DOMESTIC

Extensive clashes in north and western Iran

Mojahedin statement, Jan. 27 - Extensive clashes continued in various parts of the country in the past days, the Mojahedin Command Headquarters in Iran reported.

These clashes became unprecedently intense in recent days in the provinces of Mazandaran (northern Iran, near the Caspian sea) and Ilam (western Iran), and a large number of the regime's forces were killed or wounded in these confrontations.

To conceal its consecutive defeats in encounters with the people and the Mojahedin in Ilam province, the mullahs' Ministry of Intelligence today disseminated an absolutely false report that four Mojahedin, armed with AK-47 machine-guns and in military uniforms, were killed yesterday. It is also claimed that two other members of the Mojahedin, who had fled away some time ago, were killed Saturday in Dehloran. This is while none of the Mojahedin or combatants of the National Liberation Army ever went from Iraq to Iran and the border clashes alleged by the regime are absolutely false.

By disseminating false information, the regime seeks to boost the morale of its suppressive forces who in recent weeks suffered heavy casualties in confrontations with Mojahedin and popular Resistance forces in Iran, and hundreds of them were killed or wounded.

The intensity of the clashes in Sari, capital of Mazandaran province, forced the officials to acknowledge them on the television, contrary to their routine practice.

Resistance leader urges UN to condemn mullahs

NCR statement, Jan. 23 - Mr. Massoud Rajavi, President of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, wrote a letter to Mr. Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations, addressing the false claims made by the mullahs' UN representative about the Iranian Resistance's "armed cross border attacks"... "from the Iraqi soil."

Mr. Rajavi said in his letter that the allegations are a bid to justify the regime's terrorist operations against the Iranian Resistance's bases and centers in Iraq and an effort to prepare the grounds for further acts of terrorism in future. The NCR President said these fabrications come only two weeks after the mullahs' criminal attack with weapons of mass destruction against the office of the Mojahedin in downtown Baghdad which led to the death of a civilian and dozens more were wounded.

Mr. Rajavi emphasized that the uprisings and social unrest in Iran and the Mojahedin's extensive clashes throughout the country with the regime's Guards Corps, particularly in the provinces of Kermanshah, Ilam and Khuzistan, have nothing to do with Iraq. This is why the regime has launched a campaign of mass arrests in Tehran and other cities to prevent further spread of social unrest. The President of the NCR asked the UN Secretary General and Security Council members to condemn the anti-human regime's criminality against the Iranian Resistance.

Propagating lies to counter impact of Maryam Rajavi's proximity to Iran Reuters, Jan. 20, Paris - Iran's opposition National Council of Resistance on Monday dismissed a report that its figurehead leader, Maryam Rajavi, had been barred from returning to France where she lives in exile. A statement telephoned to Reuters in Paris... said "these lies reflect the mullahs' despair and fear following the trip by the president-elect (Rajavi) to the border region of her country."

[In a related statement, NCR said: "Over the past month, the mullahs have experienced the pervasive impact of the journey of the Iranian Resistance's President-elect on 70 million Iranians, and learned the meaning of the new phase of the Resistance's activities inside Iran. Therefore, they have hastily taken recourse in issuing dozens of statements and disseminating hundreds of stories about clashes all across the western provinces and the murder of Mojahedin and their sympathizers. Now, in the conclusion of such ill-fated attempts, they have suddenly made a preposterous discovery that perhaps France had "expelled" Mrs. Rajavi months ago!

"Contrary to the falsities propagated by the mullahs' regime, the government of France has never asked Mrs. Rajavi to leave that country. Her right to political asylum in France remains intact and according to the Constitution of that country and its laws on asylum, there are no justifications which could prevent Mrs. Rajavi's residence in France. Nevertheless, the choice of the location of her headquarters of activities remains exclusive to Mrs. Rajavi who decides according to the highest interests of the Iranian people and Resistance, a matter which does not bear any relevance to other governments or parties," the statement said.]

Hasty official reaction

Kayhan, Jan. 22 - The National Security Council examined desperate attempts recently by the terrorist Mojahedin group at the western borders and announced that the border guards will vigilantly confront any terrorist operation.

According to the report of the public relations of the Ministry of Interior, Ali Mohammad Besharati in a National Security Council session yesterday lauded the prompt reactions and cooperation of popular forces with the security, military and intelligence officials of the country in identifying and destroying the sabotage teams of the terrorist Mojahedin.

He reiterated: The military and security forces, along with the popular forces, will decisively defend the national borders and will not allow terrorists and saboteurs make any moves against the security of the country.

The NSC session continued with discussions on banning use of satellite dishes. The Interior Minister pointed out that the Security Forces will confront the violators according to the law and turn them over to the judicial authorities. The Interior Minister emphasized on the need to safeguard the security of the society and asked parents to look more after their children and prevent unpleasant incidents.

Large-scale maneuvers planned

Iran, Jan. 23 - Commander of the Ground Forces, Brigadier General Ahmad Dadbin, told reporters: Permission has been received from the Grand Leader of the revolution for an extensive maneuver in southern Iran, after the holy month of Ramadhan. 100,000 troops will participate in this joint maneuver of the Ground and Air forces.

New suppressive patrols

IRTV, Jan. 18 - The organization for state punishments launched regular patrols stationed in Tehran's mosques to punish the crimes of violators of economic regulations. The organization announced its readiness to station similar patrols in the mosques of other provinces as well.

Reports from Iran

Iran Zamin weekly, Jan. 27 - A report from Tehran says security forces have tightened control and narrowed the streets to inspect both pedestrians and cars. The patrols also set up security checkpoints every night after 9 o'clock and inspect everyone under the pretext of combating improper veiling.

Security patrols have begun controlling weekend mountain climbers as well. The checks and inspections are again carried out under the pretext of combating improper veiling. Agents of the Intelligence Ministry park two buses in the route of climbers. Women identified as improperly veiled are taken into these buses and forced to sign written statements and acknowledge wrongdoing. Others who refuse to sign are taken to the Guards Corps' detention centers.

Another campaign has been launched to collect satellite dishes, reports from Ardebil say. In another report from Tehran it is said that owners of satellite dishes are fined 1 million rials. Some receive 20 lashes. Sometimes, the regime uses very humiliating and cruel ways to discourage satellite watchers. For example, after seizing the receiver of a woman and her daughter who lived alone in a house, a sign was posted on the top of their door which read: "House of Corruption."

Yet another report from Ardebil indicates that Guards are maintaining tight control on the city. They inspect all pedestrians and passengers riding in the cars. Meanwhile, physical inspection of women by male Guards have led to fighting between the people and the regime's agents of suppression in several occasions.

Secret storage for Scud-B

Iran Zamin weekly, Jan. 27 - A considerable number of long range missiles, including Scud-Bs, are held in Balal Habashi garrison of the Guards Corps on Karaj Road. The garrison is ostensibly involved in repair and maintenance of vehicles of the First Tharallah Corps of the Guards Corps.

Nerve gas shipment to Iran

Los Angeles Times, Jan. 26 - An Irvine man and his business partner were arrested Friday on suspicion of conspiring to ship chemicals that could be used to make nerve gas to Iran, in violation of the U.S. trade embargo.

Prosecutors said Abdol Hamid Rashidian, an Iranian citizen living in Irvine, and Henry Joseph Trojack of Las Vegas conspired to ship impregnated alumina. It is used primarily as a catalyst in the plastics and rubber industry, but also used to make phosphorus-oxychloride, a major component of insecticides and the chemical warfare agents VX and GB....

Oil export declines

Radio France Internationale, Jan. 19 - Mohsen Yahyavi, member of board of directors of Iran's National Oil Company (NIOC) and a parliament deputy, said that the predictions for oil revenue, in the government's fiscal budget are unrealistic. He noted that in the current year, Iran's oil export has been 80,000 barrels a day less than its OPEC allocated share. "The reason for this shortage of export is lack storage and insufficient investment in oil fields by the government. This shortage during next year will increase to at least 110,000 barrels a day," he added.

Not willing to invest in Iran

Agence France Presse, Jan. 27, Tehran - An Iranian official said that because of Washington economic sanctions against Iran, foreign oil companies "do not show much willingness to participate in oil projects in Iran."

Mohsen Yahyavi, Tehran's deputy and deputy to the chair of Oil Commission in the parliament, was quoted as saying that foreign companies "practically have not responded positive to Iran's offers" for oil cooperation....

Self-immolation of a young woman

Salam, Jan. 19 - A 19-year-old woman set herself aflame in Bari village of Ahwaz. It is said that she was victim of tribal prejudices and discriminations.

Bad roads claim lives of 8 schoolgirls

Reuters, Jan. 22, Tehran - Eight schoolgirls were killed in central Iran when a truck crashed into a bus they were traveling in, a newspaper said on Wednesday. The daily Iran said the driver of the village school bus was also killed and several other students were injured in the accident near Arak, 240 km (150 miles) southwest of Tehran. It did not say when the accident occurred.

Sexual segregation of hospitals

Tehran radio, Jan. 13 - In a gathering in Tehran ordered by Khamenei to adjust the state's medical affairs to religious standards, it was decided that inspectors regularly oversee the implementation of this plan in medical centers and hospitals.

[Reports from Iran say that this plan implemented under the pretext of propagating Islamic morale, practically restricts medical facilities for women.]

Wearing masks to avoid air pollution

BBC Radio, Jan. 22 - Tehran is said to be the most polluted city in the world after Mexico City. BBC correspondent in Tehran says a green cloud of dust which covers Tehran is so thick that Alborz mountains that surround the city are hardly visible. In the congestion of a multi-lane highway, the number of people who cover their faces with masks to filter the air pollution grows by day.

FOREIGN

Intelligence agent condemned by Court of Istanbul

Statement of NCR Secretariat, Jan. 24 - The Criminal Tribunal of Istanbul today convicted an Iranian Intelligence Ministry agent for complicity in the murder of Mrs. Zahra Rajabi, a leading member of the National Council of Resistance, and Mr. Ali Moradi, a sympathizer of the movement, sentencing Reza Barzegar Massoumi to 33 years and 4 months imprisonment. The victims were gunned down on February 20, 1996, in an apartment in Istanbul, by a hit squad dispatched from Tehran several days earlier. The mullahs' consular secretary, Mohsen Kargar Azad, commanded the hit squad. Kargar Azad and three other embassy staff were expelled on April 11 from Turkey as persona non-grata.

The verdict comes in the wake of worldwide expressions of concern by many personalities, parliamentarians, human rights organizations, jurists associations, and supporters of the Iranian Resistance over the mullah regime's extensive efforts to influence the verdict of the Court.

The Iranian Resistance calls for the continuation of investigations and the prosecution of all members of the team of assassins, including the agents of the Intelligence and Foreign ministries now in Tehran, as well as the leaders of the mullahs' religious, terrorist dictatorship.

Egypt detains nine Shi'ites for sedition

Reuters, Jan. 21, Cairo - Egyptian authorities have detained nine Shi'ite Moslems on suspicion of belonging to an illegal organisation trying to transform Egypt into a strict Islamist state similar to Iran, official sources said on Tuesday. They said police arrested the nine men in Cairo last week. Police also seized large amounts of printed and recorded speeches of Iranian clerics and plans to infiltrate Egyptian political parties and use them to gain power.

The Dhahran bombing

Sunday Telegraph, Jan. 19 - ...The Clinton administration has vowed to take military action against any foreign power suspected of involvement in the attack...

According to both the American and Saudi reports, Iran, a long-standing US foe, was the originator of the Dhahran attack. Iran provides training and support for numerous Arab terrorists, including two groups of Saudi dissidents which have been involved in previous attacks within the kingdom...

The two groups are based in Teheran and work closely with Iran's intelligence ministry. A group calling itself "Hizbollah Gulf", which is thought to represent these two groups, claimed responsibility for the Dhahran bombing. Supporters of these Saudi groups are allowed to use the Imam Ali training camp in east Teheran. After completing an advanced terrorism course, a group of Saudi dissidents informed Iranian intelligence officials that they intended to carry out a bomb attack against an American target in Saudi Arabia.

The Iranians approved but, fearing American retaliation, did not want to be directly involved. So the Saudis were put in contact with Osama bin Laden, a 40-year-old Islamic fundamentalist terrorist. Bin Laden, who works for Iranian intelligence, is a fierce opponent of both the Saudi regime and America's presence in the Gulf....

Any doubts about bin Laden's involvement in the Dhahran attack were removed by an interview he gave in Peshawar shortly afterwards. The Saudi bombing, he said, "marked the beginning of war between Muslims and the United States".

The Saudi ringleaders of the operation flew to Syria where, according to US investigators, they obtained false passports and other covert aid from the Iranian Embassy in Damascus.

They then traveled to the Bekaa Valley, where they met up with a team of Hizbollah bomb makers....

... Once constructed, the truck bomb was driven through Syria and Jordan to Saudi Arabia, before being detonated by remote control outside the US barracks in Dhahran....

Tehran's biological weapons program

The Washington Times, Jan. 24 - Chinese companies have sold equipment to Iran that could boost Tehran's large-scale effort to produce deadly biological weapons, according to Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright. "We have received reporting regarding transfers of dual-use items from Chinese entities to Iranian government entities which raise concern," Mrs. Albright said in written answers to questions posed by Sen. Robert F. Bennett, Utah Republican. Mrs. Albright said the administration has "encouraged China to adopt comprehensive and rigorous export controls" to prevent any cooperation with Iran's germ weapons program....

According to a Pentagon report released in April, Iran launched its biological weapons program in the 1980s and is "conducting research on toxins and organisms with biological warfare applications."

The report said that Iran has a biotechnical support structure that is capable of producing "many different biological warfare agents."

"Iran has evolved from piecemeal acquisition of bioprocessing equipment and is now pursuing complete biological production plants that could be converted to producing biological warfare agents," the report said.

Pentagon officials fear Iran will "weaponize" the germ warfare agents inside warheads for its Scud missiles, which have a range of up to 310 miles.... "With a longer-range missile such as the North Korean Nodong, it would be able to strike targets in Israel, and in most of Saudi Arabia and Turkey," the report said....

Mrs. Albright said in her written answers that the administration has not yet ruled on whether the Chinese transfers for Iran's chemical weapons program will trigger U.S. sanctions against Beijing.... The Secretary of State...said she "will give priority to preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction."

FEATURE

An Army Against Mullahs

Channel 2, ZDF, Germany, Jan. 22 (Excerpts) - In its latest report on human rights in Iran, Amnesty International said more than 100 political prisoners were executed in 1996, alone. The Tehran regime is under pressure of international criticism and recognized as prime sponsor of countless number of terrorist operations. Only Bonn is still thinking of its "critical dialogue" with Tehran. In Iraq... an Iranian Liberation Army wants to overthrow the mullahs in Iran. They have recruited from among Iranian exiles who are mostly professionals educated in Germany and want democracy for their homeland. Dietmar Schumann managed to shot films from a military camp of these Iranians in Iraq:

Narrator: Fatemeh is the daughter of a government employee from Tehran. Behjat grew up in Munich. Children of those persecuted in Iran, are practicing for an uprising against the mullahs' regime. A partisan group of young women aging between 18 and 25 are attacking a police station. This is still a drill but soon it will be realized in bloody seriousness...

Parvin Poureqbali, formerly a teacher, now a combatant: There was no other way, especially in light of the dreadful situation in Iran. You know, presently, there are 100,000 political prisoners in Iran, dreadful torture, and basically there is no freedom. When I think of it, and bring the terrible situation in Iran before my eyes, I cannot just simply lead a normal life. I really did want to continue my college education, but if I did so, who would change the situation in Iran? This was the only way.

Narrator: In five garrisons in Iraq, 50,000 combatants are training for war against the fascist religious dictatorship in Tehran. We cannot judge on the political agreements made with Dictator Saddam Hussein. The Mojahedin's partisan groups have turned into a super equipped army in Iraq, the military arm of the democratic opposition which is a coalition of six parties in exile. Combatants range from moderate Muslims to liberals and left social democrats in their political views....

Eye catching is that 80 percent of the combatants of this army have finished their graduate studies in exile, particularly in France and Germany, where more than 100,000 Iranian refugees live. More outstanding is the fact that many women have given up their chadors for combat uniforms. Almost half of the commanders of these tanks are women.

Zahra Mirzajeddi, physician: You should not be surprised. We, women, are the main victims of the mullahs. The have turned us into slaves and reproductive machines. Here, we fight to achieve equality.

Narrator: Their goal is to establish a secular republic in Iran, according to western models. Their weapons are modern. Their tanks are Russian T-72s and the British Chieftains bought in the free market of arms or taken away from the arsenal of the mullahs' army. Some have been brought along by those who have joined the NLA. Mohammad Reza Gouya says that almost all the 38 heavy tanks of the 16th armored division of the mullahs' army, worth 2 billion dollars were confiscated by the NLA....

Stop critical dialogue with the Tehran regime which has covered the world with terrorism. We hear this from the politicians of the opposition.

Mohammad Mohaddessin, Foreign Minister in exile: The way Mr. Kinkel leads this critical dialogue is against the interests of the Iranian people, because it helps the mullahs continue their rule. Every dollar from Germany, is an assistance to the mullahs to carry out further executions, arrests and imprisonment. This critical dialogue has failed in every sense.

Narrator: Now, back to the desert to the Ashraf Camp, to an evening ceremony...

Dinner at the garrison. Food is good and plenty. The National Liberation Army is well financed, through the financial assistance of Iranians in exile and through their own businesses. Here, we become acquainted with Commander Kobra Tahmasbi. She is 39 and a mechanical engineer. Another woman is to become the President of a free, democratic Iran: Maryam Rajavi. She lives in exile in Paris, but is respected and adored here. We asked Commander Tahmasbi when will be the uprising?

Kobra Tahmasbi: I think, we will not stay here long. The mullahs' regime is in a very critical condition. Unrest and protests against the mullahs are escalating. Our operation will begin in a not too distant future. There, we are hopeful of broad popular support. I think our uprising will begin very soon. Narrator: Last night, the National Liberation Army of Iran began an extensive maneuver on the border strip, where air corps and armored units simultaneously participate. This column of sixty-four T-55 Russian made tanks move from Ashraf Camp towards east. The target of this maneuver has not been announced. One wonders do they just want to upset the Tehran regime or this is probably another threat for another war in the Middle East?

Back Home