Back to Brief on Iran
In separate letters to EU foreign ministers, Mr. Mohammad Mohaddessin, Chairman of NCR's Foreign Affairs Committee, pointed to the admission by the leaders of the clerical regime to the role of the Intelligence Ministry in the recent murders of Iranian writers and dissidents in Iran.
He underscored the need to dispatch an international fact-finding mission to Iran to investigate these killings and identify the perpetrators and masterminds of these and other assassinations in and out of Iran in the past decade.
NCR's Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman called on EU foreign ministers to refer the violations of human rights and terrorism by Iran's ruling medieval dictatorship to the U.N. Security Council to adopt binding decisions in order to confront the continuing repression, torture, executions and assassinations by this regime.
NCR's Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman
emphasized: Hosting the Iranian regime's senior officials or trips by high-ranking
foreign officials to Iran and shaking hands with the murderers of the Iranian
people is no longer justified.
Mullahs to Borrow Billions of Dollars To Further Bankruptcy, Agence France Presse, January 23
TEHRAN - Iran's parliament has authorized the government to borrow one billion dollars from abroad to invest in the agriculture sector during the 12 months beginning March, newspapers reported Saturday.
The assembly has already given the government the green light to seek foreign investment of up to six billion dollars in the energy sector during the next Iranian year which starts March 21.
It also authorized borrowing of up to 3.5 billion dollars for funding petrochemical and telecommunication project as well as for dam construction.
According to forecasts made by parliament,
the country will earn about 12 billion dollars from exports of oil-related
products next year, which is five billion dollars less than the revenues
anticipated for the current year.
Arsenal of Germs in Iran?, The Washington Times, January 26
[The following is excerpts from an article by Arnold Beichman, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution]
The eyes of the world are focused on Iraq… Across the Persian Gulf lies… Iran, an even greater danger to the world…
The shocking full picture of Iran's drive for an arsenal of germ warfare essentials has been provided by a mujaheedin intelligence network and presented publicly by the National Council of Resistance of Iran….
Immediately upon his election, Mr. Khatami is said to have created a science and technology group of advisers to supervise the regime's chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs…
Four different groups are now engaged in producing biological weapons (BW):
(1) Special Industries Organization of Iran's Ministry of Defense with some 5,000 employees… Twenty-five Iranian scientists, some with overseas training, are working on BW. A fermenter with a capacity of 100 liters has already been developed. Within this vessel, deadly microbes can be grown capable of creating epidemics.
(2) Research Center of the Construction Crusade…
(3) Revolutionary Guards Corps research is concentrated in the Imam Hossein University…
(4) The Biotechnology Research Center was recently established with five biotechnology groups at work…
The mujaheedin sources say they have identified an additional six germ warfare research and production centers… In fact, one of these centers, the Vira Laboratory on Shari'ati Street, Tehran with 250 employees, is concentrating on producing microbes that contaminate the soil and thus would be used to destroy an enemy's agriculture.
Another branch, War Engineering Research Center focuses on the lethal VX microbes. Tehran's Pasteur Institute has a secret lab which is off-limits to most employees and is studying the toxicity of molds which produce Aflatoxin.
The biggest obstacle to Iran's BW program is lack of trained scientists. Solution? Hire foreign experts… Currently there are 14 foreign specialists - Chinese, Korean and Russian - working for the Ministry of Defense Special Industries Organization; at least four Russians are working for the Defense Ministry Industries; eight Russians or Ukrainian scientists were working at the Pasteur Institute.
This BW research is part of Iran's campaign to become the dominant Middle East power. In September 1998, Iran test-fired the Shahab 3 missile with a range of 800 miles bringing every major city - from Tel Aviv to Riyadh - in its gun-sights. On Dec. 10, Iran successfully test-fired a ground-to-sea cruise missile called Fajr 3. These successes were publicly praised by the "moderate" Mr. Khatami. Iran and wishful thinking are a lethal mix.