Back to Brief on Iran
The NCR issued a statement today indicating that on the eve of the summit of the leaders of member countries of the Organization of the Islamic Conference in Tehran, Mr. Massoud Rajavi, President of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, urged them not to attend this gathering. He warned that Iran's ruling mullahs will take advantage of the summit to legitimize their suppressive, terrorist and fundamentalist policies.
Mr. Rajavi added: How could the summit of the OIC leaders be convened in a country whose rulers have been involved for nearly two decades in bloodletting, fratricide, creating discord in the ranks of Muslims and export of chaos and insecurity to other Islamic countries, against the sublime teachings of Islam and its great prophet?
The Leader of the Iranian Resistance
recalled the resolution adopted last week by the UN General Assembly's
Third Committee, condemning the violations of human rights and export of
terrorism by the Iranian regime. He noted: "Under such circumstances, in
order to acquire legitimacy and international standing, the criminal rulers
of Iran are in dire need as never before of the participation of Islamic
countries' leaders in the Tehran summit."
West Uneasy at Iran's Islamic Leadership Role, Reuter, December 3
Western nations view the prospect of Iran taking on the leadership of the Islamic world at a Tehran summit next week with a mixture of unease and foreboding….
U.S. diplomats fear Iran will set an anti-American, anti-Western tone at the summit….
Whatever the think-tanks or oil companies may say, there is no public support for a thaw with the ayatollahs still blackened in American memories by the hostage-taking of U.S. diplomats in 1979.
Patrick Clawson of the National Defense University said the prevailing view in Washington was that the election of Islamic moderate Mohammad Khatami as president in May against the conservative establishment candidate had changed almost nothing.
"Khatami seems to be a distant third in the hierarchy. His role seems largely confined to opening schools," he said….
26 Flogged, Fined for Partying in Iran,
Agence France Presse, December 3
Tehran—The host of a party and his 25 guests were whipped and fined in northeastern Iran after being accused of violating the Islamic codes of dress and conduct, a newspaper reported Wednesday.
The 26 were rounded up this week in a police raid on a house in the holy city of Mashhad in Khorasan province, the newspaper Qods said.
The anti-vice squad of the police force searched the house and found satellite equipment, video movies and "illegal" audio tapes.
The party-goers each received 74 lashes of the whip for "debauchery, failing to respect Islamic dress code and listening to illegal music."
The female guests were fined for failing to observe the dress code, and the host was sentenced to hefty fines for keeping in his house satellite equipment, video movies and cassettes.
Under Islamic laws enforced in Iran since the 1979 revolution, men and women are not allowed to be in each other's company if the women are not fully covered.
Although the authorities may tolerate more formal gatherings between men and women, they have a legal right to break in a house if they suspect the occupants of keeping alcoholic beverages or holding coed dance parties.
Playing popular Western music or keeping satellite equipment or Western video movies is also illegal.
Cohen Says UN Concerned over Iran's Weapons of Mass Destruction, Jane's Defense Weekly, December 3
The USA is negotiating with Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia for authority to place advanced biological warfare (BW) agent detector systems at installations in nations where US troops and equipment are housed, Jane's Defense Weekly has learned….
The talks with Persian Gulf allies come as US Defense Secretary William Cohen released the Pentagon's latest annual assessment of worldwide proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD)….
In particular, Cohen reiterated that the UN is now concerned Iran may have produced up to 200 tons of VX nerve agent and 6,000 gallons of anthrax.
The report also said that Iran is attempting to produce a short-range solid-propellant ballistic missile in addition to its 150km-range Nazeat 10 and 200km-range Zelzal solid-propellant missiles.
Although the report does not make specific predictions, the Pentagon calculates the range of impact if Iran was to acquire the Taepo Dong I or Taepo Dong II from North Korea. The maximum 6,000km range of the Taepo Dong II would allow Iran to target the whole of Europe, Asia and Africa.