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PARIS - French members of the Bahai faith said on Tuesday that fellow believers in Iran were the targets of a new wave of persecution.
"When there is a struggle for power, it is always the minorities who are caught in between and become scapegoats," Foad Saberan, a Frenchman of Iranian origin, told a news conference marking the 100th anniversary of an organized French Bahai community.
He said Iran's 350,000 Bahais were persecuted by Moslem fundamentalists.
Bahais abroad say more than 200 members of their faith have been executed in Iran for their religious beliefs since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
The French Bahais accused Iranian authorities last month of launching a major crackdown against Bahais in 14 cities, arresting 36 people and looting more than 500 homes.
Those arrested were professors and teachers conducting "open university"-type courses for young Bahais, said by their French fellow believers to be banned by the authorities from attending universities.
"But the regime is still hounding the Bahais. Now, those who received pensions have not only seen pension payments halted but their possessions are being confiscated to reimburse the state for pensions paid in the past," Saberan alleged.
He also said Bahai graveyards were being bulldozed without families being told where remains were taken.
The French Bahais said two Iranians said to have had death sentences confirmed against them in September, Sirus Zabihi-Muqaddam and Hedayat Kashefi Najafabadi, were still alive and human rights groups across the world were working to save them. They were said to have been arrested in October 1997 for violating a ban on holding meetings about family life.
Cash-Strapped Iran to Close Embassies, Agence France Presse, November 16
TEHRAN - Iran will close 12 embassies and consulates because of financial difficulties, a newspaper considered close to the foreign ministry reported on Monday.
Iran's Munich consulate and other consulates and embassies in Europe and Latin American will be shut, the English-language Iran News said.
Iran's economy has been severely hit by the fall in the price of oil, which brings in 85 percent of the country's hard currency and about half of its revenue.
The government expects a deficit of more than six billion dollars this year.
Conservative Iranian Group Winds Up, Agence France Presse, November 16
TEHRAN - A conservative Iranian political group, the Association for the Defense of the Values of the Revolution (ADVR), announced Monday that it was disbanding because it was unable to meet the aspirations of its members.
The ADVR was founded by a leader of the conservative Islamic right wing, Hojatoleslam Mohammad Mohammadi-Reyshahri, who was minister for intelligence from 1982 to 1989, to support the conservative political movement ahead of the election.
Reyshahri, 53, who made the intelligence ministry a formidable machine against suspected subversion, heads a special court for trying members of the clergy and represents Iran's spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the organization handling pilgrimages to Mecca.
Marriages Down, Divorces up in Iran, Xinhua News Agency, November 16
TEHRAN - The number of marriages in Iran is on decline while that of divorces is increasing, according to a latest statistic report by the country's registration office.
"The decline is unprecedented in the last 20 years," said the report.
It noted that the decline was more significant in Tehran province, registering a drop of 13.11 percent compared to the figure for the same period last year.
Due to the economic problems caused by oil price slump, many Iranian parents cannot afford the houses, wedding expense and dowries for young couples.
Press Digest, Reuter, November 17
AKHBAR - Iran imported 900 million litters of petrol worth 900 billion rials ($300 million at the official rate) since March 21, four-fifths of which was paid by government subsidies, a deputy oil minister said.
ASR-E AZADEGAN - Footbal fans vandalized 206 buses since March 21, causing 557 million rials ($186,000) of damages, an official at the Tehran state bus company said.