BRIEF ON IRAN
No. 304
Friday, December 1, 1995

Representative Office of
3421 M Street NW #1032
Washington, DC 20007


New Wave of Workers' Strikes in Northern, Central Iran, from
statement by NCR, November 30

        Reports from Iran say that owing to the deteriorating economic
conditions which have resulted in intolerable social pressures, workers
in Qa'emshahr's textile factory (northern Iran) and Isfahan's Pars and
Khaam-baaft textile and Aali brick factories (central Iran) have gone
on strike.
        Workers at Qa'emshahr textile factory have staged a strike since
Saturday, November 25, to protest lack of a raise in their wages. The
strike continues and the atmosphere at the factory remains tense....
        Workers at Pars textile factory in Isfahan have gone on strike
since last Thursday, November 23...  Originally, 33% of the factory's
shares were to be given to the workers. The regime, however, has
refused to do so.
        The factory is located near Tehran-Isfahan highway. Fearing the
spread of the strike and the blocking of the highway by the workers,
the regime's suppressive forces have been stationed outside the
factory.
        Workers at Isfahan's Aali brick factory have begun a strike for
the non-payment of their wages. The factory was hit by a strike last
month for the same reason....
        Workers at Isfahan's Khaam-baaft textile factory have also
staged a strikes over the non-payment of their wages and benefits....


Penal Law Reflects Mullahs' Extreme Fear of Popular Uprisings, from
statment by NCR, November 30

        Yesterday, the mullahs' Majlis adopted a new law which
demonstrates an unprecedented height in suppression. The law
stipulates that those who "insult" Khomeini or Khamenei may possibly
face execution. The law has also determined a two to ten-year prison
term for members of "any association with more than two members
formed in or out of Iran with the aim of undermining the country's
security." In addition, anyone who engages in "anti-regime
propaganda" will be sentenced to three months to one year in prison.
        Mr. Massoud Rajavi, President of the National Council of
Resistance of Iran, described the new repressive law, adopted after
the nationwide maneuvers in recent weeks by the Bassij forces and
the Guards Corps, as reflecting the height of the clerical regime's fear
of spreading popular protests and uprisings which pave the way for
the move by the National Liberation Army of Iran....


Currency Rules Cut Iran's Exports, Reuters, November 30

        TEHRAN - Cash-strapped Iran's non-oil exports, which earned it
over $4 billion last year, are falling severely because of tough urrency
rules introduced in May, an Iranian official was on Thursday quoted as
saying.
        Javad Golbafian, the top Industry Ministry official in charge of
export promotion, said exports showed "a severe downward trend and
industrial goods exports are coming to a halt," the newspaper Resalat
reported.
        "Foreign exchange limitations...have caused some exporters of
industrial goods...to have no desire to (export)," he said.
        "The fall of exports is not limited to industrial products.
Exports...of non-industrial goods have also had a severe decrease in
the past few months," Golbafian was quoted as saying....
        The daily Jahan-e Eqtesad said on Thursday carpet exports,
Iran's second hard cash earner after oil, fell to $649 million in the first
six months of the Iranian year that started on March 21, down by 21.4
percent from the same period last year.
        The new exchange regulations aimed to boost the value of the
Iranian rial after it fell to as low as 7,000 to the dollar in the wake of a
United States trade and investment ban on Iran....
        Although Iran is the world's third largest oil exporter after Saudi
Arabia and Norway, its economy suffers from an official inflation rate
of more than 50 percent, stifled economic reform, a vulnerable
currency and large foreign debts, diplomats say.


Mullahs' Conspiracy Against Palestinian Leaders, Agance France
Presse, November 29

        On Wednesday, Tayeb Abdul-Rahim, Secretary General of the
self-ruled Palestinian Government said that Israeli right extremists
and the Iranian authorities had planned to assassinate Palestinian
officials.
        Abdul-Rahim, in an interview with the Palestinian daily, Al-
Hayat-al Jadid said: "Our intelligence services have obtained some
information regarding projects to assassinate officials of the
Palestinian National Government by Israeli right extremists and the
Iranian authorities."...