BRIEF ON IRAN
        Representative Office of
        The National Council of Resistance of Iran
        No. 344
        Wednesday, February 7, 1996



        3421 M Street NW #1032, Washington, DC 20007



Iran Now Paying Russia to Build Nuclear Reactor,
Associated Press, February 6

        MOSCOW - Iran has started making payments to
Russia for a major nuclear reactor project, virtually
assuring that the controversial deal will move forward,
officials said.
        Moscow and Teheran signed the final documents for
the $800 million deal last month and Iran has already
started paying for technical evaluation of the site near
the city of Bushehr, said Georgy Kaurov, a spokesman for
the Russian Nuclear Power Ministry.
        U.S. officials worry the technology could be used in
a clandestine nuclear weapons program, but have failed
to persuade the Kremlin to back away from the deal....
        The Russian-Iranian contract, signed on Jan. 12, is
for the construction of one 1,000-megawatt pressurized-
water reactor, Kaurov said.
        "We have agreed in principle that in the future we
may build several more reactors at Bushehr, but no
documents have been signed," Kaurov said.
        U.S. officials have said Iran plans to buy a total of
four reactors from Russia....


China Questioned for Arms Sales to Tehran, United Press
International, Feb. 6

        WASHINGTON -    ... Clinton administration officials...
pressed China's Vice Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing on
Chinese weapons transfers to Iran...
        On Wednesday he is due to meet with members of
Congress, some who are pressing the administration to
impose sanctions on China for its arms sales to Iran...


Iran's Debt Amounts to $30.6 Billion, Reuters, February 5

        DUBAI - Iran's principal debt and interest
amounted to $30.6 billion by September of 1995.
        "The total amount of Iran's foreign debts and their
future interests at the end of the Iranian month of
Shahrivar, September 22, 1995, amounted to $30.6
billion," the official Iranian News Agency IRNA said on
Monday, quoting a Central Bank publication.
        The agency put the country's short-term debt at
$3.26 billion and medium and long-term debt at $20.14
billion by September 22, 1995.
        Central Bank governor Mohsen Nourbakhsh said last
month Iran's total financial obligations to foreign
countries within its current five-year plan which ends in
the year 2000 are $33 billion, of which $17 billion is
rescheduled.


Japan Refuses to Grant Loan to Tehran, Radio France,
February 5

        Subsequent to Rafsanjani's expression of satisfaction
regarding the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister
Yizhak Rabin, the government of Japan suspended
granting a loan to Iran.
        In light of the increase in the West's opposition to
Iranian government, Japan has not yet made a decision
about granting the loan.  In a meeting in Tokyo last week
where ambassadors from Japan and other Middle Eastern
countries were present, it was announced that suitable
circumstances for granting the loan to Iran did not exist,
although Iran provides 10% of Japan's oil.
        The West's opposition to the Iranian government
rose after Rafsanjani's remarks about Yizhak Rabin's
assassination.  He described Rabin's killing as a "divine
revenge."...


Mullahs Try to Evade UN Rights Scrutiny, Attacks West,
U.S., Reuters, February 6

        NICOSIA - ... "The (United Nation's) special human
rights representative should not surrender to direct and
indirect pressures from the United States and other
Western powers, whose aims are to use human rights as a
leverage against Iran," the English-language Tehran
Times said in an editorial.
        "The U.N. special representative should not allow
representatives of countries which themselves violate
human rights, and are against Iran, to take advantage of
the respect and reputation which has been accorded the
U.N. for the purpose of fomenting enmity towards the
government and nation of Iran," the newspaper said.