TEHRAN - Iranian "reformers" behind Mohammad Khatami are mounting charges that the nation is being run by a bloodthirsty "shadow government" after an attempt on the life of a close Khatami ally.

They say a murky network of secret agents is operating inside the police, intelligence services, state media and the Revolutionary Guards, functioning as a parallel power that controls the Islamic republic.

"Operatives from several different state organizations have created a para-governmental power network," says Emadeddin Baghi, a journalist also considered to be one of the leading activists in the reform movement.

The accusations have also been leveled in the daily Sobh-e Emruz which is headed by Said Hajarian, the 47-year-old reform leader who was critically wounded in an assassination attempt earlier this month.

[The Mojahedin Command in Iran reported that all those involved in the attack on Hajjarian are members of the Guards Corps and the paramilitary Bassij. The Guards Corps has sent at least three of them to a neighboring country to prevent their arrest and the unveiling of the chain of command that ordered the shooting.

[A number of Guards Corps commanders are among those directly involved in the attack. Several of those arrested, such as Saeed Asgar, are closely linked to the Ansar-e Hezbollah grouping and to notorious Guardsmen, Hossein Allahkaram and Massoud Dehnamaki.]

Khatami has appealed for full transparency in the investigation into the shooting of his friend and ally, warning that terrorist acts were threatening to engulf Iran and destroy the nation "like termites."

But some reformists claim that one of Khatami's ministers, Ali Yunesi, in charge of Iran's powerful intelligence services, is helping the conservatives by trying to cover up the murder.
 

Top Mullah Warns Pro-Khatami MPs, Youth, Reuters, March 24

TEHRAN - A prominent cleric warned Iran's reformers Friday not to interpret their recent win in parliamentary elections as a mandate to slacken strict social rules in the Islamic country.

Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, a member of the Guardian Council, which vets parliamentary rulings to uphold Islamic and constitutional laws, sought to pour cold water on widespread youth anticipation of greater social freedoms.

"The young people who you think voted for you have no right to demand laws to allow them to dance in the streets, or the annulment of any Islamic mandates," the ayatollah said.

"All rulings must be within the Islamic law, and the Guardian Council sees to that."

The ayatollah said the more liberal rules had encouraged indulgent behavior among youthful Iranians, some of whom he said were "testing the limits."

"Some women expose more of their hairs in the name of freedom. In a few days, they may even take off their veil all together when they travel short distances," he said.

"In the name of reasoning with the youth, you violate definite Islamic teachings. Before it is too late, the fire will catch on and burn it all," Yazdi said.

He encouraged pious Muslims to take the initiative and guide non-conformists on religious teachings, a practice which has in the past provoked violent clashes.
 

Paper Calls For US to Be Sued, Agence France Presse, March 27

TEHRAN - The Iranian government should take the United States before an international court on the basis of Washington's recent admissions about its role in Iran, a conservative newspaper said here Monday.

"The government can and should bring a case against the United States, using the explicit confessions of American officials," the evening paper Kayhan said, referring to a speech by US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on March 17.
 

Japan Charges Former Iranian Ambassador, Agence France Presse, March 24

TOKYO - Police on Friday filed charges against two Iranians, including a former ambassador to Japan, over illegal exports of parts for RPG-7 anti-tank rocket launchers to Iran.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Department said it had sent papers on the pair to the District Public Prosecutors Office on suspicion of violating the law regulating foreign exchange.

The former envoy, who served in Tokyo from 1990 to 1994, and a 49-year-old former clerical staffer at the Iranian embassy, were suspected of arranging payment for the exports, a police spokesman said.

According to the Japanese foreign ministry, Hossein Kazenpour Ardedili served here as Iranian ambassador during the period.

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