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The National Council of Resistance of Iran announced that the European Union's decision yesterday in Brussels to reconsider resumption of "critical dialogue" with Iran's ruling regime and the "ban on contacts between high-ranking officials," will encourage the mullahs to continue domestic repression and export of terrorism and fundamentalism.
In its statement the NCR said: "There have been no positive changes in the behavior of this theocratic regime nine months after the EU foreign ministers' session in Luxembourg in April 1997, which followed the findings by a Court in Berlin implicating the clerical regime's leaders in the assassination of Iranian dissidents. On the contrary, the regime has escalated its repression inside and terrorism outside Iran."
At least 200 executions took place in Iran last year, 70% in the last six months under Khatami. At least seven cases of stoning have been reported in the past six months. Social protests and student demonstrations in various parts of the country have been suppressed. At least 24 Iranian dissidents have been assassinated abroad in the past eight months. The clerical regime is vigorously endeavoring to obtain weapons of mass destruction and has tested missiles with a range of 1,400-kms. Khatami's government officials have time and again emphasized the need to carry out the fatwa to murder Salman Rushdie and advocated enmity to peace.
"In such circumstances, speaking of a 'moderate President' who has demonstrated willingness for rapprochement or remarks like 'in light of the new circumstances, a general boycott will not be suitable' have no basis in reality and merely forsake the principles of human rights before short-term economic interests," the statement added.
MPs Suspend Development to Cover for 2.6 Billion Dollar
Budget Deficit, Agence France Presse, January 27
TEHRAN - The Iranian government faces a 2.6 billion dollar budget deficit in the current fiscal year ending in March after achieving a balance budget the year before, officials said Tuesday.
Mohammad Ali Najafi, the head of budget and planning organization, told parliament that the deficit stood at eight trillion rials or 2.6 billion dollars based on the official exchange rate of 3,000 rials to the dollar.
The shortfall was caused by a sharp drop in revenue following a slump in oil prices. Crude exports make up around 80 percent of Iran's hard currency earnings.
The budget had been calculated based on a price of 17.5 dollars a barrel for oil exports, while Iran is now selling a barrel for only 13 dollars.
Parliament has authorized some development projects to be suspended to use the funds to pay government employees. It also allowed the government to pre-sell some crude oil to pay for the import of up to 270 million dollars of refined products.
Najafi said some refined products had
to be purchased from abroad because Iranian refineries were "unable to
produce enough."…
Unemployment and Drug Trafficking, Reuter, January 27
TEHRAN - Iranian police have arrested 129 people charged with smuggling heroin and opium hidden inside their bodies, a newspaper said on Tuesday….
The traffickers, arrested in a series of recent drug busts, were mostly unemployed youths who had moved to the capital in hope of finding jobs, while others were Afghan refugees, the newspaper [Salam] quoted a police report as saying.
Iranian officials say there are half a million drug addicts in the country of 60 million. Local media have put the number at up to one million….
U.S. Agency Said Irvine Firm Shipped Warfare Agent
to Iran, Los Angeles Times, January 27
IRVINE - Allergan Inc. agreed to pay $824,000 to settle Commerce Department allegations that it improperly exported medicine made from a lethal toxin that can be used in biological warfare, the federal agency said Monday…
The Commerce Department alleged that it found 412 instances in which the Irvine drug company shipped botulinum toxin--a potentially deadly substance generally associated with food poisoning--without a special license.
Iran and several other Mideast countries received the product--called Botox or Oculinum--that Allergan sells as an injectable muscle relaxant. The alleged shipments occurred from July 1992 through October 1993….