Back to Brief on Iran
An armed Iranian opposition group based in Iraq Monday denied accusations by Tehran that it had murdered villagers and carried out acts of sabotage during a cross-border attack earlier this month.
The Mujahideen Khalq, in a statement faxed to Reuters in Baghdad, denounced Tehran, which made the accusations on Sunday, for telling a "pathetic lie."
"The mullahs' regime has all of a sudden churned out another pathetic lie and claimed ... Mujahideen entered the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Ilam region to carry out acts of sabotage and murdered a number of villagers," it said.
"It goes without saying that the mullahs' claims ... are clearly a bid to pave the way for air and missile attacks or terrorist raids on the Mujahideen's bases and centers in Iraq," the group said.
"The coordinated and synchronized campaign by the mullahs' agencies and leading figures reveals that new military and terrorist plots by the ruling clerics against the Iranian Resistance ... are afoot," they added.
Iraq and the Mujahideen have blamed Iran for several recent attacks on the Iranian opposition in Iraq, including a car bomb near one of its vehicles near Basra in south Iraq, which wounded several Iraqis.
Their office in Baghdad, ringed by
a concrete wall, has survived several mortar and bomb attacks.
Khatami's Brother Tries to Discount Splits Ahead of February "Polls", Agence France Presse, January 23
TEHRAN - The younger brother of Khatami Sunday denied that his supporters were split ahead of parliamentary elections next month despite mounting divisions over the candidacy of a longtime ally.
"Disagreements will never undermine solidarity within the Second of Khordad Front," said Mohammad-Reza Khatami, whose Islamic Iran Participation Front is one of the main factions within the coalition named after the Iranian date of his brother's 1997 presidential election victory.
"We are preserving our unity on fundamental issues," Khatami said in a statement.
Khatami's supporters have been thrown into disarray in recent weeks by the decision of their longtime ally, former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, to stand as an independent in the February 18 polls with the backing of their conservative opponents.
The president's brother urged supporters
not to have excessive expectations of next month's polls.
Speedy Death Sentence for Students vs. Slow Inquiry into Their Suppression, Agence France Presse, January 24
TEHRAN - Tehran's military court has finally set a date for the trial of the capital's sacked police chief Farhad Nazari and 19 other officers over the violent suppression of a student demonstration last July, newspapers said Monday.
Prosecutor said the process was "running late because we were waiting for the results of the Supreme National Security Council's inquiry."
But the contrast between the slowness of the court martial and the speed with which the courts prosecuted and convicted student demonstrators has sparked criticism from reformers here.
Dozens of demonstrators have already
been brought before the courts and death sentences have been confirmed
against at least three of their alleged ringleaders.
Iran Begins Production of Anti-Tank Missile, Agence France Presse, January 19
MOSCOW - Iran has begun mass production of the Russian anti-tank missile 'Concours', Russian military sources said Wednesday, cited by Itar-Tass agency.
Wednesday's announcement comes after
Russia last week said it would continue its military aid to Iran, in spite
of its commitments to end sales of conventional weapons to Tehran, in what
was widely seen as a slap in the face for the United States.
Iran Oil Output Falls By 160,000 BPD in December, Reuters, January 24
NICOSIA - Iran lowered its crude oil production by 160,000 barrels per day (bpd) in December to 3.42 million bpd, the Middle East Economic Survey (MEES) said on Monday.
Citing MEES sources, the publication said Iran registered average crude exports of 2.02 million bpd, while 1.4 million bpd were deliveries to domestic refineries.
Iran has an OPEC production quota of 3.359 million bpd.
OPEC and other producers pledged last year to remove just over two million bpd from a glutted oil market, a move which has driven prices sharply higher.