A group of Tehran residents clashed with the regime's suppressive forces at 10:45 p.m., on Thursday, February 12, at Falakeh Sevvom, Tehran Pars. According to reports from Iran, the protest was over high bus fares, and a number of people were arrested in the ensuing clash.

In another development, workers at Neka power plant, northern province of Mazandaran, staged a strike on Thursday, February 12, and have stopped work to protest the regime's anti-labor policies.

Some 10,000 workers of the Melli Industrial Group are still on strike and have stopped work since a month ago. This group includes the Melli Shoe Factory, the largest shoe producer in Iran.

Tehran's Chitsazi (textile) Factory is also affected by unrest since February 8, where workers have staged an anti-government strike.

 
Rushdie Fatwa Stands, Not Negotiable, Reuter, February 14

TEHRAN - Iran has said a death order against British author Salman Rushdie is irrevocable and expressed "surprise" over a call by European Union president Britain to negotiate over the matter.

"(Foreign Ministry spokesman Mahmoud Mohammadi) said a fatwa issued by a supreme religious jurisprudent is irrevocable and will remain (so throughout) history," the Iranian news agency IRNA reported late on Saturday.

"Mohammadi said the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran has already voiced its principled stand toward the issue and it is surprising that the British foreign secretary has asked to negotiate on the matter," the agency said…. Iran's prosecutor-general Ayatollah Morteza Moqtadaei was quoted by newspapers as saying: "The punishment for insulting the prophet of Islam is death and the Imam (Khomeini) made the right decision in this regard."…

Iranian newspapers on Saturday marked the ninth anniversary of a fatwa against Salman Rushdie saying the death order against the British author should be carried out.

"The Iranian nation and all the Moslem nations are standing firm against the cultural invasion of the West and more than at any time believe in the historic fatwa of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini about the execution of the turn-coat Salman Rushdie," the hardline Jomhuri Eslami daily said in a commentary….

More moderate newspapers also voiced the same opinion that the fatwa had to be carried out…. Salam newspaper, which is a supporter of Iran's new moderate cleric president Mohammad Khatami, also called on the fatwa to be upheld.

"We expect that Khatami's new government and foreign policy advisers will try to preserve the morality of and respect for this fatwa," Salam said in a commentary….

 
Question Mark Hangs Over Iran's Budget, Jane's Defence Weekly, February 11

Iran's parliament, the Majlis, has approved a 2.885 trillion rial Defence budget for 1998-99, despite a double-digit inflation rate and depressed oil prices, according to the Iranian media….

Khatami said in November, when he presented his first budget to parliament, that the proposed Defence allocation was 10.1 trillion rials, an increase of 22 per cent over the 1997-98 figure. However, it is likely that this figure included funds outside the actual defense budget that have in the past been used for arms purchases abroad.

… By some Western estimates, Iran's overall defense spending increased by around 40 per cent in 1996-97, from US$3.4 billion to US$4.7 billion. The International Monetary Fund has said that Iran devotes more funds to Defence spending than it actually admits in its official state budgets, which do not include heavy subsidies to the domestic arms industry and to some arms imports….

 
Paper Cautions about Wrestling Tournament, Associated Press, February 16

TEHRAN - From a distance, an American flag painted on the wall of a tall government building in Tehran looks like it could be welcoming a U.S. wrestling team, the most prominent group of Americans to visit Iran since its 1979 revolution.

But a closer look reveals skulls in place of stars, and the red streaks of falling bombs in place of stripes. "We will never make up with the United States even for a moment," says an inscription underneath, summarizing nearly two decades of hostility between Iran and a country still known to many here as the "Great Satan."…

Iranian media have all but ignored the Americans' invitation to wrestle in the four-day Takhti tournament, which begins Tuesday. The conservative newspaper Jomhuri Islami, however, cautioned against playing the "Star-Spangled Banner" or raising the American flag during the competition….
 

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