NICOSIA - The People's Mujahedeen, the main armed Iranian opposition group, claimed Sunday to have carried out a mortar attack on the headquarters of the intelligence ministry in Tehran.

"At 6:30 p.m. this evening the headquarters of the intelligence ministry in Tehran's Pasdaran street in northeast Tehran was attacked with mortars by a military unit of the People's Mujahedeen," a spokesman told AFP here.

"The attack was in response to the political murders and assassinations inside and outside Iran by ministry of intelligence agents," he said.

"Several mortars landed on the ministry building which sustained extensive damage," the People's Mujahedeen spokesman said, adding that "for a long time ambulances and fire engines were rushing to the scene."
 
 

300 Protesting Employees Arrested in Tehran, Iran Zamin News Agency, January 31

Reports from Tehran say that following protests by hundreds of government offices and firms last Tuesday in front of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs in Tehran, at least 300 were arrested and taken to an unknown location.

These employees were protesting the non-payment of their wages for the past 13 months. When the State Security Force and the Guards Corps rushed to scene, they resisted the guards for several hours.

Reports from Isfahan also say that more than 200 people have been arrested in recent weeks by the suppressive forces.

News from the northern town of Astaneh Ashrafieh indicate that scores of youth, including Abbas Akhavan, an athlete, and Hamid Bakhtjou, a shop owner have been arrested by the State Security Force and the Intelligence Ministry. There is no information available on their fate.
 
 

Revolution Anniversary amid Infighting And Economic Hardships, Reuter, January 31

TEHRAN - Iran is marking the 20th anniversary of its revolution amid economic woes and a bitter row between Islamic factions, but also at a time of popular hopes for change towards a more open society.

Iranian officials have urged the people to take part in the celebrations, vowing the country would overcome an economic crisis caused by a slump in oil prices just as it survived eight years of war against Iraq and crippling U.S. sanctions.

Khomeini's successor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has called on President Mohammad Khatami and conservatives to curb their feuds which have focused lately on a spate of killings of dissidents and upcoming nationwide local elections.

Khamenei's call came as the factional row, with strident polemics in the media and hardline vigilante attacks on moderates, appeared close to overshadowing the celebrations.
 
 

Iran Rial Slides Further, Down Four Percent, Reuter, January 31

TEHRAN - The Iranian rial has continued to drop against hard currencies, losing another 4.6 percent against the dollar in days, traders said on Sunday.

On Tehran's illegal but highly active black market, dealers were trading at 8,120 rials to the dollar on Sunday, compared to 7,750 rials per dollar on Tuesday.

The rial has lost more than 11 percent of its value in one week amid expectations of further cuts in the government's hard currency expenditures in the next Iranian year, which begins on March 21, because of falling oil revenues.

The cutbacks have forced many state-run firms to turn to the black market for their hard cash needs, economists said.

Economists have also blamed the rial's fall on fears of a possible flurry of price rises in the new year, when fuel prices are due to be raised by up to 75 percent. Many ordinary Iranians buy hard currencies as a hedge against inflation.
 
 

Iranian MPs Renew Anti-U.S. Fund in State Budget, Reuter, January 30

TEHRAN - Members of the Iranian parliament chanted "Death to America" on Saturday as they approved a fund to combat alleged plots by the United States against Iran.

In a session broadcast on Tehran radio, deputies voted by a large majority to restore the fund which had been dropped from the state budget approved in a first reading two weeks ago. The fund has been part of Iran's annual state budget since 1996 when it was created to match dollar-for-dollar a $20 million fund reportedly set up by the United States for covert action against the Islamic republic.

The amount of the fund, part of the budget for the next Iranian year which starts on March 21, was not specified in the text of the adopted.

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