BRIEF ON IRAN
        Representative Office of
        The National Council of Resistance of Iran
        No. 411 Monday, May 13, 1996



        3421 M Street NW #1032, Washington, DC 20007


Iran Opposition Criticizes Continuation of "Critical Dialogue", Frankfurter
Rundschau, May 11

        The Iranian opposition group, National Council of Resistance of
Iran, criticized the German Foreign Minister, Klaus Kinkel, for insisting
on continuation of the policy of "critical dialogue" with the Tehran
regime.
        On Friday, the NCR stated that the Iranian regime is responsible
for killing of political prisoners and execution and striking lashes in the
public.
        [The NCR's Representative Office in Germany said in its statement
that: "Mr. Kinkel speaks about improvement of human rights in Iran under
circumstances whereby just two weeks ago the United Nations Human Rights
Commission condemned the continuation of violation of human rights and
executions ... in Iran."...
        ["Last month, the head of judiciary and the president of mullahs'
Majlis reiterated the necessity of carrying out Salman Rushdie's death
sentence and announced that they will not retreat from the religious edict.
However, what Mr. Kinkel describes as the achievements of Europe's dialogue
with Tehran is only in reaction to the increasing international
pressures...."]


Germany's Acceptance of Tehran's Lies "Incomprehensible,"Agence France
Presse, May 10

        The Amnesty International criticized the German Foreign Minister,
on Friday, for "accepting as proven facts the false statements expressed by
the Iranian officials about human rights in Iran."
        Volkmar Deile, the Secretary General of Amnesty International in
Germany assessed that: "It's incomprehensible that Bonn accepts
fabrications made by the representatives of the Iranian government as
indisputable facts."...


Loner, The Washington Post, May 12

        ...Too often, it seems, U.S. allies are content to allow the United
States to take the lead in disciplining the world's rogue states. If the
United States manages to enforce fair trading rules or discourage the
spread of nuclear weapons, the allies benefit as much as America in the
long run....
        ...we believe that the Europeans and Japanese owe more than
complaints about potential U.S. bullying. Germany's foreign minister last
week acknowledged that his country shares the U.S. assessment of Iran as a
sponsor of terrorism. Yet since the United States cut off all trade and
investment one year ago, hoping to lead by example, U.S. allies have
neither followed suit nor shown much success in moderating Iran's behavior
through their commercial engagement. The burden is now on them to join with
the United States or come up with a better way.


Zahedan University Students Go on Hunger Strike, from a statement by NCR, May 10

        According to the reports from Zahedan, capital of the southeastern
Sistan-Baluchistan province, students of the school of medical sciences and
Nikbakht school of engineering have gone on hunger strike since two days
ago, in the second week of their strike.
        The students are protesting lack of services for the students, and
the embezzlements by the regime's agents. They refuse to go to class.
        The students have not left the university grounds and spend the
night there, since the start of their hunger strike.


Mullahs Call Qana Disaster "God's Hidden Help", Reuters, May 10

        TEHRAN - Iran's president said on Friday the repercussions of
Israel's shelling of a U.N. camp at Qana in Lebanon, including a critical
United Nations report, were "God's hidden help" to Moslems.
        "This event is to be seen as a secret divine favor and God's hidden
help to the Islamic world," Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said in a mass prayer
sermon broadcast on state-run Tehran radio....