BRIEF ON IRAN
        No. 333
        Tuesday, January 23, 1996


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



NCR Congratulates Arafat's Election, from statement by NCR,
January 22

        Mr. Massoud Rajavi, the President of the National Council
of Resistance of Iran, sent a telegram to Mr. Yasser Arafat,
congratulating him on his victory in the elections and on the
formation of the Palestinian Representative Council.
        In his telegram, the NCR President said: The Palestinian
people's overwhelming participation in this election is a clear
and absolute rebuff to the religious, terrorist dictatorship
ruling Iran which spared no effort to display its enmity to the
establishment of regional peace and tranquillity and its
opposition to democracy and national sovereignty for the
deprived people of Palestine....


Iranian Resistance's President-Elect Cables Mr. Arafat, from
Statement by NCR, January 22

        In a telegram to Mr. Yasser Arafat, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi,
the Iranian Resistance's President-elect, congratulated him on
his victory and extended her best wishes for the advancement
and prosperity of the people of Palestine.
        Noting the enmity of Iran's fundamentalist rulers to the
Middle East Peace, the Palestinians and the Palestine Liberation
Organization, Mrs. Rajavi wished for the establishment of peace,
cooperation, and co-existence throughout the region.


Mullahs' Major Counterfeit Operation of American Currency,
ABC World News, January 22

        There may a break in one of the most damaging
counterfeit money scams in the American History.  The
government says the trail leads to Iran...
        ... As Counterfiet 100s have spread through foreign
currency markets around the world with what some law
enforcement's authorities estimating as much as $10 billion
worth now in circulation....
        Robert Lugar, the former head of government office that
prints the real 100s says the high quality printing and paper
plus the mysterious source of the supernotes have long
frustrated American authorities....
        But now, the American intelligence and international
banking officials have told ABC News that the source of the
counterfeit money has been tracked to the Islamic Republic of
Iran.  Officials believe the counterfeit operation is actually
located in this building in Tehran, seen here in the satellite
photograph commissioned by ABC News.  The official
government mint.  Authorities say the Iranians are using
special high quality intaglio presses made by a Swiss company
called Giori which are identical to these presses at the US mint
in Washington which prints the genuine 100 bills....
        Not only does Iran have the very same presses used by
the US mint, American authorities believe has had the help of
master engravers who worked for the East German secret
police.  Although the source of the near-genuine paper stock
remains a mystery.  But Senator Patrick Leahy says its no
mystery what Iran is up to:  Terrorism.

Sen. Leahy: I am convinced that it is Iran and I am convinced
that it is the terrorist organizations who take their direction
from Iran.  They are using this.
        Authorities have told ABC News that the supernotes have
been tracked to Syria, the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon, and N.
Korea which has close ties to Iran.
        ... The American intelligence authorities have told ABC
News that late last year the US made covert contacts with Iran
to demand a stop to the counterfeiting and the US could be
prepared to do more.  With one White House official saying that
counterfeiting of American currency could be considered an act
of war.


Iran Playing with Fire in Bahrain - Kuwait Paper, Reuters,
January 22

        KUWAIT - Kuwaiti newspapers accused Iran on Monday
of fomenting riots in Bahrain and said Tehran's alleged
involvement could provoke unspecified retaliation from Gulf
Arab states and their Western allies.
        "Iran should stop playing with fire," al-Seyassah and its
sister paper the Arab Times said in an editorial.
        "Member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) will
not stand by as spectators and watch Bahrain crumble under
Iran's so-called religious duty," wrote Ahmad al-Jarallah,
editor-in-chief of both newspapers.
        "Perhaps also the countries of the alliance that liberated
Kuwait will not simply stand idly by," he said, referring to the
U.S.-backed coalition that ended an Iraqi occupation of Kuwait
in the 1991 Gulf War....
        Jarrallah said Iranian attempts to destabilize Bahrain
would only increase Iran's international isolation....