Back to Brief on Iran
The National Council of Resistance of Iran issued a statement on Wednesday stating that Iran's clerical regime has launched an extensive campaign since the beginning of 1998 to prevent its condemnation at the current session of the UN Human Rights Commission, reports from Iran say.
According to the statement, the decision was made in the final days of 1997 at a National Security Council meeting stipulating that "every diplomatic effort" be undertaken to achieve this objective. The regime's leaders believe that they can enjoy the cooperation of some European countries, particularly France, Italy and Germany, because these countries need to "remove this psychological obstacle in their public opinion" to be able to expand their economic and diplomatic ties with the Iranian regime.
The NCR said: The mullahs have resorted to such schemes while the number of public executions and assassinations of political opponents abroad have taken on new dimensions in the past months, after Khatami took office.
The NCR urged the European countries to adopt a decisive and coordinated stand against this religious, terrorist dictatorship and condemn violations of human rights and export of terrorism by the mullahs. It said that the Human Rights Commission must not allow the sacred values of human rights be sacrificed for short term economic interests and political considerations.
Revolutionary Guards New Base in Europe,
The Sunday Times, March 22
Iranian Revolutionary Guards have joined forces with a Saudi millionaire to support the Albanian underground movement in Kosovo. They hope to turn the region into their main base for Islamic armed activity in Europe.
According to a senior Egyptian security source, an agreement was signed in Tehran on February 16 with the Saudi Osama Bin Laden who also has links with Afghanistan's fundamentalist Taliban militia.
Bin Laden, 44, described by the US State Department as "one of the most significant sponsors of Islamic extremist activities", has begun extending his operations to eastern Europe. He has supported Muslims in Bosnia and Kosovo, the source said. Iran is keen to strengthen its presence in the region….
Russia Determined To Complete Iran Power Plant-IRNA, Dow Jones News, March 25
Russian Minister of Nuclear Energy Yevgeny Adamov, in a meeting Tuesday with the U.S. ambassador to Moscow, once again underlined his country's commitment to complete the nuclear power plant project underway in Bushehr, Iran, a ministry spokesman announced, according to news agency IRNA.
Iran Sanctions, Reuter, March 25
The United States is weighing carefully the concerns of its European allies and Russia as it debates whether to impose sanctions on foreign energy firms for investing in Iran, U.S. officials said on Wednesday.
The officials, who asked not to be named, said the White House has not made a decision on the vexed question of whether to punish foreign oil companies for their Iranian investments and may not do so for weeks.
The 1996 Iran and Libya Sanctions Act (ILSA) calls for the the administration to impose sanctions on foreign companies that invest more than $20 million in the Iranian energy sector during a single year.
There are two major deals likely to trigger the act:
-- a $2 billion gas contract signed last year by French oil company Total SA along with junior partners Gazprom of Russia and Petronas of Malaysia;
-- an agreement between Canada's Bow Valley Energy Ltd and Indonesia's Bakrie Group to develop an offshore Iranian oil project at a cost of up to $212 million.
The aim of the 1996 law was to help deprive Iran and Libya revenues to finance terrorism and to obtain weapons of mass destruction.
US And Singapore Businessmen Charged Over Iran Missiles Sale, BBC, March 25
The federal authorities in the United States have charged an American businessman and his Singaporean associate with conspiracy to sell missile parts to Iran.
The two men Daniel Malloy and Joseph T.P. Balakrisha Menon are alleged to have planned to export twenty batteries to Iran for use in air-to- air missiles on its fighter jets.
The shipments, which were never made, would have broken the American embargo on technology deliveries to Iran.
The two men are also accused of violating US arms control laws by failing to register with the State Department.