BRIEF ON IRAN No. 227 Wednesday, August 9, 1995 Representative Office of The National Council of Resistance of Iran 3421 M Street NW #1032 Washington, DC 20007 Russia, Iran to Amend Deal for Nuclear Plant, The Washington Times, August 8 Moscow - Moscow and Tehran plan to amend, a contract on the construction of a nuclear power plant in Iran to provide for spent fuel to be sent to Russia for reprocessing, a Russian official said yesterday. Amendment to the controversial contract will be signed at talks on the deal by Russian and Iranian officials in Moscow within the next 10 days, First Deputy Nuclear Energy Minister Lev Ryabev told the Interfax news agency. "Immediately following this, Russia will begin carry out the contract providing for finishing construction of the nuclear power plant in Iran," said Mr. Ryabev... Russian lawmakers and environmentalists have protested nuclear waste imports. But President Boris Yeltsin signed a decree earlier this year allowing for radioactive materials to be transported to the Chelyabinsk facility. "The return of nuclear fuel and its reprocessing is an additional service that the Nuclear Energy Ministry offered the client," said Mr. Ryabev, indicating the amendment was being made to sweeten the deal for Iran... Fundamentalism on the Fall, Voice of America, August 7 Religious fundamentalism is a powerful political phenomenon that is posing new challenges to many contemporary societies, and in some countries threatening peace, freedom and stability... Marvin Zonis, author and professor of behavior and political science at the University of Chicago, says: "... In Iran today, the per capita average annual income is less than half of what it was in 1978, in the last year of the rule of the shah -- which is to say that fundamentalists have not managed to make Iran into a successful country by any measure or by any standard. I think by necessity, fundamentalism rejects democracy and rejects individual rights, because fundamentalist leaders are trying to say that the only things that should govern are the original texts around which the faith is based. Therefore there is really no room for personal decision making, nor there is room for democratic consensus." Professor Zonis believes the era of radical fundamentalism is basically coming to a close. He says what he calls the viciousness and destructiveness of the governments in Iran and Sudan, and of the rebels in Egypt and Algeria, have indicated to more and more Muslims around the world that kind of fundamentalism is not going to save anyone, economically, politically or in religious terms. Iraqi Leader Asks Iran to Return Planes, United Press International, August 8 Iraqi President Saddam Hussein reiterated Tuesday that Iran must return the Iraqi warplanes that sought refuge in neutral Iran during the 1991 Persian Gulf War as a condition for improved relations, the Iraqi News Agency reported... "If Iran seeks such relations with Iraq, it should return the Iraqi property we deposited with it when we imagined that the other side enjoyed the expected minimum of ethics and values," the Iraqi leader said... Israeli Charged with Spying for Iran, United Press International, August 8 JERUSALEM _ An Israeli man charged with spying for Iran appeared in court Tuesday after being secretly held in jail for two months, Israel Radio reported. The trial of Herzl Rad, 31, opened Tuesday in Jerusalem after judges decided to allow reporters to attend. The Iranian-born Rad was arrested in early June by agents of Israel's Mossad secret spy agency and was secretly indicted shortly thereafter, the radio report said. After the story broke Monday in the London-based Arabic weekly Al- Wassat, Israel's major daily newspapers featured front-page articles on the alleged spy... Rad was being held in solitary confinement and tried to commit suicide three times, the report said. Attorney Zion Amir said his client was innocent and Rad had petitioned the Supreme Court against his arrest. The Al-Wassat report said that Rad was spying for Libya and was kidnapped by Israeli secret service agents while in Turkey. Israeli security officials have denied both the claims.