Guards Corps Chief resigns

Reuter, Sept. 10 - Iran's supreme leader replaced the commander in chief of the Islamic republic's elite Revolutionary Guards. Maj. Gen. Mohsen Rezaei stepped down Tuesday after 16 years as commander of the Guards.

Iran's ruling theocracy unstable

NCR Secretariat, Sept. 10 - It was announced on Tuesday that Mohsen Rezaii, commander in cheif of the Revolutionary Guards Corps, the hallmark of the regime's military dominance in the past 16 years, had resigned from his post. In a three-hour press interview last week, Mohsen Rezaii revealed that " a considerable number of commanding officers and veteran Guards Corps' personnel" had quitted the force. He also expressed his personal interest in "cultural affairs" and thereby declared his lack of interest in the Guards Corps. NCR President Massoud Rajavi described Rezaii's resignation as the most important development in the regime after Khatami's presidency. He said it was an indication of fear, despair, and frustration of the highest officials of the regime. He pointed out that this resembled the resignation and flight of the shah's generals in the final days of the monarchic dictatorship.

Who is the new GC commander?

NCR Secretariat, Sept. 11 - Ali Khamenei, the mullahs' leader, appointed Yahya Safavi as Commander in Chief of the Revolutionary Guards. The measure is designed to reassert Khamenei's control over the Guards Corps in the aftermath of the mullahs' presidential elections.

A top official of the Guards Corps for the past 16 years, who has always sided with Khamenei in the regime's internal strives, Safavi was the commander of the Guards Corps' ground forces some time during the Iran-Iraq war. Safavi was directly involved in the clerical regime's missile attacks on Kuwait and the large-scale human-wave offensives in which hundreds of thousands of teen-age Iranians were sent to their deaths. After the war, Khamenei appointed him as the Deputy Commander in Chief of the Guards Corps.

Safavi was one of the main founders of the Qods (Jerusalem) Force, the Revolutionary Guards' special branch responsible for terrorist activities outside Iran. The Qods Force has been behind all the major acts of terror sponsored by the clerical regime in different countries, including Lebanon, Palestine and Iraq. Following the bloody crackdown on the antigovernment uprising by residents in the northeastern city of Mashhad in May 1992, Khamenei gave Safavi full responsibility to thwart the recurrence of such massive protests. Safavi formed special anti-riot units in the Guards Corps named Ashura battalions in order to counter and suppress the growing wave of protests across the country. In August 1994, he commanded the Guards Corps units that retook the city of Qazvin (140 km west of Tehran) after three days of general rebellion. In the ensuing days, 3,000 residents were executed.

Undermining the Velayat-e Faqih

IRTV, Sept. 9 - In a meeting with the Society of Tehran's preachers, Rafsanjani, head of the Council for the Determination of the Exigencies of the State, lauded the preachers for their invaluable services and focused his speech on the tremendous efforts and investments of the 'enemy' to weaken the Velayat-e Faqih and the leadership of the Islamic Revolution.

Rafsanjani stressed: "I feel that the Arrogant powers are mischievously seeking to attack the "velayat-e faqih [principle in the regime's constitution stipulating that the senior religious leader is also the supreme ruler of the state], the pillar upon which the entire regime rests and the mainstay of the Islamic Revolution." The enemies of Islam, led by America, have always viewed the clergy as a hindrance to their efforts to fulfill their arrogant interests. Therefore, they raise deviatory issues to attack the Velayat-e Faqih which is the foundation and pillar of the state.

Khamenei stresses his own policies

Tehran radio, Sept. 10 - In a meeting today with a group of nurses and medics, Khamenei elaborated on the policies of the Arrogant powers to create discord among the people of Muslim Iran: "Every one must know that today, there is not a single person among the officials of the country who favors the least colonialist and arrogant policies, or interested in showing flexibility towards them."

Arrests

Kayhan, Aug. 23 - The State Security Forces in Ardebil [northwestern Iran] discovered a considerable amount of contraband goods in the past month and arrested more than 375 persons in this connection.

A monstrous life

Israeli radio, Sept. 12 - Abbas Mir Hosseini, deputy from Zabol, in Sistan and Baluchistan province, harshly criticized the status quo in remarks made in the Iranian parliament before the official order. He said: "What has badly hurt, depressed and concerned the people today is not the shortages, high prices, inflation, and economic problems, but a monster that has overshadowed their lives: the monster of injustice, discrimination, ignorance, embezzlement and abuse of government resources, lack of attention to their needs and the ill-treatment of the public by government bureaucracy ."

German companies suspected of selling arms components to Iran AP, Sept. 10, Cologne - More than 10 German firms are under investigation for illegally selling Iran goods with potential military uses, authorities confirmed Wednesday. The probe by Customs and Justice authorities began a year ago after investigators searched the Duesseldorf office of Defense Industries Organization, an Iranian agency for procuring armaments, said Customs spokesman Leonhard Bierl.

Stern magazine this week reported that the items sold to Iran include aluminum poles that could be used for manufacturing weapons, as well as test equipment that could be used for installing gyroscopes and rocket targeting devices.

EU bans toxic Iranian pistachios

AP, Sept. 9, Brussels - The European Union said Tuesday it had banned all imports of pistachios from Iran after discovering shipments contaminated with a cancer-inducing toxin. The ban will remain in place at least until Dec. 15.

Russia, China Aid Iran's Missile Program

The Washington Times, Sept. 10 - Russia and China are working closely with Iran in building long-range nuclear missiles that could be fielded within three years, The Washington Times has learned.

A detailed Israeli intelligence report about the cooperation, which was given to the CIA and Pentagon, confirms that Iran is building two systems based on North Korea's Nodong missile with ranges up to 1,200 miles, Pentagon officials saidŠ.

New details about the Iranian missile program have alarmed both the U.S. and Israeli governments because the systems could hit targets throughout the region with chemical or biological weapons, and possibly with a future nuclear warhead, should Tehran succeed in building one.

Much of the Israeli intelligence report has been confirmed by U.S. intelligence agenciesŠ

3,000 Iranians stage demonstration in the Hague to protest forcible repatriation of Iranian asylum-seekers

In the biggest-ever rally concerning the rights of Iranian asylum-seekers in Holland, 3,000 Iranians demonstrated in the Hague today to protest against the Dutch government's policy toward Iranian asylum-seekers.

In a message to the rally, held across from the Parliament, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the Iranian Resistance's President-elect, said: "Iran under the mullahs' rule is not safe for anyone save the mullahs' agents. The forcible repatriation of Iranian asylum-seekers is not merely a grave violation of the sacred right to asylum. It is also a green light to the mullahs that they can increase the suppression and torture in Iran and assassination of Iranian dissidents abroad."

Mrs. Rajavi said: "The rise in the number of executions and acts of terror in recent months show that the mullahs' new president, Khatami, is no different from his predecessors: he lacks both the power and the desire to bring about any change in Iran."

"The world must not allow human rights and the right to asylum be sacrificed on the altar of petty economic interests," said Mrs. Rajavi, referring to trade ties with the clerical regime. She called on all Iranians to help the Iranian asylum-seekers in Holland.

In the rally, two members of the Dutch parliament, Mr. Wim Van de Camp of the Christian Democratic Party and Mr. Paul Rosenmoller, leader of the parliamentary group of the Greens Party, declared their support for the protestors' demands.

A number of parliamentarians and human rights advocates from Britain, Italy, Germany, France and Norway also issued statements, condemning the exertion of pressure on asylum-seekers and calling for respect for the sacred right to asylum.

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