BRIEF ON IRAN
No. 589
Friday, February 7, 1997

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


Bosnian Spy Network Under Mullahs' Influence Stirs Concerns in U.S., Los
Angeles Times, February 6

	WASHINGTON - The Clinton administration has received a new and troubling
secret report that says Bosnia's Muslim government is setting up an
underground intelligence service heavily influenced by Iran, according to
U.S. intelligence sources.
	The classified intelligence report, now being circulated throughout the
administration, says a senior Bosnian government official forced out of
power under American pressure in November because of his close ties to Iran
is setting up a secret intelligence network for Bosnian President Alija
Izetbegovic....
	If the report is entirely accurate, Cengic's powerful, unofficial
intelligence role would mark a major setback in U.S. efforts to reduce or
eliminate Iranian influence in Bosnia, which has remained one of the biggest
strategic problems for the Clinton administration in the Balkans....
	The United States had detected that... [Bosnia's security] agency had given
Iran the identity of an undercover CIA officer serving in Bosnia...  Then in
early 1996, North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces serving in Bosnia
uncovered a terrorist training camp manned by Iranian officials in Bosnia....
	His firing only seemed to enhance his stature. Iranian officials, who
clearly see themselves as in a competition with the United States to win
hearts and minds in Bosnia, appears to be trying to capitalize on the
resentment inside Bosnia against the U.S. role in the Cengic affair.
	"I think that the Americans should not have meddled in the personnel issues
of Bosnia-Herzegovina," Mohammad Ibrahim Teherian, the Iranian ambassador to
Bosnia, said in a recent interview with a Sarajevo newspaper. "With their
behavior toward Mr. Cengic, they have made him an even greater hero of his
country."...


Witness Tells Murder Trial He Spied for Iran, Reuters, February 6

	BERLIN - An Iranian witness in a Berlin murder trial on Thursday rejected
Iran's charge he had lied when he said he had worked as an Iranian agent and
had inside knowledge of Tehran's power structures.
	Abolhassem Mesbahi, 39, denounced in November by Iran as a western spy and
criminal after he testified in court Tehran's leaders had ordered political
killings in Germany, told the court he had worked for Iranian intelligence
in the 1980s.
	The Berlin court, trying an Iranian and four Lebanese for the 1992 murder
of three Kurdish dissidents and their translator in a Berlin cafe, asked
Mesbahi to give more details about his work as an agent until he defected in
1986.
	"Until 1983 I was an Iranian agent based in France. Then I was expelled,"
he said speaking in Farsi through a translator. "My position improved and I
was given a kind of leadership over Iranian intelligence operations in
western Europe."...
	"I never worked for any foreign intelligence service only for that of the
Islamic Republic of Iran," he told the court.
	Mesbahi described in detail how he had carried out secret negotiations with
Bonn for the release of a German businessman kidnapped in Tehran from 1987
to 1988....


Iranian Envoy in Anti-Israel Row to Leave Turkey, Reuters, February 6

	ANKARA - Iran's ambassador to Turkey, at the center of a diplomatic row
over an anti-Israel rally in Ankara, is to leave the country, a government
MP said on Thursday....
	The Turkish foreign ministry protested to Iran this week after the
ambassador spoke at the "Jerusalem Night" rally in Ankara along with the
district mayor. The speeches were blasted by Turkish media as a call for
Islamic sharia law....
	Anatolian quoted a foreign ministry official as saying Ankara as also
considering a protest against Iran's consul in Istanbul for noting Turks
made up the crowd applauding the ambassador's speech.
	The main opposition Motherland Party has asked the government to explain
the conduct of the Iranian ambassador. The media are asking why Bagheri is
still in Turkey.
	Welfare party leader Necmettin Erbakan, modern Turkey's first Islamist
prime minister, visited Iran soon after forming a ruling coalition with a
conservative party in June.


Iran Quake Toll Rises to 79 Dead, 260 Injured, Reuters, February 6

	TEHRAN - The toll from two strong earthquakes that rocked a mountainous
region in northeastern Iran this week rose to 79 dead and 260 injured, the
Iranian news agency IRNA said on Thursday.
	It quoted Deputy Interior Minister Rasoul Zargar as also saying some 25,000
people were made homeless by the quakes on Tuesday which were centered near
the town of Bojnurd, about 580 km (360 miles) northeast of Tehran.
	Zargar, who heads Iran's natural disasters agency, said some 65 villages
were damaged by the tremors...
	More than 12,200 heads of cattle were killed by the quakes, Zargar added....