BRIEF ON IRAN
        Representative Office of
        The National Council of Resistance of Iran
        No. 404
        Thursday, May 2, 1996



        3421 M Street NW #1032, Washington, DC 20007


Mullahs' Regime Sent Foreign Nationals to Hajj for Recruitment Purposes, a
statement by NCR, May 1

        Information obtained from within the Khomeini regime say that in
order to recruit members among Muslims in European and Islamic countries,
the religious dictatorship ruling Iran sent more than 1,000 citizens of
these countries among Iranian pilgrims to Mecca.
        While the mullahs squabble over their quota for the Hajj every
year, they included these individuals within that quota and paid their
travel expenses to Mecca.
        Among them, 30 had French citizenship, including five Algerians,
four Moroccans and seven Iranians. Another 18 were Britons of Arab and
Pakistani origin, 40 Germans of Turkish and Arab origin, 28 Dutch, 200
Bosnians, 420 Iraqis who had relocated in Iran, 298 Pakistanis, 315
Lebanese, 60 from the Republic of Azerbaijan and 80 from Tajikistan.
        In so doing, the mullahs intend to expand their fundamentalist and
terrorist activities in these countries. Once these individuals return to
their respective countries, the Iranian regime's establishes contact with
them, through its embassy, diplomatic missions and the so-called cultural
centers in Europe and elsewhere, to use their services for its
fundamentalist and terrorist purposes.


Washington-Tehran Relations, United Press International, May 1

        DALLAS - The United States prefers better relations with Iran but
will not tolerate international Iranian-fostered regional instability and
terrorism, a U.S. official said Wednesday.
        Stephen Grummon, a director for Near East/South Asian Affairs at
the National Security Council, said Washington "is determined to make Iran
pay the highest possible price" for trying to undermine peace in the Middle
East....
        U.S. disagreements with Iran stem from fundamental concerns about
regional security and Iran's alleged pursuit of weapons of mass destruction
-- nuclear, chemical and biological, Grummon said....
        He said Iran continues to rely on terror as "an instrument of state
policy." He criticized Tehran's alleged bankrolling and arming of terrorist
groups, such as Hezbollah, and its lack of religious and ethnic tolerance.
        "We've seen no improvement in Iran's human rights record or in its
treatment of minorities," Grummon said.
        He said that since the 1993 Middle East peace breakthrough, Iranian
support for violent groups opposed to the peace process has increased, and
terrorist activities have developed "at the direction of the highest levels
of the Iranian government."...


Women's Road To Emancipation, Mullahs Style, Sobh Weekly, April 30

        In religious edicts issued in Tehran today, several Grand
Ayatollahs described women's participation in sports such as biking,
horse-back riding, boating, and track and field as sacrilegious.
        Two of the Ayatollahs considered such sports as sacrilegious
whether they are done in public or in private.
        Ayatollah Shobeiri Zanjani expressed his belief that avoiding these
sports is the women's road to emancipation.


Short News

        *       The New York Times, May 1, After the discovery of the
mortar last month [in a cargo of pickles aboard a ship from Iran to
Germany], diplomats said that security in Germany was stepped up around
official Israeli premises and synagogues.
        *       Agence France Presse, May 1, On Wednesday, an Iranian daily
quoted Ali Akbar Nateq-Nouri, head of the Majlis, as saying that Iran in
regards to Salman Rushdie case, peace proces in the Middle East, and Iran's
relations with the U.S. "compromise an inch."
        *       Salaam Daily, April 30, In an open letter published in
Tehran today, Hadi Khamenei, the younger brother of the Islamic Republic's
leader, protested the closure of daily Jahan-e Eslam -published under his
supervision- for 15 months.
        *       Radio Israel, April 30, The price of bread -Iranians main
food staple- has significantly increased again.
        *       Reuters, May 1, A large crowd of Moslems has held another
rally against the United States and Israel at the haj pilgrimage in Saudi
Arabia, defying a Saudi ban, Iranian newspapers said on Wednesday.