BRIEF ON IRAN No. 202 Wednesday, July 5, 1995 Representative Office of The National Council of Resistance of Iran 3421 M Street NW #1032 Washington, DC 20007 Shell Shies Away From Iran Oilfield Deal, Reuters, July 3 U.S. trade sanctions against Iran have prompted the Shell oil company to pull back from a possible deal with Tehran to develop two Iranian oilfields, the Middle East Economic Survey (MEES) newsletter said on Monday... "It was the indirect effects of the U.S. embargo on the commercial execution of the contract terms which prompted Shell to bow out," it said... "Shell apparently found that the economic, financial and time- scale parameters set in the Conoco agreement were no longer appropriate in the post-embargo situation," MEES said. "Potential sub-contractors and equipment suppliers were tending to put up their prices for any transactions involving Iran, financing had become very much more difficult to arrange and delivery and implementation schedules looked increasingly problematic," it said... Rafsanjani Denies Embargo Effect!, USA Today, July 3 Hashemi Rafsanjani said Sunday that Russia will go ahead with a $1 billion project to rebuild a nuclear power plant in Iran. In a CNN interview, Rafsanjani denied that the 2-month-old U.S. embargo, which cut off nearly $4 billion in Iranian oil sales to U.S. companies, had hurt Iran's economy Norway Downgrades Relations With Iran, The Washington Times, July 4 OSLO - Norway said yesterday it was withdrawing its ambassador from Tehran because Iran had refused to denounce the death edict against author Salman Rushdie. Oslo's envoy to Tehran was recalled for consultations on Jan. 16. The embassy will now be staffed at charge d'affaires level. Officials also said Norway would refrain from measures aimed at boosting trade with Iran and use international organizations to make Tehran lift the fatwa against Mr. Rushdie and improve human rights in Iran. Norway to Downgrade Diplomatic Relations With Iran, Associated Press, July 3 OSLO, Norway - Norway is permanently withdrawing its ambassador from Iran to protest its death order against novelist Salman Rushdie. "We are reacting to the Iranian authorities' continued refusal to distance themselves from the fatwa," Foreign Minister Bjorn Tore Godal said Monday... Oslo has urged Iran to cancel the order since Rushdie's Norwegian-language publisher, William Nygaard, was shot and severely wounded in Oslo in 1993... Norway says it will vote against any Iranian application for loans from the World Bank, to refuse to use government funds to benefit the Iranian economy and to urge international organizations to pressure Iran... Iraq Points to Continuing Differences With Iran, Reuters, July 1 BAGHDAD - An Iraqi newspaper commentary on Saturday said although Iraq and Iran were now trying to upgrade their ties, they still differed on important issues. "Iraq-Iran relations are now undergoing a phase of testing and reviewing," said the official newspaper al-Jumhuriya. "It is important therefore to be frank about all the statements made by Iranian officials."... "... the most important thing is to move from statements of good wishes to the area of goodwill in deeds, which are more useful in facing common threats," it said... Iran Begins War Games in Gulf, United Press International, July 3 Iran, the biggest military power in the strategic Gulf, began eight days of exercises Monday to test defense capabilities of its armed forces, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported... The Iranian radio said the maneuvers marked the anniversary of the downing of an Iranian Airbus airliner by U.S. cruiser Vincent, a year before the eight-year Iraq-Iran war ended in 1989... Iranian Wargames, Flowers Recall U.S.-Downed Plane, Reuters, July 3 Iranian troops started wargames on Monday while officials and relatives of those killed in an Iranian airliner shot down by a U.S. warship scattered flowers in the Gulf to mark the seventh anniversary of the tragedy... IRNA said some 57,000 Iranian troops from the airborne unit of the army, marines and the Islamic Revolution's Guard corps were participating in the eight-day wargames, named Victory-Six. It said 30 air force planes and 30 helicopters from the army aviation service would also take part in the exercises, which are aimed to test the combat and defense capabilities of the armed forces...