BRIEF ON IRAN
        Representative Office of
        The National Council of Resistance of Iran
        No. 349
        Wednesday, February 14, 1996



        3421 M Street NW #1032, Washington, DC 20007


Anniversary of Revolution: Small Number of
Demonstrators, United Press International, February 13

        ATHENS - ... Iran celebrated the anniversary of the
revolution Sunday with government-sponsored
demonstrations in the streets of Tehran and other cities.
        The official Iranian media reported a heavy turnout
for the demonstrations, but Iranian opposition groups in
exile said Afghan refugees and troops out of uniform were
pressed into service to swell the ranks of demonstrators.


Algeria Crisis Until Moslem Demands Met, Reuters,
February 12

    TEHRAN - Iran's state-run radio said on Monday the
latest car bomb attacks in Algiers showed that the
Algerian crisis would not end until authorities dealt with
demands by Islamic militants....
        The radio was commenting on two car bombs in
Algiers on Sunday which killed 18 people and injured
nearly 100.
        Algeria cut diplomatic links with Iran three years
ago over what it called Iranian government backing for
Moslem militants fighting the secular government....

Europe Renews Support for Rushdie on Death Threat,
Reuters, February 13

        STRASBOURG, France - British author Salman
Rushdie urged the European Union on Tuesday to find out
from Iran whether it was ready to drop its seven-year-old
death sentence passed on him for his novel "The Satanic
Verses."
        Rushdie, speaking on the seventh anniversary of the
sentence, told a news conference in Strasbourg in eastern
France that only EU governments were capable of finding
out Tehran's true intentions....
        The European Parliament, which is meeting in
Strasbourg this week, was due to vote on Wednesday on a
resolution urging the EU's 15 members to take practical
measures to ensure the Fatwa is dropped.
        In a statement issued earlier by the EU's current
president, Italy, the group said: "On the seventh
anniversary of the publication of the Fatwa against
Rushdie...the European Union renews its demand that Iran
abide by international law."
        Rushdie was sentenced to death in February 1989
by Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who said the
Indian-born author had blasphemed Islam in "The Satanic
Verses."
        A reward was offered to any Moslem who killed
Rushdie and although the Ayatollah has since died, the
Iranian government has not withdrawn the death
sentence.


Nuclear Accidents Warned, Radio Israel, February 11

        Several staff members of nuclear research center in
Isfahan warned about possibility of accidents during
building of Boushehr nuclear power plant.
        They stated that because of the obsolete and
incomplete technology implemented in the design of the
plant, dangerous accidents threatening the lives of
hundreds of thousand in the region were highly possible.
        In a secretly distributed statement, copies of which
was received in Tehran, a number of the center's staff
members disclosed to the public that in recent months,
after a series of scientific and technical investigations in
the center and several universities, a report was
submitted to the government in this regard.
        The statement indicated that unfortunately the
officials kept the matter quiet and refused to make any
efforts regarding the issues discussed in that report...