi Kani, the former secretary general of the Association of Militant Clerics, in a speech in Tehran, called for more activities by mosques. He criticized that most mosques are closed in the mornings and in most offices and organizations prayers are not practiced. According to daily Jomhouri Islami, Kani criticized officials for not including mosques in large development projects... He said that they [officials] respond to our inquiry that Tehran's residents who live around mosques would be disturbed by the call for prayers in the morning. He asked the mosques' authorities not to listen to people... and said that: "This [Iran] is an Islamic country and those whom did not wanted to hear call for prayers have left the country." More Amputations, Iran Zamnin News Agency, August 15 According to the reports from inside Iran, the regime has amputated the hands of four more people accused of rubbery in the western city of Ardebil. These sentences were carried out in the city jail. OnNewLine ( Reuters, August 15 - German foreign minister Klaus Kinkel said Europe will consider action if the United States implements a law imposing sanctions on companies and states that do business with Iran, a newspaper reported on Thursday. ( Reuters, August 15 - An adamant Turkey said on Thursday it would go ahead with a $23 billion gas deal with Tehran despite a U.S. law punishing companies that invest in major energy projects in Iran or Libya. ( Radio Israel, August 14 - According to daily Kayhan, the Revolutionary Guards Corp. held its largest combat camp with 70,000 of its troops in northern province of Mazandaran.