BRIEF ON IRAN

No. 703

Tuesday, July 22, 1997

Representative Office of

The National Council of Resistance of Iran

Washington, DC


World Nuke Watchdog Chief in Iran, The Associated Press, July 20 

The head of the world's nuclear watchdog group will inspect two research facilities in Iran, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported Sunday.

It said Hans Blix of the International Atomic Energy Agency arrived in Tehran on Saturday….

Russia is building Iran's only nuclear reactor, near the southern port of Bushehr. Iran says the plant will only produce electricity, but the United States and Israel say they fear the technology could be used to build a nuclear bomb….

[The International Atomic Energy] agency can inspect only those nuclear facilities that any one of its 135 member countries declares to be open for inspection. The Bushehr facility has not been inspected by any international agency.

 

U.S., Britain Block Gulf Harmony—Rafsanjani, Reuters, July 20 

The United States and Britain are the main obstacle to better relations between Iran and its Gulf Arab neighbors, the Islamic republic's outgoing President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said over the weekend….

Relations between Tehran and Riyadh have been strained since Shi'ite Moslem clergymen led an Islamic revolution that toppled the monarchy in Iran in 1979. They severed diplomatic ties from 1988 to 1991….

The two states, among the world's largest oil producers, continue to differ over the presence of Western forces in the Gulf, Tehran's armaments program, the annual pilgrimage, and charges that Iran meddles in Gulf Arab affairs….

"But for more than a decade our Arab brethren have been listening to the absurd propaganda the Zionists and the U.S. have cooked up against Iran, projecting Tehran as a threat to their common interests," the newspaper said.

 

Israel Pressures Argentine Court on 1992 Bombing, Reuter, July 21

BUENOS AIRES - Israel piled pressure on Argentina's Supreme Court on Monday to hand over to a federal judge the investigation into a 1992 bomb attack on its embassy in Buenos Aires that killed 29 people...

Israeli Ambassador Yitzhak Aviran met President Carlos Menem on Monday to discuss the bombings. He told reporters later he would like the Supreme Court to delegate the embassy case and to pin the blame squarely on Iran and the armed Moslem group Hizbollah, whom Israel has blamed all along….

"We hope for a firm decision from the Supreme Court to delegate the case to a judge, and to confirm this was an explosion directed by a spiritual or ideological 'father' that was Iran and executed by the international terrorists Hizbollah," said the diplomat…

 

Compelled to React to Widespread Corruption, July 20  

Radio Israel - Following frequent remarks by Khamenei in the last several weeks on the necessity of fight against the new group of wealthy, Yazdi [Chief Justice], announced the formation of a special bureau to investigate huge financial abuses in the judiciary.

Yazdi said that this special bureau will investigate abuse of power, and appointments or contacts with authorities for the purpose of wealth-building through illegitimate means.

State-run Television - In today's session of Majlis, the Speaker emphasized on the necessity of following Khamenei's guidelines for curbing the emergence of a new "well-doing-painless" class in the society.

Nateq-Nouri emphasized the readiness of majlis to remove the legal obstacles for confronting the owners of "illegitimate and wind-fall" wealth. He stressed that there must be a difference between those who work hard and the opportunists who with their contacts and creation of economic insecurity, gain windfall capital.

State-controlled Daily Kayhan - The speaker of majlis said that different four committees, with the cooperation of judicial branch, Bureau of Accountability, and Department of Investigation, will identify the economic abusers…

After long delay… in forming such a bureau, the people's expectation is that the special court primarily goes after the big fish who have built up enormous amount of wealth…, rather than investigating the petty cases…

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