BRIEF ON IRAN
No. 581
Tuesday, January 28, 1997

Representative Office of
The National Council of Resistance of Iran
Washington, DC 


Extensive Clashes Reported in Northern and Western Iran, Iran Zamin News
Agency, January 27

Extensive clashes continued in various parts of the country in the past
days, between the Mojahedin and the popular Resistance forces on the one
hand and the mullah regime's Pasdaran (revolutionary Guards) and agents of
the Intelligence Ministry, the Mojahedin Command Headquarters in Iran reported.
	The intensity of the clashes in recent days in the provinces of Mazandaran
(northern Iran, near the Caspian sea) and Ilam (western Iran) became
unprecedented, and a large number of the regime's forces were killed or
wounded in these confrontations.
	Reuters reported: "In a statement faxed from their Paris office, the
Mujahedin said their forces based inside Iran had killed or wounded 'a large
number' of troops in clashes in Sari and in Ilam province...
	"The group denied four of its members were killed in Mehran [in Ilam
province] and did nor report any casualties in ranks in Sari."
	The statement by the Mojahedin added: "This is while none of the Mojahedin
or combatants of the National Liberation Army ever went from Iraq to Iran
and the border clashes alleged by the regime are absolutely false."
	Tehran's regime has in the past used this kind of pretext in preparing the
grounds for terrorist and military attacks against the activists and bases
of the Iranian Resistance in Iraq.


Israeli Official Says Iran Has Rearmed Hizbollah, Reuters, January 27

JERUSALEM - An Israeli official said on Monday Iran had fully rearmed the
Islamic militant Hizbollah in Lebanon since a 17-day Israeli blitz last
April depleted the group's arsenal.
	The official, who refused to be named, said Iran had made 30 arms shipments
in Boeing 747 planes via Damascus over the last nine months to Hizbollah
(Party of God) fighters waging a guerrilla war to expel Israeli troops from
south Lebanon. Iran denies that it sends arms to Hizbollah....


Tehran's Terrorism in Algeria, Reuters, January 25 

... [Algerian President Liamine] Zeroual, speaking on state television on
Friday, largely blamed "foreign circles" for manipulating those he called
"criminals, traitors and mercenaries" -- the authorities' terms for Moslem
fundamentalists....
	Zeroual's 20-minute prepared speech closed what newspapers termed a bloody
weekend, with massacres in which Le Matin said 59 people had been killed,
and other independent papers reported variously 26 people and 29....
	Early in the conflict, Algiers accused Iran and Sudan of backing armed
fundamentalists....
	The Algerian official news agency APS, in a report just ahead of Zeroual's
speech, quoted Algeria's ambassador to Spain as saying Iran had always
"morally and materially supported the terrorists" but would fail in
exporting its Islamist mode


Iran's Military Presence in Sudan, Reuters, January 26

Sudan's main opposition alliance on Sunday accused Iran of supplying
Khartoum's Islamist government with troops, tanks, chemical weapons and cash
to fight against rebels in the south and east.
	Mubarak al-Mahdi, secretary-general of the opposition National Democratic
Alliance (NDA), said Iran had sent 60 Russian-made tanks, six aircraft,
weapons experts and pilots to take part in the conflict which erupted this
month.
	"In the past few days, Iran has supplied Sudan with large amounts of heavy
and light weapons, goods and chemical weapons to use against the rebels," he
said in a faxed statement.
	"They have also sent a large number of air force pilots, troops and
military experts to use these weapons."...
	"The Iranian presence in Sudan has taken many forms...they are involved in
internal and external security and even train Sudanese fighters," said
Mahdi, who is based in Cairo.
	He said the Tehran-Khartoum alliance threatened Sudan's African and Arab
neighbors and that the most dangerous aspect of Iran's involvement was its
attempts to transform Sudan into another Shi'ite Moslem state....


In Light of U.S. Sanctions, Foreign Companies Not Willing to Invest in Iran,
Agence France Presse, January 27

TEHRAN - An Iranian official said that because of Washington economic
sanctions against Iran, foreign oil companies "do not show much willingness
to participate in oil projects in Iran."
	Mohsen Yahyavi, Tehran's deputy and deputy to the chair of Oil Commission
in the parliament, was quoted as saying that foreign companies "practically
have not respond positive to Iran's offers" for oil cooperation....
	Ten days ago Yahyavi, who is also a former ranking official of Iran's
National Oil Company, described the budget for the for next Iranian year as
"unrealistic," because of overestimated projected oil revenue.