BRIEF ON IRAN No. 174 Tuesday, May 23, 1995 Representative Office of The National Council of Resistance of Iran 3421 M Street NW #1032 Washington, DC 20007 Iran Holds Military Exercise Near Iraqi Border, Reuters, May 22 Iran on Monday launched military exercises near the southern port city of Khorramshahr on the Iraqi border, Tehran radio said. Revolutionary Guard, army and army aviation units totaling 15,000 men were taking part in the war games code- named Fajr (Dawn) 4, it said. Live ammunition and new weapons would be used in the exercises which coincide with the anniversary of the liberation of Khorramshahr in 1982 after 19 months of occupation during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, the radio added... Iran Says New Currency Measures Controlling Infla-tion, Associated Press, May 22 Iran's new measures aimed at shoring up the rial and controlling inflation have caused prices of nonessential goods to fall, state-run Tehran Radio reported Monday. However, an Asian diplomat in Tehran said prices of food and most other items were climbing. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity... The measure was taken after the rial sank to a new low of 7,100 rials to $1. Before the 1979 Islamic revolution, 70 rials equaled $1. The currency has been in a free fall ever since. Iran Police Shut Over 100 UnIslamic Businesses, Reuters, May 22 Iranian police have closed down over 100 businesses in Tehran for breaking Islamic rules of morality, a newspaper said on Monday. The violations included sale of women's underwear and cosmetics by male employees, and displaying women' underwear in store windows, or in see-through packaging, the daily Kayhan said. Companies running shared taxis were cited for letting women ride in their single front seats, where they would come in close proximity to male riders. Some stores were also shut for carrying signs in western languages. Police, who inspected a total of 1,500 stores, also issued written warnings to over 1,000 others. U.S. Chip Makers Target of Iran, The New York Times, May 22 In a bizarre tale of industrial thievery, an Argentine engineer says he stole a wide range of technical secrets from two leading computer-chip makers in the United States and gave the information to China, Cuba and Iran... The engineer, Bill Gaede, said that he took the information from Advanced Micro Devices from 1983 to 1993 and from the Intel Corporation in 1993 and 1994, periods during which he worked for the companies... Mr. Gaede said he sold some information directly to China and Iran for large sums... Later that year [1993], he joined Intel and again began steeling technical information, which he sold to China and Iran. He said he was being paid by the two countries to show them how to use the information in their semiconductor industries... U.S. Concerned at Reported Yeltsin Iran Visit Plan, Reuters, May 22 The White House (on) Monday responded to reports that Russian President Boris Yeltsin is planning to visit Iran by repeating its worries about Moscow's ties with its southern neighbor. Our concerns about Russia's engagement with Iran and our concerns generally about Iran's posture in the world are very well known,White House spokesman Mike McCurry said... Iranian leaders and media have praised Yeltsin for not giving in to United States pressure to cancel an estimated $1 billion dollar deal to build a nuclear power plant in Iran... Iran Says White House Security Move is Proof of U.S. Terrorism, Associated Press, May 22 An Iranian newspaper says the banning of traffic in front of the White House is proof that terrorism is made in the U.S.A. The big concrete barriers on Pennsylvania Avenue, right in front of the president's residence, will remain a tangible and very concrete evidence that there is domestic terrorism - naturally a well organized one - in America, Kayhan International said in an editorial Monday. The English-language news-paper, which backs President Hashemi Rafsanjani's government, said the street closure would make the onlookers realize that terrorism is made in the U.S.A...