TEHRAN - Iran's Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence of Akbar Mohammadi, a student arrested after pro-democracy demonstrations rocked the country last July, newspapers reported on Monday.

The Arya newspaper said that the 10-year prison sentence of Ahmad Batebi, 22, another student convicted of endangering national security for displaying a bloody shirt of a fellow student during the riots, had also been upheld.

Photos of Batebi holding up the shirt were widely used in Western media.
 

Mujahedeen Reports String of Operations In Iran, Agence France Presse, February 19

NICOSIA - The main armed Iranian opposition, the People's Mujahedeen, on Saturday said it carried out 18 attacks on Iranian military bases in the provinces of Kermanshah, Ilam and Khuzestan, killing at least 12 soldiers in one operation.

In a statement received in Nicosia, the group claimed it killed "at least 12" Iranian soldiers in Sarnay in Ilam province when it attacked divisional headquarters with mortars, following up with heavy machine guns, anti-tank rockets and grenade-launchers.

Mujahedee, who claim to have 50,000, heavily-armed guerrillas, also attacked military bunkers and command posts west of Qasr-e-Shirin in the west of the Islamic republic with heavy and light mortars, it said.

They also attacked bunkers belonging to Iran's 16th Armored Division to the northwest of Salehabad with heavy mortars, the statement said.

Elsewhere in the province, the Mujahedeen said two of its fighters were wounded in heavy fighting with soldiers from the same division in the Tangbijar region.

"Mujahedeen units used light and medium caliber weapons and opened fire on enemy forces who had set up an ambush for them," the statement said adding: "The mullahs' forces were forced to flee".

The group claimed mortar attacks against battalion headquarters in Mehran and south of the city, as well as in Dehloran and to the southeast of Moussian.

The Mujahedeen said it set up ambushes between Sarnay and Salehabad, between Nairian and Dehloran and on the military road between Moussian and Dehloran.

At the end of last month Iran launched the biggest military maneuvers on the border with Iraq since the end of their nine-year war, as Mujahedeen attacks in the region showed a marked increase.
 

Reuters, February 21 - For Khatami and his allies now comes the hard part: satisfying years of pent-up demand for profound social, cultural and political change.

On the face of it, Friday's general election could not have gone better for the pro-Khatami camp. But analysts say transforming this mandate into fundamental reform within the Islamic system will prove far more difficult.

"The [people's] dissatisfaction is so great that even the reformists cannot comply with all the people's demands unless they leave behind... Khatami as the leader of the reform movement," said commentator and newspaper editor Saeed Leylaz.

Agence France Presse, February 21 - "Reformists" backing Khatami haven't even got the final results of their win in Friday's parliamentary polls and already voters doubt whether Iran's ailing economy can be turned around.

"Inflation has gone up non-stop since Khatami was elected (in 1997)," said a 25-year-old student. "The economy is still horrible. I don't think anything will change."

"My daughter is sick and I can't even afford to buy a chicken to make soup," said an old brown-toothed woman, sadly displaying the plastic bag of feet and other poultry parts she bought to cook her supper. "How can we live on this?"

Associated Press, February 21 - Khatami's faction now has to deliver. Iranians are looking for a cure for their stagnant economy and rampant unemployment.

Until now, Iranians had blamed almost all of the nation's ills on the hard-liners. But now Khatami's faction will have to take direct responsibility for Iran's shortcomings.

Khatami may find it hard to move slowly: After more than 20 years of waiting, Iran's young want a quick fix.

The New York Times, February 19 - The reasons for turning out to vote were not always the lofty platforms of the different parties and independent candidates. Some voted out of fear that they would be penalized if they did not have the stamp in their passport showing they took part in the elections, which the ruling clerics have declared a religious duty.

"This will be important for her when she goes to university," said Souzan Ibrahimi, who voted in a working-class neighborhood in east Tehran with her 17-year-old daughter, Nooshin.

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