BAGHDAD - The Iranian opposition Mujahideen Khalq has elected a 33-year-old woman, Beheshteh Shadrou, as its secretary-general to replace Mahvash Sepehri, a spokesman said on Monday.

The election took place on Sunday at a military base near the Iranian border in neighboring Iraq with thousands of Mujahideen fighters participating, spokesman Fareed Sulaimani said.

Mujahideen Kalq holds elections every two years to the post of secretary general. This year's election coincided with the 35th anniversary of the formation of the group, the most powerful armed opposition to government in Tehran.

Mujahideen Khalq maintains several military of camps inside Iraq. They are armed with tanks, artillery and helicopter gunships and have been targets of Iranian attacks.

Opponents have attacked the Mujahideen's heavily-guarded headquarters in Baghdad and its military camps. On Thursday, it said one of its bases in Iraq came under fire from Iranian agents, but reported no casualties.
 
 

30,000 in Holland Back Student Uprising, Denounce Khatami’s Government, Associated Press, September 3

AMSTERDAM - Iranian pro-democracy activists handed the Dutch government a petition Friday signed by 30,000 people expressing solidarity with student uprisings inside Iran and accusing Tehran of sending spies to the Netherlands to discredit exiled dissidents.

The petition, delivered to the Foreign Ministry by the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran, expressed support for July's student uprising in Tehran and urged the international community to keep pressure on Iran's leaders.

It also alleged that the government of Mohammad Khatami has been working to persuade Dutch officials that many of the 15,000-17,000 Iranians living in exile in the Netherlands are economic refugees, not credible candidates for political asylum, and shouldn't be allowed to stay.

In a report last year, the Dutch Internal Security Service said Iranian intelligence agents were operating in the Netherlands, tracking down dissidents and resistance leaders "with the goal of trying to destabilize the opposition."

The petition was delivered ahead of a protest next Tuesday in The Hague, where several thousand Iranian activists plan to demonstrate in support of students in Iran who are calling for democracy.
 
 

Mullahs’ Regime Denounces New Mideast Deal, Reuters, September 5

TEHRAN - Iran on Sunday denounced the new Middle East peace deal, saying capitulation by Palestinian self-rule authorities to Israel's demands would not bring peace.

"This agreement....is the result of yielding to the pressures imposed by the Zionist regime (Israel) onto the self-rule authorities....and so it cannot end the crisis and tension in the region," state radio quoted foreign ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi as saying.
 
 

Argentina Seeking Hezbollah Official in '92 Embassy Bombing, Los Angeles Times, September 4

BUENOS AIRES - Argentina's Supreme Court issued an arrest warrant Friday for a top Hezbollah security official for the 1992 car bombing of the Israeli Embassy here that killed 29 people.

Argentina, its large Jewish community and Israel blame the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, or Party of God, and the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad for that attack and another on the city's Jewish community center in 1994 that killed 86 people.

Imad Mughniyah, a security officer for Hezbollah and former head of Islamic Jihad, is reported to be living in Tehran. ..

Mughniyah also is being sought by U.S. officials as a suspect in the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and the 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847 from Athens to Rome.
 
 

U.S. Scholars Whisked Out of Iran – Washington, Reuters, September 3

WASHINGTON - U.S. officials confirmed on Friday that a group of American academics had left Iran suddenly under "sensitive" circumstances.

"They left" was all that one administration official would say.

He declined to provide details. "It's that sensitive," he said of the reasons for the scholars' departure.

The Washington Post reported on Friday that a group of American scholars working in Iran from institutions such as Yale, Tufts and the University of Pennsylvania were mysteriously pulled out of Tehran on Aug. 25, 10 days ahead of the scheduled departure date.
 

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