Iran’s D.C. Interests Office Keeps Going, The Washington Times, April 25 

While the Clinton administration pushes for tougher policies from European allies against Iran, it has made no move against Iran’s diplomatic office here staffed by more than 45 people, including suspected intelligence agents, according to U.S. officials...

One official (who spoke on condition of anonymity) said "a group" of employees at the Iranian interests section are agents of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security, the intelligence and covert action unit that has been linked by the U.S. government to support for international terrorism.

The national security threats posed by the Iranian presence were highlighted by U.S. officials in the wake of the trial in Germany two weeks ago that uncovered evidence linking senior Iranian leadership to international terrorism...

U.S. intelligence officials said Iranian intelligence agents, including officials operating out of the interests section and the United Nations mission in New York, spy on Iranians in America.

Iran’s agents also are engaged in collecting advanced U.S. technology for weapons and other uses.

 

French Appeals Jails Iranians For "Terrorism", Reuter, April 27 

PARIS - A French appeals court upheld on Friday prison sentences leveled last year against two men for supplying Iran's secret services with information aimed at helping to kill opponents in France...

SOS Attentats (SOS Attacks), a private association grouping victims of bomb attacks in France, said in a statement the appeals court ruling "again exposed the terrorist nature of the Iranian regime and its leaders."

 

Sanctions Reducing Foreign Investment, Dow Jones News, April 25 

WASHINGTON - ... Speaking to a conference on U.S.-Iran relations, John H. Lichtblau of the Petroleum Industry Research Foundation noted that Iran's offshore oil sector needs "substantial foreign investment" in order to expand offshore production from the current level of 550,000 barrels a day to about 1 million b/d by the year 2000.

Lichtblau noted that the U.S. Iran-Libya Sanctions Act as well as the U.S. embargo of Iran have kept U.S. and some foreign companies from investing in Tehran's oil sector.

A United Front Against Iran

Editorial by The New York Times, April 27

Now that a German court has found Iranian leaders responsible for the murder of Kurdish dissidents in Berlin, America no longer stands alone in condemning Teheran for exporting terrorism. The next step is to develop an effective international response to Iran's threatening behavior. Teheran is also engaged in covert plans to develop nuclear weapons and works to disrupt Mideast peace efforts. It openly flouts the most minimal rules needed to maintain international peace and security.

The European Union's decision to summon most of its ambassadors from Teheran for consultations was welcome but inadequate. Europe, more dependent on Mideast oil imports than the United States, has been reluctant to apply economic or diplomatic pressure against Iran.

Tougher measures are now in order, including tighter restrictions on military transfers and limiting the travel privileges of Iranian diplomats, many of whom abuse their status to promote terror. China and Russia, which respectively have been providing Iran with missiles and nuclear energy technology, must also be persuaded to exercise restraint. The German court concluded that the 1992 Berlin murders had been ordered by a secretive "Committee for Special Operations" consisting of Iran's top political and spiritual leadership. That suggests that a string of other murders of Iranian political exiles and Kurdish dissidents may also have been commissioned by Iranian leaders.

The United States, which has banned American companies from trading with or investing in Iran since 1995, is the only major economic power now imposing sanctions. Europe's unwillingness to help has undermined the sanctions and unfairly disadvantaged American companies. Since the American embargo took effect, European companies have picked up America's lost business.

The European Union is set to consider its own sanctions against Iran this week. An American-style ban on trade and investments would dry up the revenues Iranian leaders use to finance terrorism and weapons buying. At the very least, Europe should consider banning sales of military-related technology and restricting diplomatic visas. Washington must also persuade Russia and China to avoid irresponsible arms and technology transfers.

Nearly two decades after the Ayatollah Khomeini swept away the Shah's pro-American dictatorship, Iran's Government is still driven by revolutionary fervor. A distorted sense of Islamic mission endangers neighboring countries and threatens perceived enemies in Europe and beyond. Sanctions will not change that attitude overnight. But the world is obliged to do all it can to minimize the multiple dangers presented by Teheran.

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