BRIEF ON IRAN
        Representative Office of
        The National Council of Resistance of Iran
        No. 339 Wednesday, January 31, 1996



        3421 M Street NW #1032, Washington, DC 20007

A "New Dimension" of Mullahs' Threat
to Shipping in the Gulf

Associated Press, January 30 - Iran has test-fired a new
low-flying missile designed to attack ships, adding to its
potential for disrupting the Persian Gulf, the commander
of
U.S. naval forces in the Gulf said Tuesday.
        Vice Adm. Scott Redd, commander of the Gulf-based
U.S. 5th Fleet, said Iran also expanded its network of
antiaircraft and other missiles based on land and is likely
to add a third Russian-made submarine to its fleet this
year.
        Taken as a whole, Redd said, these developments
point to an increasingly advanced Iranian naval
capability....
        He said the C-802 becomes Iran's first sea-based
anti-ship missile since the United States sank an Iranian
frigate armed with Harpoon anti-ship missiles in 1988. Its
shore-to-ship missiles include the dangerous Chinese-
made
Silkworm.
        Redd would not say how many C-802s Iran has. But
said the Iranians have modified "a significant number" of
naval patrol boats to make them capable of launching the
new missile, which he said has a range of about 60 miles....
        Redd also confirmed that Iran carried out an
exercise
in the Gulf last summer using helicopters to spray an
aerosol on its own ships. He said this indicated Iran's
capability to use chemical weapons against Gulf shipping,
which includes tankers carrying most of the world's oil....

Reuters, January 30 - ...Vice Admiral Scott Redd, chief of
U.S. Navy forces in the Gulf, said Iran test-fired a Chinese
C-802 anti-ship missile on January 6 from a ship in the
Arabian Sea just outside the Gulf. He said it could be
mounted on Iran's Chinese-made Houdong fast patrol
boats.
        "This is a new dimension ... another dimension of the
Iranian threat to shipping," Redd said, noting that the
mobile, radar-guided missile had a range of 60 miles (96
km). He said the missile was "in the deployment stage."...
        Since 1994, Redd said, Tehran has increased its
naval
strength with two Soviet-made Kilo Class attack
submarines and five Houdong boats, and Washington is
closely watching Iran's efforts to increase its influence in
the Gulf....

United Press International, January 30 - Iran recently
tested a short-range, anti- ship missile that adds "a new
dimension" to the rogue nation's threat to the region, a
senior U.S. Navy official said Tuesday....
        Since September 1994, Tehran has made a "threefold
increase" in its land-based surface-to-surface cruise
missiles, [Vice Admiral Scott] Redd said.
        "They had one site and they now have three to four
sites" that target ships at sea, he said.
        Iran has also tripled its surface-to-air missile
capability and has added a Russian-built SA/6 missile
defense system, he said.
        Iran has two silent-running Kilo-class submarines
"and we expect them to get a third this year," Redd said.
The submarines pose perhaps the greatest danger to ships
in the region because of their mining capabilities....
U.S. Says Tehran Using German Spy Gear in Bosnia,
Reuters,
January 30

        BONN - Germany's BND intelligence agency denied a
report on Tuesday that Iranian intelligence agents were
using advanced German spy technology to eavesdrop on
U.S. peacekeeping forces in Bosnia.
        The Wall Street Journal Europe report quoted
unnamed U.S. military and intelligence officials as saying
Iran could use equipment bought from the BND to plan
and
carry out guerrilla attacks on American soldiers in
Bosnia....
        The newspaper reported that Iranian intelligence
operatives had deployed sensitive snooping gear that let
them intercept U.S. military communications, including
microwave and radio transmissions as well as cellular
phone calls....
        "But U.S. military and intelligence sources still
believe
that the greatest threat that the U.S. now faces in Bosnia is
coming directly from Tehran and involves a sophisticated,
high-tech operation being run by the Iranian intelligence
service, Savama," the paper reported.
        Bonn maintains what it calls a "critical dialogue" with
Iran despite rebukes from its western allies that it is too
friendly with a state which they say sponsors
international
terrorism.
        Bernd Schmidbauer, Chancellor Helmut Kohl's
intelligence coordinator in Bonn, has acknowledged that he
and other German officials have met Iranian intelligence
chief Ali Fallahiyan, but denies cooperating closely with
Tehran.
        Prosecutors are investigating possible links between
Fallahiyan and the 1992 killing of four exiled Kurdish
leaders in Berlin. The probe could lead to a warrant for his
arrest.