BRIEF  ON  IRAN
        No. 263
        Friday, September 29, 1995


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


Iran Holds Military Exercises Near Iraqi Border, Reuters,
September 28

        TEHRAN - Iranian air and ground forces held war games in
the southwestern Khuzestan province which borders Iraq, Tehran
radio said on Thursday.
        It said armored forces, backed by air force and army
aviation units, took part in the exercises launched on Wednesday
night to mark the anniversary of the breaking the siege of the oil
refinery city of Abadan in 1981 in the early stages of the Iran-
Iraq war.
        The maneuvers, part of events marking the start 15 years
ago of the eight-year war, included a mock chemical arms attack
which was neutralized by the Iranian forces, it added.


Tehran Municipality Razing Slum Dwellings, Reuters, September
28

        TEHRAN - Tehran city workers have started wrecking
hundreds of illegally built houses in a teeming slum area south of
the Iranian capital, newspapers said on Thursday.
        Municipality workers have already demolished 100 of
about 900 houses built by squatters on land they do not own
near the city's railway station, the daily Akhbar said.
        Officials are offering up to 8.5 million rials ($2,800 at the
official exchange rate) to each household to move out, ... the daily
Salam said.
        But many of the slum dwellers, some of whom have lived in
the district for the past 30 years, said the offer was too low to
find housing elsewhere in Tehran, it said.
        In recent years when heavy-handed action against
squatters in various parts of Tehran led to clashes with
municipality workers and police on several occasions.


Panel Briefed on Buenos Aires Bombing, United Press
International, September 28

        WASHINGTON - U.S. officials and relatives of victims  called
Thursday for a swifter investigation into the 1994 bombing of a
Jewish center in Buenos Aires that killed 90 people....
        State Department counterterrorism coordinator Philip
Wilcox told  [the House International Relations] Committee
members that he suspects the Lebanon-based, Iran-supported
terrorist organization Hezbollah was involved in the 1994
bombing, as well  as a 1992 suicide bombing at the Israeli
Embassy in Buenos Aires.
        "The Argentina government has not yet charged any
suspect for the 1994  AMIA bombing, but the evidence points to
Hezbollah as the bomber," Wilcox  said....
        "The AMIA bombing was an especially heinous act of
terrorism," he said....


Iran's Nuclear Deal with China, United Press International,
September 28

        UNITED NATIONS - The Iranian government denied
Thursday that its nuclear cooperation with China had changed,
adding  confusion to the status of China's contract to sell two
nuclear reactors to  Iran.
        Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman said, "No change has
occurred in Irano-Chinese peaceful nuclear cooperation."
        A senior U.S. official said Wednesday that China had told
the United States it had canceled a contract to sell two 400-
megawatt nuclear reactors to Iran, a deal the United States has
widely criticized as going against the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty.
        Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen met for almost two
hours Wednesday with U.S. Secretary of State Warren
Christopher to discuss a host of bilateral issues. China's move to
cancel its deal with Iran was perceived as a way of improving
tense U.S.-Chinese ties....