Iranian Opposition Urges Moslem Leaders to Boycott Tehran Summit, Agence France Presse, April 22 

NICOSIA - Iran's main armed opposition, the People's Mujahedeen, called on Moslem countries Wednesday to boycott an Islamic conference to be held in Tehran in December.

Mujahedeen leader Massud Rajavi said the Tehran summit of the Organization of the Islamic Conference "would grant the regime an opportunity to justify its crimes in the name of Islam."

In a message to Moslem heads of state… Rajavi referred to a German court verdict accusing Iranian leaders of ordering the 1992 murders of Kurdish dissidents in Berlin.

"A regime whose leaders are but a handful of criminals and outlaws is in no way competent to host the summit," he said in his statement issued from Paris.

Rajavi Calls for Change of Venue for Next Islamic Summit, Iran Zamin News Agency, April 23  

In separate letters to the heads of Islamic states, Mr. Massoud Rajavi, President of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, urged them to prevent the next Islamic Conference summit from commencing in Tehran in December.

Mr. Rajavi said the hosting of the summit by the anti-Islamic and anti-human regime in Iran would be not only against the highest interests of the Iranian people, but would also give Iran's criminal rulers freer reins to export terrorism and fundamentalism to the Islamic world.

Reminding the heads of member states of the Islamic Conference that he was writing as a Muslim and in the name of 70 million Iranians, of whom the majority were Muslim, and on behalf of a Resistance the majority of whose members, supporters, combatants, martyrs, and prisoners were Muslim, Mr. Rajavi reiterated that the mullahs' regime must not be allowed to continue its sinister abuse of Islam by hosting the Islamic Conference summit.

 

"Way To Jerusalem" Wargames Begin, Agence France Presse, April 23  

TEHRAN - …Iran's four-day maneuvers, dubbed "Tariq al-Qods" (Way to Jerusalem), are the largest war games ever near the strategic Strait of Hormuz, involving more than 200,000 troops and missile firings…

The war games are being staged along the entire Gulf coast of Iran, on several Gulf islands and also regions in western Iran bordering Iraq, notably Kermanshah and Khuzestan provinces.

Iran and Iraq fought a bitter and bloody war from 1980-1988, and Iran's main armed opposition group the People's Mujahedeen have military bases in border regions in Iraq, which they use to launch cross-border attacks.

 

Four Fundamentalists in Azerbaijan Go on Trial for Spying for Iran, Associated Press, April 22 

BAKU, Azerbaijan -- Four Islamic party leaders accused of spying for Iran went on trial Tuesday on charges of high treason. If convicted, they face the death penalty.

According to the charges, delivered in a closed courtroom, the spying took place between 1994 and 1996. Court spokesman Sadraddin Gadzhiyev said the evidence includes receipts showing the defendants received large amounts of money from Iranian intelligence agencies.

The chairman and three deputies of the Azerbaijani Islamic Party, which was founded in 1992 and favors Iranian-style rule by Islam, were arrested in May 1996.

Azerbaijan's current president, Geidar Aliev, is a former Communist Party chief who opposes Islamic government in the former Soviet republic. Many Azerbaijanis are practicing Muslims, but secular government has broad support.

 

Two-Thirds of Cigarettes Smoked in Iran Smuggled, Agence France Presse, April 23 

TEHRAN - More than two-thirds of the cigarettes smoked in Iran are smuggled into the country, the managing director of the Tehran tobacco company said Wednesday.

Abolqassem Mirheidari told newspapers that between 35 to 40 billion cigarettes worth 400 billion rials (130 million dollars) are smoked in Iran each year.

Only 11 billion are locally manufactured and sold legally…

The US brands Marlboro and Winston … are among the most popular foreign cigarettes…

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