The clerical regime has launched an extensive propaganda campaign against Abu Dhabi TV in recent days, after the Emirate television channel reported some of activities in Iran by the Mojahedin and the Iranian Resistance. The broadcasts were mostly based on international news agencies' reports. The mullahs' propaganda machine has made explicit threats against Abu Dhabi TV and the UAE government and officials.

The state-run daily, Entekhab, wrote on July 24: "The Al-Nahayan family who rule Abu Dhabi want to create tensions in bilateral ties with Iran... The UAE sheikdom is trying to compensate its weakness in the face of Iran by supporting Iran's sworn enemies. This is a step that will harm the UAE and the people of Abu Dhabi." The paper called on the clerical rulers "to give a suitable response to the mischief-makings of this tiny state."

The daily Javan, published by the Revolutionary Guards, wrote the next day: "It seems necessary that the [Iranian] authorities should consider the issue of security and the evil acts of the UAE media and give an appropriate response."

The English-language Tehran Times also made similar threats against the UAE.

There have been similar cases in the past when foreign journalists have been ordered to leave the country for reporting on the Mojahedin activities.
 

Khamenei: "Khatami Will Not Be A Gorbachov", Agence France Presse, July 29

TEHRAN - Iran's conservative Ressalat newspaper said Saturday that Mohammad Khatami's announcement that he will stand for re-election in 2001 was "premature."

"This premature announcement will deprive other possible candidates of any chance of fair competition," according to the paper.

Ressalat said in an editorial that the announcement "lets it be known that no effort will be spared by the state to ensure that Khatami gets re-elected.

"With this hasty announcement, the government (of Khatami) is in a difficult test of its commitments towards its democratic convictions," said Ressalat.

The country's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, recently rejected all western-style reform plans for Iran, and accused the United States and Britain of seeking the collapse of Iran's Islamic regime.

Khamenei said: "Iran is not the former Soviet Union and President Khatami will not be a Gorbachov," referring to the last Soviet president before the collapse of the USSR.
 

Bazaar Challenges Khatami to Show His Score Card on Economic Crisis, Agence France Presse, July 30

TEHRAN - In an unprecedented open letter to Mohammad Khatami, members of Iran's powerful bazaar association called on the head of state Sunday to look into the country's economic "crisis."

In the letter, published Sunday in the conservative newspaper Ressalat, the conservative 2,500-member bazaar association told Khatami that Iran's current "economic crisis represents a threat more than ever."

"Twenty-five thousand workers are threatened with being laid off, 500 factories across the country are closing, while the cost of living does not stop to rise to the detriment of the disadvantaged classes," the association said.

"We call on you to look into the economic crisis and show on state television a balance sheet of your administration's work during the past three years so that the people know what has been done, what still needs to be dealt with, and in the end, how you plan to carry through the reforms which were never achieved," the group demanded.

The association also deplored the continuous tug-of-war between the regime's two main political factions, affirming that "the enemies have targeted the foundations of the Islamic republic's ideologies."

The Tehran bazaar, which in 1979 was a major source of support for the Islamic Revolution, is known as a "city in a city and an economy in an economy," where 300,000 people work and 600,000 customers visit each day.
 

Former Deputy Minister Kidnapped, Killed, Tehran Times, July 24

TEHRAN - A former candidate of the Sixth Majlis from Jiroft, Dr. Mashallah Aein, is said to have been kidnapped and killed by unidentified elements.

Aein's family announced that he had disappeared five days ago.

Dr. Aein was the deputy health minister of former Iranian prime minister, Mir-Hossein Mousavi. He was also the head of Tehran's Taleqani Hospital as well as a faculty member of Shahid Beheshti University.

Saturday midnight a man who introduced himself as Dr. Saman told IRNA on phone saying that Dr. Aein has been kidnapped a few days ago and his body was discovered near Taleqani Hospital today (Saturday).

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