BRIEF ON IRAN Representative Office of The National Council of Resistance of Iran No. 379 Thursday, March 28, 1996 3421 M Street NW #1032, Washington, DC 20007 Iran Opposition Holds Military Exercises, Reuters, March 27 ASHRAF CAMP - Several thousand rebels of the exiled Iranian opposition group Mujahideen Khalq staged military exercises on Wednesday on a piece of scrubland in Iraq close to the border with Iran. "Our forces are on high alert and they are ready to repulse any...fresh attack (from Iran)," chief-of-staff of the National Liberation Army of Iran, Mahbubeh Jamshidi, told foreign reporters taken by the group to Ashraf Camp, 120 km (70 miles) northeast of Baghdad. Women in green headscarves and khaki fatigues commanded most of the exercises which included a show of infantry troops, rocket launchers, British-made Chieftain tanks, ZSU-23 anti-aircraft guns, 155-mm howitzers and 130-mm field guns. The driving force behind the woman combatants who form up to 40 percent of the Mujahideen army is Maryam Rajavi, the "president-elect" the rebels hope to install in Tehran.... "We are fully confident to overthrow the mullahs' regime and take Mrs. Rajavi to Tehran as president of Iran," operation commander of the NLA, Fatemeh Kheradmand, said. Parading in front of journalists some 400 women sang songs praising their forces' strength. Commanders of the group would not give figures on how many troops they had, but they said from time to time they receive newcomers who either cross the border from Iran or come from Western countries. They said their organization was financed by Iranians who oppose Tehran's government inside and outside Iran and by companies run by the group in various countries.... Mullahs Obtain Patrol Boats from China, The Washington Times, March 27 Iran has received a new shipment of Chinese patrol boats that will be armed with cruise missiles, increasing Tehran's power to threaten shipping in the oil-rich region, the commander of U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf said yesterday. Adm. Scott Redd, U.S. Central Command naval forces commander, said in an interview that five Houdong fast- attack patrol boats arrived in Iran earlier this month.... Each boat is outfitted with four tubes that will fire Chinese C-802 anti-ship cruise missiles.... The Iranians are believed to have about 40 C-802s.... The C-802 cruise missiles, purchased last year, represent "the newest dimension" to an ongoing Iranian military, and especially naval, buildup, Adm. Redd said.... A Pentagon official said earlier that Iran is developing advance underwater mines with technology and assistance from China, including one mine that sits on the sea floor and is rocket-propelled to the surface when its sensors detect ship movements. "This represents a challenge," the Pentagon official said.... Adm. Redd said Iranian missile deployments-both anti-aircraft and anti-ship systems- have tripled in the past 18 months.... Bonn May Be Reappraising Its Tehran 'Dialogue', Los Angeles Times, March 27 After years of keeping communication lines open to Tehran, much to the annoyance of Washington, there are signs that Germany may be reappraising its policy of "critical dialogue" with the Iranian government. Until now, Bonn has claimed that by pursuing talks with Tehran's Shiite fundamentalists, Germany was keeping alive a special, neutral relationship that could be used to help persuade the Iranians to abandon their support for international terrorism.... But criticism is mounting, within Germany and outside, that Bonn's cordiality toward Tehran is really motivated by a desire to help German companies do business in the Islamic state. Opponents say the policy has produced minimal political results and ought to be scrapped.... In the clearest suggestion that senior German officials may be losing patience with their own foreign ministry, the attorney general recently issued an arrest warrant for Ali Falahian, Iran's top spymaster. The warrant charges Falahian, Iran's minister for intelligence and security, with four count of murder and attempted murder in the gangland-style deaths of three exiled Kurdish leaders.... The charges against Falahian have thoroughly disrupted German-Iranian relations.... But [German Foreign Minister Klaus] Kinkel has steadfastly argued the merits of the critical dialogue. "Iran is of such a big strategic importance for the whole region that you cannot isolate it," he said. His critics got another propaganda boost when, just days after the arrest warrant for Falahian was issued, Belgian police reported they had found a shipment of bomb-making ingredients hidden in an Iranian ship bound for Munich. Although the presence of the explosives has not been explained, the incident seemed to offer evidence that German policy had failed to persuade Tehran to condemn terrorism.