BRIEF ON IRAN, No. 233 Representative Office of The National Council of Resistance of Iran Thursday, August 17, 1995 3421 M Street NW #1032, Washington, DC 20007 Explosions Reported Over Weekend at Iranian Oil Installations, Associated Press, August 16 NICOSIA - Two bombs exploded last weekend at oil installations in southwestern Iran, causing widespread damage but no casualties, a Tehran newspaper reported today. The Iran daily said "relatively powerful" bombs went off Saturday along pipelines running through the city of Ahwaz in southwestern Khuzestan province, which borders Iraq. The report was the first indication of the explosions, which had not been mentioned by Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency.... Mojahedin Categorically Deny Any Involvement in Ahwaz Bombings, Statement issued by Press Office of the People's Mojahedin of Iran - Paris, August 16 The mullahs' regime released a news today falsely claiming that the Mojahedin were involved in the explosion of two bombs on Saturday in Ahwaz (southwestern Iran). A press spokesman for the Mojahedin strongly denied this allegation and said: By disseminating such false reports, the criminal mullahs seek to prepare the grounds for another air strike, bombing raid, missile attack or terrorist attacks against the bases of the Iranian Resistance on the Iran-Iraq border strip. It must be noted that in numerous cases before, prior to every attack against the bases of the Iranian Resistance, the regime disseminated similarly false news against the Mojahedin. S.Africa, U.S. to Discuss Iran, United Press International, August 16 JOHANNESBURG - South African Foreign Minister Alfred Nzo said Wednesday he plans to meet with U.S. Ambassador to South Africa Princeton Lyman in the near future to discuss the African nation's ties with Iran. Washington is upset that South Africa is undermining the U.S. trade embargo against Iran by proceeding with a deal to store 15 million barrels of Iranian oil at South African depots for sale to markets in Europe, South America and Africa. The United States, which imposed the embargo in April to punish Iran for pursuing a nuclear weapons program and supporting terrorism, said Tuesday it was disappointed that South Africa would conclude the deal in the near future.... Besides the oil storage deal, South Africa is increasing its political and economic ties with Iran. Nzo and visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati signed an agreement Tuesday to strengthen cooperation between their countries. Tehran's New Terrorism Strategy in the Middle East, Al- Watan Al-Arabi - Paris [FBIS translation], August 4 The suicide operation carried by Hamas last week, near Tel Aviv has dealt a blow to the Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations. The operation also undermined efforts to open a dialogue between a moderate political current in Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. Observers agree that what happened in Ramat Gan heralds a new Iranian strategy to cope with the post- Syrian-Israeli agreement stage. This will be done by finding an alternative to Hizbollah and moving the extremist fundamentalist front from Lebanon to Palestine.... Iran began to move in two directions. First, it began to put pressure on Hamas to prevent it from joining the groupings of the Palestinian opposition.... The Iranian pressure on Hamas sought to keep Hamas free from the influence of Damascus. The second Iranian strategy focused on the need to create an organic relationship between Hamas and the Jihad on the one hand and Hizbollah in Lebanon on the other.... A Palestinian official says the hard-line Hamas current is the one directly responsible for the bombings, and is organically linked to Iran and the forces that support it in the region. The Palestinian official thus asserts that the bus blast heralds the beginning of the crystallization of an Iranian front in the Islamic and Palestinian arenas that has a presence in Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine....