The exercise, which involves 200,000 of the regime's military forces, "1,700 field guns and tanks, more than 700 armored and tracked vehicles and 100 helicopters," pursues no aim other than to confront the growing popular resistance across the country and the National Liberation Army, the Resistance's military arm.
Recalling the deteriorating economic situation, growing public discontent and irremediable political crises plaguing the regime, a Mojahedin spokesman stressed that now, as never before, the mullahs have found themselves in dire need of such hollow shows of force in order to boost the morale of their demoralized forces.
He added: To this end, the clerics simultaneously announced nationwide urban maneuvers by "230,000 members of the Bassij during the week of enjoining virtue and prohibiting vice."
The Mojahedin spokesman reiterated that despite all such actions, the regime is approaching its inevitable overthrow. The time is rapidly running against the mullahs' religious, terrorist dictatorship and in favor of the Iranian people's just Resistance, he added.
Press Office of the People's Mojahedin of Iran - Paris
May 24, 1996
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