BRIEF ON IRAN	 
	Representative Office of 
	The National Council of Resistance of Iran
	No. 520	
	Thursday, October 17, 1996 
 
 
3421 M Street NW #1032, Washington, DC 20007

 

Mullahs' Military Spending Increased, Voice of 
America, Farsi Service, October 15 
 
	According to London based MEES 
economic journal, purchase of weapons by Middle 
Eastern and North African countries, which had 
increased considerably since 1992, has increased 
again.... 
	Published figures show that Iran's military 
budget for the current fiscal year is increased 
significantly. Iran's last year military budget was 
$2.5 billion and will reach $3.4 billion this year. 
 
 
Iran's Bid For Zone of Influence Suffers Setbacks, 
Reuters, October 15 
 
	Iran's bid for regional influence has taken a 
battering with setbacks on both its eastern and 
western borders, religious concerns in Central Asia, 
and a U.S. military buildup in the Gulf, analysts said 
on Tuesday. 
	On all fronts, the Islamic republic of 60 
million people ruled by Moslem clergymen is locked 
in an ideological battle for the hearts and minds of 
its neighbors.... 
	In the east, Tehran's Shi'ite Moslem rulers 
oppose the Taleban movement of radical Sunni 
Moslems who seized the Afghan capital Kabul last 
month from the government of Burhanuddin 
Rabbani, which Iran continues to recognize as 
legitimate.... 
	On its western border, Iran is accused by a 
Kurdish faction in Iraq of helping a rival group to 
retake Iraq's biggest Kurdish city.... 
	To the south, Iran's Arab neighbors across 
the Gulf earlier this year charged Tehran with 
interference in their internal affairs, notably in the 
state of Bahrain where dissidents among the majority 
Shi'ite Moslem community oppose their Sunni 
rulers.... 
	And to Iran's north, Velayati and other 
envoys from Tehran are frequent visitors to 
neighboring Turkmenistan and other former Soviet 
republics of Central Asia with large Islamic 
communities.... 
	[A Middle East analyst said:] "The only 
relatively quiescent place on Iran's borders, if you 
count the United States and its allies in the Gulf, is 
Armenia." 
 
 
Turkey-Iran Natural Gas Deal May Not Occur, Dow 
Jones News, October 15 
 
	Days after meeting with a visiting Turkish 
delegation, U.S. State Department officials said they 
don't believe a previously reported $22 billion 
natural gas contract between Turkey and Iran will go 
through.  
	"We do not believe that the proposed gas-oil 
deal between Iran and Turkey - we don't believe it's 
been consummated. We don't believe it's been fully 
agreed to," department spokesman Nicholas Burns 
told reporters.... 
 
 
Another Bloody Accident In Iran, Agence France 
Presse, October 10 
 
	According to daily Ettelaat, in an accident 
involving a passenger bus and a truck in central 
Iran, 15 passengers were killed and 26 others were 
severely wounded. The accident occurred in the city 
of Shahreza... 
	Iran is one of the countries with most 
accidents. Each year about 40,000 serious accidents 
take place in Iran, which has only about 3 million 
vehicles. 
 
 
Iranian Ayatollahs Building Chemical Arsenal, 
Sunday Telegraph, October 13 
 
	Western security chiefs have launched an 
urgent inquiry into reports that Iran will be able to 
produce its own advanced chemical weapons within 
a year, posing a massive security risk to the oil-rich 
Gulf states and the stability of the whole Middle 
East. 
	For the past six years Iran has been 
involved in a frantic effort to acquire weapons of 
mass destruction - nuclear, chemical and biological - 
under the personal supervision of President Hashemi 
Rafsanjani, the Iranian leader. 
	Hundreds of millions of dollars have been 
pumped into projects to acquire materials and 
technological expertise.... 
	But following an exhaustive intelligence 
gathering operation by a number of Western 
agencies, experts believe Iran is now on the verge of 
producing deadly nerve agents such as sarin and VX, 
which will greatly enhance the ayatollahs' ability to 
threaten the region.... 
	As a result of the considerable technical and 
material help Iran has received from a number of 
foreign countries - China, in particular - Western 
experts believe Teheran will be able to produce these 
nerve agents in industrial quantities within 12 
months.... 
	The initiative began in earnest in 1990 and 
Iran now has an extensive network of research 
establishments and industrial complexes that will 
soon enable it to become the largest producer of 
chemical weapons in the region. 
	The Iranians have also conducted 
exhaustive research into different means of 
deploying the nerve agents. These include bombs, 
adapted katyusha rockets and long-range ballistic 
missiles.... 
[To Be Continued]