BRIEF ON IRAN	 
	Representative Office of 
	The National Council of Resistance of Iran
	No. 551
	Wednesday, December 3, 1996 
 
 
 
 
3421 M Street NW #1032, Washington, DC 20007       
 
 
 

Iran Opposition Says Ambassador, Diplomats Defect, 
Reuters, December 3  
 
	Iran's ambassador to Tajikistan and at least 
three other Iranian diplomats based in Pakistan and 
Europe have defected and sought political asylum, an 
Iranian opposition group said Tuesday. 
	There was no official confirmation of the report 
by the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of 
Iran. The Iranian embassy in Paris declined immediate 
comment. 
	"According to reliable information, Ali Ashraf 
Mojtahed Shabestari, the (late Ayatollah Ruhollah) 
Khomeini regime's ambassador to the Republic of 
Tajikistan, has defected from the regime and requested 
political asylum," the council said. 
	"Another of the regime's diplomats in Pakistan 
and at least two others in European countries have done 
the same in protest," it said in a statement. 
	Tehran had sent a mission from the Ministry of 
Intelligence to Europe to review personnel at each 
embassy, it added. 
	"The mission's assignment is to prevent the 
wave of desertions and send back to Iran those elements 
who are recognized as suspicious," it said. 
	The statement did not say where diplomats had 
sought political asylum in Europe. It said that three 
diplomats in Bonn who were "planning on defection 
were (tricked) back to Tehran. Six of the embassy staff 
were dismissed in this connection." 
	The Council quoted what it called a close 
associate of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali 
Khamenei as saying defections were caused by 
"advances of the Mojahedin and the stagnancy of the 
diplomacy of the Islamic Republic" which was 
demoralizing Tehran's foreign ministry staff. 
 
 
Mullahs' Terrorists Murder Four Kurds, Iran Zamin 
News Agency, December 3 
 
	The NCR reported that on Saturday, December 
1, Tehran's agents attacked a group of members of the 
Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran and their families 
near Koysanjaq, Iraqi Kurdistan and killed five 
wounded several. The NCR reported that victims 
included an innocent four-year-old child.  
	The murders "took place only a few hours 
before the Third Committee of the U.N. General 
Assembly passed a resolution condemning the mullahs' 
violations of human rights and export of terrorism," the 
NCR statement said.	"With those murdered on 
December 1, the number of victims of the regime's 
terrorism in 1996 amounts to 22."  
 
 
More Islamicization of Universities, Radio Israel, 
December 2 
 
	Once again, Khamenei [mullahs' top leader] 
called for further Islamicization of Universities in 
Iran.... 
	He also called for admitting those students into 
the medical schools who are Muslims and faithful and 
are better than others in adhering to Islamic ethics and 
rules. 
	[Last month, Jannati, a powerful mullah and 
the head of Khamenei's representatives in Iran's 
universities, said that "saving the universities is like 
saving the country. Bassiji thinking and Islamic 
organizations are the most important factors in the 
Islamicization of the universities."] 
 
 
Mullahs' Failure in Iran, The Associated Press, 
December 3   
 
	...faith in Iran more and more resembles a 
defeated soldier returning from the front -- weary of the 
slogans, blind to the symbols and desperate for a quiet, 
ordinary life. 
	Iran's economy is a mess, salvaged only by oil 
revenues that allow it to muddle along without drastic 
reforms. On average, Iranians earn two-thirds what they 
did before the revolution. Inflation runs at 50 percent.... 
	After 17 years, Iran has failed to create a 
uniquely Islamic response to the challenges of a modern 
world that are powerful fodder for Islamic activists 
elsewhere.... 
	In fact, many Iranians say, religion itself has 
fallen victim. The clergy, Islam's most identifiable 
symbol, are blamed for society's ills, particularly the 
mismanagement of the economy, diminishing 
substantial moral authority built over centuries.... 
	It is an explosive idea in a society effectively 
run by clergy.... 
 
 
Stepped Up Repression in Iran, Iran Zamin News 
Agency, December 3 
 
	In a statement issued today, the NCR reported 
that the Tehran regime "has stepped up repression of the 
Iranian people and violations of human rights in an 
unprecedented scale." The statement said that the 
regime's has recently employed more Guards Corps 
patrols in Tehran, harassing and arresting a large 
number of women under the pretext of improper veiling. 
	"Stepped up repression is but a reaction to the 
spread of social protests and increasing support for the 
Iranian Resistance," the NCR said.