Back to Brief on Iran
As the Iranian New Year approaches, Mr. Massoud Rajavi, President of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, addressed a message to the Iranian people, offering his Nowrouz greetings to all freedom-loving Iranians in Iran and across the globe. In the message, Mr. Rajavi described the passing year as the year of great victories for the Iranian people and Resistance.
"This was a year in which Resistance
forces attacked 93 centers of repression inside Iran, including mortar
attacks on the palaces of Khamenei and Rafsanjani and the headquarters
of the Intelligence Ministry and Revolutionary Guards. The year saw popular
uprisings in Tabriz and Tehran and
several other cities. There were more than 500 protest demonstrations and
strikes across the country. Resistance forces carried out publicity campaigns
in more than 600 cities. There were 170 demonstrations and rallies by
Iranians supporting the Resistance
outside Iran," Mr. Rajavi said. "With all these and with the mullahs' infighting
escalating and taking a bloody turn, the year that has come to an end saw
the emergence of signs of the overthrow of the mullahs' dictatorship.
Lacking a political solution within
itself, the clerical regime's factions have to settle their scores in a
final way and the Majlis elections have highlighted this fact. In this
battle of destiny, final victory belongs to the people of Iran and their
Resistance.
Now Meet Iran's Gunmen, The New York Times, March 19
After 21 stressful years of living under clerical dictatorship, most Iranians would happily settle for a more normal life. But last week... an assassin's bullet provided a shocking reminder of how grim and uncertain a struggle may yet lie ahead...
... After the attack on Mr. Hajjarian,
Iranians are asking themselves more than ever whether their future will
be settled at the ballot box, or by the darker forces at play. Between
reformers... and hard-liners who seem prepared to battle it out with daggers,
the
issue seems far from settled. Iranians
may have months or years yet of confrontation before they see their yearning
for broader rights fulfilled.
Iranian Resistance Says Hundreds Arrested After Nationwide Unrest, Agence France Presse, March 17
NICOSIA - Iran's opposition People's
Mujahedeen said Friday that security forces and troops have been called
in to put down violent protests across the country in the past few days.
In a statement received in Nicosia, the group -- which wants to overthrow
Tehran's clerical regime -- said hundreds of people had been jailed after
the protests. The claims could not be independently
verified.
It said "scores of young demonstrators" had been arrested and taken to unknown locations after protesters in the northwestern town of Mahabad on Tuesday hurled rocks through the windows of government buildings.
It said several "contingents" of the elite Revolutionary Guards had been sent in to quell the disturbances.
The group also claimed that 200 people were arrested after "several days of unrest and riots" in Dogonbadan and Basht in the southwest, prompting Iran to send in Revolutionary Guards, police and volunteer Islamic militia from nearby towns.
"Many" people were arrested in the
northern town of Sari overnight Tuesday after clashes with security forces,
the Mujahedeen said.
Clerical Regime Fire Rockets at NLA's Base, Agence France Presse, March 19
Iranian agents have fired several rockets at a camp of Iran's main armed opposition force inside Iraq, the People's Mujahadeen said Sunday, adding that no one was wounded.
"Agents of the clerical regime's intelligence ministry and Revolutionary Guards fired several 107-mm rockets" at Faezeh camp near the town of Kut on Saturday night, the Mujahedeen said in a statement.
[The attack is the 88th terrorist assault by the mullahs' regime against the Iranian Resistance in Iraq since 1993. Of these, 37 have been carried out during Khatami's presidency.]
The attackers fled leaving behind equipment and some ammunition, according to the communiqué from the People's Mujahedeen which underlined "its inalienable right to respond and self-defense."
On Wednesday, the Iraqi military said it had shot down an Iranian pilotless plane near the border, as the Mujahedeen accused Tehran of stepping up reconnaissance flights to attack its bases inside Iraq.