FDI's Weekly Newswire

The life and [troubled] times of the Islamic Republic of Iran

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WEEKLY NEWSWIRE NO. 30

DEC. 10, 1996

The riots began last Monday, Dec. 2, after the body of a prominent Sunni Muslim cleric, Molla Mohammad Rabaii, was found murdered. Some reports say the cleric was found at home, while others say his body was found on the airport road. According to Parvaneh Forouhar, one of the leaders of the outlawed Iran Nation's Party, eyewitnesses who saw Rabaii's body said his neck showed signs of strangulation. [Radio Sedaye Iran, 12/7]

On Wednesday, a Colonel in the Law Enforcement Forces was killed in Kermanshah, after he reported had killed three demonstrators. The death of Colonel Ali Akbar Najafi, a commander in the local police force, was first revealed by the French Press Agency on Thursday, Dec. 5, and subsequently confirmed by Tehran Radio.

The opposition Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran reported on Monday, Dec. 9, that the death toll from riots in Jowanrod town had reached 15, while four others had been killed by the LEF in Kermanshah proper. The security forces cordoned off Kermanshah last Wednesday, to prevent angry residents from Sanadaj, 60 miles to the north, from attending a ceremony commemorating the death of the Molla Rabaii on Thursday.

The authorities in Tehran took the situation so seriously they dispatched Revolutionary Guards commander Mohsen Rezai to the region to take charge of Pasdaran and LEF troops in quelling the unrest, which had spread to the neighboring towns of Paveh, Rawansar, and Jowanrod. [KDPI statement 12/9]

By Sunday, the situation had reportedly calmed down.

In a statement issued in Tehran, the Iran Nation's Party noted that "not even one soldier of the regular army" had taken part in the violent repression of the riots. The statement claimed that orders preventing regular army troops from taking part were given by Army commander Gen. Ahmad Dadbin [INP statement 12/8]

Tehran panics over Witness C

Every now and then a defector from the Islamic Republic comes along whose public statements throw Tehran into a panic. Such was the case with Manoucher Moatamer, a former senior MOIS officer who accused Tehran of having master-minded the July 1994 AMIA bombing in Buenos Aires.

Now comes Witness "C," who in closed-door testimony before the Berlin court hearing the Mykonos case in Germany, has accused President Hashemi-Rafsanjani and Supreme Leader Ali Khamene'i of having personally signed the orders to assassinate rebel Kurdish leader, Sadegh Sharafkindi.

An exiled Iranian journalist in Paris, Morteza Lotfi, claims that Witness C, whose real name is Farhad Mesbahi, was in charge of security and intelligence affairs and the Islamic Republic Embassy in Paris in the early 1980s. Expelled by the French for intelligence activities in 1984, Mesbahi subsequently moved to Brussels, where he continued to keep tabs on the Iranian opposition.

By 1989, he had moved to the Islamic Republic embassy in Bonn, where he played an instrumental role in the release of two German hostages from Lebanon and forged contacts with German intelligence.

According to Lotfi, Mesbahi became closely allied with President Hashemi-Rafsanjani, and served as a conduit for Rafsanjani's contacts with West European governments. And it was precisely these activities which eventually caused him to leave Iran.

In late 1994 or early 1995, Rafsanjani's main rival, Majlis speaker Ali Akbar Nateq-Nouri, learned about Mesbahi's intermediary role and especially about his ongoing contacts with German intelligence, the BND. According to Lotfi, he put increasing pressure on Mesbahi in Tehran, forcing him eventually to flee to Pakistan. Earlier this year, Mesbahi was granted political asylum in Germany, apparently with the help of his former friends at the BND. [The Iran Brief, 11/4/96]

The Islamic Republic has now embarked on a major campaign to discredit Mesbahi as an embezzler and a fraud. IRNA identified him as Abol Qassem Mesbahi, 39, and said he had embezzled $1.8 million from an employee cooperative at an Iranian steel plant, bounced checks totaling $1 million, and once beat his wife so seriously that she broke her elbow.

IRNA also claimed Mesbahi had tried to get a job at MOIS and then at MOFA but was turned down. [International Iran Times, 12/6, quoting IRNA 12/1]

Since then, the Islamic Republic has sought to delay the verdict of the Berlin court, which has been deliberating already for nearly 4 years... Prosecutor Bruno Jost said the court had received a 31-page dossier from Iran last week, which is being translated. [International Iran Times, 12/6]

Mykonos forgotten at machine-tool plant

Who said there were tensions between Tehran and Bonn? Reuters reported last week from Bonn that the German government has welcomed with open arms an Iranian delegation, come to Germany to purchase an East German heavy machinery manufacturer, Sket Magdeburg GmbH.

Iranian Minister for Mines and Metals Mohammad Hossein Mahlouji and Saxony Anhalt's state economics minister Klaus Schucht signed a letter of intent, officials at the Iranian embassy and the state government said.

Mahlouji visited the machinery plant for two hours on Dec. 5. Saxony Anhalt spokesman Hans Juergen Fink said Iran hoped to buy Sket as a whole or in parts, and would soon name Iranian enterprises that would participate in the deal. Wolf Schoede, spokesman for the BvS privatization agency, told German radio, "We hope the Iranian delegation quickly makes concrete its intentions ... so we know what jobs, what investments and what future concept we are talking about."

Reuters added that the Islamic Republic has racked up a $13 billion debt to Germany, most of it for the purchase of high technology items.

Mahlouji on Friday discussed Iran's interest in Sket on Friday in Bonn with Economics Minister Guenter Rexrodt, who said he would welcome Iran's investment, particularly in East Germany, a ministry statement said. [Reuters 12/6]

Wonder if anyone in Tehran has any intention of paying those debts...? As the old saying goes, if I owe you $100 and go bankrupt, I'm in trouble. If I owe you a billion dollars and go bankrupt, you're in trouble.

Israel, U.S., are main enemies - Khamene'i

Israel and the United States are "two notorious and wicked elements" and are "the arch enemies of the Iranian nation," Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamene'i told a crowd of Basijis (volunteers) on Nov. 20. Heaping praise on the Basijis as "a model for other nations," Khamene'i reminded them "the hostile propaganda of world arrogance can not stop other nations from following the example set by the Islamic revolution."

In an interesting digression clearly aimed at countering U.S. and Saudi claims that the Islamic Republic was involved in the June 19 Dhahran bombing, Khamene'i said that his regime had "never trampled on the interests of other nations, nor have we launched aggression on the territory of neighboring states. Instead the weak nations are enjoying our support and assistance. Regardless of the enemies' propaganda campaign, we have never posed a threat to the neighboring states in the Persian Gulf.'' [IRNA 11/21]

Pro-Rafsanjani coalition backs off from Rouhaniyat

President Rafsanjani's daughter, Faezeh Hashemi, has hinted that her father's supporters are caucusing to find their own candidate for next year's presidential elections. In a pointed comment to Salam, Ms. Hashemi said that the Group-e Kargozaran (Followers of Reconstruction) would not back the candidate supported by the mainstream Jameh-e Rouhaniyat-Mobarez. The JRM is backing Majlis speaker Nateq-Nouri's bid to succeed Rafsanjani next year.

One rumor currently circulating in Tehran is that the Reconstructors will back Mohammad Hashemi, the former head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, and a brother of the current President. [Salam 12/8]

Senior intelligence official killed

A senior intelligence official has been mysteriously killed, apparently in an armed clash in eastern Iran.

Jomhouri-e Eslami reported the Dec. 7 death, calling the victim - Seyed Mehdi Mahmoudi, an "unknown soldier of Islam," a term normally used to designate members of the intelligence community of the Islamic Republic. The paper said that Mahmoudi had been killed during an operation against "satanic and mercenary smugglers," and added that his funeral was attended by the Minister of Defense, the heads of the ideological-political sections of the armed forces, as well as the heads of the intelligence and counter-intelligence departments. [Jomhouri-e Eslami 12/8]

Student leader warns of factional violence

A student leader has warned that factional violence could be around the corner, if the regime doesn't ease up on its suppression of internal dissent.

The statement was made during a meeting of Islamic student unions in Karaj over the weekend by Abolfazl Fateh, a member of the Central Committee of the Islamic Union of Tehran University Students.

"If the doors to dialogue among the factions of the Islamic Republic be shut," Fateh said, "the doors to violence will open. The factions should discuss their ideas about the ideological, social, and political problems in the country. Any prohibition on the factions from stating their ideas will create political violence within society.

"This type of violence is not in the interest of the regime and the revolution, and could reach a point where the factions of the Islamic Republic might no longer tolerate the presence of opposing factions," Fateh warned. [Iran daily 12/8]

Trust your Intelligence Ministry - Rafsanjani

Iranians should learn to place more trust in their Intelligence Ministry, President Rafsanjani told faculty members and students at the Ministry of Information and Security Intelligence Faculty in Tehran last Saturday.

"The loyalty of the personnel of the Iranian intelligence community to the Islamic Republic of Iran must combine with a complete understanding of the nature of economic and political events," the President opined. "Such a combination will not only increase the output of their intelligence activities, but will also cement the trust of the people in the intelligence community of the country." [Iran daily 12/8]

Does that mean that people don't love their local MOIS representatives? Incredible!

Rafsanjani went on to praise the activities of the intelligence community, calling them "the unknown soldiers of Imam Mehdi," the "missing" 12th Imam of Shiite Islam.

Israelis claim more arms for Hezbollah arrive

Israeli Radio reports that more weapons have recently arrived in Damascus from Tehran, bound for the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon. the weapons were flown into Damascus airport and then carried into Southern Lebanon by Syrian army trucks. [Radio Israel 12/9]

More drugs seized

Provincial Law Enforcement Forces in Khorasan province announced that they had seized 1,033 kg of narcotics at Torbat Heidareih and Ghayen Heights over the past two days. Nine "drug traffickers" were arrested along with six RPG-7 rocket launchers and an unspecified arsenal of kalashnikov automatic rifles.[IRNA 11/21]

The area in question lies in rough terrain of mountain peaks and valleys approximately 70 miles south of Mashad, well inside Iran and off the normal drug smuggling routes from Herat, Afghanistan.

The regime has frequently announced drug-related arrests and executions to mask their attempts to stamp out the low level insurgencies that continue to plague Iran's eastern provinces. Nevertheless, a significant anti-drug campaign is also underway, so it is difficult to tell which operations are political, and which are criminal in nature.

Miriam Rajavi returns to Iraq

Miriam Rajavi, proclaimed as the "future president of the Democratic Popular Islamic Republic of Iran" by the Mujahidin-e Khalq, returned to Iraq after three years in the West, amid speculation that the recent rapprochement between France, the UK, and the Islamic Republic has put an end to the fat times in Paris and London.

She told a gathering of several thousand supporters in Iraq upon her arrival on Sunday that the days of the clerical government in Tehran were nearing an end. "Today, near the borders of my homeland...the dark age of the mullahs is reaching the end," she said. [Reuters, 12/8]

The Mujahidin-operated Telephone News Network, which has operated out of Paris for several years, was also closed down. In a statement carried during its final days, the MKO told supporters to get their news from the Internet or from the group's radio network, which can be heard all over Europe. (Iran Press Service, 12/8]

Yazdi joins opposition meeting

In an unexpected development, former Foreign Minister Ibrahim Yazdi, a leader of the Freedom Movement of Iran, took part in a ceremony commemorating "Students Day" in Tehran on Dec. 7.

The ceremony was organized by a coalition of four parties, spearheaded by the Iran Nation's Party of Darioush Forouhar. The main speakers at the event were Majid Niarami, a leader of the INP's Youth Organization, and Haj Ismail Haj Ghasem Ali, a leader of the Labor Party of Iran (Third Force).

Niarami, a university student, called on Iranian university students to organize an "anti-dictatorship movement against the totalitarianism in the universities and in society." INP statement, 12/7]

This was the first time that Ibrahim Yazdi, who has been careful not to burn his bridges with the Islamic Republic leadership, has taken part in an INP-sponsored event. The INP has taken a much tougher line toward the regime, calling for the resignation of the clerical leadership and internationally-supervised elections as part of a secular democracy.

CMI holds congress, adopts platform

The Constitutionalists Movement of Iran, CMI, held its Party Congress in Washington, DC last week end, and adopted a new party platform which breaks dramatically with the past

The platform, which was developed during months of careful negotiations with local party leaders by the group's leader, Darioush Homayoun, sketches out a blueprint for a future, democratic, secular, and united Iran, while granting Iran's ethnic minorities extensive powers of local and regional self-government. It authorizes ethnic minorities to transact business, teach, and broadcast in their own languages, although Farsi remains the only official language and the language for all official state documents.

The CMI platform, which was adapted unanimously by the Party's Central Committee on Sunday, calls for establishing "regional governments in each part of Iran," and notes that the borders of regions and provinces "shall be determined through popular vote by the people of the region in question."

The Islamic Republic has changed borders and created new provinces on many occasions over the past 17 years, in a sense breaking the taboo on border shifting. The CMI, however, was responding to the needs of ethnic minorities such as Kurds, Azeris, and Balouchis, who seek "group rights" within a united, sovereign Iran.

Under the CMI blueprint, Iran's national government will retain control over foreign policy, national security and defense, as well as the bulk of national economic assets. Regional governments "will perform all other duties not handled by the central government," while clear channels of communication" between the two "will be established by law." [CMI platform statement, 12/8]

And so does Front Line

Meanwhile, in London a CMI breakaway group known as "Front Line," headed by Mehrdad Khonsari, held its first party conference on Nov. 30- Dec. 1

Khonsari has been a relentless frequent traveler across the Atlantic in recent months, as he has attempted to build support for his program of dialogue with the Islamic Republic.

Front Line's program calls for a broadbased coalition of democratic opposition groups, the separation of religion from state, and an end to the Velayat-e Faghih, the founding principle of the Islamic Republic. The program also calls for "a pluralist society founded upon the concept of national sovereignty." [Front Line statement 12/8]

In a letter to FDI, Mr. Khonsari said that comparisons between his program and that of Iranian-American businessman Houshang Ansari were "incorrect and can be very misleading," since Mr. Ansari '"recognized the legitimacy of the Islamic regime" whereas "I have suggested no such thing."

FDI's Weekly Newswire

WEEKLY NEWSWIRE NO. 30

DEC. 10, 1996

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