TEHRAN - A special European Union envoy to Iran left on Sunday without any sign of progress in talks on tense diplomatic relations, European diplomats said.

"I can confirm that there is no evidence of progress. The dialogue continues," one diplomat told Reuters.

Ambassadors of the 15 EU countries have been absent from Tehran since April when they were withdrawn for consultations.

Their recall followed a diplomatic row over German court charges of high Iranian involvement in political assassinations in Europe in 1992.

Iran said later the ambassadors could return but the German envoy must be the last to do so, a formula seen by Bonn as an attempt to undermine EU solidarity.

Resistance Condemns EU Representative's Trip, Iran Zamin News Agency, September 7 

In a statement issued on September 6 from Paris, the National Council of Resistance condemned the European Union's dispatch of an envoy to Tehran and the holding of talks with the officials of that regime.

It said that "meeting the officials of Tehran's regime comes while no changes have taken place in the repressive and terrorist behavior of the mullahs' regime."

"In the month that has passed since the inauguration of the regime's new President, at least 30 persons have been executed in public, the regime's agents attacked with rockets a base camp of the Iranian Resistance in Iraq, six Iranian dissidents were murdered by the mullahs' terrorists in Iraqi Kurdistan, the uprisings of the people of East Tehran and Nayriz in Fars Province were put down in blood, and hundreds of protesters arrested in these uprisings are presently on the death row," the statement said.

Poverty in Iran Fuels Immigration to Kuwait, Reuter, September 7

KUWAIT - On a moonless night in Iran, 36-year-old Ahmad Reza kissed his sleeping child goodbye and promised his sobbing wife a better life upon his return from Kuwait.

His companions, who sneaked to Kuwait in the same flimsy boat, said he never made it to the rich Arab state.

Kuwait has been a favorite destination for Iranian emigrants in recent decades. Some Iranians in Kuwait believe high unemployment rates at home country has increased the flow of workers out of the country.

"There are no jobs, that is why they take the risk of going in a small boat to Kuwait without a visa," said Mehdi, an Iranian grocer in Kuwait.

Iran has a population of more than 60 million with an unemployment rate of 10.7 percent and 20 percent inflation. Laborers earn about 200,000 rials ($70) a month in Iran. In Kuwait they can earn up to $700.

Intelligence Ministry Fabricated Report on Return of 500 Iranians, Iran Zamin News Agency, September 7

On September 3, the media of the clerical regime reported about the return of 500 Iranian refugees, including 51 affiliated with the Mojahedin and other political groups. According to reports from inside Iran, this bogus news was dictated upon Khatami's order by the Intelligence Ministry.

Office of the Mojahedin of Iran in Baghdad said in a statement that "the 51 persons the regime claimed were from the Mojahedin and other political groups, actually returned to Iran on August 28. All of them were workers who had gone to Kuwait in search of jobs and returned home on a flight from that country after their work and residence permits had expired."

Such ridiculous prevarication are merely a desperate reaction to the successes and victories of the Mojahedin and Iranian Resistance," the statement added.

Rafsanjani Denounces U.S. Role in Mideast, Reuter, September 5 

TEHRAN - Former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani on Friday denounced Washington's role in the Middle East, saying Arabs should have no illusions about a visit to the region by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright...

"In case they succeed in their (peace) efforts, Americans want it to appear ... as if it was America that came and restored the peace process in the Arabs' favor. The great danger is that the (Arab) people could be fooled to believe this," Rafsanjani, a Shi'ite Moslem cleric, told the crowd of worshippers...

The crowd responded with the Islamic rallying cry "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest) and chants of "Death to America" and "Death to Israel."

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