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In a telegram to President Nelson Mandela of South Africa and President of the upcoming summit of the Non-Aligned Movement, Mr. Massoud Rajavi, President of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, emphasized that the religious, terrorist dictatorship ruling Iran is absolutely illegitimate for it has breached the Iranian people's right to sovereignty and executed 120,000 political prisoners in the past 17 years.
Mr. Rajavi added: Khatami's election as president last year has not brought any changes in the nature of this anti-human regime.
He said: During Khatami's first year in office 250 persons have been hanged and seven stoned to death. Widespread arrests and the crackdown on scores of demonstrations, strikes and protests by students, workers and the public at large have continued as well. Terrorist attacks against the Iranian Resistance abroad have also escalated.
Reiterating that Iran's seats at international forums belongs to the Iranian Resistance, Mr. Rajavi called on the Non-Aligned Movement to expel the ruling medieval regime which has been condemned 42 times by the United Nations General Assembly, the Commission on Human Rights and the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities.
Extensive Clashes Between Tribesmen and Regime Forces
in Eastern Iran, Iran Zamin News Agency, August 31
In an attack by State Security Forces' intelligence agents on Baluchi tribesmen in Zahedan, capital of the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchistan, two members of the Shahbakhsh tribe were killed and another was wounded and subsequently arrested.
In extensive clashes on the afternoon of Saturday, August 29, on the city's beltway between members of the Shahbakhsh tribe and the regime's forces, eight SSF intelligence agents were killed or wounded.
Daughter of Iran Dissident Slams Husband's Jailing, Reuter, September 1
TEHRAN - A daughter of Iran's top dissident cleric has appealed for the release of her husband, who she said was jailed to pressure her father, a newspaper reported on Tuesday. The daily Tous quoted Ashraf Montazeri, Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri's daughter as saying in an open letter that her husband Hadi Hashemi, also a Shi'ite Moslem cleric, has been incarcerated for three months without any formal charges.
"I feel that these actions mainly aim to put pressure on my respected father," Ashraf Montazeri said.
Hashemi was arrested in May for what authorities decried as "provoking conflict and tension" in the central province of Isfahan.
Isfahan city and Montazeri's nearby hometown of Najafabad, have been hotbeds of protest since the dissident cleric was put under house arrest and prevented from teaching after he questioned the authority of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in November.
Scarce Job and Cash, Reuter, September 1
TEHRAN - These are some of the leading stories in Iranian newspapers on Tuesday.
JAHAN-E EQTESAD - Some 10,000 industrial projects remain unfinished due to a lack of funds, a deputy industry minister said. If completed, the projects could create 400,000 jobs, he added.
KAR VA KARGAR - Workers of two factories in Tehran complained over unpaid wages for the past five months. A brick factory employing 105 workers has stopped paying wages due to discord between its managers. A chalk factory, originally employing 228 workers, has laid off all but 52 employees and has not paid wages.
Mullahs Afraid of News Beamed to Iran, Agence France Presse, September 1
TEHRAN - Tehran vowed on Tuesday to fight a US plan to establish a government radio station broadcasting into Iran from the Czech Republic.
Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi had issued instructions to Iranian diplomats abroad to explore ways to undercut the service.
The Czech cabinet late Wednesday gave permission for the Farsi-language service to start broadcasting from the station's Prague headquarters.
Czech Foreign Secretary Jan Kavan sought to give assurance that the radio's programs would be balanced in content and not "unfriendly" towards Tehran.