Agence France Presse, Nov. 10, Bonn - German Bundestag urged the government on Friday to cancel its invitation of Ali Akbar Velayati, the Iranian Foreign Minister, to take part in a conference on Islam in Bonn on November 15 and 16. The parliamentary d ecision was adopted with the vote of 268 in favor and 225 against.

DPA, Nov. 10 - Helped by representatives from the ruling coalition parties, the opposition in the Federal Parliament dealt a severe setback to the government's policy of "critical dialogue" with Iran... Coalition government sources also say that even 5 0 to 60 representatives from the Christian Democratic Union faction voted in favor...

The opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran in a statement issued in Cologne before the parliamentary debate called on the Parliament not to whitewash the Tehran regime by receiving Velayati.

Reuters, Nov. 10, Bonn - In a major embarrassment for German diplomacy, Bonn put off on Friday a conference on Islam planned for next week after parliament passed a shock vote saying Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati should be excluded.

Dozens of government deputies including parliamentary speaker Rita Suessmuth voted with the opposition Greens and Social Democrats to exclude Velayati because Tehran had praised the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin....

The Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran hailed the parliament's vote on Friday as a "courageous act."

"The time has come for the international community to impose a complete trade embargo against this regime," it said in a statement issued in Bonn....

NCR Secretariat in Paris, Nov. 10 - Mr. Massoud Rajavi, President of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, described the decision by the majority of the German Parliament as to the cancellation of the trip to that country by the Foreign Minister of the mullahs' religious terrorist dictatorship as the sign of decisive opposition of the people of Germany to the relations between their Government and the Khomeini regime. He welcomed German Government's decision not to hold the conference on "Europe and the Islamic World", calling it a major victory for democracy and human rights.

Mr. Rajavi called on all countries to halt all contacts with and all visits by the regime's leaders and officials who are the highest authorities in charge of executions, torture and export of terrorism and fundamentalism.

The NCR President lauded the German Parliament's courageous measure, saying it is indicative of the aware conscience of the people of Germany and their sympathy with the people of Iran in confronting their oppressive rulers.

Mr. Rajavi added: The attendance of a criminal terrorist in the conference on "Europe and the Islamic World" was not only against the highest interests of the people of Iran but an insult to the world's Muslims. By its crimes against the people of Ira n and the export of terrorism and fundamentalism to the world of Islam, the mullahs' religious terrorist dictatorship is the worst enemy of Islam and Muslims. The time has come for the world community to impose trade embargoes against the Khomeini regime and prevent it from taking advantage of the silence of the international community to continue its crimes, he emphasized.

Unita, Italy, Nov. 11 - But the victory by the Social Democrats and Greens, the document of which was sealed with 268 favorable votes, while the opposition votes were only 225, goes far beyond the question of Velayati's invitation. This was a cl ear defeat for the Federal Government's general policy towards Iran.

In view of democratic values and respect for human rights, Bonn's diplomacy has always made an exception for Tehran. Iran's leaders have always been looked upon as nice and noticeable, a "special attention" just comparable with the volume of economic t rade and interests, and strengthened and reinforced by a good practical intelligence and counter-intelligence cooperation, an extremely disgraceful subject said to be endorsed by the Chancellor. A strange friendship between Bonn and a regime which is not only considered as the center of Islamic fundamentalism but as an international sponsor of terrorism. In the past, too, there had been criticisms from the United States and clear objections by Israel. Germany's justifications have never been convincing... .

Agence France Presse, Nov. 12 - Tehran tried not to show up in the face of the vote on Friday by the German parliamentary deputies against the Iranian Foreign Minister's trip. On Sunday, Tehran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs tried to humiliate the impor tance of the blow from its most important political and economic partner in Europe. The Iranian press generally kept silence about this news.... which signals the distress caused by the blow from one of the rare European supporters of the Islamic Republic ....

Reuters, Nov. 10, Washington - The Clinton administration is working with Congress on ways to tighten U.S. trade sanctions against Iran, U.S. officials said on Friday.

The Washington Post, quoting senior U.S officials and congressional sources, said on Friday a conference in Tehran this month where foreign firms will bid for up to $6 billion in Iranian government contracts was a major impetus for legislation on Capit ol Hill....

The administration supports efforts to tighten sanctions against Iran, but still opposes any attempt to bring down the Iranian government.

State Department Undersecretary Peter Tarnoff told the House International Relations Committee on Thursday that "we share your desire to explore additional steps that increase pressure on Iran."

Radio France International, Nov. 10 - In today's Friday prayer sermon at Tehran University, Yazdi criticized that group of Arab and Muslim leaders who had expressed regret upon the murder of Yitzhak Rabin. Yazdi said all the people of the world are hap py at Rabin's death. It was only the United States and a few puppet Arab and Muslim leaders who expressed regret at this incident.

Tehran radio, Nov. 6 - Iranian and Russian experts finished studies on completing Boushehr's nuclear power plant. Amrollahi, Rafsanjani's deputy and head of the Nuclear Energy Organization, said: Boushehr's first nuclear power plant will be ready for u se in three years.

Agence France Presse, Nov. 6 - According to the law ratified Sunday by the Iranian parliament and published Monday by the press, any form of insult to the main officials in Iran will be heretofore punished by up to 74 lashes or six months in prison. Th ese punishments include those who "insult" the officials orally or in writing: The President, Vice-President, Head of the Judiciary, the ministers, parliamentary deputies, members of the Council of Guardians and Assembly of Experts.

Tehran radio, Nov. 5 - Seifollahi, commander of the security forces, said that the security forces have arrested 3,000 drug-traffickers and 4,000 addicts in their week-long operation which began on Oct. 23.

Chinese news agency, Nov. 1 - Khamenei warned today that the Islamic Republic will not tolerate anti-clerical debates in the universities.

In what was perhaps the first reference to recent riots in Tehran University over the view points of Iran's modernist intellectuals, Khamenei warned that they must be stopped. Tehran's state-run radio quoted Khamenei as saying, "I recommend that those who reverse the realities about the clergy put a stop to this practice. If it becomes clear that those who in ill fate add fuel to the differences, the Islamic system here will not tolerate them... Today, any opposition to the clergy is in the interests o f the U.S. and the Zionists."

Tehran radio, Nov. 5 - Khamenei, relieved mullah Momen, director of Qom's Seminary School, from his duties. Mullah Ostadi was appointed as the new director. [Mullah Momen, member of the Assembly of Experts and one of the top 14 mullahs of the country opposed Khamenei's nomination for Supreme Authority on Religious Affairs.

Voice of Mojahedin, Nov. 7 - Workers at Aali Brick Factory in Isfahan (central Iran) went on strike on Nov. 3 in an act of protest to the non-payment of their wages. They announced that they will continue their strike until they are paid.

Voice of Mojahedin, Nov. 2 - Living conditions of students at Isfahan's universities are grave. They sell their food coupons to provide for their basic needs.

Salam, Nov. 7 - Calls from Readers: "Potatoes are 900 rials per kilo and beef 12,000. Water, power, gas and telephone bills exceed a whole month's pay. It is five years that we have not been able to buy a set of clothing. Retirement wages are go od for only 12 days. I had to get loan from the Bank to fix a leakage in the roof and change two meters of water pipe. It is five years that I have not been able to repair my house. Sale of [human] kidneys is on the rise. The parliament has ratified a law according to which no one has the right to say the truth, otherwise he will be imprisoned.... Nobody speaks out any more, everyone just curses."

Salam, Nov. 9 - Calls from Readers: The authorities who speak so much about canonical laws and call themselves followers of Imam Ali, how do they dare to spend from the public's wealth. Don't you say that Imam Ali put off the candle, bought from the people's wealth, when he wanted to speak to his brother? As a Muslim and an Iranian, I am not contended if one rial of the money of this country is spent for foreigners under any pretext. We see that people cannot send their children to school becaus e they do not financially afford it. We should first reconstruct our own country and only then, spend generously from the public wealth."

[The reader's reference is to the regime's aid to foreign extremist and terrorist groups.]

NCR secretariat in Paris, Nov. 7 - Mrs. Mahvash Sepehri, Senior Secretary of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, announced the names of another 161 persons whose membership was ratified by the NCR. The number of members of the National Council of Resistance of Iran thus exceeds 560.

With an average age of 38, eighty-six new members are women and 75 are men, each of whom have devoted an average of 18 years to social and political struggle in Iran.

Mr. Massoud Rajavi, the President of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, congratulated the new members and pointed out: The Resistance's Parliament now includes representatives from all walks of life, social sectors and ethnic backgrounds in Ir an, embodying the Iranian people's tremendous historical and national struggle for freedom and emancipation from the mullahs' oppression. The anti-human and anti-Iranian mullahs' regime understands, before and better than any one else, the political and s ocial consequences of this major development. This is particularly the case because more than half the members of the NCR are among the most distinguished combatant women of Iran.

NCR has adapted its organizational structure with the advancements of the democratic alternative in the past two years and the extensive support for it within and without Iran. The National Council of Resistance will continue to welcome membership of any individual or group, recognized as qualified in accordance to the NCR's Constitution.

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