BRIEF ON IRAN	 
	Representative Office of 
	The National Council of Resistance of Iran
	No. 544
	Thursday, November 21, 1996 
 
 
3421 M Street NW #1032, Washington, DC 20007
 


German Minister Backs Prosecutors in Row with 
Iran, Reuters, November 20 
 
	Germany's justice minister on Wednesday 
backed prosecutors who have accused Iran of 
ordering the 1992 killing of three dissidents in a 
Berlin restaurant. 
	Edzard Schmidt-Jortzig said he was 
appalled by demonstrators' calls outside the German 
embassy in Tehran for the death of prosecutors 
trying to convict an Iranian and four Lebanese in the 
case, being heard in a Berlin court. 
	"The federal prosecution service has acted 
completely legally in the case," Schmidt-Jortzig said. 
"I will personally ensure it is also able to carry out its 
duty in the future, unaffected by political pressure 
and external threats." 
	About 1,000 hardline Islamic protesters 
rallied outside the embassy on Tuesday in the third 
protest over the past week, chanting "The German 
prosecutor should be executed." 
	[The Associated Press reported on Tuesday 
that: "Iran's top judge, Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, 
said Monday that the German government must 
condemn the prosecutors who made the allegations. 
If not, Tehran radio quoted him as saying, 'the 
German government must be ready to accept the 
consequences resulting from this great mistake.'"] 
	Several parliamentarians expressed 
reservations about Bonn's policy of "critical 
dialogue" towards Iran and said it was time 
Germany, Iran's largest trade partner, applied more 
pressure..... 
	The latest tension in relations between 
Bonn and Tehran was sparked when a German 
prosecutor accused Iran of ordering the killings of 
three Kurdish leaders.... 
 
 
"Abandon Critical Dialogue!", Agence France 
Presse, November 20 
 
	Officials of Chancellor Helmut Kohl's CDU 
asked him on Wednesday to abandon "critical 
dialogue" with Iran and called for a decisive action 
by German government vis-à-vis Iran. 
	Ruprecht Polenz, the party's expert on Iran, 
was quoted by the Berliner Morgenpost newspaper as 
calling on [German Foreign Minister] Klaus Kinkel 
to "abandon critical dialogue", saying that that policy 
has not had any results so far. 
	He strongly recommended replacement of 
"critical dialogue" by a policy of "active influence" 
by Europe which must impose "restrictive conditions 
on Tehran".... 


Mullahs Threaten To Issue "Fatwa" Against German 
Federal Prosecutor, Agence France Presse Reports, 
November 20 
 
	On Wednesday, Iranian Shiite clerics of the 
holy city of Qom threatened to issue a "fatwa" 
[religious edict], similar to that against Salman 
Rushdie, against German prosecutors. 
	AFP has learned that the threat was 
announced during a demonstration by thousands of 
clerics and seminary students in which governor and 
parliamentary deputies of Qom participated.  
	According to a statement issued by the 
demonstrators, the German judiciary's "insult is of 
the same nature of that of Satanic Versus" by Salman 
Rushdie.... The statement adds that "the mercenary 
prosecutors must receive maximum punishment...." 
	...The German Foreign Ministry spokesman 
Martin Erdmann stressed that his ministry is 
informed about Qom's threats and warned "all 
officials in Iran regarding the increase of tensions" 
between the two countries, should the threat be 
carried out.... 
	[The NCR reported that in their 
demonstration in the traditional strong-hold city of 
Qom, the mullahs chanted "If the dirty fascist 
prosecutors do not apologize for their satanic 
affront...we will condemn them like Rushdie...." The 
NCR condemned these threats and called on the 
German government to take a decisive action against 
Tehran.] 
 
 
Iran Says Israel, U.S. Main Foes, Reuters, November 
20  
 
	Iran's supreme leader [said on Wednesday] 
Israel and the United States were Iran's main foes 
and the hostility of others was secondary. 
	"Our main enemy is made up of these two 
filthy and evil elements: the Great Satan (U.S.) and 
the Zionists," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a 
speech broadcast on Tehran radio.... 
	State-run Tehran radio said slogans against 
Israel and the United States were the main chants in 
a demonstration against the German charges held on 
Wednesday by Islamic seminary students and 
teachers in the holy city of Qom.... 
 
 
Germany Looking into Fate of Iranian Journalist, 
Reuters, November 20  
 
	The German Foreign Ministry said on 
Wednesday its embassy in Tehran was looking into 
the whereabouts of an Iranian journalist amid fresh 
allegations he had been arrested by the Iranian secret 
service en route to Germany.... 
	"The embassy is looking into the matter," 
said a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, who declined 
to make any further comment....