BRIEF  ON  IRAN, No. 261
        Representative Office of
        The National Council of Resistance of Iran
        Wednesday, September 27, 1995



        3421 M Street NW #1032, Washington, DC 20007


U.S. To Retain Military in Gulf, Monitor Iran, Reuters,
September 26

        MANAMA - The United States wants to retain its
military presence in the Gulf to maintain stability and
monitor arms buildups in Iran, a U.S. commander said on
Tuesday.
        "We are clearly seeking stability and we are not
trying to increase our posture in a massive way, but we
want to retain the capability that ensures stability in
future," General Binford Peay, commander of U.S. forces in
the Middle East, said....
        Peay added Washington would also continue to
monitor the military capability of Iran, which has often
objected to the presence of foreign forces in the Gulf as
destabilizing.
        "On the Iranian situation again, we need to be
resolute and try to maintain stability existing in the
region..." Peay said. "But one must continue to look ahead
at the growth of missile capabilities and other military
kinds of capabilities and try to understand what that
means."...


Iran Says It Self-sufficient, Exporting Arms, Reuters,
September 26

        TEHRAN - Iran has become self-sufficient in
weapons production and is supplying arms to 14
countries, the Iranian defense minister was quoted on
Tuesday as saying.
        Iran has reached the stage of self-sufficiency in
arms...and ammunition production and can be the best
source for supplying other states," Akhbar newspaper
quoted Defense and Armed Forces Logistics Minister
Mohammad Forouzandeh as saying.
        "We are today exporting arms and ammunition to 14
states, and even transferring technology for making some
(weapons)," the minister said....
        Iran's news agency IRNA said on Tuesday the first
Iranian-made personnel carrier naval ship was launched
in the Gulf on Sunday.
        The vessel, 47 meters (154 feet) long and 8.5 meters
(28 feet) wide, has a top speed of 20 knots and can carry
loads of up to 87 tons, it said.


Iran Feeling the Sanctions, Voice of America, Sept. 22

        Observers say Iran -- desperate for cash and feeling
the pinch of U.S. economic sanctions -- is actively seeking
foreign investment. The Iranian government has invited
about 100 European and Asian companies to Teheran in
November to promote investment of six-and-a-half billion
dollars in 12 energy projects.  But by then --even if only a
scaled-down version of a measure introduced by
Republican Senator Alphonse D'Amato succeeds in
congress-- foreign companies may have to weigh the cost
of doing business in Iran...
        The measure entitled "Iran Foreign Oil Sanctions Act
of 1995" calls for a mandatory ban on U.S. government
purchases from companies dealing with Iran. The
proposed bi-partisan legislation seeks to raise concerns
among would-be investors about the costs of Iranian
ventures, in hopes of discouraging such investments.
        Gerald Kepes is senior economist at the Washington-
based Petroleum Finance Company, a commercial think
tank on the international oil industry....
        To gain floating storage facilities for their surplus
oil, the Iranians chartered a number of oil tankers....
        Kepes: "These offshore projects were offered by Iran
as early as 1991 and 1992. It's been very difficult for
Iran to reach agreement with foreign oil companies or
potential joint-venture partners. The reasons are part due
to the lack of financial resources in Iran; the fact that its
constitution makes it more difficult about how it is that
companies can come in and develop natural resources; and
public opinion inside Iran in terms of 'should we have
foreign investment or is it a roll back of some of the gains
of the revolution?"...