Group Threatens Bombings Unless Germans Apologize, The Washington Post, April 19 

BERLIN, April 18 -- The leader of an extremist Shiite fundamentalist group in Iran threatened Germany today with suicide bombings if it did not apologize for a court ruling that blamed Iran's leadership for ordering the assassination of Kurdish dissidents here in 1992…

Germany has stepped up its anti-terror vigilance at international airports and around government buildings in the past few days, officials said. Italy also has moved to a high alert after its intelligence agency warned of possible attacks by Islamic extremists...

Ali Khamenei, Iran's paramount religious leader who, along with President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, was accused of signing the orders to assassinate the Kurds, warned then that Germany "will soon have to pay a very high price" for the court's decision. But he did not spell out what kind of vengeance he envisioned.

Mullahs' Terrorist Centers in Germany, Associated Press, April 19 

On Friday, a hard-line group staged an enlistment drive in Tehran for volunteers for suicide attacks against German targets...

On Saturday, German foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel said Germany was taking the threats seriously.

"Since these suicide commandos apparently follow only instructions from the government, we are holding the Iranian government to its word," Kinkel said.

The Welt am Sonntag newspaper said the Iranian Embassy in Bonn, the Iranian consulates in Frankfurt and Hamburg and a mosque in Hamburg were being used for preparing attacks against Iranian dissidents.

Tehran Sees EU's Leniency Towards terrorism, as "Rational", Reuter, April 20 

DUBAI - Iran expects European Union foreign ministers to take a rational stance at their meeting next week to pave the way for cooperation with the Islamic republic, Tehran Times, a leading Tehran newspaper said on Sunday.

The newspaper praised statements by the German and French foreign ministers, Klaus Kinkel and Herve de Charette, which stressed maintaining ties with Iran.

[Iran Zamin News Agency reported on April 20, that Mr. Massoud Rajavi, Leader of Iranian Resistance, issued a statement, saying: "In light of the fact that some European countries have reopened the dossiers on the assassinations carried out by the mullah' regime on their soil, the government of France, rather than calling for 'dialogue' with the mullahs, must regard itself accountable for the return of two of the murderers of Prof. Kazem Rajavi to Tehran in December 1993."]

Under Fire Over Iran Killings, Reuter, April 18 

VIENNA - A week after a German court accused Iran of ordering the 1992 Berlin killing of four exiled dissidents, Austria has come under increasing pressure to reopen a case on the slaying of three Kurdish activists in Vienna in 1989.

A former top Austrian diplomat, Erich Maximilian Schmid, who at the time was head of the foreign ministry's political section, said Austria was bullied by Iran into allowing the suspected Iranian killers to flee after the murders.

Schmid told state television that the Iranian ambassador in Austria appeared at the foreign ministry and "made pretty clear it could become dangerous for Austrians in Iran if Austria brought the suspects to court."

Overview

Intelligence officers and cultural attachés in Iranian embassies have been instructed to step up their efforts to identify suitable targets for "sting" espionage operations against foreign businessmen and delegations visiting Tehran, according to Western diplomatic sources.

Intelligence services in the West are aware of the heightened risks of foreign visitors to Iran becoming involved in "entrapment" attempts after last week's jailing by a German court of four members of an Iranian-led hit squad that murdered four Kurdish dissidents in a Berlin restaurant in 1992.

The aim of sting operations is to single out targets who can be incriminated for espionage activities during their stay in Iran and placed under arrest, and then used as leverage by Tehran in its dealings with the West.

Tehran was suspected of an entrapment operation after the arrest of Faraj Sarkuhi, an Iranian dissident and writer, on charges of espionage. His family lives in Germany, and Iran was accused of exploiting his arrest to put pressure on Bonn to dissociate itself from the allegation that Iran had authorized the killing of the four Kurdish dissidents.

The German Foreign Ministry said in February that a link between the arrest of Mr. Sarkuhi and the trial in Germany could not be ruled out. … One diplomatic source said: "Now that the Tehran regime has lost this important bargaining card, it has directed its diplomats to expedite their search for new means of pressure on Western governments."

Security sources in London said there was no indication that British businessmen were being specifically earmarked for entrapment by the Iranian Intelligence Ministry. However, there was no doubt, they said, that Iranian intelligence would use this method when possible.

In recent years there have been a number of cases where Tehran was suspected of producing "trumped-up" charges against foreigners.

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