BRIEF ON IRAN No. 241 Tuesday, August 29, 1995 Representative Office of The National Council of Resistance of Iran 3421 M Street NW #1032 Washington, DC 20007 Lives of Over 150 Iranian Refugees in Turkey in Jeopardy, From the Statement by the National Council of Resistance of Iran, August 28 According to the information received, more than 150 Iranian refugees have for nearly one month staged a sit-in in the office of one of the parties in Turkey and demand to receive refugee status from the United Nations Office for the refugee affairs in Ankara. Despite the fact that some countries have expressed agreement to grant them entry visas, the refugees' fate is still uncertain and they are in the danger of being extradited to Iran. Having signed a security pact with the Khomeini regime, the government of Turkey has extradited a number of Iranian refugees in the past year. Some of the refugees in the sit-in have several children... The National Council of Resistance of Iran condemns Turkey's treatment of Iranian refugees which directly contradicts the sacred right to asylum. The NCR calls for urgent measures to facilitate transfer of these refugees to other countries. If returned to Iran, the asylum-seekers will face imprisonment, torture and execution... Russia Could Provide Iran With Up to Four Reactors, Associated Press, August 28 Russia may sell Iran up to four nuclear reactors for its Bushehr power plant, the minister of nuclear energy said Monday. Russia already has a contract to finish the plant and supply the initial reactor and fuel. The United States has protested the deal strongly, claiming Iran plans to use the plant to develop a nuclear weapon... Iran, a Source of Trouble in U.S.-Chinese Relations, Associated Press, August 28 Harry Wu aside, a long list of touchy issues plagues U.S. relations with China... Clinton and Jiang will be in New York together for the 50th anniversary of the United Nations in late October... How much emphasis to place on human rights has prompted continuing debate within the administration... Of equal if not more concern are Chinese military maneuvers and sales of arms and missile technology. "You can't just look at this relationship in terms of Harry Wu," Rep. Lee Hamilton of Indiana, the senior Democrat on the House International Relations Committee, said Sunday on ABC. "There isn't any doubt that China is doing a lot of saber-rattling at this point, including the sale of the missiles...," he said. Persistent reports say that China has sold missiles to Iran and Pakistan... Hand Grenade Explodes at Iranian Airport, Reuters, August 27 A hand grenade exploded on Sunday at Ahwaz airport in southwestern Iran injuring one person and inflicting minor damage, the official news agency IRNA reported... ... IRNA... indirectly blamed the opposition Mujahideen Khalq group for the blast. Iran frequently blames the group for attacks and bombs in the Islamic republic. A Mujahideen statement sent to Reuters denied responsibility for the explosion saying that by blaming the group Iranian authorities "seek to prepare the grounds for air strikes and missile attacks" on Mujahideen bases in Iraq. Iran Army Holds Wargames Near Iraqi Border, Reuters, August 28 Iran started three days of military exercises near its border with Iraq on Monday, state-run Tehran radio said. The exercises, code-named Beit-ol-Moqaddas (Jerusalem), aimed to "prepare military units for battle...and to put on display their power in face of probable plots by enemies of the sacred system of the Islamic republic," the radio said. It did not elaborate. Infantry, armored and aviation units of the army as well as forces specializing in defense against chemical, biological and radioactive weapons were taking part in the exercises held near Gilan-e Gharb, it added... Minibuses Take Riders on Path to Sin, Iran Says, Reuters, August 28 Following in the path of city buses, Tehran's minibuses will have separate sections for women and men in order to avoid millions of "sins," an Iranian official has said. Every day 370,000 women ride minibuses and "if 10 men brush against them intentionally or by mistake, 3.7 million accountable sins are committed every day," Mohammad Ali Tarfa, head of the public transport authority, was quoted as saying on Monday by the Iranian newspaper Akhbar. Women will be assigned seats and standing room on the right side of the capital's 3,700 minibuses, while men will be limited to the left side, he said. City buses were segregated in 1992.