TEHRAN - A clerical jury in Iran has recommended conviction of cleric Abdollah Nouri after his trial on charges of political and religious dissent, the Iranian news agency IRNA reported on Thursday.

It quoted a court statement as saying the jury of the Special Court for Clergy voted to convict Nouri, a former vice-president, on 15 unspecified counts and found that there were no mitigating circumstances.

State radio said the court would pronounce a final verdict in the controversial case at a later date, taking into consideration the jury's ruling. It did not elaborate.

Conviction would also likely ban his newspaper, Khordad.
 

Students Demonstrate against Students, Agence France Presse, November 11

TEHRAN - Iranian students from the southwestern city of Ahvaz will stage a demonstration Thursday in protest against a student organization for supporting a spirit of dialogue with the US, a press report said Thursday.

According to the Qods paper, the student demonstration is in protest against the pro-reform Office for Consolidation and Unity (OCU) student group which marked the 20th anniversary of the hostage-taking at the US embassy in Tehran with a "spirit of dialogue" rally last week.

During the protest demonstration, the students will examine the "OCU's diversion from the path of the Imam," the paper said.
 

Supporters of Tehran-Washington Ties Slammed, Agence France Presse, November 10

Iran's press Wednesday slammed rival faction for supporting a spirit of dialogue with the United States, following Washington's renewal of economic sanctions against Tehran.

"The renewal of sanctions against Iran by President Bill Clinton on Monday once more confirmed that the US leaders are not straightforward, they say something and do something else," the conservative Tehran Times paper said.

"But unfortunately, some supported the deceiving move of the US and highly recommended that Tehran should resume its ties with Washington," it charged.

The conservative Jomhuri-Eslami paper mocked those "simple-minded and fearful" individuals who supported a resumption of ties, charging that "their comments had had no influence... on Washington's hostility" towards Iran.

The paper charged that those "simple-minded individuals" were fooled into believing that recent comments by various leading US officials, including Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Defense Secretary William Cohen and State Department spokesman James Rubin, were a "sign of Washington's leniency."

Referring to the takeover of the US embassy in Tehran 20 years ago, the paper said the reformers were trying to "push back any responsibility they had during the revolutionary seizure of the spy den" in a "cheap move" and even "try to show that they had not been following a clear and distinct goal."

According to the daily, these people had "given themselves away" by expressing "shame towards the US," and had only proved "that they were opportunists from the very beginning."

"They thought that the resistance against the US was merely a provisional measure that would bare fruit within a few days."
 

Whose Interest Is Being Protected? Not the Peoples', Associated Press, November 10

WASHINGTON - The White House on Wednesday blamed complex national security concerns for U.S. government efforts to block a New Jersey couple from collecting damages from Iran for their daughter's death in a 1995 terrorist bombing.

Spokesman Joe Lockhart said while President Clinton had promised to help the family of Alisa Flatow pursue Iranian assets, there also are worries that such a move could diminish the United States' leverage with foreign governments and put "our diplomatic property and assets at risk."

In March 1998, a U.S. District Court judge awarded $247.5 million to Rosalyn and Stephen Flatow of West Orange, N.J., who filed a wrongful death suit against the government of Iran. They were the first of several families to win judgments under a 1996 federal law allowing victims to seek punitive damages from nations that sponsor international terrorism.

But the U.S. government has blocked the Flatows' attempts to seize diplomatic properties to cover the judgment, saying the properties are protected by international agreements.

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