Back to Brief on Iran
Six members of France's National Assembly took part in a press conference held in the parliament's building on Tuesday, June 29, and made public a letter to President Jacques Chirac by 143 French deputies.
The letter condemned the human rights violations and terrorism in Iran, and expressed support for the People's Mojahedin and the Iranian Resistance.
The deputies urged President Chirac to cancel a planned visit to Paris by the clerical regime's president, Mohammad Khatami.
The press conference was organized by Mr. Yves Bonnet, a political bureau member of the Union for French Democracy (UDF) and Chairman of the Committee in Defense of Human Rights in Iran.
The parliamentarians condemned the clerical regime's use of weapons of mass destruction and terrorist attacks on the Mojahedin. They stated no one could overlook such behavior by the mullahs' regime in the sensitive region of the Middle East.
The deputies wrote: "In the past months,
the majority of members of parliament in Britain, Italy, Belgium and Luxembourg,
as well as the majority of representatives at the US House of Representatives
issued similar statements condemning continued violations of human rights
and terrorism in Iran, under Khatami." They also declared support for the
"democratic plans and programs of the National Council of Resistance of
Iran to establish a democratic and secular government which is the aspiration
of the majority of Iranians."
Iran Building Fighters, Reuter, June 28
LONDON - Iran has begun series production of a locally developed fighter called the Azarakhsh (Lightning), according to Jane's Defense Weekly.
In an article released ahead of publication
Tuesday, the authoritative British journal said production of the fighter
had been disclosed by Iranian air force General Habibollah Baghal in remarks
to Tehran newspapers.
Azeri KGB Says Iran Helps Plotting Coup, Reuter, June 29
BAKU - Azerbaijan's security ministry accused the former speaker of parliament Rasul Guliyev on Tuesday of plotting to overthrow President Haydar Aliyev with the help of high-ranking Iranian officials.
"In October 1998, Guliyev opened secret communications with certain circles in Iran to get political support and help with the aim of taking power in Azerbaijan," said the statement, which was published in the official press.
According to the statement, Guliyev had secret meetings in Canada and Istanbul with officials from Tehran's foreign and security ministry to organize a trip to Iran in July where he would prepare "terrorist acts against the president and a number of government and political figures."
The usually prickly relations between
the two oil-producing Caspian countries have suffered further since the
Azeri security ministry accused Iran of stepping up espionage activities
in Azerbaijan and trying to weaken the former Soviet republic.
Call For Reopening of Files on Murder of Christian Priests, Iran Zamin News Agency, June 26
"Representatives of religious minorities" in the mullahs’ Majlis have declared their intention to write to Intelligence Minister and urge him to reopen the case on the murder of the three Christian priests," because "(ex-Deputy Intelligence Minister) Saeed Emami was involved in this case," Tehran's Hamshahri newspaper reported on June 24. After the announcement that Emami had committed "suicide" in custody, the clerical regime’s leaders now describe him as "one of the key elements" in the political murders.
The deputies said that when the case was in progress, they took part in a meeting organized by Saeed Emami, then Deputy Minister or Intelligence, where they were briefed on the issue.
This is the same meeting in which the Intelligence Ministry and other officials claimed that the Mojahedin had murdered the Christian leaders. Despite all the stage managing by mullahs at the time, human rights and Christian organizations in different countries, including the British Parliamentary Human Rights Group and the Christian rights group, Jubilee Campaign, conducted independent investigations and concluded that the mullah regime had carried out these murders.
Following his visit to Iran, Mr. Abdol-Fattah Amour, the UN Special Representative on religious tolerance, noted the following in his February 9, 1996, report: "According to the information received, the Iranian government apparently decided to execute those Protestant leaders in order not only to bring the Mojahedin organization into disrepute abroad by declaring it responsible for those crimes, but also, at the domestic level, partly to decapitate the Protestant community and force it to discontinue the conversion of Muslims."