Back to Brief on Iran
BUENOS AIRES - Argentina's Supreme Court on Monday blamed radical pro-Iranian guerrilla groups Islamic Jihad and Hizbollah for the 1992 car bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires that killed 29 people.
"The attack was organized and carried out by the terrorist group Islamic Jihad, the armed wing of Hizbollah," the Supreme Court said.
Israel has for years insisted that Lebanese-based Hizbollah (Party of God) and the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad were behind the bombing, and Ambassador Yitzhak Aviran told Reuters last week that he could not understand why the Supreme Court did not say the same.
A judge investigating the bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in central Buenos Aires in 1994, which killed 86 people, has also blamed Hizbollah.
The Supreme Court Monday also said
for the first time that the embassy was definitely destroyed by a car bomb.
Rival Factions in Street Clashes Outside Tehran University, Iran Zamin News Agency, May 10
Violent scuffles broke out yesterday outside Tehran University in downtown Tehran between supporters of the clerical regime's two warring factions, leaving many wounded on both sides, according to a report by the Mojahedin's Command Headquarters in Iran. At least 12 arrests were made by State Security Forces agents who intervened to stop the fighting.
The clashes started with brawls between members of the Office for the Strengthening of Unity, a pro-Khatami group, and those of the pro-Khamenei Ansar-e Hezbollah. Extensive fighting ensued and rapidly spread to streets surrounding the University.
While tensions within the ruling circle
has been on the rise in the past few weeks over such issues as the impeachment
of Islamic Guidance Minister Ata'ollah Mohajerani, conviction of cleric
Mohsen Kadivar and imprisonment of ousted Tehran mayor Gholamhossein Karbaschi,
street fighting between partisans of the rival factions in Tehran and different
cities across the country has become more violent.
Mullahs' Regime Executes Four - Newspaper, Reuters, May 10
TEHRAN - Iran has executed four members of a drugs smuggling gang which was active in the west of the country, a newspaper reported on Monday.
The evening daily Kayhan quoted
Hosseinali Amiri, the top judicial official in western Kurdistan province,
as saying the four were executed on Thursday after their death sentences
were upheld on appeal.
Iran to Increase Tax on Foreign Firms Fivefold, Reuters, May 10
TEHRAN - Iran has vowed to stop alleged widespread tax evasion by foreign companies in a move that could multiply their taxes fivefold, newspapers said on Monday.
Deputy Economy and Finance Minister Ali Akbar Arabmazar, quoted by the daily Ettelaat, said the ministry was taking action against tax evasion by foreign firms and their employees, saying most had failed to pay their due taxes for more than a decade.
"Most foreign residents do not pay taxes or file false reports of their income, causing a tax evasion of 85 percent in this sector," Arabmazar was quoted as saying.
"We have written to the foreign companies and nationals asking them to send us copies of their work contracts. They have ignored this and contacted their embassies and written to their heads of state and spread rumors about their families being prevented from leaving (Iran)," the Resalat newspaper quoted Arabmazar as saying.
"It is not so at all. Only under the law, any foreigner leaving the country must present a tax clearance document," Arabmazar said.
He added that foreigners convicted
of tax evasion could be jailed for up to two years.
UAE Leader Skips Gulf Arab Summit In Jeddah, Reuters, May 10
JEDDAH - Gulf Arab leaders arrived in Saudi Arabia on Monday for an informal gathering on regional cooperation at a time when non-Arab neighbor Iran is trying to rebuild ties with them.
The absence of the president of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Zaid bin Sultan al-Nahayan, was seen by analysts as reflecting the UAE's dismay that powerful regional ally Saudi Arabia was moving toward improving its relationship with Iran.