OSLO, Norway - Norway is permanently withdrawing its ambassador from Iran to protest its death order against novelist Salman Rushdie.

"We are reacting to the Iranian authorities' continued refusal to distance themselves from the fatwa," Foreign Minister Bjorn Tore Godal said Monday...

Oslo has urged Iran to cancel the order since Rushdie's Norwegian-language publisher, William Nygaard, was shot and severely wounded in Oslo in 1993...

Norway says it will vote against any Iranian application for loans from the World Bank, to refuse to use government funds to benefit the Iranian economy and to urge international organizations to pressure Iran...

Mr. Massoud Rajavi, President of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, lauded Norway for withdrawing its ambassador from Iran and refusing all direct and indirect grants of economic aid to the mullahs' regime for insisting on the death decree for the British author. The NCR President added: By taking practical steps in punishing the mullahs' outlaw regime... Norway showed that it prefers moral and humane principles over short-term economic interests.

It is exactly for this reason, that at this point, Norway joins in with the Iranian people's Resistance for peace and freedom, for we chose the same way vis-a-vis this ruthless exporter of terrorism, Mr. Rajavi added.

News on Iran, July 5 - Iranians residing in Oslo demonstrated their support in front of the Foreign Ministry for the Norwegian move to downgrade relations and cut economic ties with the mullahs' regime.

Subsequently, in the conclusion of a press conference, Mr. Paul Schaffey, Member of Parliament (SV), Mr. Lars Gunnar Lingas, Secretary General of the Humanist Ethical Union and Chair of the Committee to Defend Humane Values in Iran, and Ms. Marit Nybbo k, Member of Parliament, issued a statement in which they said: "We believe the time has come for the international community to give a firm response to this regime... we call on the government to completely cut off relations with the Iranian regime and i nitiate a European arms and oil embargo against it."

The statement resolved that the government of Norway support the NCR and its President-elect, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi.

In an exclusive interview with Norway's Channel 2 in Paris this weekend, Iran's President-in-exile, Maryam Rajavi, said she hopes that other countries would now follow the example of Norway.

Maryam Rajavi received Channel 2 TV, this weekend, in her heavily-protected residence outside Paris... In this exclusive interview, she wishes to thank Norway for its decision to reduce political and economic relations with Tehran.

Maryam Rajavi: "The role the government of Norway plays on the scene of international politics in defense of peace and democracy in the countries whose peoples are oppressed and war-stricken, is no accident. And the fact that it is the most democratic country in the world, bespeaks of Norway's leading role in this regard. I believe that Mme. Brundtland has played a significant role in advancing this policy.

Anchorman: Exiled Iranians wish to step up their struggle against the clerical regime and are now urging other European governments to follow the example of Norway.

Maryam Rajavi: I believe that Norway has taken an important step. There will be the day when all governments find out that the only way to counter this exporter regime of fundamentalism and terrorism which threatens the world's security, is to do what Norway has done.

Reuters, July 6, BONN - The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) ... devoted a large section of its annual report to Iran, which it said put extensive efforts into spying on members of exiled opposition groups with a view to maki ng them give up their opposition to Tehran's Islamic government or return home.

Iran was also working hard to obtain technical information and goods with military uses to support what the BfV called a long-standing goal of independently developing atomic and chemical weapons of mass destruction, the BfV said...

The information revealed today by Germany's counter-intelligence agency once again confirms the positions of the Iranian Resistance. As long as the mullahs are in power in Iran, they will continue their terrorism and warmongering. It has become clear n ow, that although Germany is the regime's first trading partner and adopts the most flexible policy towards it, the clerics have not only taken advantage of this leniency and friendship to kill their opponents on German soil, but they are directly involve d in espionage, smuggling and in collecting information for developing nuclear weapons.

The Iranian Resistance once again demands the imposition of a comprehensive embargo on the terrorist religious dictatorship ruling in Iran and the closure of its embassies and consulates in Germany.

Interior Minister, Manfred Kanther announced that foreign spies must leave Germany as soon as possible... These included [spies from] Russia, Kazakhstan, Syria, Poland, Iran, Romania and Bulgaria.

At 4:15 a.m., Sunday, July 9, agents of the mullahs' Guards Corps launched an attack on the NLA's Ashraf base camp from a location 7 kms southwest of the camp, using 107mm multiple-rocket launchers (mini-Katyusha). Five rockets hit inside the camp but did not inflict any damages. Other rockets landed in the surrounding desert fields. Ashraf's security quickly reacted and at about 5:00 a.m., the enemy's firing positions near a water channel, west of Khales-Kirkuk road, were conquered. The dirt road and all the other pathways leading to the enemy's firing position had been closed with anti-personnel and anti-tank mines. Mr. Massoud Rajavi, President of the National Council of Resistance and Commander in Chief of the National Liberation Army of Iran described the Khomeini regime's abortive attack on the Ashraf Camp today, as a manifestation of the regime's desperation in the face of the Iranian Resistance and its achievements in Iran and on the international level. In letters to the Secretary General and members of the United Nations Security Council, Mr. Rajavi emphasized the Khomeini regime's obvious violation of all international laws and the Security Council Resolution 598. Recalling that this is the regime's 34 th terrorist and military operation against the Mojahedin in Iraq since the beginning of 1993, the NCR President urged condemnation of and imposition of an international embargo on the terrorist religious dictatorship ruling Iran.

In a statement sent for the UN High Commission for Refugees, UN Human Rights Commission, International Committee of the Red Cross and Amnesty International, the Mojahedin's Office in Baghdad announced:

At 7:50 a.m., Monday, July 10, the Khomeini regime's mercenaries in Baghdad attacked a Mojahedin vehicle at the intersection of Mohammad Qassim Highway and Bent-Al-Azoor Street... In this cowardly attempt, Mojahedin members Seyed Hossein Sadidi, 34, Ib rahim Salimi, 36, and Yar-Ali Gartabar Firouz,33, died before reaching hospital. All three had become members of the Mojahedin since the beginning of the anti-monarchic revolution.... Mr. Massoud Rajavi, leader of the Iranian Resistance, emphasized the Resistance's legitimate right to self defense and to respond to the terrorist attacks of Khomeini's heirs.

Baghdad, Iraq - Gunmen killed three members of the main Iranian opposition movement in an ambush in downtown Baghdad. The Iraq-based Mujaheddin Khalq, to which the three belonged, said the gunmen were Iranian agents.

Iran's official news agency claimed the ambush was carried out by Tehran-backed Iraqi Shiite Muslim rebels. The Mujaheddin are also Shiite. The attack came a day after Iranian Revolutionary Guards fired rockets into the Mujaheddin's main military base in eastern Iraq. The Mujaheddin's spokesman in Baghdad, Feridoun Soleimani, said three assailants in a taxi ambushed two Mujaheddin [sic.] on a freeway in Baghdad, killing three occupants of one car with gunfire from assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades.

Soleimani said the Mujaheddin activists in the other car chased the gunmen for 12 miles in a running gun battle, with the attackers hurling hand grenades at their pursuers. One of the assailants was wounded and captured, he said.

A statement issued yesterday by the Iranian news agency said the new attacks were carried out by a new organization, "the Iraqi Muslim Mojahedin". Tehran pointed out that the Shiite Iraqis had formed this new organization to defend the government of Ir an against its enemies who are based in Iraq.

The Iraqi opposition sources, however, said they are not aware of any such group. In a telephone call, a spokesman said: "Our duty is to fight Saddam Hussein. We have got nothing to do with the enemies of the Iranian government."

Authorities in Iraq have blamed Tehran for overseeing and executing a series of recent aggressions, against the People's Mojahedin and the Iranian Kurds in exile. Iraq has also submitted a written protest to the Iranian charges d'affaires in Iraq.

In an absurd attempt today, the regime's news agency attributed the Khomeini regime's Guards Corps' attack yesterday on the National Liberation Army to a bogus Iraqi group. A press spokesman for the Mojahedin said: The shameless lies of the mullahs' regime do not deceive anyone. It is common knowledge that this criminal aggression was committed by the Khomeini regime, particularly that three members of the Mojahedin were ass assinated today in Baghdad by the mullahs' exported terrorists, one of whom was arrested. By propping up such lies, the mullahs' regime attempts to conceal the terrorist operations of its terrorist diplomats in Iraq and have an open hand in continuing its crimes, the Mojahedin press spokesman added.

Thousands of Iranians staged demonstrations and rallies today in Sydney (Australia), Brussels (Belgium), Toronto (Canada), Copenhagen (Denmark), Paris (France), Bonn, Hamburg (Germany), Rome (Italy), The Hague (The Netherlands), Oslo (Norway), Goteborg , Stockholm (Sweden), Geneva (Switzerland), London (U.K.), Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and San Francisco (United States). They protested the criminal assassination of three Mojahedin members. Iranians pointed to the mullah regime's embassy in Baghdad as the mastermind of this crime and called for a vehement condemnation of this regime by the international community and closure of its embassies. They demanded a ban on granting diplomatic resources and facilities to the mullahs' regime, saying they basi cally serve the regime's export of terrorism.

Following the report "Iran 1994: The Year of Assassinations" produced by Middle East Concern, which maintains a presence in the Middle East and represents several agencies advocating the human rights of religious minorities, Jubilee Campaign called a m eeting in the House of Commons on 15 June, chaired by Anthony Coombs MP.

The report contains new evidence that reinforces the belief that the Iranian government was responsible for the assassination of three Christian leaders in that country. It also states that sources with access to high-level government contacts specific ally confirm the existence of a "hit list" containing the names of prominent Christians.

Wilfred Wong, parliamentary officer for British human rights group Jubilee Campaign, was calling for tougher economic and political sanctions against Iran, similar to those imposed by the USA.

TEHRAN, July 9 (Reuter) - Ayatollah Mohammad Reza Mahdavi Kani was quoted by Resalat newspaper as saying in London, where he is being treated for an unspecified illness, that he had resigned as head of the Militant Clergy Association (MCA), which group s most of Iran's important leaders....including President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Kani, who was prime minister and interior minister in the early 1980s, has held the post of MCA chairman since the early years of Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution.

NICOSIA, July 9 (Reuter) - Security forces in Iran have arrested more than 13,000 people in three months for smuggling millions of dollars worth of contraband including firearms, vehicles and boats, Iranian television reported.

It quoted Law Enforcement Commander General Reza Seifollahi on Saturday as saying they were arrested for smuggling contraband which included 800 vehicles and 900 carpets. In one operation in late June, 2,127 people were arrested, Seifollahi told the television, monitored by the British Broadcasting Corporation.

More than two million cartons of foreign cigarettes, 200,000 litres of fuel, 15,000 packs of medicine, 1,820 firearms, 220 launches and boats, and 80 cars were seized in the operation conducted in coastal and inland areas, he said.

TEHRAN, July 7 (Reuter) - Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said on Friday a U.S. embargo against Iran had failed and the country's economy and national unity had improved under American pressure.

"It is no exaggeration if we say that our economy is in better shape after the U.S. embargo than...before," Rafsanjani said at a mass prayer broadcast live on Tehran radio.

Reuters, July 3 - U.S. trade sanctions against Iran have prompted the Shell oil company to pull back from a possible deal with Tehran to develop two Iranian oil fields, the Middle East Economic Survey (MEES) newsletter said on Monday...

"It was the indirect effects of the U.S. embargo on the commercial execution of the contract terms which prompted Shell to bow out," it said...

Reuter, July 14, Washington - The United States said on Friday it had protested to France over an agreement by a French oil group to develop Iranian oil fields, and called on Paris not to extend official credits to Tehran to finance the deal.

State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said the United States had a "very deep disagreement" with France over the deal signed in Tehran on Thursday by Total SA with the National Iranian Oil CO to develop two fields in the Gulf...

"We are certainly disappointed," Burns told a news briefing. "Deals of the Total type send the wrong signal to the Iranian leadership at the wrong time."

"We don't think it's in France's interest to idly stand by for the sake of short-term profit and to sacrifice France's longer-term interests that are clearly at stake," Burns said.

The Khomeini regime staged an absurd television show yesterday covered by its news agency and media. An agent of the Ministry of Information fabricated ridiculous lies about a series of operations two years ago by the Mojahedin inside Iran.

The mercenary agent was quoted as saying that he had killed a Mojahedin member Habib Shatti. Two years ago, the mullahs' regime had made a contradictory claim as to the arrest of the same person.

A spokesman for the Mojahedin described these absurd claims and such foolish show of force as a sign of frustration and desperation of the mullahs' regime in the face of the advances and achievements of the Iranian Resistance.

Confronted with the extensive activities of the Resistance forces across Iran on the occasion of June 20, and the recent demonstrations by tens of thousands of Iranians in 13 countries of the world in support of the Iranian Resistance and the internati onal embargo of the regime, the mullahs have no solution but to resort to such ridiculous absurdities.

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