BRIEF ON IRAN
        No. 406
        Monday, May 6, 1996


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



Red Crescent as Cover for Terrorism, Iran Zamin, April 29

        The Polit-bureau of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of
Iran reported on April 25 that the Iranian regime is using the
Red Crescent [Iran's Red Cross equivalent] as a cover for
terrorist activities in northern Iraqi Kurdistan.
        It added a number of the regime's armed agents attacked
a refugee camp in the Payanjan region, a suburb of Soleymania.
One of the captured assailants said the regime uses Red
Crescent ambulances to transfer its  agents to northern Iraq to
conduct terrorist operations.


Iran Trained Hit Squads in Bosnia, International Herald
Tribune, April 26

        Agents from the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and
Security, which Western intelligence agencies say has carried
out assassinations of Iranian dissidents in the Middle East and
Europe, form the commando teams in Bosnia.
        Iranian specialists recruited the small groups from among
the 1,400 or so people employed in the Bosnian Agency for
Investigation and Documentation... Officials said the Iranians
had sent several dozen of the team members to Iran for
Instruction.


Terrorists Elected as Majlis Deputies, Al Sharq Al-Owsat, April
25

        Sources within Iranian Interior Ministry confirmed
yesterday that Kouroush Fouladi, who was sentenced on
charges of terrorism in England, has been elected to Iranian
parliament from the city of Khorramabad, the provincial capital
of Lorestan province, 420 kilometers southwest of Tehran.
        He was arrested in 1981 for complicity in a car bomb
which killed two individuals. The target of the car bomb was a
video shop that had sold videos insulting Khomeini. In 1982 a
British court established Fouladi's complicity in the bombing in
Kensington District in West London and sentenced him to 10
years in jail. He was released after a swap of prisoners with
Iran.
        Fouladi is a trade partner of Mehdi Hashemi, the eldest
son of Iran's President and owns several institutions in and out
of Iran.
        He is not the only deputy charged with terrorism. The
new Majlis (parliament) includes at least nine of those who
held Americans hostage in Tehran in 1979.
        The parliament also includes three others who have been
sentenced for terrorism in France and Switzerland. Yet, unlike
Fouladi, the three have not been put on trial. The third
individual is suspected to have been involved in the
assassination of Kazem Rajavi who was Iran's former
ambassador in the United Nations office in Geneva.


60 Percent Wholesale Price Increase in Iran, Radio Israel, May
4

        The official figures published today in Tehran indicate
that the price of commodities in the last Persian year, has
jumped by at least 60 percent.
        In a report published by the Office of Economic Statistics
of the Islamic Republic's Central Bank, it is stated that ... last
May shows the highest increase in the price of basic goods and
other commodities. The figure for that price hike is 77 percent.
        The retail prices are not mentioned in the report.
Normally the retail price increase in Iran is higher than the
wholesale price hikes.


The Press Are Free Except...!, Tehran State Radio, May 2

        Today, in a meeting with members of the press, Khamenei
said that for the Islamic government of Iran, the press is not a
luxerious or ceremonial matter, ...however, the press should
avoid attacking each other ... and must not use methods such as
questionning the Islamic revolution or its principles or
publishing certain subjects....


Iran Parliament Withdraws Public Smoking Ban, Reuters, May
5

        TEHRAN - Iran's parliament on Sunday withdrew a law it
passed banning smoking in public places because of opposition
from the Guardian Council.
        The Guardian Council, which vets parliament decisions
before they take effect, ruled the law was unconstitutional
because it would cut government revenues by banning the sale
or purchase of cigarettes without finding a replacement source
of income....