Iranian Resistance Welcomes Expulsion of Iran's Intelligence Agent from France, The Associated Press, July 9 

France has expelled an Iranian engineer accused of spying and acting as Tehran's link to French Muslim militants, an Iranian dissident group said Wednesday.

Mohammed Reza Karami Mowlai was expelled Sunday for stealing French scientific secrets, according to the National Council of Resistance of Iran, a French-based group opposed to Iran's Islamist government.

The French Foreign and Interior ministries would not comment.

Mowlai was an "agent of the Intelligence Ministry of the Tehran regime," charged with passing on scientific information to Iran, the dissident group said. It did not specify the nature of the scientific information.

Mowlai also was head of a Muslim group in the eastern French city of Nancy, the group said, and acted as a liaison between Iran and French Islamic militants.

U.S.: Forces in Gulf Are Targets, The Associated Press, July 9 

Terrorists are stalking U.S. troops in the Persian Gulf, seeking an opening for another deadly attack, a top general told lawmakers Wednesday.

"We sense that we're being watched," said Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Anthony Zinni, President Clinton's choice to command U.S. Gulf forces. "There will be other tries, I'm convinced."

Zinni's comments represent the starkest warning to date that thousands of American service members stationed near the Gulf may be targeted in an attempt to repeat the June 1996 truck bomb attack on a barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, that killed 19 airmen….

The year that has passed since the Khobar Towers bombing has done nothing to reduce the intensity of terrorist activity, Zinni told the Senate Armed Services Committee considering his promotion.

"It's almost a daily event," said Zinni, referring to instances in which U.S. personnel have noticed surveillance….

State Department: Iran Needs To Change Its Behavior, Dow Jones News, July 9  

A U.S. State Department spokesman sidestepped a question Wednesday about whether the U.S. is seeking ways to reach out to Iran, and said that any rapprochement between the two countries will depend on Tehran changing the behavior Washington finds objectionable….

"You know, we've said for many, many years that we'd be willing to sit down with the Iranians and talk about these three issues (Washington finds objectionable), but the Iranians don't want to talk about those issues with us," department spokesman Nicholas Burns said when asked about reports that Washington is seeking a diplomatic channel to Iran….

"All I can say is that we will judge Iran by its actions. The new president, Mr. Khatami, will take power very shortly. And if he is interested in doing away with Iran's support for terrorist groups, doing away with its opposition to the Middle East peace process, and doing away with its current campaign to build a nuclear weapons program, then there's something to talk about and there's a basis to improve the relationship," Burns said….

Iranian Resistance Demands French Cancel Half-a-billion Dollar Credits And Guarantees to Mullahs, Iran Zamin News Agency, July 9 

Calling the decision to grant a half-a-billion dollar credit by the French Societé General to five banks in Iran —as well as the government-run COFACE guarantee of this credit— a decision "which runs counter to the highest interests of the people of Iran," the National Council of Resistance of Iran called upon the French government to refrain from going forward with the loan.

The NCR added that such concessions are "tantamount to sacrificing the principles of human rights for petty economic interests and turning a blind eye on the execution and torture of opponents, savage repression of women, censorship, suppression of intellectuals in Iran, and terrorism and bombings abroad."

"This concession to the criminal mullahs is in line with the same policy by the French government which returned, under the pretext of 'state interests' and in breach of all international principles, two of the murderers of Professor Rajavi to Iran in December 1993 instead of extraditing them to Switzerland," the NCR said.

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