TEHRAN - A man attacked a senior cleric who was leading weekly Moslem prayers in the central Iranian city of Isfahan, newspapers reported on Saturday.

Isfahan and surrounding towns have been the scene of tension during the past two years.

The assault on Qazi-Asgar followed a bomb attack on Wednesday on Isfahan's school of theology, a stronghold of the conservative clergy which is led by conservative Ayatollah Hossein Mazaheri.

Newspapers said unidentified assailants threw a handmade bomb at the school, causing a fire which burned part of the building.
 
 

D.C. Backs Iran's Jews, The Washington Times, August 2

Mayor Anthony A. Williams has written to Israeli Ambassador Zalman Shoval to express the city's support for Iranian Jews mistreated by the fundamentalist Islamic regime in Iran.

Mr. Williams included a copy of a D.C. government proclamation calling for the release of 13 Iranian Jews arrested earlier this year on spy charges ...

"The residents of the District of Columbia and I join the world community in condemning the unconscionable arrest and detention of Jewish-Iranian citizens on the unfounded charge of espionage," he wrote to Mr. Shoval ...

The proclamation, signed last week, notes that Jews and other religious minorities in Iran "have been victims of human rights violations," and that more than half of the Jews in Iran before the 1979 revolution have fled.
 
 

Guards' Chief Threatens Further Crackdown, Agence France Presse, August 1

TEHRAN- The head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) vowed to take action against newspapers that insult the elite corps amid a mounting crackdown on the nation's press, reports said Sunday.

Brigadier General Rahim Safavi said the political turmoil created by last month's bloody riots in Tehran was a bid to weaken the Guards and hinted at even stricter controls on newspapers.

"What we want from the press is to avoid following the steps of the enemies," he said.

Savafi defended a letter to President Mohammad Khatami written by 24 senior Guards commanders, published last month after apparently being leaked to the press.

"In fact the danger they had predicted did come to pass," Savafi said, referring to the six days of riots that erupted after a student protest.

"What is going on in the country's political scene ... is aimed at weakening the IRGC," he said.
 
 

Mullahs Give U.S. Cold Shoulder, Associated Press, August 2

WASHINGTON - As Khatami prepares to observe his second anniversary in office on Tuesday, not much has changed in U.S.-Iranian relations despite American eagerness for a fresh start. Protests on Tehran streets have dimmed prospects even more.

The administration sometimes seems to go out of its way not to offend the Iranian leadership. When students weary of political and social restrictions took to the streets in large-scale protests in early July, the administration maintained strict silence.

Meantime, private arms control analysts have raised concerns about Iran's potential for developing chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. The Khatami government denies it has any such programs. But on the nuclear front, Michael Eisenstadt of the Washington Institute on Near East said, "There is a clear pattern of procurement which signals non-peaceful intent."
 
 

In The Mullahs' Press, Iran Zamin News Agency, August 2

Tehran Times Editorial, July 31 - Leader ... Ali Khamenei led the Friday prayer sermon yesterday... After discussing and analyzing the July 8-13 unrest in Tehran and some other cities, the Leader gave a message to all sectors of society.

He warned the enemies that their dream of re-entry into Iran would never be materialized...

He referred to the drop in oil prices last year, saying that it created vital economic problems in the country. Our economy depends 80 percent on oil. One of the most important aspects of the Leader's guidance is the responsibility of all officials of the three branches of the government -- the Executive, Judiciary and Legislative ...

The officials can succeed in this noble mission of addressing the people's problem only when they pay due attention to the guidance of the Leader... then the nation, revolution and system will remain intact. If not, the enemies, both inside and outside the country, would again try to plot against us.

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