BRIEF ON IRAN
        No. 223
        Thursday, August 3, 1995


        Representative Office of
        The National Council of Resistance of Iran
        3421 M Street NW #1032
        Washington, DC 20007


Mullahs' Lack of Tolerance Within Their Own System of Election,
Reuters, August 2

        Over 120 liberal Islamic opposition members in Iran have
opposed a law giving an Islamic clerical council the power to decide
who can be a candidate in parliamentary elections, an opposition
leader said on Wednesday...
        The law formally gives the 12-member Guardian Council,
which oversees elections and reviews laws passed by parliament,
the power to screen candidates...
        "In the last elections, the Guardian Council rejected many
candidates on vague moral and religious grounds and did not even
feel it was obliged to explain its rulings to those concerned,"  said
Yazdi, speaking by telephone from Tehran.
        "Formally giving them this power places them above the
people, it means allowing them to rule out anybody they don't like,"
he added.
        Asked if there were any signs his group, which is tolerated but
barred from formal political activity, would be allowed to take part
in the next parliamentary elections in March 1996, he said:  "There
is not even a flicker of hope."
        The Guardian Council on Tuesday rejected a segment in the
new election law that requires candidates to be university or
Islamic theology school graduates, saying it was in violation of equal
opportunity and equal legal protection clauses in Iran's constitution.


Iran's Speaker of Parliament Expresses Concern About The Future,
[state-run] Iran newspaper, July 30

        The Speaker of Islamic parliament said yesterday:  As long as
our revolution is alive and the Moslems throughout the world view
Iran as the motherland of the Islamic world, the threat against us
exists and we must have the necessary preparations to confront
these threats.
        Nateq Nouri... added:  Honoring the martyrs and dedicated and
commemorating their memory would revive the fighting moral of
the nation.


Resistance Encourages Norway Initiative, Norwegian television NRK,
July 31

        Iran is terrified that Norway may inspire western countries in
a diplomatic measure against Iran.
        A member of the Iranian parliament-in-exile says that
Norway's decision in calling its ambassador from Iran has its clear
political effects.  Norway is the first European country that has done
this and the clerical regime is terrified that the other countries
would follow.
        Sarvi Tehrani is one of 235 elected members of the Iranian
parliament-in-exile.  She lives in Paris but most of her time is spent
in meetings with parliamentarians of democratic countries.  She and
her colleague [Firooz Mahvi] admire Norway's decision on reducing
diplomatic relations with the Iranian regime.
        Reporter: After this initiative, what should be the next step
taken by western countries?
        Firooz Mahvi: "They must reach out to the alternative to this
regime, the National Council of Resistance, whose president - elect is
Mrs. Maryam Rajavi."
         And that is the person to whom the opponents of clerical
regime have devoted their trust...  Maryam Rajavi, 42, with graduate
education, is a relentless Moslem freedom fighter.  In 70's, she was
in opposition's stronghold against abuse of power by the shah.  She
also symbolizes the struggle against new dictatorship since
beginning of the Islamic revolution in 1979.  She is now the leader
of the democratic opposition and the president of the parliament-in-
exile in Paris...
        The dissidents say that the regime would not respond to
negotiations and logic;. but will respond to specific measures, such as
reduction in diplomatic relations between Norway and Iran...