BRIEF ON IRAN No. 572 Tuesday, January 14, 1997 Representative Office of The National Council of Resistance of Iran Washington, DC Desperate Propaganda Cam-paign Against the Resistance, Iran Zamin News Agency, January 13 The political and military mobilization o the mullahs' regime and its propaganda campaign against the Iranian Resistance and Mojahedin have taken on unprecedented dimensions in last few weeks. Tehran regime has launched Air Corps patrols in the area between southwestern cities of Khorramshahr and Hovaizeh to capture the Mojahedin and their supporters inside Iran. Mojahedin headquarters in Baghdad, in a statement, denied a report by mullahs' Intelligence Ministry "on the death of five Mojahedin in a clash in Shour Shirin region o the city of Mehran and of the deaths of four Mojahedin members who took cyanide after being surrounded by the Security Forces in the cities of Mehran and Dehloran. The regime's media also wrote about two separate clashes in the provinces of Kermanshah and Khuzistan and falsely claimed that five members of the Mojahedin who had come from Iraq were killed in these clashes." Zero Defects? U.S. News & World Report, January 20 Because of a spate of defections - both rumored and real - Iran has dispatched a tough Intelligence Service teal to Europe to interview its diplomats there and to ferret out potential "trouble-makers," according to German-based intelligence sources. At least four officials have forsaken their country in the past 18 months, including a co-founder of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's secret service. Aside from the obvious embarrassment, Tehran fears the defectors will reveal details of its deadly campaign against Iranian exiles as well as its support of terrorist networks. The sources say that Iran's concerns have triggered an intragovernmental battle. The foreign Ministry, which monitors official's conduct, has recently made life difficult for Iranian diplomats by increasing its surveillance of them as well as issuing tough warnings against their engaging in "immoral behavior" while serving in foreign countries. In Iran "Just To Be Yourself Is To Be Political," The Washington Post, January 10 ... An Iranian visitor to Washington said that in Iran women and young people also are faring worse than they have ever. Raids into private homes have been stepped up under the pretext of a crackdown on satellite dishes, and Iranian authorities have begun a purge of university professors. "In Iran, just to be yourself is to be political," said the visitor... More Suppression Against Young, Reuters, January 8 TEHRAN - Iranian courts set up to fight Western cultural influences have ordered 130 youths held for attending parties that were "gatherings of debauchery," a court official was quoted as saying in a newspaper on Wednesday.... Agents also seized 1,243 satellite receivers imported from Dubai from two persons who were fined 80 million rials ($27,000), Kazemi said. Iran banned satellite television in 1995.... Iran Still Interested in South African Oil Storage, Reuters, January 13 TEHRAN - Iran and South Africa are still interested in an oil storage arrangement that would give Iran access to strategic facilities at Saldanha Bay, north of Cape Town, an Iranian oil official said on Monday.... The proposed deal also aroused criticism from Washington which is seeking to dent Iran's ability to increase oil revenues which accounts for the bulk of Tehran's revenue.... Iran's Population Reaches 59.5 Million, Reuters, January 13 TEHRAN - Iran's population has reached 59.5 million, with the largest Tehran province accounting for 11 million people, according to a national census by the Iran Statistics Center (ISC).... Independent population estimates of the region's most populous country have ranged between 60 and 68 million... Iran Government Employees Held for Taking Bribes, Reuters, January 13 TEHRAN - Twenty government employees in a poor suburb of Tehran have been arrested for taking bribes, the English-language Iran News paper reported on Monday. Those arrested included officials responsible for security in the Tehran working-class area of Robatkarim and a district mayor, Iran News said. "The mayor of the district of Sultan-Abad, whose name was not disclosed, is among those being prosecuted," the paper, quoting local press reports, said.