BRIEF ON IRAN Representative Office of The National Council of Resistance of Iran No. 442 Wednesday, June 26, 1996 3421 M Street NW #1032, Washington, DC 20007 Terrorist Blast at U.S. Facility in Saudi Arabia, Reuters, June 25 WASHINGTON — A fuel truck bomb exploded outside a U.S. military dormitory in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday killing 19 Americans and wounding about 160. President Bill Clinton, vowing vengeance, said the blast appeared to be the work of terrorists. "The latest information from Dhahran indicates that 19 people are dead and 105 are seriously injured," a U.S. Air Force statement released at the Pentagon said. The nighttime explosion left carnage and a giant crater at the U.S. military housing complex on the King Abdul Aziz Air Base in Khobar near Dhahran on Saudi Arabia's east coast. U.S. officials said two people driving the vehicle fled. "The explosion appears to be the work of terrorists and if that is the case, like all Americans, I am outraged by it," a grim- faced Clinton said. "The cowards who committed this murderous act must not go unpunished." Mullahs' Interference in the Persian Gulf States, Agence France Presse, June 24 Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's political advisor, Oussama Al-Baz, accused Iran of having been an accomplice in the terrorist operations in Bahrain. During a meeting with the foreign reporters in Cairo, Al- Baz said: "Iran tries to interfere in the internal affairs of the Persian Gulf countries and impose its hegemony on them; Iran also tries to export its revolution to Bahrain by means of terrorist operations."... Al-Baz added: "Iran's invitation for a united Islamic nation is only an excuse to interfere in the internal affairs of the Gulf countries." This is the first time in two years that an Egyptian official attacks Iran in such a strong fashion. Since late 1994 the two countries had refused to strongly criticize each other, however, they did not succeed in improving their relations. Tehran's Terrorism Condemned by Britain, BBC Radio 4, June 25 Britain has again condemned Iran for sponsoring terrorism abroad. The Foreign Office Minister Jeremy Handley says that Britain and its allies have information that Iran has behind recent attacks in Europe and else where, including the Middle East; and decedents who converged on Britain last weekend for a mass rally, say that there has been sharp increase lately in attacks on Iranian exiles abroad.... ... [The Iranian Resistance President-elect] Mrs. Rajavi is probably the most wanted woman in Iran. When I spoke to her she told me she travels through city to city in the West, heavily guarded and in secret. [Maryam Rajavi]: "I must be in hiding. I must be living with high security, its very difficult; but I think its very necessary for our movement and for freedom, for Iran." She has reason to fear, 11 Iranian exiles have been murdered so far this year outside Iran, a sharp increase on previous years.... There is evidence weapons are being smuggled from Iran, directly to Europe. Earlier this year an Iranian ship unloaded containers of vegetables at Antwerp in Brussels. It sailed off but hidden on the cargo left behind was a lethal cash of nearly two hundred pounds of explosives and mortar. The shipment was addressed to an Iranian business man in Munich who was arrested and freed on bail.... [foreign office minister Jeremy Henley says:] "We have information and its backed up by a number of our allies too, that Iran sponsors terrorism in a number of cases in the world. There have been 11 people killed in the last few months, that we believe have been killed on the orders of people in Iran. Iran also is agitating against the Middle Eastern peace process. So for a number of reasons Iran is putting itself outside the normal form of diplomatic relations which we wish as I say in time they will recognize is not in their interest...." OnNewsLine • Iran Zamin, June 17—Regime's agents arrested 43 youths, including several musicians. The arrests were conducted under the name of "fighting against social vice". • Tehran Radio, June 23—In an interview broadcasted from the state television, the minister of Housing and urbanization said that 160 to 220 thousand families live under the poverty line. • BBC Radio, June 24—Asadollah Lajevardi, head of Iran's prisons ... criticized representatives of the international human rights organizations and described them as sick individuals... Lajevardi added that the prison conditions in Iran are better than anywhere else in the world.