DUBAI - In a statement, the Mujahideen Khalq rejected as "lies" an Iranian report on Monday that said security forces had arrested the two men before they could launch the attack on state buildings and seized a mortar launcher and bombs.

The Mujahideen Khalq, Iran's main exile opposition group, has in recent months stepped up its raids and launched mortar attacks in the capital Tehran.

[A statement from the Mojahedin said "It is understandable that after the Mojahedin's attacks on the central command headquarters of the State Security Forces in Tehran and the special anti-riot units in Kermanshah, the Intelligence Ministry would desperately need such lies… But the fact is that no one from the Mojahedin has been arrested in Tehran in recent days… According to inquiries made by the Mojahedin Command inside Iran, an Intelligence Ministry operative working under the cover of a taxi driver arrested two innocent individuals on Saturday, May 13, near the town of Izeh in Khuzistan Province because they had expressed support for the Mojahedin's operations.]
 

Ankara Expresses Anger Over Alleged Iranian Links to Murders In Turkey, Agence France Presse, May 17

ANKARA - Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit criticized Iran Wednesday for failing to response to mounting evidence of Iranian involvement in a series of murders of prominent Turkish intellectuals.

"Unfortunately, Iran has displayed less cooperation than one expects from a neighbor, or sometimes no cooperation at all. This upsets us very much," Ecevit told reporters when asked to comment on alleged Iranian involvement in terrorist attacks in Turkey.

Ecevit spoke after police were reported to have arrested four suspected Islamic radicals overnight for alleged involvement in the 1990 letter-bomb murder of Bahriye Ucok, an associate professor at Ankara University's faculty of divinity who was known for her staunchly secular views.

Police recently confirmed the arrest of nine Islamic activists for a 1993 bombing that killed a journalist, Ugur Mumcu, and press reports said another four militants had been arrested over the weekend for alleged involvement in the murder last year of Ahmet Taner Kislali, a writer and former minister.

Last week, two of the main suspects in the 1993 killing of Mumcu implicated three Iranians in the murder during a police reconstruction of the crime.

The Turkish media has singled out Iran as the mastermind of the killings and has said that Iranian agents took part in the bomb attacks.
 

Under Siege in Iran, The Chicago Tribune, April 27

…. Iran's spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, declared reform-minded publications "enemies" of the 1979 Islamic revolution and shut down 13 newspapers this week. Prominent journalists have been jailed, and warrants were issued for academics and clerics who attended a pro-democracy seminar in Berlin.

Meanwhile, rumors have circulated of a possible military coup against… Khatami…

"It's a very delicate moment in the history of Iran," said Marvin Zonis, a University of Chicago expert on Iranian affairs. "There is a sense of a threat to the [1979] revolution, and these guys strike back. There certainly is a showdown brewing."…

Today, after two decades of watching their national economy crumble and their country grow increasingly isolated from the global community, many young Iranians are again trying to turn the tables on their rulers.

"The revolution has failed," Zonis said. "The reality is that Iran is a miserable, failed state. The question is: How can they get out of this problem? There is a crisis in Iran that is not being addressed."…

Khatami, Zonis said, "doesn't hold many cards," given the weak position of the presidency in Iran. And Khamenei, he said, "understands that there are these voices of reform and you can't just ignore it."…
 

News Bites

Agence France Presse, May 17 - An Iranian revolutionary court handed down a 15-year jail sentence Wednesday to the man alleged to have shot Said Hajarian, the official news agency IRNA reported. Apart from chemistry student Said Asghar, four defendants were sentenced to terms of between 10 and three years for their role in the attack on Hajarian.

Agence France Presse, May 15 - Prices for Iranian silk carpets on sale abroad have sunk by 50 percent due to the declining quality of silk threads being imported from Asian countries, Iranian state television said Monday.

"A square meter (1.2 square yards) of Iranian silk carpet has dropped to 500 US dollars, compared with 1,000 dollars several years ago," an official from the Persian Silk Carpets Association told state television.

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