BRIEF ON IRAN
No. 693
Tuesday, July 8, 1997
Representative Office of
The National Council of Resistance of Iran
Washington, DC
Government-Backed Gangs Step Up Crack-Down, Iran Zamin News Agency, July 7
The central Iranian city of Isfahan was the scene of an attack last Thursday by members of the government-backed "Friends of Hizbollah" led by the notorious leader Haj Moslem on families spending their leisure time in the city's Aineh-Khaneh Park. The thugs, armed with clubs and knives, beat up family members, alleging that they were violating the fundamentalist regime's laws of morality.
Several clashes have also been reported in the past few days between government-backed gangs and young Iranians in Mellat Park and Laleh Park in the capital Tehran.
Terrorists Attack Iranian Resistance Supporters in Norway With Petrol Bombs, Iran Zamin News Agency, July 7
On Saturday, terrorists sent by the mullahs' regime in Iran attacked a book exhibition of the Iranian Resistance and the three Resistance supporters attending to it with petrol bombs at Oslo City, the main shopping center in downtown Oslo. Fortunately, the terrorists' plan to burn the three Resistance supporters to death was neutralized and none of the three was seriously injured.
A statement by the NCRI revealed that: "Following last week's declaration by a majority (84 members) in the Norwegian parliament of their support for the Iranian Resistance and its President-elect Maryam Rajavi, the mullahs' embassy in Oslo received orders from Tehran to carry out a terrorist attack against the Iranian Resistance in Norway. The attack was supervised by Mostafa Badparva, one of the diplomat-terrorists in the regime's embassy in Oslo and the Intelligence Ministry's chief agent in the embassy."
Iran Protests to France Over Expulsion of Iranian, Reuter, July 7
Iran on Monday protested to France over the expulsion of an Iranian student, the official Iranian news agency IRNA said.
It said Iran's foreign ministry summoned France's charge d'affaires in Tehran to protest against the expulsion of "an Iranian student studying in France under scholarship." It gave no further details.
Iranian students receiving state scholarships are thoroughly screened for their commitment to the Islamic government.
The protest came at a time of frayed relations between Iran and France and its European partners….
British Authors Urge Iran to Release Jailed Writer, Reuter, July 7
LONDON - British writers gathered outside the Iranian embassy in London on Monday, calling for the release of jailed newspaper editor Faraj Sarkuhi.
Around 40 demonstrators, including authors Rachel Billington and Richard Holroyd, waved banners demanding the Iranian authorities free Sarkuhi, who was arrested in April trying to leave Iran illegally….
Concern has been mounting among human rights groups since Iran said Sarkuhi was to be tried for espionage….
New Testimony in Germany Blames Iran for Lockerbie, Reuter, July 7
BONN - German prosecutors probing the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am airliner over the Scottish village of Lockerbie said on Monday they were interviewing a new witness who claims Iran was behind the attack.
"I can say that a witness has been interviewed and that his testimony blames Iran," Job Tilmann, a spokesman for the Frankfurt prosecutors' office, told Reuters.
Sources close to the investigation said the witness was Abolghasem Mesbahi, a former Iranian intelligence agent…. [They] said Mesbahi was widely regarded as a credible witness….
U.S. General Reiterates Implicating Mullahs in Pan Am Flight 103 Bombing, Dow Jones News, July 7
NEW YORK - A report that Iran engineered the 1988 destruction of Pan Am Flight 103 in retaliation for the shootdown of an Iranian jetliner would support the view long held by the man who then commanded U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf.
"I have always believed Iran was behind it and I still do," said retired Marine Gen. George Crist, who as head of U.S. Central Command was responsible for American military activities in the Gulf….