BRIEF ON IRAN	
No. 586
Tuesday, February 4, 1997

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


Turkey Protests Iran Over Ambassador's Controversial Remarks, Agence France
Presse, February 3

	ANKARA - Turkey on Monday protested to Iran over controversial remarks made
by the Iranian ambassador backing supporters of the introduction of Islamic
sharia law here, foreign ministry officials said.
	Ambassador Mohammad Reza Bagheri was summoned to the foreign ministry and
handed Turkey's protest note, they said.
	Foreign ministry undersecretary Ali Tuygan who met Bagheri told the
ambassador that Turkey found his remarks unacceptable.
	Bagheri on Friday told a gathering organized by the Islamist mayor of an
Ankara suburb that "victory will come to Islam across the world."
	Supporters of sharia "should not be afraid of being called fundamentalist
by others," he said, adding: "They are the most rational of the faithful."...
	The leader of the nationalist opposition Democratic Left Party, Bulent
Ecevit, called Monday for the ambassador to be expelled....
 	In another development in Sincan on Monday, a group of apparent Islamic
fundamentalist militants attacked a private television team, injuring a
reporter, the Interstar television said.
	Interstar said its reporter, Isin Gurel, was hospitalized after she was
beaten up in the attack, but was in a satisfactory condition.


Netanyahu Criticizes Critical Dialogue as Futile, Radio Israel, February 1

	According to Israeli officials accompanying prime minister Benjamin
Netanyahu to the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, as well as the aides
of foreign minister David Levi who are accompanying him in Paris, Messrs.
Netanyahu and Levi have raised the issue of EU's cooperation with Iran's
Islamic government with the European senior officials.
	In his discussions with the leaders of EU countries, Mr. Netanyahu stressed
that the so called  policy of critical dialogue with Tehran has gone
nowhere.  He said that with the failure of this policy, Europe should
reconsider its position.   Mr. Netanyahu expressed the opposition of the
Israeli government to the Europe's policy of appeasement towards the Islamic
republic.
	According to these reports, the Israeli prime minister told the leaders
that not only Tehran's position has not changed, but as a result of critical
dialogue, Europe has strengthened the Islamic regime.... 


Rushdie Slams E.U. for its Dealings with Iran, Reuters, February 3

	LONDON - British author Salman Rushdie has criticized the European Union
for its inability to persuade Iran to lift its death threat against him and
accused Islamic extremists of attacking intellectual freedom....
	"What I would have liked to have happened was that the maximum pressure was
applied to the people that issued the threat and a greater effort was made
to remove the threat from the people who are targeted," he said in an
interview ahead of the anniversary of the imposition of the fatwa on
February 14.
	"Sometimes I think the opposite has happened," he told Reuters Television....
	Iran maintains that the fatwa against Rushdie is irrevocable...
	"The critical dialogue with Iran...has achieved absolutely nothing,"
Rushdie said.
	"It makes me feel it is a very useful fig leaf for the European Union. They
can claim to be doing something about human rights in Iran while actually
many European states are trying to increase their trade relations (with
Iran)."...


Israel Blasts Syria on Ignoring Iran's Arms Transport, United Press
International, February 3

	JERUSALEM - ...  Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy has blasted Syria for
trying to resume negotiations while allowing Iranian arms shipments to reach
the Islamic militia group, saying Syrian 
"policy is extreme...and speaks to us in two voices."
	Levy told the Yediot Ahronot newspaper, "We know of 30 transport jets which
have brought from Iran munitions and arms for the Hezbollah via Syria" in
the past ten months....


German Deputy Urges Iran to Lift Death Sentences, Reuters, February 3

	BONN - A German member of parliament appealed to Iran on Monday not to
execute four members of the Bahai faith who have been sentenced to death for
their religious beliefs.
	Ruprecht Polenz, an Iranian affairs specialist in Chancellor Helmut Kohl's
Christian Democratic Union, said he had sent letters of protest to the
Iranian justice and foreign ministries and to Iran's ambassador in Germany.
	"Execution is imminent for two of the men. Two others are waiting for a
decision from Iran's highest court," said Polenz....