TEHRAN - Iran launched Monday the biggest military maneuvers on the border with Iraq since the end of their nine-year war, as attacks by the Mujahedeen armed opposition in the region have shown a marked increase lately.

The three-week exercises dubbed Zolfaqar Velayat 1 and 2 involve the use of commandos and parachutists in the two provinces of Khuzestan and Ilam.

Military officers quoted by the radio said the exercises were the largest to test the capacities of a rapid intervention force since the 1979 revolution.

The maneuvers, coinciding with the 21st anniversary of the Islamic revolution, come as the Mujahadeen seem to be increasingly active inside Iran, claiming attacks on military bases and other headquarters of the regime, some of which are officially confirmed.

The Mujahadeen often report major successes, "with dozens of Revolutionary Guards killed or wounded", while the authorities play down the incidents. The Mujahadeen claims to have some 50,000 heavily-armed guerrillas.

As well as armed attacks, the opposition group also organizes demonstrations against Iranian leaders on overseas visits, notably those of Mohammad Khatami to Rome and Paris last year, and of Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi to London and Davos this month.

In a reaction to the war games, the Mujahedeen said they were the targets of the exercises.

"All the six regions selected by the clerical regime as the site of these exercises have been the scenes of Mujahedeen operations and clashes in the past two months, during which 33 military, security and intelligence centers have come under attack," a statement said.

"Through these suppressive maneuvers, the clerical regime intends to step up its savage crackdown on the indigenous population in these regions and terrorise the people. At the same time, it seeks to prepare itself for new military and terrorist acts of aggression against the Iranian resistance's bases on Iraqi territory."

The statement quoted Mujahedeen leader Massud Rajavi as warning that "the responsibility for all the consequences of (the) mobilization and war games and military and terrorist moves against the Iranian resistance would fall entirely on the clerical regime."
 

Mullahs' Regime Remains "Most Active" State Sponsor of Terrorism Under Khatami, Reuters, February 1

WASHINGTON - Iran remains the "most active" state sponsor of the use of "terrorism" as a political tool has not changed since Mohammad Khatami took office in August 1997, CIA Director George Tenet said in testimony prepared for delivery to Congress on Wednesday.

Since the Israeli-Palestinian Middle East peace accords at Wye River, Maryland, last year, Iran has increased its training, material and logistic support to militant groups in support of their effort to derail the peace process, Tenet said in a draft of the testimony obtained by Reuters.

Most analysts believe that Iran, following the North Korean pattern, could test an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the United States in the "next few years," he says in another part of his testimony.
 

Iranian Embassy Paid For Illegal Arms Parts Exports to Tehran, Agence France Presse, February 1

TOKYO - The Iranian embassy in Tokyo paid for parts of anti-tank rocket launchers illegally exported from Japan to Iran, according to a Jiji Press news agency report Tuesday.

The embassy paid about 57,000 dollars to Sun Beam K.K., a now-defunct Japanese trading firm charged with making the unauthorized shipments in 1995, Jiji said.

The news agency was quoting public security officials at the Tokyo metropolitan police department.

On January 12, police arrested two Sun Beam directors -- Ichiro Takahashi, 63, and Tsuneo Ishida, 67 -- for allegedly shipping 3,100 sighting lenses for the RPG-7 launchers to Iran in April and December 1995.
 

Trial of Iranian Jews to Open in Few Weeks, Reuters, January 31

LONDON - The trial of 13 Iranian Jews charged with the capital offence of spying for Israel is to be held in a few weeks' time, Iranian television reported on Monday.

The television, monitored by the BBC, said the decision on the trial had been taken at a session of Judiciary officials.

The 13, arrested last year in the southern Iranian city of Shiraz, have been accused of military espionage, which carries a possible death sentence.

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