BRIEF ON IRAN	
No. 615
Tuesday, March 18, 1997

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


22 Executions in March, Reuters, March 17

	GENEVA  - An Iranian exile group said Monday at least 22 people had been
officially reported executed in Iran this month in what it described as a
drive to head off popular uprisings.
	"Fearing popular uprisings, the mullah's anti-human regime has resorted to
more public executions to create an atmosphere of intimidation and terror in
society at large," the Paris-based National Council of Resistance said in a
statement.
	The statement, released in Geneva and sent to the current session of the
United Nations Human Rights Commission, said two people were hanged in the
main square of the city of Sedeh and two others in Shahin-Shahr [both in
central province of Isfahan] on March 12.
	All four were flogged before being hung, said the council...
	The statement said four people were hanged in Tehran's Qasr prison on March
12 for "moral offenses" and two others were executed at the prison in
Mashad, northeast Iran.
	It also said 12 people whose executions were publicly announced in the
first week of the month were hanged in [northeastern] Khorassan and
[northwestern] Azerbaijan provinces...
	The statement was issued as the U.N. commission moved into the second week
of its annual month-and-a-half long session in Geneva. It is expected to
hear a report on the rights situation in Iran.
	The exile group said it wanted to draw attention to "the persistent crimes"
of the Iranian government and it called on the international community "to
take urgent measures for an oil and a trade embargo against this medieval
dictatorship."


Cleric Voices Mullahs' Alarm at Resistance's Victory, State-controlled
radio, March 15

[The following is excerpts from the speech in Friday prayers by Mullah
Zarandi, representative of Khamenei, in western province of Kermanshah,
where many of its young residents constantly join the ranks of the National
Liberation Army of Iran]

	Today is March 14, [Several years ago] today a number of our beloved were
killed by the blind-hearted Mojahedin during Tehran's Friday prayers. These
are the kind of people who intend to come to Iran.  His wife wants to become
your President and he himself wants to become the leader. This is why they
do these things...  If, God forbid, God forbid, they were to come to Iran
and establish a government, you can imagine what they will do! This woman
and this man! There will be nothing left for you, because they themselves do
not have anything. 


Iran Still a Threat to Gulf: US Defense Official, Agence France Presse, March 17

	DOHA - A senior US defense official warned during a visit to Qatar on
Monday that Washington still considers Iran a threat to security in the Gulf
region.
	"The US views Iran arming itself with great concern -- we still view Iran
as a threat to the region, especially as Iran exports terrorism," said
Deputy Defense Secretary John White.


Kuwaiti Press Questions Iranian Security Role for Gulf, Agence France
Presse, March 17

	KUWAIT CITY - Kuwaiti commentators on Monday questioned Iran's call for
security cooperation with Gulf Arab states ahead of a visit to Kuwait by
Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati....
	"The true Iran, however, is not the Iran which Velayati presented" because
the Tehran government is in the grip of "phantom rulers" backing terrorist
activity throughout the Arab world, according to a front page editorial in
the English-language Arab Times, also carried in the Arabic sister paper
Al-Seyassah.
	"They (phantom rulers) meddled in the internal affairs of the (Gulf
Cooperation Council) states to sow terrorism and fundamentalism. This is the
real Iran," it said. "Velayati's talks in Riyadh are fine, but Tehran must
establish its good intentions by its actions."


Head of Rushdie Bounty Organization Appointed to Supreme Legislative Body,
Agence France Presse, March 17

	TEHRAN - ... Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani... was reappointed on Monday to
head the country's highest legislative body....
	Several members of the regime's revolutionary hard core were also
appointed, including the leader of the Islamic Propagation Organization,
Ayatollah Ahmad Janati, and Mohammad Mohammadi Reyshahri, a former
intelligence minister and head of Iran's pilgrimage affairs.
	Among the members is Hassan Sanei, head of Khordad-15 charity foundation,
which has set a 2.5 million-dollar bounty on the head of British author
Salman Rushdie, condemned to death here for alleged blasphemy against Islam.
		[Sanei's appointment reveals the absurd claims of Iranian officials that
the bounty has been set by a non-governmental foundation and has nothing to
do with state policies.]