BRIEF ON IRAN No. 450 Tuesday, July 9, 1996 Representative Office of The National Council of Resistance of Iran 3421 M Street NW #1032 Washington, DC 20007 Cleric Hopes for More Bombing Against U.S., State-run Television, July 6 Qom, Iran - Javadi Amoli, Khamenei's representative in city of Qom, Friday sermon: "Now, it has been announced that our Revolutionary Guard brothers in Qom and central provinces... have set a camp in oath of allegiance with the leadership... You see, it is their blessing... that America will fail... She tried to campaign for sanctions against Iran. It was neutralized. Occasionally you see their forces... yesterday in Riyadh, and [today] in Dhahran they were in discomfort. Their base was exploded. These are the products of cries of... rising from Iran.... Well, what islands are safer for the U.S. than Riyadh and Dhahran? But, you saw that neither Riyadh, nor Dhahran was a safe place for them... We hope there are more... God willing, there won't be any safe place for them... and everywhere events, similar to that of Riyadh and Dhahran happens to them so that [U.S.] leaves the oppressed Iran and other countries alone..." Saudi Envoy Does Not Rule Out Mullahs' Involvement, Reuters, July 7 The Saudi ambassador to the United States cleared Syria on Sunday of involvement in two guerrilla attacks that killed 24 Americans but said he could not rule out Iran or any other nation as a possible culprit. Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the envoy and a member of the Saudi ruling family, was asked in a television interview whether he knew of involvement by Syria or any other nation in either of the two bombings. "With Syria, definitely not," Bandar said on the ABC News program "This Week With David Brinkley." Pressed on possible involvement by fundamentalist Iran or another state, Bandar replied, "I cannot rule out anything or rule in anything as far as other options."... Real Intentions Behind Desire to Talk with Egypt, Iranian Paper Attacks Egyptian President, Reuters, July 8 Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mahmoud Moham-madi, quoted by state-run Tehran radio, said Iran regretted the way Egyptian officials had reacted to Syria's "honest" diplomacy. He was referring to Egypt's rejection of a Syrian proposal that Egyptian and Iranian ministers meet to resolve nearly two decades of differences. "Our principled position towards Egypt has not changed and Egypt can hope for relations with...Iran with every step that it takes away from the Zionist regime (Israel)," Mohammadi said. "Iran's welcoming of Syria's diplomacy helps reinforce the Arab world's position against the Zionist regime's expansionism more than it insures...Iran's own special interests," he said.... [In a related story the Reuters reported the following] An Iranian newspaper attacked Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Monday saying he should put his house in order rather than blame Iran for supporting subversive activities in Arab countries. "Absurd and contradictory statements about Iran came from Egypt...which would not serve any purpose and will only harm the interests of the Egyptian people," said the English-language Iran News.... Crossing the Red Line, BBC Radio, July 6 Mohammad Javad Larijani, A member of National Security Council and member of Parliament's Foreign Policy Committee, in an interview talked about the existence of a red line in Islamic Republic that no one should cross. In Larijani's view, who is known as one of theoreticians of the traditional right, campaigning that the theocratic rule is nonsense... or there is no such thing as Islamic government, is against the system's infrastructure and is crossing that red line.... Iranians in Holland Mourn the Asylum-seeker's Death, Iran Zamin News Agency, July 8 The body of Amir Salehi, an Iranian asylum-seeker, in Holland was buried in the presence of a large number of Iranians and members of Dutch human rights organizations. This Iranian, who set himself afire two months ago, died in protest to the policy of Dutch foreign ministry toward Iranian refugees. The Dutch foreign ministry has considered Iran a safe place for the Iranian refugees to return. But following the protests by asylum-seekers, public opinion, political and human rights communities in the Netherlands and the world, the Dutch parliament set the review of this policy on its agenda. A Million Jobless on the Way, Radio Israel, July 7 A research publication in London reported that as time goes by, Iran's economic troubles intensify and in particular youths unemployment is taking worrisome dimensions. The Arab-language monthly, Al Mo'jez an-Iran, in its last issue wrote only thirty percent of Iranians are working... In the views of this magazine analysts, the failure in implementation of [Rafsanjani's] five-year-program is one of the reasons for the rise of unemployment. But at the same time, Iran's population has risen unprecedently and this has added to the worsening of the unemployment.