Four days after the pounding of the dreaded Ministry of Intelligence in the heart of Tehran with twenty rounds of 82mm mortars, the Iranian Foreign Ministry's spokesman commented that "the Iraqi government is responsible for all the consequences of any act of terrorism carried out by the [Mojahedin]."

A statement issued by the Mojahedin says: "This absurd and preposterous claim comes at a time when the ruling mullahs find themselves unable to contain the spread of popular uprisings and escalating Resistance operations across the country."

"The Mojahedin's operations are carried out entirely by the Mojahedin Command inside Iran and have absolutely nothing to do with any foreign country," it added.

Yesterday's remarks by the clerical regime's Foreign Ministry spokesman were clearly aimed at paving the way for exporting crisis and launching missile and air attacks on the Iranian Resistance's bases in Iraq.

The state-run daily, Abrar, wrote in its editorial on Monday, July 17, that the Iranian Resistance's bases in Iraq "must be the targets of lightning attacks... and our armed forces must hit them with a barrage of missiles or air raids."

[Agence France Presse: "Iraq has nothing to do with the activities of the People's Mujahedeen and the plans of action it has against the regime in place in Iran," an Iraqi foreign ministry spokesman said.

["The Iranian leaders are issuing false accusations to draw attention away from their country's political, social and economic crises," he said.]
 

Tomorrow May Be Too Late! Iran News (State-controlled daily), July 20

Not long ago, Hojjatoleslam Zam, the head of the Artistic Department and the new head of the Tehran Municipality Cultural and Artistic Organization presented the City Council with some very disturbing statistics regarding our social maladies…

On the basis of this report, suicide rate has increased by 109 percent, 5,000 Kilograms of illicit drugs are consumed daily in Tehran alone, prostitution age among women has dropped by 7 years from 27 to 20 and last but not least, 86 percent of the high school students and 75 percent of the people in general fail to perform their daily prayers…

Although there have been painstaking efforts to fight addiction, as a highly distressing social malady, the fact that this social plague is still very stubbornly prevalent can not be denied in any way…

The rapidly spreading extent of this catastrophe is so overwhelmingly grave that has caught the attention of some foreign media such as "Le Figaro". In a report on the conditions of addiction in Iran, Le Figaro makes the remark that should the present trend in addiction persist, there would be more than 19 million addicts in Iran in less than 20 years' time.

Apart from all these figures and statistics, Mr. Zam's words regarding the spread of prostitution, addiction and other social ills should only resonate the shrills of alarms ever more for the Iranian authorities and families… All said and done, Mr. Zam's report should, in every plausible term, and as urgently as possible prompt our authorities to take more serious actions regarding the problems of our young people or tomorrow may be too late!
 

Enemy Trying To Weaken National Strength, Tehran Times (State-controlled daily), July 20

TEHRAN - Information Minister Ali Younessi said Tuesday "the enemy is plotting to sap our national strength." Speaking at a ceremony to introduce the new head of Khuzestan Province's Information Department, he added that all governmental organs shoulder the responsibility of preserving national security.

Unemployment is the most important cause of potential unrest, the minister pointed out.
 

Dismal Health Condition, IRNA (State News Agency), July 19

Deputy Health Minister Ali Akbar Sayari said here Wednesday that 20 percent of Iranian people go hungry while 40 percent of the population's food intake is more than their needs.

Speaking at the seminar on policy guidlines on improving children health, he added that 15 percent of children under five years of age, or 800,000, are shorter than normal and 10.9 percent are under weight due to malnutrition. He said malnutrition, iron and vitamin A deficiencies are on the rise in Iran among children.

Over 30 percent of deaths in the country are related to cardiovascular complications, making it the major cause of death, he said, adding, unfortunately the age of the people afflicted with the disease is also decreasing.

Sayari said the rate of suicide is on an upward trend in the country, especially among women. 

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