BRIEF ON IRAN No. 372 Tuesday, March 19, 1996 Representative Office of The National Council of Resistance of Iran 3421 M Street NW #1032 Washington, DC 20007 Germans Tighten Security as Iran Explosives Found, Reuters, March 18 MUNICH, Germany - Munich police said on Monday they had tightened security at Israeli premises and other possible guerrilla targets after Belgian police found explosives destined for the south German city on an Iranian ship. They also briefly arrested a 42-year-old Iranian businessman on suspicion of "preparing to commit an explosives offence," and searched the freighter, now in Hamburg harbor. Police said the man was the intended recipient of the explosives.... Last week German prosecutors issued an arrest warrant against Iranian intelligence minister Ali Fallahiyan in connection with the 1992 murder of exiled Kurdish leaders in Berlin. Mullahs' Hoodlums Bullying at German Embassy, Reuters, March 18 TEHRAN - Iranian Moslem radicals marched to the German embassy in Tehran on Monday to protest against a warrant issued in Germany for the arrest of an Iranian minister in connection with the 1992 killing of exiled Kurdish leaders. Several hundred demonstrators marched to the heavily-guarded embassy in central Tehran to condemn the German action against Iran's Intelligence (Internal Security) Minister Ali Fallahiyan. "Germany must apologize and take back this accusation... Otherwise, Iranians will add 'Death to Germany' to their usual slogans against America and Israel," a speaker at the rally said.... [Following the gathering of mullahs' hoodlums in front of German embassy in Tehran, NCR, in an statement that was released in Germany condemned this act of bullying. It said: The religious, terrorist dictatorship ruling Iran sent its mercenaries and hooligans in front of the embassy of Germany in Tehran and staged a demonstration, a reaction which revealed its terrorist nature. The regime's hoodlum gangs carried photographs of former American hostages, openly threatening the government of Germany with hostage-taking. The Iranian Resistance vehemently condemns the mullahs' brazen act of blackmail...] Gulf Buildup, U.S. News & World Report, March 25 Western intelligence sources say Iran has launched a major buildup of its Persian Gulf aerial-defense network and has approached a leading Swiss armament company, Oerlikon-Contraves AG, to supply it with the necessary weaponry and technology.... Mideast security officials see the buildup as a danger to regional security, fearing that the stationing of top-line antiaircraft weapons could pose a serious threat to heavy flight traffic in the gulf area. Iran already maintains nine long-range surface-to-air rocket sites and four surface-to-surface missile sites in the disputed region. The reinforcement decision was taken by the Iranian Supreme Council for National Defense. The sources say that Iranian military leaders then turned to Oerlikon- Contraves, one of the world's top producers of air-defense systems, with whom Tehran has dealt in the past.... Iran Boosts Navy with Chinese Missiles, U.S. Says, Reuters, March 18 KUWAIT - Iran is boosting its naval firepower by fitting Chinese- built cruise missiles on some of its warships, a senior American naval officer said on Monday. "We can handle the Iranian navy but it becomes tougher every time one of these new systems comes on line," Vice Admiral John Scott Redd told reporters on a visit to Kuwait.... Kurdish Rebels Say Iran Kills Four Members in Iraq, Reuters, March 18 A Kurdish opposition group said on Monday Iranian agents killed four of its members in northern Iraq. The Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, in a statement faxed to Reuters from its Paris office, said "terrorists sent by the Islamic republic" shot the four men on Sunday in a village near the Kurdish- held city of Erbil.... Iran Non-oil Exports Plunge by a Quarter, Reuters, March 18 TEHRAN - Iran's non-oil exports have fallen about 25 percent compared to a year ago, an Iranian official said in remarks published on Monday. Deputy head of customs Mohammad Reza Sadeq, quoted by the daily Kayhan, said non-oil exports stood at $2.9 billion in the 11- month period before February 19....