BRIEF ON IRAN
No. 387
Tuesday, April 9, 1996


Representative Office of
The National Council of Resistance of Iran
3421 M Street NW #1032
Washington, DC 20007


Turk Official to Question Iran on Islamist Hitman, Reuters, April 8

        ANKARA - A Turkish official will question Iranian authorities
about allegations that Tehran was behind the killings of Iranian exiles
and prominent secularists in Turkey, the foreign ministry said on
Monday.
        The issue will be discussed at a meeting in Tehran between
foreign ministry assistant undersecretary Ali Tuygan and Iranian
officials on Tuesday, ministry spokesman Omer Akbel said.
        Police say that confessed Turkish Islamist hitman Irfan Cagirici,
arrested last month, received military and political training in
neighboring Iran....
        The Turkish media have said that Cagirici admitted to abducting
and killing two Iranian dissidents in Istanbul in 1992 at the
prompting of Iranian diplomats.
        Cagirici has admitted killing newspaper editor Cetin Emec in
Istanbul in 1990 and to ordering the killing of a Turkish secularist
writer the same year. Iran's ambassador in Ankara has denied any
link between Tehran and the gunman.


More Fuel Price Hike in Oil-Rich Iran, Iran Zamin News Agency, April 8

        Tehran radio announced that the raise in price of fuel is based on
an amendment in the country's second development plan.
        Aghazadeh, mullahs' oil minister, described the effect of this
price hike on transportation fares....
        He also mentioned that the consumption of automobile gas in last
year declined to 31 million liters from 31.3 million liters of the
preceding year.
        It is worth mentioning that despite the decrease in consumption
of gas by Iranian people that forced the government to increase the
fuel price, according to Dow Jones News Aghazadeh today claimed that
"revenues in the year ended March 19 from crude oil and product
exports were $1.6 billion more than what was budgeted for."


Undercover Iran Police to Fine Traffic Offenders, Reuters, April 7

        TEHRAN - Undercover police will take to the streets of Tehran
from Monday to crackdown on traffic offenders, Tehran Radio
reported on Sunday.
        "Some drivers late at night or early in the day...in the absence of
police, dare to commit violations," Brigadier Alireza Ghaffari, deputy
chief of police, told the radio. "The purpose of the plan is to make the
streets insecure for violators."
        He said men and women from the police force were specially
trained for the job, the latest in a series of measures to curb traffic
violators in Tehran where the most common offenses include jumping
a red light, going against traffic in one-way streets and driving into
sidewalks.
        In recent years Iranian police raised traffic fines several times
but that did not stop violations.


Blast at Iran Oxygen Producing Plant Kills One, Reuters, April 6

        NICOSIA - An explosion at an oxygen producing plant in Iran
killed one worker and totally destroyed the facility, the official Iranian
news agency IRNA reported on Saturday.
        It quoted Ali-Reza Ghaffuri, manager of the Aidanar oxygen
producing plant in Saveh, 128 km (79 miles) southwest of Tehran, as
saying the explosion occurred in the oxygen storage unit, but that the
reason for the blast on Friday night was not known yet....