BRIEF ON IRAN
No. 732
Tuesday, September 2, 1997
Representative Office of
The National Council of Resistance of Iran
Washington, DC
TEHRAN - Iran's state radio on Saturday blasted neighboring Azerbaijan for hosting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying Baku was playing "a dangerous game."
"Baku has been playing a dangerous game by receiving the Zionist regime's expansionist prime minister. By doing this it has destabilized its own ties with Islamic states in the region and the world," Tehran radio said….
The commentary warned that Moslem Azerbaijan could face popular protests at home if it continued its efforts to improve ties with the Jewish state.
"It is probable that if such efforts continue, the Islamic people of Azerbaijan will eventually be pushed to react in a bid to pressure the government to break its ties with the Zionists as people have done in Turkey and Egypt," the radio said.
Iran Hangs Man for Spying for United States, Reuter, September 1
TEHRAN - Iran has executed an Iranian man for spying for the United States, the official Iranian news agency IRNA said on Monday.
It said Siavash Bayani was hanged in Evin prison outside Tehran last week on charges of spying for the "Great Satan, America."
Bayani had left Iran for the United States about 1984 where he had sought political asylum but returned about three years ago to gather information for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the agency said….
Uncompassionate Clerics Call Princess Diana a "Moral Disgrace", Associated Press, September 1
LONDON - To lose a beautiful, compassionate, 36-year-old princess: unimaginable. And that it could have been avoided: simply outrageous….
As the realization set in that Princess Diana was irrevocably gone, admirers started examining what her loss -- and her life -- meant to them….
In Iran, government-run TV announced Diana's death unsympathetically:
"One of the elements of moral disgrace in the British court has been killed in a car accident in France," an announcer said against a background of film clips of Diana….
Mojahedin Congress Elects
New Secretary General
Iran Zamin News Agency, September 1
The congress of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran, convened on the thirty-second anniversary of the organization's foundation, elected Ms. Mahvash Sepehri as the new Secretary General of the organization for the coming two years. The congress was held yesterday evening at one of the Mojahedin headquarters in the border region. Members of the organization in 17 bases and military camps in the Iran-Iraq border area and in offices in ten European countries and the USA were linked together in a conference call.
According to a statement by the Press Office of the Mojahedin in Baghdad - Iraq, delegates representing the Mojahedin Command inside Iran also attended the seven-hour congress.
The statement said: "Ms. Sepehri, 41, was born in Sanandaj, provincial capital of Iranian Kurdistan. She is a veteran official of the Mojahedin, who also served several years as a member of the General Command of the National Liberation Army of Iran. She served as Senior Secretary of the National Council of Resistance of Iran for a two-year term since 1995."
Ms. Shahrzad Sadr, the Mojahedin's outgoing Secretary General who chaired the congress, announced that since last May the organization's branches have been holding a number of conferences in which Mojahedin members and officials participated in preliminary debates and consultations on the election of a new Secretary General.
She then proceeded with the election and after taking the votes of all members and delegates Ms. Sepehri was elected by the congress as the new Secretary General.
Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, who was the honorary guest of the congress, described the Mojahedin Organization "as a national and historical treasure for the people of Iran. Its achievements, particularly towards the realization of women's equality, have completely undermined the cultural and ideological foundations of the mullahs' regime."
The concluding speech at the congress was delivered by Iranian Resistance Leader Mr. Massoud Rajavi.
An autobiography of Ms. Sepehri accompanied the statement.