International Labor Conference Puts Mullahs' Regime Under Special Scrutiny, Iran Zamin News Agency, June 10  

The International Labor Conference decided yesterday to put the mullahs' regime under special scrutiny for its suppression of Iranian workers. The decision in Geneva was reported in a statement released by the National Council of Resistance of Iran.

Citing a report by the Committee of Experts and widespread abuses of the international labor rights conventions by the Khomeini regime, the ILO's Committee on the Application of Standards decided to include a special paragraph concerning the situation of work and workers in Iran in its final report.

In addition, it decided to keep the Iranian regime on the list of countries which violate the rights of workers and freedom of syndicates.

NCR President Massoud Rajavi congratulated Iranian workers on the victory, stressing that the time had come for the international community to employ all means at its disposal, including a trade and oil boycott, to punish the criminal rulers of Iran. Mr. Rajavi cited the mullahs' widespread rights violation, especially women and workers.

According to the regime's official sources, 200,000 Iranian workers filed complaints against their employers last year. Dismissal and or lay offs are routine, and workers often fail to receive their salaries, basic insurance and bonuses on a regular basis.

Last year, dozens of strikes and protests by blue and white-collar workers erupted across Iran.

Bon Air: Hezbollah Takes to the Skies! Reuter, June 10  

DUBAI - Iran launched on Tuesday a once-weekly flight from its northwestern city of Tabriz to the Syrian capital Damascus, the Iranian news agency IRNA said.

It said the service was operated by Bon Air, the airline of the state-affiliated Bonyad-e Mostazafan va Janbazan (Foundation for the Deprived and War Disabled).

The foundation… was formed after the 1979 Islamic revolution with the task of providing help for the poor…

[By means of the Foundation for the Deprived, the regime regularly provides funding for Hamas and the Lebanese Hezbollah.

The Foundation's head, Mohsen Rasfiqdoust, boasted in 1987 of the regime's role in the Beirut barracks bombing: "America knows that those explosives laid with that ideology at the Marine barracks sent 400 officers and soldiers straight to hell. That TNT belonged to Iran, and that ideology came from Iran."]

Ex-Im Loan For U.S.-China Deal Said Suspended, Reuter, June 10  

WASHINGTON - The United States said Tuesday it was suspending an Export-Import Bank loan to an U.S. company in a deal with a Chinese company that was sanctioned for selling arms-related chemicals to Iran.

State Department Nicholas Burns would not reveal the name of the American firm but said the Chinese company was Nanjing Chemical Industries Group. "We have decided to suspend the Ex-Im loan that would have supported the export of equipment to the Nanjing Chemicals Industries Group," Burns told reporters.

… The transfers involved chemicals and other technology that could be used in chemical weapons.

Iran President-elect Pressured Over Cabinet Choice, Reuter, June 10  

DUBAI, UAE - … President-elect Mohammad Khatami is being pressured by conservatives over the choice of ministers to his cabinet, Iranian newspapers said Tuesday.

"Khatami is said to be pressured by various factions which want representation in his cabinet," the daily Iran News said.

Conservative Shi'ite Muslim clerics, whose candidate Parliament Speaker Ali Akbar Nateq-Nouri lost to Khatami by a wide margin in the polls last month, have not minced words in demanding input over the choice of ministers…

The conservatives have a majority in the Majlis, or parliament, and could block candidates submitted by Khatami who was elected with nearly 70 percent of some 29 million votes…

The president-elect, who will replace Rafsanjani in August, will also discuss his list with spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who has supreme power over all state institutions.

Abdollah Nouri, a parliament deputy who was expected earlier this month to run with backing from pro-Khatami deputies for the speakership of the assembly, told newspapers he dropped out of the race after Khamenei told him it was more "expedient" if Nateq-Nouri was re-elected.

Nateq-Nouri, who was humiliated after losing the presidential elections despite backing from most of the clerical establishment, was re-elected as speaker unopposed.

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