BRIEF ON IRAN	 
No. 599	
Monday, February 24, 1997
 
Representative Office of 
The National Council of Resistance of Iran	
Washington, DC 
 
 
Mullahs Use New Suppressive Measures To 
Confront Social Uprisings, Iran Zamin News 
Agency, February 22 
 
	In the past days, the government-
controlled press published a series of 
regulations, imposing new repressive measures 
against women, a statement issued by the NCR 
said. 
	A few days earlier, the deputy general 
commander of the Guards Corps "made 
reference to the Iranian Resistance's satellite 
program and its presence on the Internet, and 
announced that 'cultural offensive' via satellite 
and computer networks 'could turn into a 
security threat' for the regime," the statement 
added. 
	The mullahs intend to use the stepped-
up repressive measures "to confront the 
spreading wave of social uprisings and the 
people's increasing support for the Resistance;" 
however, the Iranian people "will stand up to 
these inhuman rules and regulations, and will 
respond with decisiveness to the defamation of 
the honorable women of Iran," the statement 
said. 
 
 
Iran Blames Pakistan, U.S. for Attack, United 
Press International, February 21   
 
	Iran blamed Pakistan's government 
Friday and the United States for the deaths of 
Iran's cultural attaché and six others at an 
Iranian cultural center in Pakistan, the German 
news agency DPA said.... 
	Iran's parliamentary speaker, (Ali 
Akbar Nateq Nuri,) accused the United States on 
Friday of being behind the attack and of sowing 
discord between the main two Muslim sects, the 
agency reported from Tehran.... 
 
 
NCR Lauds Turkey's Expulsion of Two Terrorist 
Diplomats, Iran Zamin News Agency, February 
22 
 
	Following the expulsion of two Iranian 
terrorist-diplomats by Ankara, the NCR issued a 
statement, welcoming the Turkish measures and 
called for the closure of the Iranian embassy and 
missions in Turkey. 
	"This is the necessary precondition to 
confront the mullahs' unbridled terrorism," the 
statement said. 
 
 
Terrorist "Could Not Have Ignored" Khamenei's 
Order-Defense Lawyer, AFP, February 20 
 
	A defense lawyer said Thursday a 
German court should accept his client acted out 
of religious fervor if  it finds him guilty of 
gunning down four Iranian Kurds, whom 
prosecutors allege were murdered on the orders 
of Iran's spiritual  leader. 
	Herbert Hedrich said his Lebanese 
client's deeply-held Shiite Moslem beliefs meant 
he could not have ignored an order by Iranian  
spiritual leader Ali Khamenei to shoot the 
men.... 
	Verdicts in the trial, which opened in 
October 1993, are expected next month and are 
being awaited with great interest because, in  
their summing up, the prosecutors have said 
Khamenei gave the assassination order.... 


Overview 
 
Iran's Efforts To Acquire Nuclear Power 
Intensifies 
Sunday Telegraph, February 23 
 
	...While the issue of Nato enlargement 
was top of the official agenda during Mrs 
Albright's tour, the Iran question featured 
prominently in private talks about what she 
regards as threats to international stability. 
	Washington has been critical of 
European attempts to improve relations with 
Iran through the European Union's controversial 
policy of "critical dialogue".... Most European 
leaders now accept that the critical-dialogue 
strategy, which sought to persuade the Iranians 
to renounce terrorism, has failed, especially 
since Teheran has consistently refused to lift the 
fatwa against Salman Rushdie.... 
	Iran's Atomic Energy Organization has 
contacts in Germany and a number of Vienna-
based "front" companies, whose primary 
function is to procure components, such as the 
cyclotron, for Teheran's nuclear weapons 
program.... Security experts believe the purchase 
of the more-advanced Austria equipment will 
enable Teheran to produce weapons-grade 
uranium within a few years. 
	Apart from the Austrian deal, Iranian 
agents have been active in many other countries 
as they scour the world for nuclear components. 
China remains Iran's most important nuclear 
trading partner.... 
	Fourteen Chinese nuclear experts have 
been seconded to work at Iran's nuclear research 
centers.... Former Soviet countries —
particularly Russia— have also proved helpful 
to the Iranians' search. 
	Apart from agreeing to complete Iran's 
controversial Bushire nuclear energy plant on 
the Gulf, Moscow has agreed to supply it with 
nuclear reactors and has sold it significant 
quantities of enriched uranium.... 
	Since 1992, the Iranians have also been 
active in Ukraine and Kazakhstan, which were 
known to have possessed large numbers of 
warheads in the Soviet era.... 
	"There is no doubt the regime is 
intensifying its efforts to acquire a nuclear 
weapons arsenal," said Hussein Abedini of the 
National Resistance Council of Iran, the main 
dissident group, which is closely monitoring the 
nuclear build-up. "If they continue to make 
progress at the current rate, they will have their 
own nuclear capability within five years."