The National Council of Resistance of Iran issued a statement on Tuesday indicating that with the approach of the European Union foreign ministers' meeting in February, Mr. Massoud Rajavi, President of the NCR, called on the EU to adopt a decisive policy against the mullahs' religious, terrorist dictatorship and deny them the opportunity to step up and expand their terrorist activities, especially on European soil.

Recalling the clerical regime's atrocities in Iran and abroad over the past year, Mr. Rajavi emphasized that the regime's conduct had not changed since Khatami took office and since the EU Foreign Ministers' summit in Luxembourg on April 29, 1997, and that violations of human rights and export of terrorism had taken on new dimensions, the NCR statement said.

Mr. Rajavi stressed that the calls issued by various institutions of the clerical regime for Rushdie's murder have been unprecedented in recent years. They show that pinning hope on change in this regime is but a mirage and that the placating policies pursued by European countries have emboldened the mullahs' regime to export terrorism and fundamentalism.

 
Iran Rejects Clemency for Newsman Sentenced To Death, Agence France Presse, February 18

Tehran Wednesday rejected any "foreign intervention" in the case of Morteza Firuzi, a former English-language newspaper editor condemned to death in Iran for spying….

French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine has said he was "particularly concerned" by Firuzi's case. "The European Union has had the opportunity to raise the case with the Iranian authorities," he said….

Iran's intelligence ministry confirmed that Firuzi had been sentenced to death for spying, the official IRNA news agency reported Tuesday without specifying for which country….

Several international human rights and journalists' organizations, including Amnesty International, the International Press Institute and Reporters sans Frontieres (Reporters Without Borders), have appealed to the Iranian authorities to show clemency….
 

Cleric Condemns U.S. Flag in Tehran, The Associated Press, February 18

An Iranian legislator lashed out Wednesday at organizers of an international wrestling tournament for allowing the U.S. flag to be displayed with honor at the opening ceremony….

"They plan to hoist the American flag and play their national anthem, to rub in our noses that which we used to trample underfoot only last year," lawmaker Mohammad-Reza Faker said in the Iranian parliament, the Majlis. Other legislators chanted "Death to America!"…

Because of opposition to the U.S. flag in the Iranian parliament, it was not yet clear whether the organizers planned to raise the Stars and Stripes or play the national anthem if any of the Americans win their events in the event, the Takhti Cup.

 
British Foreign Secretary Calls for Mullahs To Lift Fatwa on Rushdie, The Telegraph, February 17

Robin Cook, the Foreign Secretary, stepped up the pressure on the Iranian government to lift the nine-year death sentence hanging over Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses.

After meeting Mr. Rushdie at the Foreign Office yesterday, Mr. Cook said the Government would be seeking a written assurance from Iran that it would not continue the religious death threat, or fatwa, issued by the late Ayatollah Khomeini.

An Iranian religious foundation last February offered a reward of £1.6 million for Mr. Rushdie's murder. Mr. Cook said he had given the author an assurance that working to remove the threat to his life would be a central priority of the Government's policy in relation to Iran.

He said: "I am appalled that so long after it was first issued that the threat to his life remains in force."…

Mr. Cook said: "In our view, a clear test of those commitments [claimed by Khatami] will be whether he will be willing to work with us to remove the threat to Mr. Rushdie's life. It is plainly a breach of international law."

Mr. Rushdie described the death threat as "a colossal pressure", and said: "It is a very unpleasant thing that someone is offering money for my death."…

Since the announcement of the fatwa on Feb 14, 1989, a Japanese translator of The Satanic Verses has been stabbed to death, an Italian translator injured in a knife attack and the book's Norwegian publisher has been shot.
 

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