In letters to the leaders of Arab countries, Mr. Massoud Rajavi, President of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, wrote: "In the name of the Iranian people and their Resistance and in the name of Islamic solidarity, I urge you to condemn the clerical regime's crimes and flagrant acts of aggression against the Iranian people and their Resistance. I also urge you to take measures making all trade and diplomatic ties with the mullahs' anti-Islamic and anti-Iranian regime conditional upon an end to the regime's crimes against the Iranian people and export of terrorism to other countries in the region."

Mr. Rajavi warned that the Tehran rulers' firing of Scud-B missiles deep inside Iraqi territory must sound the alarm because it means the mullahs' acts of aggression against the Mojahedin will not be limited to Iraqi territory. The fundamentalist regime in Iran could jeopardize peace, tranquillity and security in the entire region in order to overcome the insurmountable crises it faces.

The NCR President wrote: "The reaction of Muslim countries to Tehran regime's crimes and aggressions will undoubtedly be a test of Islamic and regional friendship and brotherly relations that the Iranian people will never forget, especially at a time when the mullahs' regime is on its last legs."
 
 

"Israel and Cultural Invasion" Main Enemies, United Press International, June 15

TEHRAN - The first conference of Muslim legislators has opened in Tehran, with participation by 40 countries of the Organization of Islamic Parliaments.

Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a message read out by former Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati, warned that "two dangers are threatening the Muslim countries: Israel and the cultural invasion."

["Unfortunately, the Islamic world has not carried out its duties towards the problems facing it, yesterday in Bosnia, today in Kosovo under the multiple pressures of both NATO and Serb forces," Agence France Presse quoted Khamenei as saying.

In a related dispatch Associated Press reported "Audio and visual waves, which are worse than warships and warplanes, are being used to disseminate a rogue culture aimed at reasserting the domination of the enemies of Islam," the spiritual leader said.]
 
 

Khatami: Velayat-e-Faqih is Focal Point in Iran, Official Iran's News Agency, IRNA, June 13

TEHRAN - Mohammad Khatami said in his address to a gathering of the Islamic revolution's guards corps at the IRGC headquarters here Saturday night that the Velayat-e Faqih [Supreme Jurisprudence] is at the very core of the Islamic statehood in Iran.

Khatami said that in the Islamic republic, Velayat is consistent with the natural temperament of man and is inspired by love for the society and reliance on amity.
 
 

Second Group of Foreign Businessmen Attacked, Reuter, June 15

TEHRAN - The current whereabouts of several Italian business representatives abducted in the southeast of the country earlier this week were still unknown on Tuesday, according to a Foreign Ministry spokesman.

The official IRNA news agency quoted ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Assefi as saying the Italian nationals had been abducted on June 13 near the city of Bam, a popular tourist destination.

The incident, the second case of kidnapping of foreigners this year, could cause concern in the small community of expatriates.

In February, a German banker was shot dead by an Iranian gunman who had taken him hostage near the holy city of Qom.
 
 

Western Videotapes, Satellite Dishes Confiscated, Reuter, June 9

TEHRAN - Iranian police have cracked down on distributors of illegal western videos and cassettes in central Tehran, the Kayhan newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The newspaper said that police raided six video and cassette shops and arrested 90 distributors for selling what it called "vulgar" videos.

Meanwhile, in the northwestern Iranian city of Mashhad, police discovered 1,000 contraband satellite dishes which were hidden in trucks carrying cooking oil and wheat from the southern port city of Banadr Abbas to Mashhad.

The trucks were stopped at a checkpoint and five people were arrested following the inspection and discovery of the satellite dishes, Kayhan said in a separate report.

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