TEHRAN - Iranian students on Monday called off a planned rally backing Tehran's jailed mayor after the cabinet of President Mohammad Khatami appealed for calm.

The detention nine days ago of Gholamhossein Karbaschi, a close political ally of Khatami, had become a focal point of a power struggle between rival factions that has been festering since the May 1997 presidential election.

The cabinet, evidently fearful of street clashes, warned after a meeting on Sunday against public rallies in support of the mayor, who has been detained in Tehran's notorious Evin prison on graft charges.

[In a dispatch from Tehran, Associated Press reported: The hard-liners had warned the students against airing their grievances in the streets of Tehran. They warned that demonstrations planned for Tuesday could compound the tensions in the capital.]

Karbaschi's arrest brought into the open a clash between conservatives and Khatami's backers.

The hardline newspaper Jomhuri Eslami said on Monday that if the enemies of the revolution and the country wished to put the two factions in conflict and damage the system they could not have done better.

"Our society cannot stand tension and excitement. It is better for the wise men of both factions to make their followers understand this explicitly," it said.

Iran Daily, an English-language newspaper published by the official news agency IRNA, cautioned the judiciary that "its recklessness is harming the nation's political and social fabric."
 

Iran Begins Military Exercises, Associated Press, April 12

TEHRAN - Iran began wide-ranging naval exercises off its coast Sunday, promising to unveil for the first time three Russian submarines that have been added to its fleet.

Adm. Abbas Mohtaj, commander of the Iranian navy, called for cooperation among nations in the region and an end to the foreign military presence in the area, the official Islamic Republic News Agency said.

The nine-day exercises, on both sides of the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20 percent of the world's oil passes, are aimed at strengthening the country's combat capabilities, the agency reported.
 

Iran Said to Buy Ex-Soviet Arms, Associated Press, April 10

JERUSALEM - Iran paid $25 million for two tactical nuclear weapons smuggled out of the former Soviet Union in the early 1990s, an Israeli newspaper reported Friday, citing Iranian documents.

Technicians from Argentina were involved in the secret operation, The Jerusalem Post reported. It said the documents have been in U.S. government hands for several years and are being studied by Israel.

The Israeli newspaper quoted from what it said was an Iranian document dated Dec. 26, 1991. In it, Brig. Gen. Rahim Safavi, deputy commander of the Revolutionary Guards Council, discussed a meeting with Riza Amrullahi, the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Commission.

Citing Amrullahi, the general wrote that "the efforts of the Islamic Republic's intelligence forces ... have borne fruit and two tactical atomic weapons from Russia have been delivered to Iranian sources in the Astara region."

 
Law Sets Tough Rules on Press Photos of Women, Reuter, April 13

TEHRAN - Iran's parliament has passed the general outlines of a controversial law that aims to toughen the country's rules on the publication of photographs of women.

The official news agency IRNA said in a report on Sunday night that the law seeks to ban "the use of women as a tool by publications in the form of photos or in content."

A group of conservative parliament members had demanded more rigid rules after publications used photographs of women, most of them in full Islamic dress, in an apparent effort to boost circulation.

 
Non-Oil Exports Slide to Three Billion Dollars In Year, Agence France Presse, April 10

TEHRAN - Iranian exports of non-oil products fell by 6.1 percent to three billion dollars in the year to March, customs officials said on Friday.

However, the volume of exports rose to 19.3 percent to 8.2 million tones over the 12-month period, they said.

The drop in revenue from non-oil exports is a major concern to Iran, already hit by a drop in the price of crude oil which it relies upon for 80 percent of its foreign currency earnings.

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