Representative Office of The National Council of Resistance of Iran Thursday, May 11, 1995 BRIEF ON IRAN, No. 166 3421 M Street NW #1032, Washington, DC 20007 "Iran Seeks to Stop Collapse of Rial," Reuters, May 9 "Iran, faced with a collapse of its currency as people rush to buy dollars and gold, announced on Wednesday that it would limit the amount of foreign exchange Iranians can possess. "The Iranian news agency IRNA said the powerful National Expediency Council, headed by President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, had adopted new laws to crack down on 'economic saboteurs' manipulating the local rial... "...Many Iranians prefer to keep dollar bills hidden at home rather than hold them in bank accounts. "The rial has lost over a third of its value in two weeks and unauthorized changers said the dollar traded on Tuesday for 6,300 to 7,000 rials, gaining as much as 700 rials in one day... "The council also 'outlawed unlicensed transfer of currencies or possession of those currencies by foreign- bound Iranian travelers.' "It adopted 'new punitive laws for dealing with offenders including repossession by state of those currencies,' the agency added.. "Many Iranians traditionally transfer savings into dollars and gold coins as a cushion against inflation but in recent days there has been a rush for fear a U.S. trade ban, announced on Tuesday, would push up the price of imports... "Annual inflation is officially put at about 40 percent, but recent press reports said the price of some basic goods was rising at about five percent a week and Iranians fear the situation can only worsen after the U.S. embargo. "Iran has periodically cracked down on money changers, arresting scores of illegal sidewalk changers. But these clampdowns on the market have been short-lived." "U.S. Makes Limited Headway with Russia," United Press International, May 10 "Russian President Boris Yeltsin set the relationship between Washington and Moscow back on track Wednesday with a verbal commitment to U.S. President Bill Clinton that he would cancel elements of an atomic deal with Iran and enter into a formal relationship with NATO... "Winning Yeltsin's assurance that Russia would not go forward with the sale of gas centrifuge equipment to Iran, which would give the Tehran regime the ability to extract bomb-grade radioactive material from spent nuclear fuel, represents a modest victory... "'As much as they relate to the military component, the potential for creating weapons-grade fuel, the centrifuge, construction of silos we have decided to exclude this from the contract,' Yeltsin said during a joint news conference after a four-hour Kremlin meeting with Clinton. 'The military component falls away and what remains is just a peaceful nuclear power station.'..." The Real Way to Fight Iran, Pinkerton Risk Assessment Services, May 9 "... prior to departing for his trip to Moscow, President Clinton issued an executive order banning U.S. companies from all trade and investment with Iran. Diplomats and analysts in the region feel the order will have little long-term economic impact on Iran... "One way of improving the U.S. strategy against the current regime would be to formally back the opposition Mujahedin and create the 'credible alternative' that is required. In any case, with President Clinton in Moscow attempting to discourage the Russians from assisting Iran on its nuclear program, the potential for attacks against U.S. interests by Iran-backed terrorist groups is high." "Iran Holds 100 'UnIslamic' Central Asian Women," Reuters, May 9 "TEHRAN - Iranian police have arrested 100 women visitors from the former Soviet Central Asian republics in Tehran on unspecified morals charges, a newspaper said on Tuesday. "'Unfortunately these women do not follow Islamic norms of behavior and clothing and create a very abnormal situation on the streets,' a police official was quoted by Resalat daily as saying. "He did not give the specific charges... "Under the Islamic clothing rules in Iran women should wear a chador or a long, loose coat and trousers. All parts of the body, including the hair, except hands and the face should be covered. "Many visitors from Central Asia are involved in sidewalk trade in Iranian cities, especially in border regions..."