The National Council of Resistance in an statement, criticized the decision today by the European Union to resume meetings between EU ministers and the clerical regime as "counter to the highest interests of the Iranian people."

The European Union declared last April that any progress in relations with the Iranian regime "can only be made if the Iranian authorities respect the norms of international law and refrain from acts of terrorism, including against Iranian citizens living abroad and cooperate in preventing such acts." Today, the question is what kind of progress has taken place in any of these fields?

Some 200 persons were executed in public in 1997. No less than 138 of them were executed during Khatami's tenure, including seven who were stoned to death. Since Khatami took office, 24 of the regime's opponents have been assassinated abroad.

EU Forsakes Principles of Human Rights, Reuter, February 23

BRUSSELS - The European Union moved to repair strained relations with Iran on Monday by lifting a ban on high-level contacts.

The ban on high-level contacts was imposed after a German court ruled last April that Iranian leaders ordered the 1992 killing of three Kurdish dissidents in a Berlin restaurant.

The opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran said it was disappointed by the move. It said 200 people had been executed in public in Iran in 1997, including 138 during Khatami's tenure. Seven of the victims had been stoned, it said in a statement.

[Associated press in a related report said: The National Council of Resistance of Iran, a Paris-based opposition group, immediately denounced the move. "The decision forsakes principles of human rights before petty economic interests," it said in a statement.]

Iran's Economy Hit by Slumping Oil Prices, Reuter, February 23

TEHRAN - Slumping world oil prices, and resulting slower economic growth, have forced the Iranian government to again review its petrodollar-dominated budget.

Iran's central bank governor Mohsen Nourbakhsh told a Tehran news conference on Monday weak oil prices had led the government to set up a body to review the budget for the next Iranian year which starts on March 21.

Oil accounts for more than 80 percent Iran's hard currency export earnings.

Nourbakhsh said Iran's growth rate in the current and next Iranian year would hit 3.2 percent, down from 4.2 percent in 1996/97.

Growth in liquidity was 5.1 percent during first eight months, compared to 12.8 percent in the same period last year. Imports of general goods and foodstuffs in the first nine months had increased to 18.943 million tones, two million tones higher than the previous year.

 
Russia Conspiring With Iran on Missiles, The Washington Times, February 23

Russia is continuing to carry out secret missile technology transfers to Iran through joint research centers in Tehran and St. Petersburg, The Washington Times has learned.

Russia's Federal Security Service, known by the Russian acronym FSB, is working with the Iranian intelligence service to coordinate exchanges under a joint Russian-Iranian missile research center.…

According to intelligence officials who declined to be named, the Baltic State Technical University in St. Petersburg received a payment in January from an Iranian official identified as M. Akhlagi, head of Iran's "Sanam College."...

They said Sanam also has been called Sanam Industries Group, Department 140 and the Missile Industries Group, which is in charge of Iran's solid-fuel missile program. The group is part of Iran's Defense Industries Organization, the government weapons procurement agency…

Sanam was set up as part of a February 1997 agreement between the Baltic technical university and Shahid Bagheri Industrial Group, also part of Department 140, the officials said. The Russian institute set up research centers in both St. Petersburg and Tehran. A group of Iranians is currently studying at the St. Petersburg facility.

Both organizations jointly created the center known as Persepolis as part of an agreement concluded in 1996….

According to other intelligence reports, a Russian military factory agreed in late September to provide Iran's missile program with special alloy metals and foil.

Russian assistance to the solid-fuel program could violate Moscow's commitment to the Missile Technology Control Regime, which bars exports of long-range missile technology, the officials said….
 

Back to Brief on Iran