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Quoting "informed sources," the clerical regime’s official news agency, IRNA, reported on April 4 that "a giant explosion occurred at the main headquarters of the Mojahideen Khalq Organization (MKO) west of Baghdad early Thursday night, March 18, 1999... MKO must have suffered heavy casualties and losses because many ambulances and police as well as security agents were seen rushing to the site of explosion till midnight," IRNA added.
Contrary to the clerical regime's claims, such an explosion did not occur in any of the Mojahedin bases. The central office of the Mojahedin in Baghdad, therefore, informs the public of the results of its investigation into the details of this criminal bombing. The mullahs’ Intelligence Ministry has clearly accepted responsibility for this terrorist crime by announcing that the explosion was carried out against the Mojahedin:
At 19:50 local time, Thursday March 18, a huge explosion rocked the Haswah area, West of Baghdad, a few kilometers from the Mojahedin’s Badizadegan military camp. As a result of the explosion, four Iraqi civilians were slain and a greater number of innocent residents, including women and children, were injured. Vehicles and buildings nearby were heavily damaged. The photographs of dismembered bodies and of demolished vehicles of those driving by reflect the extent of the savagery and ruthlessness of the clerical regime and its new Intelligence Minister, Mullah Ali Younessi.
Subsequent investigation revealed that
the eight-ton truck used in the attack was an orange-colored Hino truck,
which the mullahs' agents had driven through the Iran-Iraq border on the
eve of Nowrouz and parked it on a busy highway.
Escalation of Fresh Attacks among Regime's Factions in New Year, Reuter, April 6
TEHRAN - The threatened imprisonment of a chief ally to President Mohammad Khatami has thrown his supporters on the defensive as the artificial truce over the long Iranian New Year holiday screeched to a halt on Tuesday.
The daily Iran said former Tehran mayor Gholamhossein Karbaschi, instrumental in Khatami's 1997 landslide victory, had exhausted his appeals and faced detention for two years on charges of graft, possibly as soon as this week.
The reports follow publication of formal charges against an influential Shi'ite Moslem theologian and Khatami aide, whose teachings have outraged conservative clerics.
The cleric, Mohsen Kadivar, is due to stand trial before a special clerical court next week for allegedly slandering the Islamic system and sowing doubt among the Iranian people.
At the same time, hardliners in parliament have renewed threats to impeach the culture minister.
"A new round of preparation for political violence in society," warned the daily Sobh-e Emrouz, citing reports that hardline vigilantes were readying attacks to coincide with the month of Moharram, a Shi'ite period of mourning when religious sentiment runs particularly high. Moharram begins in about two weeks.
"Apparently the leaders of this tendency...have concluded that the passage of time and peaceful competition of thoughts and politics is not in their interest," the newspaper said.
Against this backdrop of political brinksmanship, Khatami last week postponed a planned visit to Paris, set for April 12, after what the Iranian side reportedly said was the refusal of the French to take into account Islamic prohibitions against drinking wine and requiring the veiling of women.
Western diplomats in Tehran say the impasse could have been resolved had not domestic politics reared its head.
A photograph of a smiling Khatami,
seated next to a decidedly unveiled Italian woman with empty wine goblets
in front of them, were circulated at Tehran's Friday prayers. Someone had
thoughtfully circled the glasses with black ink.
Middle Eastern Smugglers, The Economist, April 21
… Even legal trade is so regulated in Iran that many prefer to dodge official channels, to the tune of $3 billion-4 billion a year. Since 1995, when new rules required exporters to repatriate their hard-currency earnings, half the saffron crop has disappeared into the black market. Iranian carpet exporters complain they face bankruptcy if they do not smuggle out their wares….
The biggest incentive to smuggling comes from the high import duties levied by almost all the countries in the region… It is cheaper, according to Kurdish tradesmen, to ship bananas from Ecuador to Turkey and then smuggle them through Iraq into Iran than it is to bring them legally from nearby India or Africa.