BRIEF ON IRAN No. 323 Friday, January 5, 1996 Representative Office of The National Council of Resistance of Iran 3421 M Street NW #1032 Washington, DC 20007 Iran Still a Global Threat, Agence France Presse, January 4 MANAMMA, Bahrain - Douglas Hurd, former foreign minister of Great Britain, said on Thursday that Iran remains a continuing threat for the world. Douglas Hurd, who has been meting with Bahrain and Kuwaiti authorities in past few weeks, said in a press conference that Iran supported terrorist activities in Middle East and Africa and is abusing religion for political objectives. Iran Says U.S. Covert Plan Threatens World Order, Reuters, January 4 TEHRAN - Iran warned on Thursday that no country in the world would be safe if Washington was allowed to go ahead with a covert action plan against Tehran. "If moves such as the (U.S.) actions against Iran become prevalent in international relations, no country would be safe," state- run Tehran radio said in a commentary. "If the...United Nations does not stop Washington's willful acts, there is a risk that other states would also ignore international laws and a kind of anarchy would become dominant in international relations," the radio said. It was referring to reported moves in the U.S. Congress to set up a $20 million covert action plan against Iran.... Mullahs' Closer Ties with Russia, Associated Press, December 27 TEHRAN, Iran - Moscow will assist Iran's development of nuclear power and continue to collaborate militarily, Russia's deputy prime minister said during a visit Wednesday. The United States has been pressing Moscow to pull back from Iran in an effort to isolate the country and force it toward a more moderate track. But Russian deputy prime minister Oleg Davydov suggested Wednesday that Moscow envisions warmer, rather than cooler, relations with Tehran. In recent years, the Russians have sold Iran several billion dollars of weapons systems and have promised to provide two nuclear reactors for power stations under construction.... Davydov, who arrived in Tehran earlier Wednesday for three days of talks, did not elaborate on nuclear power and military agreements with Iran. But he told the Russian ITAR-Tass news agency that Russia and Iran will share resources in atomic, thermal and hydraulic power engineering. New forms of cooperation also will be discussed, he said, despite a U.S. ban on trade with Iran and new efforts by the U.S. Congress to impose sanctions on foreign companies doing business with the Islamic country.... On Wednesday, Davydov and Iran's economics and finance minister, Morteza Mohammad-Khan, also talked of improving economic ties, Tehran Radio reported. The two countries are expected to sign a 10-year economic cooperation agreement. Kurdish Rebels Say Iran Kills Five Members in Iraq, Reuters, January 3 NICOSIA - An Iranian rebel Kurdish group on Wednesday accused Iran of killing five of its members and two other Kurds in northern Iraq in the past week. The Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, in a fax sent to Reuters from its Paris office, gave the names of seven men it said were killed in a mine explosion last Wednesday, and two armed attacks by Iranian "terrorists" on Saturday and Monday. It said five of those killed were its members and the other two were Iranian Kurdish refugees. It accused Tehran of ordering the raids before sending a team to Kurdish-run north Iraq earlier this week to mediate between rival Iraqi Kurdish groups.... Iran Officials Warn of High Smog Levels in Tehran, Reuters, January 1 TEHRAN - Tehran city officials on Monday warned about unusually high smog levels in the Iranian capital, urging citizens to curb the use of cars and other sources of air pollution. "The concentration of these materials (toxic carbon monoxide, lead and sulphur dioxide) in the city has reached levels several times higher than the allowed amount and has put the people's health in danger," Tehran radio said.... Pollution levels in Tehran are among the worse in the Middle East, particularly during winter months when the cold air hanging over the city creates a thermal inversion that prevents car fumes from dispersing....