BRIEF ON IRAN No. 392 Tuesday, April 16, 1996 Representative Office of The National Council of Resistance of Iran 3421 M Street NW #1032 Washington, DC 20007 Iranian People will Definitely Boycott Second Round of Election Farce, from statement by NCR, April 15 In a message to the people of Iran, Mr. Massoud Rajavi, President of the National Council of Resistance, offered his gratitude for their total boycott of the first round of elections for the mullahs' Majlis. He expressed confidence that the Iranian people will boycott the second round of the election farce even on a wider scale. Ignoring the regime's stage-making and threats to coerce them to the polls, less than 10% of the eligible voters actually voted in the March 8 theatrics. In Tehran, the mullahs admitted defeat. Despite rigging the vote in favor of Ali Akbar Nateq-Nouri, the Majlis speaker, Khamene'i confidant and the top candidate from Tehran, the mullahs could not announce more than 890,000 votes, or the vote of only 14% of Tehran's electorate, for him.... Mr. Rajavi reiterated that this election, boycotted even by factions within the regime, again proved the extent to which counting on the mullahs' moderation was without basis.... Mullahs' Intolerance for Their Own Election Sham, Agence France Presse, April 15 On Monday, Iranian judiciary officials announced that they have arrested several individuals for violating election rules in the framework of second-round of Majlis election. According to Tehran radio, 23 have been sentenced to lashes, prison and monetary penalties for using government facilities in their campaign for some of the candidates... In last three days, unknown groups in several areas of Tehran have destroyed election signs and posters of moderates and other radical factions. In northern Tehran, graffiti such as "death to liberals" and "death to entrepreneurs" were written on dozens of posters. Russian Admits Iran's Nuclear Danger, Associated Press, April 15 MOSCOW -... Alexei Yablokov, a top environmental adviser to President Boris Yeltsin, warned that the deal endangers Russia's security by providing a country only 200 miles from its border with nuclear technology that could be used to manufacture an atomic weapon. "It is strange that Iran, a nation with huge stocks of oil and gas, has decided to build such a dangerous facility as a nuclear power plant," Yablokov told the Interfax news agency. "If Iran has nuclear specialists, it will make great progress toward the creation of its own nuclear armaments," he said. "One can make a primitive nuclear charge without a colossal nuclear industry."... Iran Opens Power Plant on UAE-Claimed Gulf Island, Reuters, April 15 Iran has opened a power plant on a strategic Gulf island also claimed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Iranian news agency IRNA said on Monday. It said the 1.6 megawatt plant built at the cost of 140 billion rials ($80 million at the official exchange rate) started up on the Greater Tunb island at the mouth of the Gulf on Sunday.... Iran Says Turkey-Israel Pact Threatens Region, Reuters, April 15 KUWAIT - An Israeli-Turkish military cooperation accord is a threat to the region's security and stability, an Iranian official was quoted as saying by the Kuwait News Agency. Speaking during a visit to Kuwait, Iranian assistant foreign minister for communications affairs Murtada Sarmadi added that Turkey's accord with what he called an "enemy state" would not benefit the Islamic world.... "It is not to the benefit of the Islamic world that one of its member states concludes such an agreement with an enemy state," the agency quoted Sarmadi as saying.... Rafsanjani Forced to Retract from Exchange Laws, Agence France Presse, April 14 During last week, the strict exchange laws that were in effect since May 95 were relaxed. This measure is to support non-oil exports that have declined by 30% during last year... Rug export that is Iran's most important non-oil source of revenue, was hurt the most...