Mullahs' war games in west and southwest Iran
A futile bid to contain internal crisis and counter Resistance in run-up to Majlis elections

Less than three weeks before the mullahs' Majlis elections, the clerical regime's army announced yesterday that as of today (Monday), it would launch two 20-day military exercises in west and southwest Iran. The mullahs' army described the maneuvers as "unprecedented and unrivaled." They come at a time when factional infighting within the mullahs' regime has reached new heights.

Army Deputy Commander Brig. Gen. Mohammad Reza Ashtiani announced that the first war games would be held in Ahwaz, Dezful and Abadan regions in the southwestern province of Khuzistan. They will be "the biggest airborne exercises" conducted by the mullahs' regime, Ashtiani said.

The second war games, according to Ashtiani, will be carried out in Ilam, Saleh-Abad and Mehran in western Iran. Army units "will carry out airborne operations and attack predetermined positions to "purge the western regions of the country."

All the six regions selected by the clerical regime as the site of these exercises have been the scenes of Mojahedin's operations and clashes in the past two months, during which 33 military, security and intelligence centers have come under attack.

Through these suppressive maneuvers, the clerical regime intends to step up its savage crackdown on the indigenous population in these regions and terrorize the people. At the same time, it seeks to prepare itself for new military and terrorist acts of aggression against the Iranian Resistance's bases on Iraqi territory.

Mr. Massoud Rajavi, President of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, drew the attention of the Secretary General of the United Nations and members of the Security Council to the large-scale military land and air mobilization by the mullahs' regime. Underlining the statements by the ruling religious dictatorship's military chiefs, who have said the prime objective of the war games is to counter the Iranian Resistance "in the western and southwestern border regions of the country," Mr. Rajavi added: The mullahs' regime, unable to counter the rising patriotic Resistance and beset by crises in the final stage of its rule, is thus making a futile bid to find a way out of the current crisis. The upcoming election for the mullahs' Majlis has already stoked the fuel of factional fighting in the regime to an unprecedented level.

Mr. Rajavi warned that the responsibility for all the consequences of mullahs' mobilization and war games and military and terrorist moves against the Iranian Resistance would fall entirely on the clerical regime.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
January 31, 2000

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