BRIEF ON IRAN
No. 415
Friday, May 17, 1996

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


Regime Publicly Hangs Nine Student Protesters to Terrorize the Public,
from the statement by NCR, May 16

        Tabriz University students have staged strikes and
demonstrations since Friday, May 11, to protest the Khomeini regime's
suppressive policies, reports from Iran say....
        At least 130 students were arrested and a large number
wounded in the attacks launched by agents of the Intelligence
Ministry and the Revolutionary Guards in the past days....
        Despite ruthless clampdown, the mullahs' regime has so far been
unable to curb the students' protests. Fearing the spread of unrest to
the city, the regime hanged nine people from construction cranes , at
two different locations of the city...


Anxiety Kills Girl Ahead of Iran University Exam, Reuters, May 16

        TEHRAN - An Iranian teenaged girl died of a heart attack caused
by anxiety over her university entrance examination, a newspaper
reported on Thursday.
        Hourieh Abdollahnejad, 19, collapsed on Monday on her way to
register for the annual examination taken by more than a million
people competing for 140,000 places at state universities....
        Tehran radio said some 1.3 million students, including more than
500,000 women, took the examination on Thursday.


Surging Inflation and Mullahs' Denial, Radio Israel, May 15

        According to Iran's Official news agency, Morteza Mohammad
Khan, the Economics and Finance Minister, who was speaking in a
gathering of exchange and monetary policy makers in central bank,
claimed that the inflation rate during the last Iranian calendar year,
which ended two months ago, has been only 48%.
        This claim is at the time that state-run media have clarified that
the price of most goods and services have increased by two folds and
the value of home, which is an important assay of economy, only
during recent months has increased up to 80%


Hard-Liners Challenge Claims of Moderation by Iran, BBC Radio, May
14

        According to daily Kayhan, Nateq-Nouri, the speaker of
parliament, who was speaking among theology students in Qom, said
in the fifth Majlis [parliament] the majority is with Hezbollah forces.
        He emphasized that "liberals" do not have any place in the future
Majlis, and this is also the view of the leader [referring to Khamenei].
        According to the newspaper, Nateq-Nouri threatened that all
those who caused so much commotion to get into Majlis will be put to
their places...


Israel Says Iran Sent Hizbollah Bomber, Reuters, May 16

        JERUSALEM - Israel accused Iran on Thursday of sending an
Arab guerrilla to carry out a suicide attack in the Jewish state to
influence national elections less than two weeks away.
     Internal Security Minister Moshe Shahal told reporters an Arab
man hurt while making a bomb was from Lebanon's Hizbollah group
and planned a suicide attack in Jerusalem.
        "We verified that he was motivated by Iranian money and
Iranian officials who sent him to try and undermine the peace process
and to explode in Jerusalem," Shahal said....
        "I think there is more and more evidence lately about the
intensive Iranian activity against the peace process (and)...an attempt
to intervene in the elections in Israel," the director-general of Israel's
foreign ministry, Uri Savir, told Israel's army radio....
        Before leaving for Israel, Mikdad [the bomber] spent time in the
Iranian embassy in Beirut, they said. Police said Mikdad had flown on
a Swissair flight from Zurich on April 4. Security sources said he
carried a stolen British passport in the name of Andrew Newman.
     Police said Mikdad had less than one kg (2.2 lb) of RDX, a main
component of Semtex, the plastic explosive believed used by Middle
Eastern bombers to blow up a Pan Am jet in 1988 over Lockerbie,
Scotland. The blast killed 270 people.


PLO Says Iran-Backed Group to Go on Trial, Reuters, May 16

        GAZA - A member of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's
cabinet [Freih Abu Medeen] said on Thursday that militants rounded
up during a sweep against Islamic groups that carried out suicide
bombings in Israel revealed an Iranian link....
        "Our investigations has revealed that the responsibility for these
groups lies within Hamas but they were being financed by Iran. This
became clear from the interrogations," he said....