BRIEF ON IRAN No. 623 Monday, March 28, 1997 Representative Office of The National Council of Resistance of Iran Washington, DC Rushdie Calls European Ties With Iran "Obscene", Reuter, March 27 STRASBOURG, France - British writer Salman Rushdie, who is under an Iranian death threat, said on Thursday that European countries' relations with Tehran amounted to encouraging state-sponsored murder. "The Iranian government has commissioned murders for which all European governments know it is responsible. And yet Iran has always been treated like a civilized country," Rushdie told a meeting of the Writers' Parliament hosted by the Council of Europe. Writers from various countries have set up a parliament in the French town of Strasbourg to defend freedom of expression. "The message that is perceived is that this country can act with complete impunity," said Rushdie, who last month marked the eighth anniversary of his life in hiding after Iran issued a death sentence against him. Rushdie branded "almost obscene" the stance of European governments which "pretend they are trying to make Iran change its behavior...(but which) allow this regime to survive." He called for large-scale sanctions against Iran. He expressed concern at the postponement of the verdict in a trial which took place in Berlin in November on the 1992 murder of three Kurdish dissidents and their translator in the city. The verdict had been due in January. The German federal prosecutor had accused Iran's spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other Tehran leaders of ordering the killings…. Despite Iran’s Clerics, Hezbollah Finds Peace Inevitable, Associated Press, March 27 BEIRUT -- A top Shiite Muslim cleric, the pro-Iranian Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, said in remarks published Thursday that a settlement between Israel and the Arabs was inevitable…. Shiite Iran, Hezbollah's mentor, speaks of Israel as a sworn enemy which must be destroyed The Mother Church Of Terrorism, Iran Zamin News Agency, March 27 According to United Press International, speaking to the International Policy Institute for Counter Terrorism in the Israeli coastal town of Herzliya, James Woolsey, the former CIA chief, described Iran’s clerics as "the mother church of international terrorism." "Iran supports a whole range of terrorist acts as a "matter of national policy," he said…. Mullahs Call for Worldwide Support for Terrorism, Agence France Presse, March 26 BEIRUT - Iran on Wednesday hailed Lebanese guerrillas fighting Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon and said they deserved international support. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Murtada Sarmadi, on a three-day visit to Lebanon, said: "All UN members should support the Lebanese resistance…"… Iran is the principal backer of Hezbollah, which spearheads military resistance to Israel’s occupation of a buffer strip in south Lebanon. Israeli officials said last month that Iran had channeled more than 40 planeloads of arms to Hezbollah through Damascus in recent months to replace weapons destroyed in Israel’s "Grapes of Wrath" offensive in south Lebanon in April last year…. Bahrain Jails 15 As Plotters Against Ruler, The Washington Post, March 27 In a case that has become a focal point for charges of Iranian meddling on the Arab side of the Persian Gulf, a court in Bahrain sentenced 15 Shiite Muslims to jail terms of up to 15 years today for plotting to overthrow the ruling Khalifa family with help from Iran…. Shortly after the arrests were announced in Manama last June, then-Assistant Secretary of State Robert H. Pelletreau told the House International Relations Committee, "Iran's involvement in terrorist activities in the region is well known. There is credible evidence that a small group of Bahraini militants with a stated aim of overthrowing the government had received assistance and training from Iran." Pelletreau said Iran forged links to Bahraini opposition figures through its embassy in Bahrain and through the Bahrain Studies Center in Qom, a Shiite religious training site…. Bahrain's charges against Iran last June were unusually detailed. According to the Interior Ministry, the suspects were members of Hezbollah Bahrain, a Bahraini offshoot of the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah, which is armed, funded and trained by Iran. The Bahraini group was founded in Qom in 1993 with the backing of the intelligence service of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, according to the ministry's account….