BRIEF ON IRAN Representative Office of The National Council of Resistance of Iran No. 562 Thursday, December 19, 1996 3421 M Street NW #1032, Washington, DC 20007 "Pattern of Iranian Subversion Against Saudi Arabia", TIME, December 23 ...Indeed, the Saudis believe Tehran is the true perpetrator of the Dhahran incident. They have turned over evidence to Washington.... Over the past 15 years, the Saudis contend there has been a pattern of Iranian subversion against Saudi Arabia. The tactics have ranged from bringing agents in on rubber boats to smuggling them across the Yemeni border. Riyadh says some infiltrators are employed in or near Saudi military installations.... The evidence of an Iranian role in the Dhahran bombing is largely circumstantial, but Riyadh believes it is highly persuasive. Most of the 40 Shi'ites arrested on suspicion of involvement in the attack have visited Iran. Some have been in Iranian- supported Hizballah training camps in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. Many traveled between Syria, Iran and the Bekaa on false passports. With the help of FBI forensics experts, the explosive for the blast has been traced to the Lebanese Hizballah. The alleged Shi'ite driver of the truck used in the bombing is in custody. The bombmaker, a Lebanese Shi'ite linked to the Hizballah in Lebanon, has been identified and is believed to be in Iran. So is the leader of the Saudi Hizballah, the secret organization the Saudis uncovered after the Dhahran bombing. The Saudis believe all this points to Tehran.... Intellectuals are "Internal Enemies"—Clergies, Radio Israel, December 16 The powerful Society of Combatant Clerics published a declaration today, attacking Iran's intellectuals and free-thinkers, calling them people "who sharpen the enemy's sword against the Islamic regime."... The Society of Combatant Clerics labeled Iranian intellectuals "internal enemies" who are collaborating with the new ploys of the Global Arrogance.... Rajavi Condemns Persecution of Writers in Iran, Iran Zamin News Agency, December 18 According to a statement issued by NCR on Wednesday, Mr. Massoud Rajavi, President of the NCR condemned the "arrests and abductions of writers, intellectuals and journalists in Iran and increasing censorship and restrictions imposed on their works." Mr. Rajavi "called on international human rights organizations to take urgent action to save and secure the release of those arrested." In recent weeks, a number of writers and intellectuals have been arrested by the Ministry of Intelligence and no information is available on their fate, the statement said. NCR statement added that: "The Iranian people are extremely appalled at Western countries' economic and diplomatic ties with the illegitimate dictatorship ruling Iran and call for international trade and diplomatic sanctions against the regime." Why Ease Up On Iran?, The Washington Post, by Peter W. Rodman, December 11 [Continued from BOI 561] ...The alternative policies urged (or implied, since not all critics of "containment" are explicit about their recommendations) are incoherent. What would relieving Iran of pressures accomplish? What is the evidence that this leniency would change the regime's behavior or its deeply held ideological convictions, and not just give it greater freedom of action to continue doing what it eagerly seeks to do (i.e., undermine Western positions in the region)? How do we know that a conciliatory turn wouldn't just be taken in Tehran as vindication of its present radical line? There is more wishful thinking here than evidence or analysis. This is the optimistic rationale, for example, of the European Union's policy of "critical dialogue" with Iran -- in which Europe conducts normal commerce with Iran in the hope of moderating its behavior. Last April, a troika of EU foreign ministers visited Tehran hoping to obtain an official statement from the Islamic Republic condemning terrorism; they came home empty-handed. The farcical level that this policy can reach is most evident in Germany: In 1993 Iran's minister of intelligence and security was welcomed in Bonn as a state guest; in 1996, he is the subject of an arrest warrant from a German court in connection with terrorist murders in Berlin, and the mullahs now are threatening a fatwa against the German prosecutors. Is this the brilliant policy we are to emulate? It's a mystery to me where the impatience is really coming from. The present U.S. policy is clearly more of a burden on Iran than on the United States. Why are we so restless? "Containment" of the Soviet Union, in George Kennan's classic 1947 exposition, called for patience above all. A shift in administration policy also is likely to trigger a reaction in Congress, where the majority sentiment is that the law should be enforced and given a chance to work. After all, the displeasure of our allies comes not from their conviction that the new sanctions won't have an economic effect, but from a fear that they will: European companies now are more wary of doing business in Iran. We should keep our cool.