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* "Israelis are brainwashed by rabbis," says Rafsanjani
* Germany to forbid asylum seekers
* Ansar-e Hezbollah defies authorities
* Banisadr fingers leadership in murders
* Higher Education in a shambles
* Government health care reform collapses
* Iraq "no longer a threat"
* Egypt accuses Iran of assassination attempt
* LEF kills "notorious thug" in Balouchistan
* Marine life at risk in Persian Gulf
* Breeding the new "Islamic" generations
* Forouhar offers to mediate Iraqi crisis
"Israelis are brainwashed by rabbis," says Rafsanjani
In a televised interview, President Hashemi-Rafsanjani rejectedany peaceful settlement of the Middle East conflict, and predictedthat any accord between Israel and the Palestinians would collapse"the day American force behind it disappears."
Discussions between Israel and the Palestinians could not becalled a "peace process," Rafsanjani said, because Israel "is anillegitimate regime, based on the denial of others rights. Such aregime can't have peace with its victims. At most, these dialogueswill result in a temporary ceasefire."
Rafsanjani has got his own ideas how to resolve the conflict."There are still four million Palestinian refugees," he said. "Peacecan only come when Israel accepts that all these Palestinians returnto their homeland. Then, if there is any place left vacant, Jewscould remain in Palestine. But if not, they will have to leave," hesaid. Rafsanjani is frequently touted by the Europeans for his"moderate" views.
"The people of Israel voted for a Prime Minister in recentelections, who says he will not give up Beit-al-Moqaddas[Jerusalem], and will maintain Jewish settlements. This showsus that the majority of Israelis do not want peace. They are underthe influence of rabbis who have brainwashed them."
Rafsanjani said he was confident that the Palestinians livingabroad "will not give in. They will create a government and willcontinue the struggle." [Jomhouri-e Eslami, 8/27]
Germany to forbid asylum seekers
In a move destined to create panic among Iranian exiles, theIslamic Republic's Consul General in Hamburg has announced that theGerman government has pledged it would "no longer allow" any Iranianto apply for political asylum in Germany. [Resalat 9/8]. TheGerman promise appears to have been made by Chancellor Kohl'sIntelligence Coordinator, Bernd Schmidbauer, who met with the IRIIntelligence Minister Ali Fallahian while on a secret trip to Tehranin July. [Iran Brief, 9/9]
The German pledge is only the latest episode in Europe's historyof concessions to the Islamic Republic. Asylum seekers were summarilydeported from Turkey last week (see last week's newswire), and havebeen deported from Holland. Iranian exiles say government authoritiesin Denmark and Belgium have also threatened to deport exiles, some ofwhom are long-time residents of their countries.
In one case of particular concern to FDI, the Belgian InteriorMinistry is seeking to deport three Iranian families tied to formerIranian Prime Minister Shahpour Bakhtiar, who have lived in Belgiumfor seven, five, and four years.
One of the exiles, a former Iranian Army officer, Mohammad RezaHeydayat, warned that his ties to Bakhtiar put him at risk ofimmediate arrest if he was returned to Iran, and possibleexecution.
FDI has written to the Belgian authorities, and to the UNHCR, toprotest Belgium's treatment of the case. (See Action Memorandum021).
Ansar-e Hezbollah defies authorities
A clash between the authorities and the radical Ansar-e Hezbollahgang is in the works, as the authorities have banned a demonstrationby the group scheduled to occur this Thursday in the Tehran suburb ofKaraj.
The group distributed leaflets on Sept. 5 announcing ademonstration against "liberals," which was outlawed by the GovernorGeneral of Karaj on Saturday, Sept. 7 In response, Ansar-e Hezbollahreconfirmed their plans to take to the streets on Thursday, even ifit means facing off with the LEF, which the Governor General haspromised to call out. [Iran daily 9/7]
FDI sources in Tehran say that privately some Rev. Guardscommanders support the show of force by Ansar-e Hezbollah as a meansof putting pressure on the Rafsanjani faction.
Banisadr fingers leadership in murders
Former Iranian President Abolhassan Banisadr has accused the topleadership of the Islamic Republic of having directly approved themurder of four Kurdish dissidents in Berlin in October 1992.
Speaking before a heavily-guarded Berlin court room last month,the former President said he had three separate sources who hadprovided him with detailed accounts of how the murder plots wereplanned and approved.
He told the court that the Islamic Republic has established a"Council for Special Operations," directly controlled by the officeof Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamene'i. "This council decides onwho becomes a death candidate," the former President said. The mostimportant member of the Council was Minister of Information andSecurity, Ali Fallahian. The German court issued an internationalarrest warrant for Fallahian in connection with the 1992 Berlinslayings earlier this year.
Once the assassination targets have been designated, he said, theyare handed off to a four-person committee that meets in Tehran'sFirouzeh Palace, which works out the operational details of theattack. On this committee sit representatives of IntelligenceMinister Ali Fallahian, President Hashemi-Rafsanjani, and SupremeLeader Ali Khamene'i, "as well as a Pasdaran General named Zolqadr,"Banisadr said. Banisadr appears to have been referring to IRGC Chiefof Staff Brig. General Mohammad Bagher Zolqadr, an outspoken opponentof "liberals" within the Iranian political structure.
The operational plans must then be approved by Khamene'i andRafsanjani before they can be implemented. "Without their agreement,carrying out the attack was just as unlikely as it would have beenwithout massive support from the state, for example throughpassports, plane tickets, money, special telephone numbers,'' theformer President added.
In an interview with a Berlin radio station on Aug. 24th, GermanForeign Minister Klaus Kinkel said "Of course we must evaluate whatBanisadr said in the trial. And of course this is something whichmust be of significance to the type of relations we have with Iran.[However,] I don't want to draw any hasty conclusions or makepremature judgments in any form whatsoever, above all because I cannot and do not want to interfere in the trial."
Banisadr told AP he was anxious to testify because he was afraidGermany had struck a deal with Iran to free the defendants if theywere convicted, an allegation that Bonn immediately rejected.
"I have proof of this," Banisadr said. "I have to ask if (GermanForeign Minister Klaus) Kinkel is not the attorney for Rafsanjani."[Iran Brief, 9/9]
Higher Education in a shambles
An official from the ministry of Culture and Higher Education hascalled government higher education policies during the 1st five-yearplan (1989-1994) "a mistake" that resulted in "a drop in the qualityof university education."
Mr. Farhad Daneshjou, head of the governmental Higher EducationStudies Institute, told Salam in an interview that the policy ofaccepting ever larger numbers of students at university, as calledfor in the plan, resulted in lower standards. "So now, faced with theconsequences of this drop, we are trying to limit the number ofstudents and focus instead on the quality of education."
According to statistics released by the Institute, only 3.13% ofuniversity teachers have professor status, while over half are simple"instructors."
At the same time, a Deputy Minister of Health and MedicalEducation, Dr. Mohammad Hossein Imami, announced that degreesobtained by Iranian students in Central Asia and Eastern Europe wouldno longer be accepted in Iran, because of the low quality ofeducation in those countries. "From now on," he said, "we will sendstudents on government grants to countries with high scientificstandards." [Salam 8/27]
Thousands of Students had been sent on government scholarships toCentral Asia and Eastern Europe as a result of bilateral educationagreements negotiated by the Islamic Republic authorities.
Back on the home front, Hojjat-ol eslam Mohammad Mohammadi Araqi,head of the Islamic Propagation Organization, sounded what may havebeen an unintended prophetic note in an interview with the TehranTimes. "Our educational system will prove the righteousness of theIslamic system to the world," he said. Its success "will guaranteethe future triumph of the country." [Tehran Times 8/26]
Government health care reform collapses
A much-touted government health care reform program, initiated twoyears ago, has failed so miserably that the government has beenforced to abandon it, Salam reports [8/27]
"The policy of cutting subsidies to state-run hospitals anddeclaring them to be self-sufficient was so naive that it didn't lastmore than a few months. The problems created by this policy - whichwas voted by Majlis into law - were so immense that the Minister ofHealth officially confessed its failure," the paper wrote. "Cuttingsubsidies for medicines and eliminating reimbursement for many drugsby the social security system last year caused popular protests whileincreasing the danger of different diseases. A Deputy Minister ofHealth was fired, and yesterday (8/26) the new Deputy Minister forMedicines announced that all domestic and imported drugs will bereinstated on the government's insurance lists."
Salam was sharply critical of the government's lack of authorityand poor management, which it said resulted in taking "majorcontradictory decisions on a national scale in just one year."
Iraq "no longer a threat"
In an unusual display, the Tehran Times launched a fierce attackon Ambassador Rolf Ekeus, the Swedish diplomat who has spearheadedthe UN effort to eliminate Iraq's weapons of mass destruction overthe past five years, and said that Iraq was no longer a threat toregional security.
Ekeus arrived in Baghdad on Aug. 26 to deliver a tough messagefrom the UN Security Council to the Iraqi government, after Iraq onceagain prevented UN weapons inspectors from visiting a military sitein Iraq. UNSCOM still believes Saddam Hussein is hiding from between6 to 16 ballistic missiles and biological warfare agents.
While Ekeus was still in Baghdad, the Tehran Times called him a"U.S. servant," and called for an end to the weapons inspections.
"How many more children and innocent people is Mr. Ekeus willingto see dead before putting an end to his ceaseless disclosures ofso-called Iraqi caches?" the paper said. "It is clear that Iraq, withits present military capability, is no longer able to pose a threatto other countries in the region. Even if it throws all of itsmilitary might into an attack, the victims of such an offensive wouldbe far fewer than the Iraqi civilians who are currently the victimsof the UN sanctions. Needless to say, the Zionist regime, withmissiles in its arsenal far outnumbering those in Iraq, poses themost serious threat to regional security," the paper said.[Tehran Times, 8/28]
Egypt accuses Iran of assassination attempt
In a dramatic escalation of the war of words between Egypt and theIslamic Republic, a top Egyptian official, Presidential advisorOssama al-Baz, has accused Iran of complicity with last year'sassassination attempt on President Mubarak in Addis Ababa.
In an interview carried by the Qatar News Agency on Sept. 4, AlBaz said that "an Egyptian terrorist carried out the plot withassistance from Sudan and Iran." Until now, Egypt has limited itsaccusations of complicity to Sudan.
Egypt has also stepped up its investigation of Islamic extremistswho have been carrying out assassinations and terrorist attacks inupper Egypt and in the Nile Delta.
In July, the Egyptian authorities announced they had arrested 44activists from the Jihad group who had recently entered the countryfrom Syria and Lebanon. The activists, who had been living in campsin Pakistan after the Afghan war, "infiltrated into Syria and Lebanonafter the Pakistani government's decision to expel foreign nationalsat suspected terrorist training camps," an Egyptian police spokesmansaid. The group then slipped into Egypt, and were arrested in whatappears to have been a simultaneous round-up of suspects in Cairo,Giza, and the northern Nile Delta region. [Iran Brief,9/9]
LEF kills "notorious thug" in Balouchistan
A deputy commander in chief of the Law Enforcement Forces, Rev.Guards General Mohsen Ansari, has said his forces recently killedfour men in armed clashes, including "the most notorious thug" ofBalouchistan, Hassan Shahli Boro, aka "Hasanak."
Hasanak hailed from the Balouchi town of Iranshahr, and was behindseveral armed attacks inside Iranian Balouchistan, Ansari said,including an assault on a electric power plant in Bazman.
There have been increasing reports of sabotage and armedresistance to the Islamic Republic authorities inside IranianBalouchistan over the past two years, which has led the Rev. Guardsto station additional troops in the area.
Gen. Ansari named three others killed by his forces as HanifNaroui, Said Naroui, and Ali Salari, without providing any details atto when or how they were killed, or whether the government hadaccused them of criminal activity.
Ansari proudly announced that the LEF had "cleansed" unsafe areasin Kuh-e Khorasan, Khaf, and southern Talbad of "thugs," who were"mostly Afghans."
"Now we live in complete security in our country, and we owe thissecurity to our beloved Supreme Leader," the LEF commander toldreporters in Tehran. "The huge reconstruction programs underway inour country are clear indicators of the total security we enjoy....Our Islamic country is now the most secure place on the surface ofthe earth." [Kayhan 8/27]
Marine life at risk in Persian Gulf
Increased pollution of the Persian Gulf is taking its toll on fishand the eco-systems of the area. According to a report in Ettelaat,large numbers of fish and turtles were recently found dead byfishermen. "The old fishermen say marine life is suffering from alack of oxygen in the water," the paper said. [Ettelaat8/27]
Breeding the new "Islamic" generations
For the first time in the post-communist world, a government isseeking to use behavioral engineering to breed new generations ofsupporters, Ettelaat reports.
The Islamic Republic authorities have put together what they calla "Charter for the Cultivation of Youth," which they intend to use tosustain the Islamic Republic beyond the generation of itscreators.
The aim of the charter is "safeguard our Islamic society from thecultural assault of world arrogance," the paper said.
The new IRI rulebook was compiled by Presidential advisor MortezaMir Bagheri, who heads the Supreme Youth Council, and was endorsed byRafsanjani.
In presenting the new Charter, Bagheri told Ettelaat that "Iran isamong the rare countries which has a detailed plan for orienting andmolding its youth in order to achieve society's goals." {Ettelaat8/27]
In an earlier interview with Iran daily, he said that the firststage of the application of the Charter would involve 500,000 Iranianyouths.
The Charter consists of 14 chapters and 98 articles. Among itsmany tenets are these: children should be raised to become highlyreligious, "true believers" in "pure" Islam. They should practiceIslamic rituals, recite Koran, and control their instincts (andespecially the sexual instinct). They should be taught to accept theVelayat-e faghih, and to be totally obedient to the orders of theSupreme Leader. They should learn to avoid moral corruption, tobelieve in sexual segregation, and to become good Basijis. And ofcourse, they should be prepared to wage Jihad (Holy War) for theregime and to become a martyr for Islam. [Iran, 8/27 and8/28]
Forouhar offers to mediate Iraqi crisis
The leader of the outlawed Iran Nation's Party, Darioush Forouhar,has offered to mediate between rival Iraqi Kurdish leaders, astatement released by the Party in Tehran said [9/6]
After speaking with Forouhar by satellite telephone, PUK leaderJalal Talabani said he accepted in principle the INP offer, if itwould be accepted by Massoud Barzani, leader of the rival KDP.