Back to Brief on Iran
WASHINGTON - An Iranian opposition group today said at least 270 people have been hanged in public and eight stoned since Mohammad Khatami was elected president last year.
Three men, two of them brothers, were
hanged in public last week in northern Iran and two in Tehran, the National
Council of Resistance of Iran said in a press release.
Iran Cleric Warns U.S. Tourists May Be Spies, Reuters, December 4
TEHRAN - A top Iranian conservative cleric on Friday blasted a recent visit by a group of Americans, warning that U.S. tourist trips could pave the way for spies.
"Our pessimism towards America will never subside. We must treat with suspicion anyone who comes from there," Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati said in a Friday sermon, carried by Tehran radio.
"As far as tourism is concerned, we do not have any ban...but if dubious individuals are to come and go, the way will be opened for espionage," said Jannati, secretary of the powerful Guardian Council, during weekly prayers in Tehran.
The crowd of worshippers reponded by chanting: "Our nation is awake. It hates America."
Jannati blasted the visit last month by the group of U.S. citizens, which Iranian media said included several businessmen, and demanded explanations from state officials about the trip.
Iran Remains A Drug Problem Country, Associated Press, December 4
WASHINGTON - Rejecting suggestions that Iran has strengthened its drug control policies, two Republican lawmakers are urging President Clinton to keep the Persian Gulf nation on an official list of drug problem countries.
Citing news reports that Iran will be dropped from the list, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Rep. Benjamin Gilman, R-N.Y., said there is no basis for suggesting Iranian drug enforcement has been strengthened. They outlined their position in a letter to Clinton this week.
Reports have circulated that Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has suggested Iran be removed from the list of drug problem countries. Each February, those countries are evaluated on whether they are fully cooperating with U.S. counternarcotics efforts.
Grassley and Gilman wrote that any effort to remove Iran from the list is not based on substantive grounds but on the "speculative hope that such a unilateral gesture will win diplomatic points in Iran for some anticipated rapprochement."
"This is a triumph of hope over experience," they wrote.
Critics of Iranian Regime Worried by 2 Attacks, The New York Times, December 6
TEHRAN, Iran -- An attack on visiting American businessmen and the assassination of a prominent dissident here have caused fresh unease among critics of the government, who say they fear a campaign of violence by conservative forces.
The same concern is being expressed by foreign diplomats, who said they suspect that the attacks -- carried out on a single weekend last month -- may have been staged with at least the tacit approval of conservative elements in the government…
"This shows that there are powerful forces in Iran who are not going to let their critics go unanswered," one Western envoy said. "And this is not a softie regime."…
Among the reasons diplomats and others mentioned as cause for their suspicions of official acquiescence were the fact Iranian security forces were uncooperative in responding to reports of the Nov. 21 attack on the Americans. Their minibus was attacked by men wielding crowbars who had used their cars to block a hotel driveway as the group returned from a trip inside Iran.
None of the 13 Americans in the delegation were hurt, but many bus windows were shattered in the attack, which one well-informed diplomat described as a "meticulous and precise."…
The assassination of Foruhar and his wife, Parveneh, who were stabbed to death in their Tehran home, has prompted a louder outcry… At a funeral for the slain couple the week before last, thousands of mourners chanted slogans that included "Down with Despotism!" The Foruhar home was said by Shayegan and other activists to have been under round-the-clock surveillance by Iran's ministry of information, the country's intelligence service.
They said that surveillance cameras were known to have been trained on entrances to the home, and that it would have been impossible for the assailants to enter or leave without the information ministry's knowledge…