BRIEF  ON  IRAN, No. 184
        Wednesday, June 7, 1995
        Representative Office of
        The National Council of Resistance of Iran


        3421 M Street NW #1032, Washington, DC 20007


Tehran Scrambles to Evade G7 Action, The Times, June 6

        ... Britain and other EU members are still awaiting an
official response to the EU demand that Tehran should
distance itself from Ayatollah Khomeini's death sentence
on the British author of The Satanic Verses....
        Tehran is expected to send a delegation of senior
officials to Paris in the next few days to clarify recent hints
that the fatwa may cease to apply in Europe. The French,
who hold the EU presidency, recently led a delegation to
Tehran to seek assurances that Iran would no longer
uphold the fatwa.  The Foreign Office said yesterday that it
still awaited an official response.
        Supporters of Mr. Rushdie, who has lived in hiding
since The Satanic Verses was published six years ago,
responded cautiously yesterday.  Article XIX, the lobby
campaigning against censorship ... insisted that no
European Government should agree to any Iranian
assurance that was limited to Europe.
        Diplomats and human rights groups all pointed to the
forthcoming summit of the Group of Seven leading
industrialized nations as the main reason for the flurry of
activity from Tehran....
        Diplomats also pointed to the economic difficulties
now facing Iran, especially the challenge to its hard-
pressed currency.  "Iran needs all the economic help it can
get.  Europe is now in a strong position to press its case,"
one human rights activist said....
        Even if Iran formally announces a lifting of the
fatwa, an improvement of relations with the West is likely
to be slow.  Britain and other EU members still have strong
criticisms of Iran's human rights record, its opposition to
the Middle East peace process and its nuclear program.
        A spokesman for the National Council of Resistance of
Iran announced yesterday that a series of rallies would be
held to mark the fourteenth anniversary of Tehran's
suppression of anti-government demonstrations.  During
the G7 meeting in Nova Scotia, Iranian exiles will gather in
Germany for an address by Maryam Rajavi, elected by the
exiled opposition group as their leader.  The council called
on all European countries to follow America and to impose
a trade embargo, saying that the money earned by Iran
from trade with the West was used to suppress political
opponents.


Rushdie's House Burnt, Israeli Radio, June 5

        Salman Rushdie's family house in India burned in
fire.  Today's New Delhi Indian Express wrote: The Summer
family house of Indian borne English writer, Salman
Rushdie, in the city of Solan in northern India burned in
fire today.... This house was rented by a local employee of
Rushdie.


Mullahs Face Embargo's Consequences Despite Official
Assurances, Agence France Presse, June 5

        TEHRAN - Despite defiant official assurances that the
country would easily ride the storm, Iranians were
yesterday bracing themselves for the effects of Mr.
Clinton's trade embargo.  The embargo threatens vital
sectors of the country including the transportation,
computer and oil industry....
        Although the country's leaders shrugged off the
embargo, many Iranian and foreign experts did not share
the official optimism.
        They said the embargo's first effect would be to stop
American firms buying oil.  They buy 600,000 barrels a
day, worth $3.5 billion in 1994.
        President Rafsanjani announced that Iran will have
no difficulty in finding other customers and Tehran had
started to find customers in Europe and Asia....
        Last week Iranian press reported of Thailand's
refusal to increase its purchase of oil from Tehran which is
currently 20,000 barrels a day....
        Western economic circles in Tehran say that Iran is
going through a deep economic and financial crisis and has
a great deal of difficulties in paying its short and medium
term debts of $33 billion....