In a telegram today to the Austrian President Thomas Klestil, National Council of Resistance President urged him to cancel his scheduled trip to Iran.

This came at a time when the mullahs' regime has announced officially that it has begun to execute those arrested in the student demonstrations in Tehran, Tabriz and other cities in July. He asked the Austrian president to prevent "a dark blot" being created in the history of friendly relations between the people of Iran and the people of Austria.

The NCR President stressed that even though Khatami became a spent force after his public pledge to suppress the popular demonstrations in July, his two-year record in office is also a dark catalog of crimes: more than 450 publicly-announced executions, ten victims stoned to death, more than 60 terrorist attacks outside Iran and the assassination of 35 dissidents abroad, new draconian laws against women are some of the items in Khatami’s record in office.
 
 

Hizballah Terrorism in Argentina, Voice Of America (Editorial), September 11

This month, authorities in Argentina issued an arrest warrant for Imad Mugniyah. He is wanted for the March 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina…

Islamic Jihad, the clandestine wing of the Hizballah terrorist organization, publicly claimed responsibility for the attack and authenticated its claim with a videotape of the Israeli embassy under surveillance.

A radical Shia group formed in Lebanon, Hizballah is dedicated to the creation of an Iranian-style Islamic republic. Hizballah terrorist attacks have often been directed by Iran, though some have reportedly been carried out without Tehran's approval. Iran has long provided money, weapons, explosives and diplomatic assistance to Hizballah.

Hizballah terrorists such as Imad Mugniyah are known or suspected to have been involved in numerous anti-U.S. attacks, among them: the suicide truck bombing of the U.S. embassy and the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983 and the truck bombing of the U.S. embassy annex in Beirut in 1984. Elements of Hizballah were also responsible for taking Americans and other Westerners hostage in Lebanon… Terrorists like Imad Mugniyah must know that they will be brought to justice, no matter how long it takes.
 
 

Head of Banned Paper to Stand Trial Next Week, Agence France Presse, September 13

TEHRAN - The trial of the director of Iran’s Neshat newspaper, banned for publishing "anti-Islamic" articles, will begin in the press court next week, justice officials said Monday.

Latif Safari will appear next Monday to answer 73 charges in a public trial in the presence of a jury, Iran’s justice department said in a statement carried by the official IRNA news agency.

Neshat, which is close to Mohammad Khatami, fell foul of Iran’s conservative-controlled judiciary after publishing two controversial articles earlier this month.
 
 

Regime Says Unemployment Surging to Three Million, Reuters, September 7

TEHRAN - Some three million Iranians will be without jobs by March, more than twice the figure in 1997, a senior official said in remarks published on Tuesday.

Deputy Labor Minister Habibollah Ajayebi, quoted by the daily Tehran Times, said the number of unemployed people was expected to rise to three million by the end of the current Iranian year which ends in March 2000, compared to 1.45 million in the year to March 1997.

Ajayebi said 260,000 children under 15 and nearly 700,000 people over 70 years of age were working due to poverty.
 
 

From The Mullahs’ Media, Reuters, September 13

KAYHAN - Two members of parliament called for officials to strongly react to a "threatening letter" to Iran from U.S. President Bill Clinton. Iranian newspapers have said that the secret letter asked Tehran to hand over several foreigners living in Iran, whom Washington has accused of involvement in "terrorism."

TEHRAN TIMES - Iran's economy suffered in the past Iranian year from poor growth, low oil prices, low levels of investment, and soaring inflation, said Central Bank Governor Mohsen Nourbaksh.

He said the GDP grew just 1.6 percent in the year. He said that the economy was hurt by a fall in oil prices, but added that Iran had been able to reduce its foreign debt to $12.8 billion by late July 1999, from $30.3 billion in 1992.

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