BAGHDAD - Four gunmen hurled grenades and fired bullets at a United Nations building here on Saturday night, destroying one vehicle and damaging two others, officials said today.

One attacker was wounded and captured by the Iraqi army, said Eric Falt, a United Nations spokesman. The others escaped.

No one claimed responsibility for the assault on the World Health Organization's headquarters… but Iraq blamed Iran.

The official Iraqi News Agency reported that the captured gunman had said he and the others were sent by Iran's intelligence service but it did not suggest any motive for the attack.

The news agency said the arrested attacker was an Iraqi of Iranian origin who was deported in 1983.

Cohen Knocks Iran-France Oil Deal, Associted Press, October 6 

PARIS - Defense Secretary William Cohen accused France on Monday of allowing a deal that will help Iran obtain the cash needed to acquire missile technology and weapons of mass destruction.

If the French oil giant Total is found to have violated U.S. law by investing $2 billion to develop a natural gas field in Iran, the United States will not hesitate to "enforce the law," Cohen said…

"We believe that transactions that substantially enhance Iran's ability to acquire the revenues necessary to acquire missile technology and weapons of mass destruction should not be in any way made easier," Cohen told reporters….

EU Ignoring U.S. Trade Sanctions, Associated Press, October 5  

PARIS - Iran's $2 billion natural gas contract with a French oil company is Europe's strongest signal yet that it doesn't care about Washington's unilateral trade sanctions and that more such deals are on the way…

"It's a blow to U.S. policy and will make it increasingly difficult, because if Total goes ahead, others won't want to be left out of other deals," said Terence Taylor of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London think tank.

Days after the Total announcement, in fact, the French oil company Elf-Aquitaine confirmed it was negotiating contracts with both Iran and Iraq, which remains under international sanctions imposed over its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

EU Nations Oppose U.S. Sanctions, Associated Press, October 6 

LUXEMBOURG - The 15 European Union nations Monday presented a united front in opposing any U.S. interference with a $2 billion Franco-Iranian deal.

Sir Leon Brittan, the group's trade chief, called on the United States to change legislation that would punish foreign companies doing business with Iran, Libya and Cuba….

Iran Thumbs Nose at U.S. over Total, Air Raids, Reuter, October 6 

DUBAI - …Nearly two decades on, Iran once again is thumbing its nose at the United States, the "Great Satan" demonized by the Shi'ite Moslem clergymen...

Faced with vehement European Union opposition, the Clinton administration has refrained from immediately imposing sanctions over an agreement a week ago for a $2 billion investment in Iran's gas industry by French oil giant Total SA …

In Tehran, Washington is again being portrayed as impotent. "The mood here is some kind of a triumph over America," a foreign diplomat in Tehran told Reuters by telephone on Monday…

Iranian aircraft crossed the border last Monday and bombed two camps of the Iraqi-based Mujahideen Khalq, an armed opposition group of Iranian exiles.

Washington said it had warned Iran that its aircraft risked being shot down if they violated a ban on flights in "no-fly zones" ….

In addition to warning of possible further air strikes on the rebels, Iran has announced new naval war-games in the Gulf involving its three Russiann-built Kilo class submarines….

Iran Says Needs to Build more Nuclear Plants! Reuter, October 3

TEHRAN - Iran wants to build more nuclear power plants in order to produce 20 percent of its electricity needs from atomic energy, a senior Iranian official was quoted on Friday as saying.

Gholamreza Aghazadeh, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, said Iran was seeking an agreement with Russia for building two 440-megawatt (MW) nuclear power plant units as well as an accord for China to set up two 300 MW units, the official Iranian news agency IRNA said.

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