The government-owned daily Hamshahri reported today that the commander of the State Security Forces in the city of Qazvin (140 km west of Tehran) had announced the arrest of 31 persons in this city "on charges of disrupting public order." He said that "some of those arrested are supporters of the Monafeqin (Mojahedin) grouplet."

Reports coming in from several other cities also speak of the Revolutionary Guards and members of the State Security Forces making large-scale, indiscriminate arrests in the aftermath of the major military attacks by the Mojahedin in four western and southwestern cities. The regime is thus resorting to further suppression in order to contain the wave of public euphoria that was generated by these operations. Most of those arrested are young people and students. Nothing is yet known about their fates.
 

Khatami Rejects Appeals By His Faction to Intervene on Behalf of Abdollah Nouri, Iran Zamin News Agency, November 28

The Mullahs' President, Mohammad Khatami, today rejected an appeal by the "Hezbollah Assembly" (the pro-Khatami faction in the Majlis) to intervene on behalf of Abdollah Nouri, his right-hand man. Underscoring that "we must move along the path established by the Imam and approved by the Leader [Khamenei]," he tried to distance himself from his former deputy and Interior Minister.

Khatami's refusal to intervene on behalf of Nouri is a clear testament to his growing weakness in the regime's internal balance of power. His remarks also make it abundantly clear that in order to hold on to his position [as president], he is willing to make any humiliating submission to Khamenei.

The imprisonment of Nouri and Khatami's inaction reaffirmed that the regime lacks the capacity to change and cannot tolerate any deviation from the principle of "velayat-e motlaqeh faqih' (absolute supremacy of clerical rule) and that no one has the power to reform it.
 

Nuri Sentence A "Slap In The Face" Of Khatami, Agence France Presse, November 27

TEHRAN - The five-year prison term handed down to Abdollah Nuri by a court Saturday is a "slap in the face" to Khatami's movement, a Nuri aide said.

Hekmat told journalists in the paper's offices that the verdict by the Special Court for Clergy (SCC), which Nuri repeatedly denounced as "illegal," was "a slap in the face" to Khatami.

But he said his boss had been "pessimistic from the outset of the trial," one of the most important here in the last 20 years after Nuri mounted an unprecedented challenge to the ruling clerical regime.

The former vice president and interior minister was convicted of spreading "anti-Islamic" propaganda in Khordad among an array of charges put forward by the SCC.

Security forces took Nuri directly to Tehran's Evin prison in an armored vehicle Saturday following the sentence handed down by judge Mohammad Salimi.
 

EU Cool to Iranian Request for Trade Accord, Reuters, November 29

BRUSSELS - The European Union reacted coolly on Monday to an Iranian request for upgraded trade ties, citing the need for more reforms and concerns over recent arrests of dissidents.

A European Commission spokesman said Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Morteza Sarmadi had asked for the upgrading at a meeting with EU External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten.

The spokesman said Patten had expressed concerns over arrests of dissidents in Iran.

Patten said EU member states would want to see evidence of more reforms and improvements on human rights issues before deepening ties with Iran, the spokesman added.
 

More Than 100 Foreigners Arrested At Dance, Agence France Presse, November 29

TEHRAN - More than one hundred foreigners, including women from various European and South American countries, were arrested during a dance evening in a residential suburb of Tehran, the government newspaper Iran reported Monday.

The paper said the "depraved" event took place in a luxury villa located in the western suburbs of the city on Thursday evening.

The Islamic Republic of Iran demands the separation of men and women, particularly when young, outside of marriage or the family unit.
 

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