BAGHDAD - An Iranian exile group based in Iraq said on Tuesday it had carried out 294 attacks against Iranian government targets this year.

Mujahideen Khalq said in a statement distributed to reporters in Baghdad that the group's leader, Massoud Rajavi, "announced that in the first seven months of 1997, the Mujahideen have carried out 294 operations inside Iran."

The Iranian government has in the past few months reported increased clashes between security forces and the Mujahideen.

Mohammad Mohaddessin, the group's foreign affairs chief, told reporters the operations ranged from attacking bases of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, their vehicles and engaging in clashes with them.

The organisation uses Iraq as a springboard for attacks inside Iran. It has several camps, equipped with tanks, heavy guns and helicopter gunships, close to the borders with Iran.

Rajavi said three new military camps had been set up along the border, bringing the number to eight, because of an influx of Iranians into neighbouring Iraq to join the group.

Mujahideen bases in Iraq have been the target of air and rocket attacks by Tehran. Their office in Baghdad, now ringed by a concrete wall, has weathered mortar and bomb attacks.

The group said on Monday that it had elected Mahvash Sepehri as its new secretary-general for two years. She replaced Shahrzad Sadr.

[Iran Zamin News Agency reported that told the gathering that following the recent elections, the mullahs' leadership has become a triumvirate. This had weakened the regime in its entirety, speeding up the pace of developments in favor of the Iranian Resistance.

The NLA Commander in Chief reiterated: "If Khatami were to take one step back from suppression … the Iranian people would quickly sweep aside this regime, which is a hundred times more despised than the shah's dictatorship."

Pointing to recent comments by the mullahs' President, NLA Commander in Chief said: "Backed by the Iranian people, the NLA will of course return to Iran, but to overthrow the clerical regime and establish democracy in that country."]

Khatami Hasn't Got Much Going For Himself, BBC Radio, September 1 

Salaam newspaper ran an interview with Behzad Nabavi, a well known leftist figure, in which he focused on the realities facing the new president.

Nabavi said: "The judiciary is independent, and is not overseen by the president. The radio and television networks are overseen by the Leader [Khamenei]. The command of the nation's armed forces is also the prerogative of the Leader.

"If the Leader does not approve of giving command of the security forces to the Interior Ministry, the executive branch does not even have a police force. In other words, the president does not have many resources at his disposal."

Nabavi suggested that the success of the President would be depend on his ability to coordinate his policy objectives with the other powers within the regime.

Constitution Does Not Apply To Khamenei, Kayhan, September 1 

Kayhan newspaper ran an extensive article on the clergy and the Velayat-Faqih [rule of the Supreme Religious Leader, currently Khamenei]. Kayhan writes that a new trend has come about which believes that the Leader's authority is limited by the Constitution.

In the opinion of Kayhan's writer, however, "the Vali-Faqih [Supreme Leader] has been determined by God. He is not selected, but discovered by the Council of Guardians."

Chinese Materials, Technology for Iran Weapons Programs, Agence France Presse, September 2 

WASHINGTON - China supplies Iran and Iraq with material and technology for their weapons programs, according to a Navy report cited by the "Washington Times" on Tuesday.

The Office of Naval Intelligence report on maritime challenges across the globe said a merchant ship was found recently in Saudi Arabia to be transporting "illegal chemicals from China to the Middle East… A similar situation exists today in Iran with a steady flow of materials and technologies from China to Iran," the navy report said, according to the Times.

"This exchange is one of the most active WMD (weapons of mass destruction) programs in the Third World and is taking place in a region of great strategic importance to the United States," the Times quoted the report as saying.

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