TEHRAN - Iran's embattled Culture Minister Ataollah Mohajerani was facing calls for his job Saturday amid mounting pressure over the nation's vocal but now mostly banned pro-reform press.

The Tehran Times said the minister, a close ally of Khatami, should be sacked "as soon as possible" a day after supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei criticized him in a sermon.

Khamenei did not mention Mohajerani by name in his sermon Friday but the Times, considered close to the judiciary, said it was "clear" he was referring to the culture minister.

On Friday, Khamenei gave his full support to President Khatami but indirectly expressed his disapproval of Mohajerani, saying: "I don't agree with everybody (in the government) and I think that some are not doing their job very well."

Just before the closures, the outgoing parliament passed a series of tough new measures against the press, including a rule that for the first time holds journalists, and not just their publishers, responsible for press offences.

Mohajerani's ministry on Saturday issued a statement, cited by the official IRNA news agency, calling on the press to respect the new measures "by observing the legal limits set forth by the press law."
 

Iran Students Warn of Vote Protest, Associated Press, May 13

TEHRAN - One of Iran's student groups warned Saturday that it would organize street demonstrations if a hard-line council annuls the results from February's legislative elections.

More than two months after the Feb. 18 elections, the hard-line Guardian Council still has not endorsed the results for Tehran.

"If the Guardian Council annuls Tehran election results, we will definitely break silence and take to the streets in protest -- and to defend our constitutional and legitimate rights," Heshmatollah Tabarzadi, head of the Islamic Students Association, told The Associated Press.

"Annulment of Tehran results cannot be tolerated under any circumstances," said Tabarzadi, whose group claims to have 10,000 members nationwide.
 

Suspects Point to Iranian Link in Turkish Murder, Reuters, May 11

ANKARA - Two Turkish men showed a prosecutor on Thursday how, by their account, they helped three Iranian men plant a car bomb that killed a prominent journalist seven years ago.

Now, following the arrest of the men at the weekend, the Mumcu killing also threatens to poison relations between officially secularist Turkey and its eastern neighbor Iran.

One of the suspects told the prosecutor he had acted as a guide and look-out for a group of Iranians who allegedly planted the bomb.

"Yusuf went ahead of them. I followed behind. Because Yusuf didn't speak Farsi I translated for them," the state-run Anatolian news agency quoted him as telling prosecutor Hamza Keles.

Mumcu made his reputation at the left-wing Cumhuriyet newspaper investigating state-mafia links and ties between Turkish Islamist groups and Iran.

Relations between Ankara and Tehran are frequently tense. Turkey accuses Iran of backing radical Islamic rebels inside Turkey and of harboring Kurdish rebel guerrillas.
 

Khatami Suffers Heart Problem in Time of Political Pressure, Agence France Presse, May 15

TEHRAN - Political pressure is growing on Iran's Mohammad Khatami, whose health seems to be suffering as a result.

Khatami suffered a mild heart problem last week and spent several hours Thursday in a Tehran clinic, a hospital source told AFP Monday. Sunday, Khatami went to another Tehran hospital to undergo a series of cardiological tests, his office said.

The health problems, which doctors describe as minor, come after months of intense pressure on Khatami and his allies, despite their recent legislative victories.
 

Khatami's Government Blasts US Vice President for Comments on Jews' Trial, Agence France Presse, May 11

TEHRAN - Tehran blasted US Vice President Al Gore on Thursday for his "blatant" interference in Iran's internal affairs after his remarks about 13 Jews on trial for spying for Israel.

"The repeated interventionist statements by US officials is surprising, and indicates their ignorance of the process of investigation of the suspects' cases," foreign ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi said.

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