BRIEF ON IRAN
        No. 436
        Tuesday, June 18, 1996


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


Tehran's Government Hangs 12 Dervishes, Iran Zamin News
Agency, June 17

        Tehran's government has resumed public hanging by
hanging twelve dervishes in western city of Hamedan.  The
state-run newspapers have claimed the reason for the
hangings were "moral corruption."
        The National Council of Resistance of Iran, in an
statement condemning these act of terrors by ruling
mullahs, said: "Such public executions are aimed at
terrorizing the public, especially since the murderous
mullahs are horrified at the specter of popular uprising as
social discontent continues to escalate across the country."
        In recent weeks the clerics have resumed hanging in
public in several cities of Iran, usually under the pretense
of moral corruption and drug trafficking.


Iranian Exiles Harassed at U.N. Union, Radio Israel, June 14

        On Friday, the secretary-general of International
Labor Union in a letter to Michel Hansenne, Director-
General of the U.N.'s International Labour Organisation
(ILO), currently holding its annual conference, complained
that Iranian exiles in its delegation to a United Nations
conference had been harassed and threatened by official
Tehran representatives.
        Secretary-general, Carlos Custer said three Iranian
exiles in his team had been subjected to "aggression and
harassment" as well as death threats "by members of the
Iranian delegation at the conference" in Geneva.
        The three were representatives of the exile
"Democratic Iranian Workers' Union."...
Gulf Arabs Want Harder European Line on Iran, Reuters,
June 17

        DUBAI - The oil-rich but militarily vulnerable Gulf
Arab states want European countries to back the United
States' tough policy on Iran to deter any security threats
from Tehran, a Gulf official said on Monday.
        "We are not asking for a war against Iran," the official
who asked to remain anonymous told Reuters.
        "We are happy with the American position. But we
want the European countries to make it very clear to Iran
that they cannot continue to do what they are doing here or
else they will face consequences."
        Gulf Arab states have become increasingly concerned
about their powerful non-Arab neighbor....


Wider U.S. Sanctions Aim at Iran's Oil Industry, Reuters,
June 17

        DUBAI - White House sanctions penalizing foreign
firms which invest in Iran's oil industry challenge Tehran's
attempts to attract more than $7 billion to its petroleum
sector, Gulf oil industry sources said on Monday....
        Aghazadeh [mullahs' oil minister] has said Iran needs
foreign firms not for technology but because of their ability
to raise outside financing, an obstacle to Tehran which is
saddled with more than $30 billion in foreign debt and
perceived by some international bankers as a borrower
with risk....
Mullahs Plotted Bomb Attack on Resistance, London Sunday
Times, June 16

        Evidence has come to light implicating Iran in a plot to
blow up the headquarters of the country's top resistance
organization, based in Paris.
        The bomb plot against the Iranian National Council of
Resistance was foiled when Belgian customs officers
searched cargo from an Iranian freighter that docked at
Antwerp last March and uncovered 300 kilos of explosives,
including Semtex and a high-caliber mortar....
        Western security services concluded last week... that
the target of the bombers was the resistance council in
Paris.
        The organization is led by Maryam Rajavi, whose
husband, Massoud Rajavi, is directing a military campaign
against the mullahs from a heavily fortified bunker in
Baghdad, Iraq.  The couple, who have not seen each other
for several years, are at the top of Iran's hit list and have
lost several relatives in their struggle to overthrow the
government in Tehran.
        Already this year 11 Iranian dissidents have been
murdered abroad.  The latest victim was Reza Mazlouman...
        German police arrested Ahmad Djayhouni, allegedly a
high-ranking agent of the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence
(MOI), in connection with his killing.  The French are
seeking his extradition.
        Djayhouni's arrest could provide a gold mine of
information about Iran's European assassination networks,
and the Iranian embassy in Bonn, which is heavily
implicated in intelligence, terrorism and arms procurement,
is trying to block his extradition.