Back to Brief on Iran
In a message to the people of Iran yesterday broadcast by the Resistance's radio and television network across the country, Mr. Massoud Rajavi, President of the National Council of Resistance and Commander in Chief of the National Liberation Army of Iran, expressed his gratitude for the thousands of congratulatory messages he had received from Iranians in Iran and abroad over the bringing to justice of Assadollah Lajevardi, the "Butcher of Evin." Mr. Rajavi declared Mojahed Ali Akbar Akbari, who was slain under brutal tortures by the Intelligence Ministry, a national hero.
NCR President added: Messages by leaders of the triumvirate regime and heads of the Legislature and the Judiciary about the punishment of Lajevardi demonstrate in no uncertain terms that the foundations of this medieval regime rest on torture, suppression and execution. This reality renders hollow any illusion about reform or transformation of this inhuman theocracy.
Mr. Rajavi added: The Iranian Resistance has time and again challenged the clerical regime -- which claims the near unanimous majority of the Iranian people support it and more than 70% of the people voted for Khatami -- to test its chances against the Iranian Resistance and its President-elect in a free and fair election for president or a constituent assembly -- based on the sovereignty of the people.
NCR President reiterated: The military operations of the Iranian people's just and legitimate Resistance, consistent with the Geneva Conventions, solely strike at military and armed targets involved in suppression, torture and execution. Thus, the label of terrorism, used by the mullahs' regime and its backers against this resistance movement, is devoid of any political and legal value.
Mr. Rajavi stressed: In the view of the Iranian people, submitting to the demands of this illegitimate and inhuman regime will embolden it to further crack down at home and export terrorism abroad. Any investment in this moribund regime is doomed to fail. The Iranian Resistance emphatically calls for the expulsion of the religious, terrorist dictatorship ruling Iran from the international community.
Iran's Khatami Backs Off From Charges on Hard-liners,
Reuter, August 30
TEHRAN - Iranian President Mohammad Khatami has withdrawn defamation charges he issued earlier against two hardline magazines.
The magazines, which Khatami objected to, are close to militants which have in the past few years repeatedly attacked meetings of moderates or dissidents, as well as bookshops and theatres selling books or showing films they deem immoral.
The hardline militants have never been brought to justice for the attacks, prompting the widespread belief that they enjoy the backing of powerful conservative circles.
Khatami Appoints Supreme Leader's Representative As
Vice-President!, Reuter, August 30
TEHRAN - Iranian President Mohammad Khatami appointed Mohammad Ali Sadouqi as vice-president for legal and parliamentary affairs, Tehran radio reported on Sunday.
Sadouqi, a Shi'ite Moslem cleric, will retain his post as the representative of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the central province of Yazd, it added.
Iran Holding Big Wargame Soon Near Afghanistan,
Associated Press, August 29
TEHRAN - The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps will hold the maneuvers, code named Ashura 3, within the next few days, said the IRGC commander, Maj. Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi.
The maneuvers will be the largest this year and the first held near the border since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, he said.
"It is natural that our maneuvers are not unrelated to the recent Afghan affairs," Safavi said in a news conference attended for the first time by foreign as well as local reporters.
Pappas Calls U.S. Vulnerable to Missiles,
Reuter, August 30
A Republican congressman warned yesterday that weapons technology of potential U.S. enemies has improved since the Persian Gulf War.
"The truth is scary. Today the U.S. is vulnerable from missile attacks," Rep. Mike Pappas (N.J.) said in the weekly GOP radio address.
"The truth is we do not have a system fielded that could destroy an enemy's missile before it reached us," he said.
The recent bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa showed how vulnerable the United States was to forces that wanted to inflict harm, Pappas said.
"The technology of our potential enemies has improved since the Gulf War," he said. "Since that time countries like Iran and North Korea have developed longer range missiles that are capable of even more damage" than the Scud missiles.