BRIEF ON IRAN Representative Office of The National Council of Resistance of Iran No. 425 Monday, June 3, 1996 3421 M Street NW #1032, Washington, DC 20007 Mullahs' Strong Army, Associated Press, June 2 TEHRAN - Iran's military is strong enough to stand up to anyone, and even the United States should think twice about a possible confrontation, a senior Iranian commander said in comments published Sunday. Brig. Gen. Ahmad Dadbin, commander of the army's ground forces, told the Kayhan Havai weekly that last month's military maneuvers in which 200,000 troops took part were proof of Iran's might.... [Iran Zamin News Agency reported Sunday that according to reports from Iran, at least 700 military personnel were killed during the maneuvers.] [Dadbin] suggested Iran was prepared to go to war over its claim on Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs, three Persian Gulf islands over which the United Arab Emirates also claims sovereignty.... [Reuters reported that Rafsanjani told Majlis that the US sanctions against the Islamic republic have had little effect.... "Yet, we should not be careless about it...Today the most bullying world power ... is countering us," Rafsanjani said. "We should be prepared for continuation of this confrontation."] Majlis Members Elect Temporary Speaker, Agence France Press, June 2 Nateq-Nouri, the leader of the conservative majority, was elected Sunday as the temporary speaker of Majlis. He won 132 votes compared to 105 votes for his rival Abdollah Nouri. Of the 249 deputies elected in April, 241 were present for todays vote.... [Reuters quoted Iranian journalists as saying that Nateq-Nouri's win was seen as a dry-run for the election of a permanent speaker.] Khamenei Bars Rafsanjani's Re-election, Iran Zamin News Agency, June 1 On Saturday, addressing the new Majlis, regime's spiritual leader, Ali Khamenei, urged the members to extend their assistance to both the Rafsanjani's government and the next government which will be headed by another outstanding personality. Khamenei's statement seems to reject rumors about the possibility of overriding the constitution by the spiritual leader to allow Rafsanjani run for a third term. Muslim Countries Must Unite Against Israel, Reuters, June 1 An Iranian newspaper said on Saturday that by electing right-winger Benjamin Netanyahu Israelis had voted for expansionism and hatred. "The victory of Netanyahu is a victory for extreme religious factions in Israel, which manifests Israel's obvious policies of expansionism. This phenomenon is a serious danger to the security and stability of the region," the English-language Iran News said. It said it was "an absolute necessity for all Islamic countries to unite and ward off this common enemy...It has become clear that Israeli society does not favor peace. It actually voted for hostility, intolerance, expansionism and hatred."... Gulf Arabs Tell Iran Not To Interfere in Bahrain, Reuters, June 2 DUBAI - Six Gulf Arab states on Sunday called on Iran not to engage in "acts of sabotage," warning that its ambitious arms program was a threat to the oil-rich region and far exceeded Tehran's defense needs. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) "demands that Iran does not interfere in the internal affairs of Bahrain and (other GCC) member states," the six-nation group said in a statement at the end of a foreign ministers' meeting in Riyadh. Non-Arab Iran must not "revert to acts of sabotage and encouraging them, and must respect the independence and sovereignty of GCC states," they said in the strongest message to Iran in recent years.... The GCC statement also expressed concern over Iran's "continued keen efforts to acquire and build an armament capability which far exceeds its conventional and legitimate defense needs.... The GCC's key ally the United States, which views Iran as a terrorist state, often claims that Iran is seeking to build nuclear weapons and has warned that Tehran posed a threat to world shipping by deploying lethal missiles in and around the Gulf waterway....