BRIEF ON IRAN
        No. 394
        Thursday, April 18, 1996


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



Uneasy EU Still Courts Hizbollah's Paymasters, The Sunday
Telegraph, April 14

        ...Iran controls and bankrolls Hizbollah, the Lebanese
Shiite Muslim militia it created in the 1980s to terrorize
Western interests in the Middle East.
        The rocket attacks on northern Israel will have been
undertaken on the express orders of Tehran to undermine the
Middle East peace process, and are further proof that Iran's
mullahs are happy to maintain the country's status as a pariah
state....
        Under pressure from Germany and France, which both
enjoy lucrative trade links with Iran, the EU has agreed to open
discussions with Tehran rather than enforce sanctions.
        Germany's trade with Iran is worth $2,400 million and
France $2,008 million. Britain's, by comparison, is worth only
$600 million.
        While the Foreign Office prefers to straddle the
diplomatic fence, the Germans and French, anxious to preserve
their lucrative trade ties, have encouraged a policy of "critical
dialogue."...
        Apart from Tehran's support for a variety of Middle East
terrorist groups, European governments are waking up to the
fact that Iran runs an extensive terrorist operation in Europe.
        German intelligence has produced an embarrassing
dossier -which the German government has tried to keep
secret- detailing how the Iranian embassy in Bonn plays a key
role in masterminding terrorist attacks throughout Europe.
        According to secret report obtained by the Paris-based
National Council of Resistance in Iran, the Germans now have
incontrovertible proof that Iran's ministry of information and
security, headed by Ali Fallahian, has set up a terrorist
network in Europe.
        The German authorities attempted to suppress the report,
despite issuing a warrant for Fallahian's arrest last month for
his role in the murder of four Kurdish dissidents in Berlin in
1992....


Conservative Mullahs Have the Upper Hand, Agence France
Presse, April 17

        With the second round of Majlis elections scheduled for
Friday, the conservative right has increased its pressure on the
regime's "moderates" and has made some gains....
        The conservative right, gathered around Ali Khamenei
and under the leadership of Nateq Nouri, asserts that in the
first round of elections, it has gained 88 seats out of a total of
134....
        The "moderates" received a heavy blow just two days
before the Friday elections. Ali Akbar Abu-Torabi, a
conservative mullah who had accepted to be on the moderates'
list of candidates, stepped aside and resigned. On Wednesday,
the Iran News daily which is close to the moderates confessed
that Abu-Torabi's decision could effect the outcome of the
elections...
        The unprecedented violence in these elections is
explained, among other reasons, by the fact that these elections
are the last ones prior to the presidential elections of 1997, in
which Rafsanjani cannot run again.
        In an interview with the Akhbar daily, Mohammad Javad
Larijani said that: "If we succeed, Nateq Nouri will become the
Majlis president and this will pave the way for winning the
presidential elections."


Iran Gets China's Help on Nuclear Arms, The Washington Times,
April 17

        Chinese nuclear technicians are expected to arrive in Iran
this week to begin building a new uranium plant that will help
Tehran's nuclear-weapons program, according to a secret U.S.
intelligence report....
        "The plant will produce uranium products that Iran can
use to make fissile material for nuclear weapons," the report
said....
        Nuclear experts say the facility will allow Iran to make a
crucial step forward in building nuclear weapons. The Chinese
plant will produce uranium hexafluoride, a gas that can be
enriched to produce fuel for nuclear bombs....
        A Pentagon official said Iran has made building nuclear
weapons one of its highest defense priorities and might be able
to produce some type of nuclear device around the year 2000.
        Last year Iran tried to purchase from Russia gas
centrifuges that could be used to enrich the uranium gas for
weapons, according to U.S. officials....
        John Holum, director of the U.S. Arms Control and
Disarmament Agency, declined to discuss the specifics of the
plant deal, saying the information is classified.
        "China does cooperate with Iran's nuclear program and
we oppose this cooperation because we are convinced that Iran
is using its NPT [Non-Proliferation Treaty] status as cover for
nuclear weapons development," Mr. Holum told The Times in a
statement....