BRIEF ON IRAN No. 507 Friday, September 27, 1996 Representative Office of The National Council of Resistance of Iran 3421 M Street NW #1032 Washington, DC 20007 Clinton On Iranian Threat, Voice of America, Editorial, September 25 As President Bill Clinton said in a report to the United States Congress this month, the U.S. continues to be concerned about the policies and actions of Iran.... As Mr. Clinton reported this month, the situation with Iran "continues to involve important diplomatic, financial and legal interests of the U.S. and its nationals and presents an extraordinary and unusual threat to the national security, foreign policy and economy of the U.S." The comprehensive economic sanctions, said President Clinton, underscore U.S. "opposition to the actions and policies of the government of Iran, particularly its support of international terrorism and its effort to acquire weapons of mass destruction and the means to deliver them." Two Iranian Agents on Trial in Paris, France Soir, September 25 The trial of two Iranians will begin tomorrow in a Paris punitive court. The two are accused of hiring agents to harass dissidents residing in Paris. Among the indicted is an agent of mullahs' secret service. Threatening opposition members abroad, pressuring their relatives in Iran and even assassination: the Iranian refugees say that they are the victims of an organized campaign of terror by Tehran. These pressures coincide with a series of trials for the killers of dissidents in Turkey, Italy and Germany... Increasing Opposition, More Repressive Forces, Radio Israel, September 25 Iran's Islamic Republic will set up a new paramilitary force, the Battalions of Hezbollah, to confront escalating popular dissent. Javad Karimi, the GC Brigadier General in charge of Bassij forces in Khorassan province (northeastern Iran) announced that the first of these battalions have been already formed in that province. He revealed that about 1,300,000 people would be organized in thousands of Battalions of Hezbollah. Iran Cries Out For Freedom, The Sunday Times, September 22 TEHRAN - ... Discontent over economic hardship and the activities of the moral police, a force of 300,000 Islamic "guardians" of the 1979 revolution, has grown to the extent that some Iranians believe - and fervently hope - it could ultimately lead to the hated regime being toppled... The government is treading a fine line... But with conservatives watching for any sign of wavering from strict Islamic principles, the government's few concessions towards demands for more freedom are being dismissed as cosmetic. "All we want is freedom," said one student last week. "What does it matter if we do not have to wear long-sleeved shirts? That is not freedom. Freedom is being allowed to speak openly without policemen coming calling in the night..." The population has doubled to 60m since the revolution. The poor survive on bread coupons from the state. Inflation is running at 60%. Self-sufficiency in oil is not expected to last for ever. The carpet-weaving industry is in decline and the government plagued by embezzlement scandals. People are increasingly restive and, by Iranian standards, outspoken. "Imagine if you were ruled by a bloodthirsty Archbishop of Canterbury," whispered one resident watching as a government cleric, flanked by secret police, walked into a Tehran hotel last week. Everyone in the lobby stood to attention as they swept by. "That is what we have here, a totalitarian country ruled by religious clerics...." "The last regime was corrupt," said Mehdi, 36, who had also marched as a teenager before the revolution in protest against the Shah. "But these people are just as bad. Why must they impose their own beliefs on everybody else? Why can't we all live together without one group telling the other what to do?" ... Younger women openly protest against the strictures by allowing their hair to poke out from under their scarves... "There will no doubt be a crackdown when the government's problems are resolved," said one journalist, looking nervously over his shoulder. "The hard-line mullahs will not allow this sort of behavior to go on indefinitely." ... A western diplomat was equally pessimistic. "Make no mistake, the mullahs will use brutal repression again if they believe they are under threat. Any signs of organized dissent will be ruthlessly put down." It has happened already. Uprisings in three Iranian states were crushed earlier this year and the ringleaders sent to Evin jail; other demonstrators simply disappeared. "The government is very clever," said one commentator. "Any uprisings are dealt with before news reaches the rest of the country, preventing unrest from spreading."