UP to 30 crew members of three Dutch salvage tugs have been detained by the Iranian authorities in apparent retaliation for Dutch involvement in the recovery of an American navy helicopter in the Gulf last month. Their tugs and lifting equipment have been impounded.

The three ships of the Smit Tak salvage company were seized within the past week. Their crews - Dutch and other nationalities - are being held incommunicado….

News of the incident has caused great surprise in diplomatic circles in European capitals and Washington….

Leading Mullahs Mourn Death of Hezbollah Terrorist, State-Run Tehran Times Reports, September 17  

TEHRAN - A memorial service was held on Tuesday for the son of the secretary general of hezbollah Seyed Hassan Nasrallah who was martyred in clashes with Zionist forces last Friday.

Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi and head of Khamenei's office Hojjatoleslam Golpayegani attended the ceremony at Ark Mosque in Tehran, along with many other political and military officials.

The service was organized by Iran's Martyr Foundation. Yusef-Ali Shokri, the director of the foundation's Tehran bureau, accused the United States, in a speech to the mourners saying that the U.S. government is doing its utmost to weaken the Lebanese Hezbollah….

The head of the Judiciary, Mohammad Yazdi Tuesday sent a message of condolence to the head of the Lebanese Hizbollah… Earlier, similar messages of condolence were sent to Hassan Nasrollah by Ali Khamenei, President Mohammad Khatami, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi.

Europe And "Rogue" Iran, The Christian Science Monitor, September 16 

BONN—The European Union, whose policy of "critical dialogue" with Iran was long a sore spot for the United States, now finds itself engaged in a game of "who will blink first" with Tehran.

EU efforts to resume normal relations with Iran have proved unavailing. Sources in the German Foreign Ministry speak of "a dialogue between deaf-mutes" and of "radio silence."

The chill between Iran and the EU began [with] the so-called Mykonos trial… A German court found that the murders had been ordered by figures at the highest levels of the Iranian government, including the supreme spiritual leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Although some 60 murders of Iranian dissidents have been carried out in Europe since the Iranian revolution of 1979, this was the first case in which a court explicitly blamed the Tehran regime. The German ambassador in Iran was declared persona non grata and returned home…

The new foreign minister, Kamal Kharrazi,…has invited EU ambassadors to return. But after signaling that the ambassadors could return "at any time," Iran subsequently made clear that an earlier, pre-election stipulation, still holds: The German ambassador has to be the last to return…

Dancing Dolls Cause Storm in Iran, Reuter, September 16 

TEHRAN—A pair of scantily dressed dolls swaying their hips to the tune of the lambada have raised eyebrows in Iran.

Tehran newspapers said on Tuesday the "depraved" dolls were sold openly in northwestern Iran after being smuggled from neighboring Azerbaijan.

The battery-operated dolls, which move forward and backward in the suggestive moves of the Latin American dance, were being sold for 30,000 rials ($10), the press reports said.

Unchaperoned contact between unrelated men and women is strictly banned in Iran where authorities condemn Western cultural influences among the youth as a "cultural invasion."

Iran recently launched two dolls wearing traditional Iranian clothes called Dara and Sara in an apparent move to compete with the widely popular Barbie and Ken dolls made by the U.S. company Mattel.

Five Iranians Killed in Pakistan, The Associated Press, September 17

Gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on a van carrying Iranian air force technicians, killing five in northern Pakistan, military officials said….

The technicians were traveling to a training course at a military air base when men carrying Kalishnikov rifles began firing, said Pakistani military officials speaking on condition of customary anonymity….

The attack may have stemmed from hostilities between militant Shiite and Sunni groups in Pakistan.

The Sunnis accuse neighboring Iran of arming and funding Pakistan's militant Shiites….

Back to Brief on Iran