The daily Jameah said the guests at the home of Ahmad Montazeri, the son of Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, were
arrested after they objected to police filming the gathering. Among those arrested were the grandsons and sons of two senior Iranian clerics, the newspaper said.

Montazeri has been under house arrest for a speech he made last November questioning the authority of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Montazeri's treatment by Iranian authorities has sparked protests in the cleric's hometown, Najafabad. Shopkeepers
repeatedly shut down the central bazaar last month to protest against Montazeri's house arrest.
 

Khamenei Says West Targeting Him Over Israel, Reuter, May 8
 
TEHRAN - Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Friday blasted Western media for targeting him over Iran's anti-Israeli stand, saying Iranians were united on backing the Palestinians.

"They should not think this is the stand of one person or a group in Iran...These fools say 'Let us launch propaganda to fight against Ali Khamenei,"' Khamenei said in a Friday prayers sermon in which he denounced the United States and the "Western news empire." His remarks were broadcast on Tehran radio.

He was apparently referring to media commentaries which said there was a power struggle over Iran's stand on the Middle East peace process between President Mohammad Khatami and conservatives.

"Today everyone says this in Iran, including our dear president, the government serving the people, the parliament,
clergymen, and the people. There are no disagreements," he said.
 
 
Newspaper Attacked, Reuter, May 9
 
TEHRAN - The provincial offices of an Iranian newspaper were attacked by assailants trying to stop its distribution, the paper said on Saturday.

The daily Jameah said about 30 people attacked its offices twice over the past week in Rasht, capital of the northern province of Gilan, insulted staff and tore up copies of the paper.

Jameah, which supports Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, has come under fire recently from conservatives for
publishing remarks allegedly made by Iran's Revolutionary Guards Commander to "cut the necks and tongues" of opponents.

Jameah has also been one of the few newspapers that regularly reports on unrest in city of Najafabad.

 
Senators Urge French Oil Sanctions, Associated Press, May 8
 
WASHINGTON - Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott and 12 other senators prodded President Clinton Friday to impose
sanctions on a consortium led by a French oil company for investing in Iran, saying the deal violates a 2-year-old U.S. law.

"A decision not to sanction will reveal the United States as a paper tiger," said Lott, R-Miss., in the letter also signed by Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The senators said failure to trigger the sanctions would open "floodgates for further investments" by other international firms. "Indeed, the only victims of a waiver will be American companies barred from doing business in Iran..."
 
 
Iran Nuclear Team to Visit Russia, China, Reuter, May 10
 
TEHRAN - An Iranian team is to leave for Russia this week to discuss nuclear cooperation, and may follow that visit with a trip to China next month, the Tehran Times said on Sunday.

"Completion of the Bushehr nuclear power plant and continuation of nuclear cooperation (are) among the issues to be
discussed between the delegation and Russia's Ministry of Atomic Energy," the newspaper said.

It also said an Iranian delegation was likely to visit Beijing next month "to discuss nuclear cooperation for peaceful purposes with China."
 

Vehicle Carrying Iranian Nuclear Parts Disappears, Agence France Presse, May 10
 
TEHRAN - Iranian police have launched a search for a  truck which was stolen while carrying parts for a controversial
nuclear power plant in the Gulf port of Bushehr, a newspaper  reported Sunday.

The truck belonging to the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization (IAEO)  was carrying an "unidentified piece" from
Bushehr to the capital  when it was stolen in the central city of Esfahan after the driver  briefly left the vehicle, the daily Farda said.

The Bushehr plant is under construction by Russian experts.

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