Secretary of State Albright says that Iran probably has nuclear weapons.

Russia-Iran/Strobe Talbot/Wisner-Koptev/AIG

The Senate ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention, but Clinton vetoed legislation to implement it because it was attached to a bill he opposed, the sanctions on companies that provide ballistic missile equipment to Iran.

Washington Times 9/1/98 William Bennet, Jack Kemp, Jeane Kirkpatrick ". Several countries will be capable of producing a nuclear missile within five years. A little more that a a month ago, reflecting a clear intelligence breakdown, Iran tested a missile capable of traveling 800 miles - far enough to reach Israel. And during the last two weeks, we've learned of possible nuclear weapons advances in North Korea. "

Charles Aldinger Reuters 9/2/98 "The United States faces staggering costs in developing its lagging defense against missiles such as those tested recently by North Korea and Iran, a top Air Force general said Wednesday. ``We are going to have a huge, huge bill in the future for missile defense,'' Lt. Gen. Lester Lyles said, telling reporters of the tens of billions of dollars needed to perhaps eventually assure U.S. ability to shoot down ballistic missiles in flight..The United States is currently pursuing a number of missile defense options but has virtually no effective defense against medium- or longer-range missiles. ``They are all very worried,'' Lyles said in response to questions about the concerns of U.S. military commanders around the world.."

Washington Post 9/27/98 Bill Miller John Mintz "When the parents of Alisa M. Flatow, a Brandeis University junior killed in a suicide bombing of an Israeli bus in 1995, sued the Iranian government in her death, the United States government was a strong ally that declassified intelligence information that helped win the case. But now that the Flatows are trying to collect a $247.5 million judgment by the court against Iran, they say the U.S. government is on the other side. Officials are working vigorously to block the New Jersey family's efforts to seize the embassy of Iran and three other properties once occupied by its diplomats in Washington. The award in the Flatow case has left the U.S. government in a painful dilemma. At the time that the Clinton administration has publicly declared war on global terrorism after the bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa, federal agencies are rushing into court to preserve the real estate holdings of a regime that the State Department has identified as the prime state sponsor of terrorism.."

Aviation Week & Space Technology ".These startling events all occurred within a month of the Rumsfeld Commission's unanimous assessment of emerging missile threats to the U.S. The findings of this bipartisan panel of experts constituted probably the strongest rebuke to date of the Administration's 1995 National Intelligence Estimate, a fundamentally flawed document that missile defense opponents continue to cite as the basis for continued inaction. The commission, in essence, stated that within as little as five years Iran and North Korea will be capable of developing missiles that can strike American cities, an assessment that even now may be optimistic, considering North Korea's most recent missile test. The panel also criticized the U.S. intelligence community, saying our ability to monitor and predict the threat is eroding and the U.S. may have little or no warning before rogue nations have deployed missiles capable of hitting the country. Despite these ominous developments during the past few months, President Clinton and his allies in the Senate continue to block congressional efforts to move forward with timely deployment of defensive systems to protect Americans. Instead, the Administration, in a vain attempt to deflect congressional and public criticism, points to its so-called "3 Plus 3" program as evidence of its commitment to deploying a national missile defense system.."

AFP 12/25/98 Tehran ".Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei slammed the United States on Friday for exercising a world "dictatorship" and ruled out any normalisation of relations with Iran's longtime enemy. "The United States exercise their dictatorship throughout the world and want to be the sole master of the planet," he told several thousand worshippers at weekly Moslem prayers at Tehran University. The United States had shown "persistent hostility towards the Islamic revolution and the foundations it is built on," he said..."As long as the people stay with Islam, they will not find agreement with the United States," he said, adding that Iranians remained faithful to the revolution and its leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini..."

The American Spectator 1/99 Kenneth Timmerman ".The commission concluded that among the rogue states, Iran was the furthest along, and could develop an ICBM capable of reaching U.S. targets "in an arc extending northeast of a line from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to St. Paul, Minnesota," within five years of a decision to build such a missile."."

AP 2/7/99 Freeper ohmlaw98 ".Iran's defense minister said Sunday that the long-range Shahab- 4 rocket now in development would be used to carry satellites into space - not for military purposes.....In July, Assistant U.S. Secretary of State Martin Indyk called the Shahab-4 a greater threat than its predecessor. He said it could be deployed in two to five years and pledged that the United States would increase its efforts to curb the transfer of technology Iran needs for its development......"

7/15/98 AP Laura Myers "A ballistic missile attack against targets in the United States could be mounted with "little or no warning,'' a bipartisan commission concluded in a report that challenges previous intelligence estimates. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a strong proponent of a national missile defense system, called the assessment released Wednesday "the most important warning about our national security system since the end of the Cold War.''."The major implication of our conclusions is that warning time is reduced,'' said Donald Rumsfeld, former defense secretary and the commission chairman. "Indeed, we see an environment of little or no warning of ballistic missile threats to the U.S. from several emerging powers.'' In 1995, a widely criticized assessment by the Central Intelligence Agency concluded that no country other than the five established nuclear powers would be able to threaten U.S. cities with ballistic missiles for another 15 years..The commission said the threat comes from emerging nuclear states like North Korea, Iran and Iraq, which can easily gain technology and hide weapons development. China and Russia, also missile threats, were cited as the largest proliferators.In a letter to members of Congress, CIA Director George Tenet called the threat from ballistic missiles "complex, serious and growing'' and agreed with the commission on the "need to focus relentlessly'' on it.."

7/16/98 Washington Post Bradley Graham "Challenging official U.S. intelligence estimates, a congressionally mandated panel reported yesterday that Iran and North Korea could develop weapons capable of striking U.S. territory sooner than government analysts have predicted and with little or no warning. Members of the bipartisan Commission to Assess the Ballistic Threat to the United States declined to link their findings to the contentious political debate over whether to deploy a national missile defense system."

7/31/98 The Washington Times Ralph Hallow "The Rumsfeld Commission report found that North Korea, Iran and other countries are hiding their ballistic missile development programs from U.S. satellites. It said these countries are using huge underground laboratories and factories to make and test missiles. Mr. Nicholson, who has been touting a missile shield on radio and in signed opinion columns in newspapers, said Democrats are filibustering a bill that would begin development of such a shield.

Washington Times 12/7/98 Bill Gertz ".China last month delivered a new shipment of missile technology to Iran, prompting an official U.S. protest during a meeting in Beijing, according to U.S. intelligence and national security officials. The transfer included telemetry equipment that could be used in the testing of medium-range missiles, such as Iran's new Shahab-3 missile that was tested for the first time earlier this year. "We raised with the Chinese specific concerns we have about missile cooperation with Iran," a senior administration official told The Washington Times. The official said those specific concerns involved the sale of telemetry equipment...The transfer could violate repeated pledges made by the Beijing government to abide by the guidelines of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR). The administration has avoided imposing sanctions on China missile sales to Pakistan that violate U.S. laws aimed at adding teeth to the MTCR agreement. Gen. Xiong, a People's Liberation Army deputy chief of staff, also warned the United States that China would not allow U.S. regional missile-defense systems to provide protection for Taiwan from Chinese missiles, the officials said. He also said that any U.S. sale of missile-defense technology would constitute "missile proliferation" by the United States and would violate the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty."

Washington Times 12/8/98 James Anderson ".Last month's elections contained many surprises, including an eyebrow-raising exit poll by Wirthlin Worldwide that suggests missile-defense hawks have overlooked a potentially powerful ally in their cause: soccer moms. The poll asked: "If you knew that countries such as North Korea, Iraq, and Iran may soon acquire missiles capable of reaching the United States, would you want to start building a missile defense system now?" Seventy-five percent of women with children responded that we should "definitely" or "probably" start.."

Wall Street Journal 12/15/98 Carla Anne Robbins Andrew Higgins ".There was nothing secret about Yevgeny Adamov's visit last month to Iran: The Russian nuclear chief took a 20-member delegation of scientists and politicians for a triumphant inspection of Bushehr, the $800 million nuclear- power plant Russia is building on the Persian Gulf coast.According to U.S. intelligence reports, officials from at least two key Russian nuclear-research institutes are quietly negotiating to sell Iran a 40-megawatt heavy-water research reactor and a uranium-conversion facility. While the talks are in an early stage, the reports suggest Russian nuclear scientists are already secretly advising Iran on how to produce heavy water and nuclear-grade graphite. American officials believe the technology and information are building blocks for a long-range Iranian effort to manufacture plutonium or highly enriched uranium for a nuclear bomb. Perhaps even more extraordinary, the Russian researchers are selling their knowledge for incredibly little: a few hundred thousand dollars so far, according to U.S. officials. That the Russians would take such chances, and especially for such small amounts of cash, is a measure of both the desperation and the arrogance of Russia's once all-powerful Ministry of Atomic Energy, better known as Minatom."

Washington Times 2/3/99 Harry Summers ". Homeland defense has been much in the news lately, as the Clinton administration announced it will add billions to the fiscal year 2000 defense budget for counterterrorism and national missile defense. As The Washington Post's Charles Krauthammer commented, "Better late than never,'' for it is axiomatic that a secure base is the essential foundation for both offensive and defensive military operations.. But what made sense during the Cold War has become a dangerous anachronism today when the threat is no longer a massive nuclear exchange but the threat of nuclear attack by rogue states like North Korea or Iran, both of whom are well on the way to developing the capability to do just that. "Right now if an enemy fired just one nuclear missile at Los Angeles or New York,'' wrote Mr. Krauthammer, "there is nothing, absolutely nothing, the United States could do to stop it.'' Finally that's begun to change, with Defense Secretary William Cohen himself repudiating the obsolete ABM treaty. But, as usual with the Clinton administration, it's one step forward and two steps back. President Clinton himself proposed delaying deployment of missile defenses until 2005, long after he is out of office. And his State Department backtracked as well, saying we would deploy only what Russia would agree to under an amended treaty. As Mr. Krauthammer sarcastically asked, "What standing does Russia, of all nations, have to dictate how and whether the United States will defend itself? Russia is the principal supplier to Iran of precisely the missile and nuclear technology that could one day turn New York into Hiroshima."."

AP 2/11/99 ".Until now, Moscow had adamantly denied U.S. accusations that some private Russian companies are getting around government export restrictions and smuggling weapons technology to Iran. But at a government meeting called to review the problem Thursday, Russian Security Council head and presidential chief of staff, Nikolai Bordyuzha, conceded that ``there are still blank spots in this sphere,'' the Interfax news agency reported. ``A number of firms have been independently going to the international market,'' Bordyuzha said.."

Beijing has long said its condition for cutting exports of missile and other military know-how to Pakistan and Iran is that America scale down its delivery of jet fighters and other weaponry to Taiwan. "Jiang will tell Clinton that if Washington wants Beijing's help in the nuclear stand-off, it should first stop arms sales to Taiwan, which, after all, is 'part of China'," according to a diplomat.

June 23, 1998 - President Clinton vetoed a bill to impose sanctions on Russia for selling missile technology to Iran, even though the Pentagon said the missile trade is continuing.

Washington Times via Drudge 11/18/98 Bill Gertz ".Russian missile and nuclear technology is continuing to flow to Iran despite U.S. diplomatic efforts to halt the trade, according to special U.S. envoy Robert Gallucci. "The dialogue on the ballistic missile issue is a familiar one," Mr. Gallucci said after recent meetings with government officials in Moscow. "We are still concerned about contacts, cooperation and assistance between Russia and Iran, and we are discussing that with them. It is still an issue." Mr. Gallucci said in an interview that during his visit to Moscow two weeks ago he discussed the ongoing missile trade and again tried to dissuade Russia from helping Iran's nuclear program... U.S. intelligence officials said the Russians' high-level visit to Iran is a signal of a new harder line against the United States in Moscow, since it will take place a few weeks after Congress funded the $525 million for the nuclear material program.. U.S. intelligence agencies estimate Iran is working on nuclear weapons and could develop warheads and bombs in about 10 years. Some administration officials said Iranian missile technicians are still being trained in Russia and that equipment and materials used in building missiles are being shipped from Russia. In July, Iran test- fired its first medium-range Shahab-3 missile, which U.S. intelligence agencies estimate was developed rapidly with Russian help. China also provided missile technology to Iran, they said.."

The Jerusalem Post 1/21/99 Arieh O'Sullivan Douglas Davis "..The Mossad estimates that up to 10,000 Russian experts are assisting Iran's biological, chemical and nuclear weapons programs, according to the newsletter Foreign Report, to be published in London today. The government's dissatisfaction with Moscow's unreadiness to block leaks of weapons technologies to Iran has led to a chill in defense relations between Israel and Russia, defense sources said.."

The Hindu 7/8/98 "The United States has given Chinese companies the green light to sell missile technology to countries like Pakistan and Iran, Mr. Gary Milhollin, a nuclear expert, has testified before a U.S. parliamentary committee.Officials here said the American nuclear expert's testimony confirmed India's concerns of Washington pursuing a policy of duplicity on the issue of nuclear non-proliferation.."

Newsday 11/12/98 Charles Hutzler AP ".Washington suspects China may have transferred missile technology to Iran and Pakistan despite Chinese pledges to strengthen missile export controls, a U.S. official said today. U.S. concerns about possible transfers were aired during a day and a half of meetings between senior Chinese and American arms-control negotiators, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Undersecretary of State John Holum, who led the U.S. team, said he and Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan and senior military commander Gen. Zhang Wannian also discussed North Korea's threatening launch of a rocket over Japan in late August. Suspicions of Chinese nuclear and missile proliferation have been a constant irritant in U.S.-China relations. The potential dangers crystallized this spring with South Asia's nuclear arms race. Within two months, Pakistan, China's staunch ally, tested a ballistic missile and exploded a nuclear bomb.Washington also determined that Pakistan received North Korean, not Chinese, help in developing the Ghauri missile launched in April, he said.."

7/13/98 DAWN "Iranian Defence Minister Ali Shamkhani said Israel would not dare attack Iran's nuclear installations because it would be made to pay a heavy price, in an interview published here on Sunday.."Israel represents a danger for our national security," Shamkhani told Al-Ittihad newspaper in the United Arab Emirates. "If they want to (attack), let them try because we will retaliate ... and make the aggressor suffer a severe setback," he said .."

The Pioneer 12/20/98 Shubha Singh ".Among the hundreds of cruise missiles that were fired at Iraq on Wednesday night, a couple of them fell in Khorramshahr town in Iran's Khuzestan province. There was some damage to property, but fortunately no resultant casualties in Iran. That is one of the problems of these high-tech weapons, fired from afar, they are not as accurate as their users would want them to be. Fired at Iraq, they land in Iran. Aimed at Afghanistan, they drop down in Pakistan. And then there is what the Americans term collateral damage. The ugly phrase meaning civilian deaths.Bombing Iraq is an abuse of power, in the belief that there can be no retribution. This is the first time that the Security Council has been sidetracked so blatantly. Washington was so quick o send out its missiles that it did not even make the effort of getting support from anyone other than its closest ally, Britain, at the time of the attack. Even the other permanent members of the Security Council, which forms the elite core group, were not consulted.."

The Indian Express 12/22/98 ".TEHRAN: Another stray cruise missile from the U.S.-British strikes against Iraq has been found in Iran, a newspaper reported today. The missile landed in a barren area in the Southwestern border province of Khuzestan, the Jomhuri Islami newspaper reported. Iran, which condemned the four-night strikes that ended on Sunday, had strongly protested the accidental landing of another Iraq-bound missile on its territory last week, reports PTI.."

Islamic Republic News Service (IRNA) 4/14/99 "...the ministry of defense and armed forces logistics spokesman keyvan khosrawi said here on wednesday that the modern surface-to-air missile 'sayyad-1' was successfully test fired on wednesday. khosrawi said the missile, produced completely by the airspace industries organization, affiliated to the defense and armed forces logistics ministry, was named after the late iranian army commander lieutenant general ali sayyad shirazi to appreciate his braveries and devotion...."

ConservativeNews.org 4/21/99 Justin Torres "...Iranian defense officials have privately conceded that China contributed to the development of an Iranian surface-to-air missile, code-named "Sayyad-I," which was successfully tested on April 14, sources have told CNS. According to a diplomatic report out of Iran, a defense ministry official said that the missile's components were built in Iran with Chinese technology. The missiles reportedly can hit a target at an altitude of over 10,000 meters..... A source close to the situation told CNS that Chinese aviation industry minister Zha Yuli was on an official visit to the strategic Iranian town of Qeshm in Bushehr province at the time the missile was fired. The Chinese ambassador to Iran, Wang Shi-jie, also accompanied the minister to the area, according to the source. Chinese officials were not available for comment. A U.S. State Department official, who spoke on the condition their name not be used, told CNS that the United States has "absolutely no evidence" that China had been involved in technology transfers to Iran, or that Chinese officials were present at any Iranian missile launches...."

Global Intelligence Update 5/4/99 "...Following his meeting with visiting Saudi Defense Minister Prince Sultan bin Abd al Aziz al Saud, Iranian President Mohammad Khatami said that there are no longer any outstanding differences between Iran and Saudi Arabia. This possible reconciliation between Saudi Arabia and Iran has serious political, military, and economic ramifications for the region...."

Fox News Wire 5/8/99 AP "...Iran has proposed boosting nuclear cooperation with Russia and wants to enlarge a nuclear power plant being built with Moscow's help, Russia's atomic energy minister said Saturday. Yevgeny Adamov told the Interfax news agency that Iran's vice president had written him to propose adding a second reactor to the power plant currently under construction in Bushehr in southern Iran....."

INA 6/12/99 "... Iran on Thursday fired three long-range surface-to-surface missiles on a military camp for Iranian Mujahidi Khalq opposition organization deep inside Iraqi territory. An official Iraqi spokesman said this aggression followed a series of criminal acts of terrorism committed by Iranian agents inside Iraq, the latest of which the car bomb explosion of June 9, 1999 that killed a number of Iraqi civilians and six Mujahidi Khalq members...."

AP 6/20/99 Jamal Halaby "...Contrary to accusations that Iran supports terrorism, the Islamic country is a victim of attacks by terrorists harbored in European and other Western nations, Iran's foreign minister said Sunday. Kamal Kharrazi accused unspecified Western nations of "harboring Iranian terrorists and giving them facilities'' - a reference to the dissident Mujahedeen Khalq Organization, which has offices in the United States and Europe. The group has been behind assassinations of military officials in Tehran and attempts to kill other Iranian leaders. Washington accuses Iran of sponsoring international terrorism and trying to acquire nuclear weapons, charges that the Iranian government rejects. "Terrorism is an old allegation. And actually, Iran is a victim of terrorism and Iran has done its best to combat terrorism,'' Kharrazi said in an interview with The Associated Press. Iran differentiates between terrorists and the Lebanese and Palestinian groups it champions, including Hezbollah guerrillas in south Lebanon who are fighting Israeli occupation. "We, Muslim nations that have grown, have come under such allegations,'' Kharrazi said. "This is used as an instrument to put pressure on us,'' he added, declining to elaborate. It is "only through genuine international cooperation that this menace can be removed,'' he said...."

Stratfor 7/1/99 "...Greece and Iran have announced that they intend to sign a tripartite military cooperation agreement, along with Armenia, as early as July 12. Such an agreement would seriously undermine NATO unity and strategy in the Balkans and the Caucasus, exacerbate tensions between Greece and Turkey, isolate Azerbaijan and Georgia and, by extension, Central Asia, and provide Russia with a tremendous lever against NATO. As all involved intended, it is not something NATO can ignore....Tsokhatzopoulos' announcement that the trilateral cooperation between Greece, Iran, and Armenia would be expanded from the economic arena to include security and defense cooperation is a political bombshell, setting the stage for dramatic shifts in a number of regional alignments. First and foremost, the claim that this defense pact is not directed at any country is patent nonsense. Explicitly intended as such or not, Ankara can only view a new military alignment of its traditional foes Greece, Armenia, and Iran -- with Russia as a silent partner -- as a clear and present danger to Turkey. The agreement also raises concerns in Azerbaijan, which remains in conflict with Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave and which has blamed Iran for backing an assassination plot against President Heydar Aliyev The defense pact between Iran, strongly Russian-backed Armenia, and NATO member Greece, and the tacit threat it poses to NATO member Turkey, is a slap in the face of NATO..."

Russia Today 6/29/99 Reuters "...Russian Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin gave the go-ahead on Monday for discussions with Iran on building three nuclear power plants in that country, Interfax news agency said. It said the Atomic Energy Ministry had made the proposal but did not say when the talks might start. Officials were not immediately available for comment. Russia is already building a nuclear reactor for Iran in the Gulf port of Bushehr in a deal worth $800 million...."

Islamic Republic News Wire 7/2/99 "...Iran's Interior Minister Abdolvahed Moussavi lari said here today that the Islamic Republic cannot stand foreign intervention in the Caspian Sea and its regime. The Iranian Minister who was speaking to reporters after his talks with the Chairman of the State Duma Genady Seleznev said here that Washington is trying to ruin relations between Iran and the Russian Federation with the idea of imposing its own preferences on the region frequently also subscribing to opposite criteria in doing so. He said the arrest of a group of 13 Iranians on charges of espionage is simply Iran's internal matter. He commented that his talks with the Chairman of the State Duma in Moscow had been very fruitful...."

Orange County Register 7/15/99 "…"Insurrection in Iran July 15, 1999 It is certainly too early to tell whether student unrest will lead to substantial change in the Shiite Islamic regime that now rules in Iran. But as Ted Carpenter, head of foreign policy studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, told us, the development can't be good over the long run for the ayatollahs and the mullahs…".

Daily Telegraph (UK) 7/19/99 "...IRAN gave warning of reprisals yesterday after several people were killed or wounded in a Turkish bombing raid on an Iranian army border base. The official IRNA news agency reported: "Turkish warplanes on Sunday dropped rockets and bombs on Iranian border outposts in Piranshahr and villages around the city." An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hamid-Reza Asefi, said several civilians were killed and some others injured, IRNA said..."

AFP 7/19/99 "…Iranian officials called for swift retaliation Monday after a deadly bombing raid by Turkish warplanes on a mainly Kurdish region of Iran that Turkey denied ever took place. Tehran insisted five people were killed in the attack while Turkish premier Bulent Ecevit dismissed the claim as a "misinterpretation," following a week of growing tension between the two nations…"

GRANMA INTERNATIONAL,CUBA 7/25/99 Antonio Penque Brizuela "…During his visit to the island, Hassan Ibrahin Habibi, first vice president of Iran, met with President Fidel Castro, signed collaboration agreements and spoke of `more cooperation and contact' THE governments of Iran and Cuba agreed on the possibilities of deepening cooperative relations and made concrete steps in that direction during a visit to the island by Iran's first vice president, Hassan Ibraín Habibi, and his meeting with President Fidel Castro…."

Chicago Tribune 8/3/99 Colin McMahon "...A trophy case in a dark corridor testifies to the faded glories of Baltic State Technical University. On proud display are banners and awards sporting the name of Lenin and the seal of the USSR. The 124-year-old university helped defeat Hitler, then helped the Soviet Union become the most feared nuclear power on the planet..... Now Baltic University, the school's new name, is at the heart of a new global fear: that desperate Russian scientists, bitter with their impoverished lot in a financially crippled country, might be providing Iran with the knowledge to build its own long-range missiles and other advanced weaponry that could alter the balance of power in the Middle East. Citing training received by Iranian students in Russia and teaching stints in Iran by faculty members, the United States has imposed sanctions against Baltic University as well as nine other Russian scientific institutions accused of aiding Iran. Washington also has pressured Moscow into placing them under intense intelligence surveillance. ...The anger and sense of betrayal is palpable in Baltic University's decrepit classrooms. For decades, this school was off-limits to Westerners as well as most Russians, a respected cradle of Soviet military secrets. Still unaccustomed to scrutiny and more comfortable in the shadows, the scientists here deeply distrust America and its allies, and they seethe at their nation's fall from its status as a superpower...."

AP 8/15/99 "...Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Court reportedly has condemned to death instigators of last month's mass protests, Iran's worst unrest since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Meanwhile, Iran's spiritual leader named a new chief of the nation's judiciary, removing a powerful hard-liner responsible for a crackdown on the liberal media. It was unclear whether the new chief had different political leanings than his hard-line predecessor. The Islamic Revolutionary Court also gave long jail terms to several other defendants, the evening Kayhan daily reported...."

Iran News Agency 9/4/99 "…According to a new study published by FT energy, Iran has a unique role in the Caspian that could be pivotal in the development of the region's oil and gas reserves, IRNA reported. It said: "Not only is Iran a major producer in its own right, but it also represents a viable option as an export route for other Caspian producers that is "in many ways more economic than some of the other pipeline plans". The report finds that Iran's swap and pipeline arrangement will probably play a distinctive element in moving up to 1 million barrels per day of central Asian oil to foreign markets by 2015. The Iranian route, it suggested, would be at the expense of the Western Kazakhstan-Xinkiang and Eastern U.S.-based Baku-Ceyhan pipelines, which were "unlikely to see the light of day." the in-depth study, written by Middle East analyst Peter Enav, also considers the effect that the U.S. policy has had on the Caspian situation and how that policy is shifting….."

Fox News 9/9/99 Robert Burns AP "...Over the next 15 years, North Korea and Iran are likely to develop missiles potentially capable of killing millions of Americans, the CIA said Thursday. In an intelligence report with major implications for the Pentagon's efforts to develop defenses against ballistic missiles, the CIA said Iraq posed an additional - though somewhat more distant - threat. It said it was questionable whether Iraq could test a missile with enough range to reach the United States before 2015, although the likelihood depends heavily on how much foreign assistance Iraq gets. The report characterized the prospect of North Korea acquiring a long-range missile by 2015 as "most likely,'' Iran's prospect was judged to be "probable'' and Iraq was labeled a "possible'' threat. These emerging missile forces "potentially can kill tens of thousands, or even millions, of Americans,'' depending on their accuracy and whether they are armed with nuclear, chemical or biological warheads, it said. The United States has no means of shooting down long-range ballistic missiles, although the Pentagon is spending billions of dollars to develop anti-missile missiles to shield the United States against a limited attack. Russia already has about 1,000 long-range missiles with about 4,500 nuclear warheads. China has about 20 missiles capable of reaching the United States. The CIA report said short-range ballistic missiles, such as Iran's Shahab-3 and North Korea's No Dong, pose an "immediate, serious and growing threat to U.S. forces, interests and allies'' in the Middle East and Asia. Those missiles do not have the range to reach U.S. soil....."

Fox News 9/9/99 Robert Burns AP "...The report also said the countries developing ballistic missiles also are probably working on "countermeasures,'' or ways of enabling their missiles to overcome U.S. defenses. Russia and China, which already have developed numerous countermeasures, probably are willing to sell these technologies, it said. The report is a summary of a classified National Intelligence Estimate, the first the CIA has done on ballistic missile threats since 1995. In an October 1998 update of its assessment, the CIA told Congress that the United States was facing a growing threat from the spread of ballistic missiles.... A senior U.S. intelligence official said Thursday the CIA has changed the way it assesses missile threats. Reflecting its Cold War-era practice, the CIA used to wait until a country deployed a missile for the first time before declaring it a threat. Now it will declare a threat as soon as a country successfully test-launches a missile, the official said. ....

The Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) 5/98 "....Chinese arms exports to Iran have caused considerable concern within the international community, particularly for the United States. In conjunction with the U.S.-China summit of October 1997, China apparently took a number of steps to curtail sensitive transfers to Iran as part of a broader, more positive trend in Chinese nonproliferation policy. But numerous concerns persist that China continues to provide Iran with systems and technologies that contribute to further development of its cruise and ballistic missile capability, as well as to its nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs. Within the international community, the United States has sustained the greatest degree of opposition to Chinese arms exports to Iran.....The Chinese arms trade with Iran has since the early 1980s involved conventional, missile, nuclear, and chemical weapons. With the exception of Pakistan and possibly North Korea, China's arms trade with Iran has been more quantitatively and qualitatively comprehensive and sustained than that with any other country. This trade has included the provision of thousands of tanks, armored personnel vehicles, and artillery pieces, several hundred surface-to-air, air-to-air, cruise, and ballistic missiles as well as thousands of antitank missiles, more than a hundred fighter aircraft, and dozens of small warships. In addition, it is widely believed that China has assisted Iran in the development of its ballistic and cruise missile production capability, and has provided Iran with technologies and assistance in the development of its clandestine chemical and nuclear weapons programs. ....Perhaps most importantly, China appears to have made significant contributions to Iran's indigenous military production capability through the provision of scientific expertise, technical cooperation, technology transfers, production technologies, blueprints, and dual-use transfers. Such transfers are difficult to monitor and assess, but will likely make up a far greater proportion of China's militarily relevant transfers to Iran in the future....."

AP via Drudge Report 9/9/99 "....North Korea and Iran are likely to join established nuclear powers Russia and China as long-range missile threats to the United States over the next 15 years, the CIA said today. These emerging missile forces ``potentially can kill tens of thousands, or even millions, of Americans, depending on the type of warhead, the accuracy and the intended target,'' the intelligence agency said. In an intelligence report with major implications for the Pentagon's efforts to develop defenses against ballistic missiles, the CIA said Iraq posed an additional - though somewhat more distant - threat. It said it was questionable whether Iraq could test a missile with enough range to reach the United States before 2015, although the likelihood depends heavily on how much foreign assistance Iraq gets. The report characterized the prospect of North Korea acquiring a long-range missile by 2015 as ``most likely,'' Iran's prospect was judged to be ``probable'' and Iraq was labeled a ``possible'' threat....."

Associated Press 9/20/99 "...Iran plans to manufacture gunships equipped with advanced weapons, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported Monday. Quoting Brig. Gen. Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps' air force, the agency said the gunships will be completed by 2005. Qalibaf did not provide further details on the gunships. He said a 15-seat helicopter was also being developed and would be test-flown by the end of 2004. On Sunday, the agency reported that a surface-to-surface missile will be displayed during Sacred Defense Week, to be held Wednesday through Sept. 28. It did not disclose the range of the missile, named Zelzal, which means earthquake, or whether it will be capable of carrying nuclear warheads. ..."

Reuters, via News Plus 9/25/99 "….An Iranian ayatollah has declared that the authors of a satirical student play should die for insulting Islam. Conservative newspapers on Saturday quoted Ayatollah Hossein Mazaheri as saying the play, which invoked one of the holiest figures in Shi'ite Islam in lampooning campus conservatives, constituted an unforgivable insult. "The writers of this text and all who published it were aware of its filthy contents. Under the sacred law of Islam, they are condemned to execution," he said in a statement printed in conservative newspapers. "There can be no doubt about this."….."

World Tribune.com (Middle East Newsline) 9/27/99 ".....Unrest has returned to Iran amid the latest crackdown by ruling hardline clerics against pro-reform forces. Iranian opposition groups said police were pelted with stones and attacked at a Saturday soccer match. Authorities in Teheran have termed the violence the work of hooligans but opposition groups said the unrest was sparked by opponents of the Islamic regime. The backlash comes as authorities continued their crackdown on liberal elements in the country...."

World Tribune.Com 10/12/99 ".....Iranian agents have smuggled U.S. nuclear equipment from Sweden, Swedish state television reported on Monday. The television said U.S. electronic equipment used in Swedish reactors was smuggled out of Sweden and arrived in Iran. The report said a man was arrested for forging export permits. Iran has been seeking nuclear technology for its weapons program, Western intelligence sources said. They said that the effort might have been increased over recent months as the United States presses Russia and China to downgrade their nuclear ties with Teheran. In Teheran, Iranian efforts to improve relations with Germany appeared in jeopardy on Monday as Teheran authorities ignored an acquittal of a German businessman facing the death sentence and kept him in jail. ....."

FOX____AP 10/17/99 ".....Saudi Arabia has not asked Iran to hand over any suspects wanted for a bombing that killed 19 Americans, and does not accuse Iran of involvement in the attack, Iran's speaker of parliament said in remarks published Sunday. Ali Akbar Nateq-Nouri's comments imply a shift in the Saudi view of the 1996 truck bombing of the Khobar Towers military estate near Dhahran, eastern South Arabia. Previously, Saudi Arabia has said that Iran instigated the attack. Nateq-Nouri spoke while visiting Saudi Arabia, where he held talks with the king and Cabinet ministers. Last month, President Clinton asked Iran to cooperate in the investigation of the bombing, which killed 19 U.S. air force personnel. U.S. Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder said earlier this month that his department was investigating a possible Iranian role, but had not reached a conclusion. Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef has said he was seeking the extradition of three Saudis wanted for the bombing, but he has not disclosed their whereabouts......"

FOX___AP 10/29/99 "….Iranian President Mohammad Khatami said Friday that Tehran would not interfere in Middle East peace efforts, but that Palestinian self-determination was the only way to secure lasting peace……. Asked about Iranian support for Hizbollah guerrillas fighting to oust Israeli troops from the security zone in south Lebanon, Khatami said: "We shall not intervene in that area. But as a symbol of resistance in Lebanon, where a part of the land is occupied by Israel, we support them morally. But they are the ones that should decide over their own destiny,'' he said….."

FOCUS ____Reuters 10/17/99 "..... Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei railed against the United States on Sunday, accusing it of being an international bully, as Tehran rejected the latest offer of direct talks with Washington. "The United States and Israel are clear examples of bullying powers who use every possible means to remove obstacles in their way," Khamenei said in talks with visiting former South African president Nelson Mandela. ....... Washington wants to see Iran end its opposition to Arab-Israeli peace talks, and its support for militant groups in the Middle East. It has also shown concern about Iran's missile and nuclear programmes. But Khamenei made it clear Iran had no intention of changing its policy toward Israel any time soon. "The Palestinian nation will definitely (choose) to fight and it will win. It will not only retake control of the West Bank, but the whole land of Palestine," he said. ....."

New York Times 11/10/99 John Burns "….After the first 10 days of a trial that has transfixed Iran, a prominent Muslim cleric who is accused of betraying the Islamic revolution has infuriated the ruling hierarchy by using the courtroom as a pulpit to promote the democratic principles that caused him to be put on trial in the first place. The cleric is Abdullah Nouri, one of the most popular of a new generation of reform-minded politicians. He has, in effect, turned the courtroom into a seminar, not only on democratic freedoms, but also on the question of whether Islamic teachings are compatible with a society that elects its governments, tolerates freedom of speech and respects human rights….."

Reuters 11/4/99 "…..Tens of thousands of Iranians rallied outside the former U.S. embassy Thursday, the 20th anniversary of the hostage crisis, burning American flags and vowing to renew the struggle against the ``Great Satan.'' The demonstrators also burned an effigy of Uncle Sam while chanting ``Death to America'' and ``Death to Israel,'' familiar cries in the streets of Tehran over the past two decades. School children, bussed in from various parts of Tehran, issued a declaration condemning U.S. officials for ``their complicity in international atrocities, especially in prolonging and buttressing the former regime'' of the ousted Shah….."

Stratfor.com 12/9/99 "…..2330 GMT, 991209 - Iranian Deal May Entice Caspian Oil Away From Turkish Pipeline Iran's Oil Ministry will provide its Central Asian oil swap partners, Turkmenistan and Kazakstan, with a 30 percent cut in oil swap rates, the Iran Daily reported on Dec. 9. The swap plan is an effective economic and political policy tool for Iran, which allows Iran to effectively undermine U.S. sanctions. The plan makes Iran a more attractive outlet for Central Asian oil than the proposed Baku-Ceyhan pipeline, which will lead U.S. corporations to clamor to be allowed to invest in Iranian infrastructure. …"

ABC News Online 1/6/00 Sue Lackey "….Under direct pressure from U.S. congressional and military emissaries, the Colombian government appears to have backed off its initial support of an Iranian investment project in rebel-held territory. An Iranian-funded meat processing plant that had been planned for the village of San Vicente apparently will not be built, due to pressure from the U.S. Congress...."

Chattanooga Free Press 1/20/2000 "…. Most Americans haven't been paying much attention lately to the country of Iran, which is ruled by fanatic anti-Americans….. But now Iran is back in the news because American officials say they can no longer rule out the possibility that Iran has gained nuclear weapons, possibly by purchasing components from the former Soviet Union…… U.S. intelligence services used to say they were sure Iran did not have nuclear weapons. Now they say they aren't sure that the Iranians haven't gained a potentially dangerous nuclear capability. ……"

World Tribune.com 2/4/00 "…..Despite repeated pledges, China continues to supply Iran with technology and equipment for Teheran's missile and nuclear weapons programs, the CIA said in a report to Congress. The report said Iran actively sought technology and equipment for weapons of mass destruction programs last year from suppliers in Russia, China, North Korea and western Europe. The report said that during 1999 China and Russia supplied "a considerable amount and a wide variety of ballistic missile-related goods and technology to Iran." "In doing so, Teheran is attempting to develop an indigeous capability to produce various types of weapons -- nuclear, chemical and biological -- and their delivery systems," said the report to Congress by the CIA's Non-Proliferation Center. "Teheran is using these goods and technologies to support current production programs and to achieve its goal of becoming self-sufficient in the production of ballistic missiles." The CIA referred to several Iranian ballistic missile programs. The report said Iran could probably deploy a limited number of Shihab-3 missiles in a crisis. The missile, tested in July 1998, has a range of 1,300 kilometers and can strike Israel, Turkey and Gulf countries. The CIA said Iran is also working on Shihab-4, with an estimated range of up to 2,500 kilometers, and plans the Shihab-5, with a range of 5,500 kilometers. ….."

Inside China Today 2/5/00 Reuters "…..The director of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency said on Thursday he was concerned that North Korea and Iran will develop long-range nuclear missiles in the next several years. "Though less certain, I am very concerned that during the next several years, more radical hostile nations, particularly North Korea and Iran, will develop and field nuclear-armed missiles with intercontinental range," Vice Admiral Thomas Wilson said at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. He also noted that the United States sometimes had limited ability to track those types of missile-development programs. "The growing availability of missile technology components and experts, intense political pressure to acquire longer-range ballistic missiles, the willingness of some states to take short cuts and accept more risks in their missile development programs, and our sometimes limited ability to track reliably these protected programs, are all cause for concern," Wilson said. An unclassified CIA report to Congress, released this week, said during the period Jan. 1 through June 30, 1999, North Korea obtained raw materials for its ballistic missile programs from "various foreign sources, especially from firms in China." The CIA report also said that "North Korea produces and is capable of using a wide variety of chemical and possibly biological agents, as well as their delivery means." ….."

TRIBUNE.COM 2/11/00 "…..Iran has launched its largest airborne exercise near the Iraqi border as a state daily said Teheran will not hesitate to develop nuclear weapons that can strike the United States. Iranian military sources said the Zoulfaqar exercise involves paratroopers landing in several Iranian locations as part of a demonstration of air support for a ground offensive. An Iranian commander was quoted by the official Islamic Republic News Agency as saying that hundreds of paratroopers aboard a C-130 Hercules transport plane landed at 120 points at Ilam, Saleh-Abad and Mehran, in western Iran. He said the exercise was to test the capability of air support for ground forces. The military exercise includes the establishment of 35 stations to monitor communication security in a demonstration of Iranian electronic warfare capability. …."

Times of India 2/6/00 "…..Mortars struck a publishing house Saturday evening in central Tehran, near key government offices including the Iranian president's office and Parliament. One person was killed and four were injured, Tehran television reported. Windows of the Golbang publishing house, located across the street from the Judiciary building and top policy-making offices, were shattered and its walls pocked and broken in areas. Two cars parked out front were destroyed in the attack, responsibility for which was claimed by an Iranian opposition group trying to overthrow the Islamic government. The official Islamic Republic News Agency did not provide details about the number or nature of the blasts, which it described as a "terrorist attack." Tehran television said there were five explosions. Mortar debris was visible in the area. ….."

THE WASHINGTON TIMES 2/9/00 Bill Gertz "…..North Korea recently sold Iran a dozen medium-range ballistic missile engines, indicating the Pyongyang government has not curbed its transfers of missile know-how and equipment. According to a Pentagon intelligence report, North Korea supplied the 12 engines to an Iranian government agency involved in missile production in November. The engines arrived in Iran on Nov. 21 after they were spotted being loaded aboard an Iran Air Boeing 747 cargo jet that left Sunan International Airfield, about 12 miles north of the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, said U.S. officials familiar with the classified report. U.S. intelligence officials said the missile engines are the same as those used in Nodong medium-range missiles, which have a range of about 620 miles……. The missile engine transfer comes amid continuing diplomacy by the Clinton administration aimed at trying to halt North Korea's missile proliferation. Two rounds of U.S.-North Korean talks in Berlin made little progress on the issue, officials said. The intelligence on the missile engine transfer also coincides with other recent Pentagon reports showing that China is continuing to sell missile technology to North Korea despite promises from Chinese leaders to halt the exchanges……. The missile transfer has raised new questions about a recent decision by the Clinton administration to waive U.S. economic embargo provisions against Iran and allow Boeing Co. to sell engine parts to Iran for its fleet of 747 passenger jets……. Henry Sokolski, a Pentagon arms proliferation specialist during the Bush administration, said the North Korean engine sale also raises questions of Chinese government complicity in the engine deal……. The engine sale is new evidence that North Korea also has become a major supplier for Tehran's missile effort. The CIA's annual report to Congress on the spread of missiles and nuclear, chemical and biological arms stated that during the first half of 1999 "entities in Russia and China continued to supply a considerable amount and a wide variety of ballistic missile-related goods and technology to Iran." Officials said the report did not include the intelligence from November on the engine transfer from North Korea……"

The Hindustan Times 2/26/00 ".....President Mohammad Khatami is not exactly the Deng Xiaoping of Iran but he does represent the liberal and reformist face in his country. "The revolution", Ayatollah Khomeini once said, "is not about the price of a watermelon". Such revolutionary ardour has cooled with time. More and more Iranians, particularly the younger generation, believe that Iran and Islam cannot triumph through spiritual elan alone, and require western capital and technology to accomplish their ends...."

Stratfor 2/24/00 "……China recently forged stronger ties with Iran and Turkey. In doing so, China is first addressing two important policy goals - oil interests in Iran and coordination with Turkey to suppress Islamic fundamentalism. China seems to be promoting these ties with great vigor in anticipation of a possible meeting between Russian and Chinese heads of state. This suggests that there is a second level of meaning to China's Middle East foreign policy campaign. China is both addressing its own foreign policy concerns as well as positioning itself to deal with Russia. Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan met Feb. 22 with Iranian President Mohammad Khatami and expressed interest in promoting further bilateral cooperation in political, economic and other international areas, according to a Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao. At the same time as Tang's visit to Iran, Chinese President Jiang Zemin met with a Turkish parliament delegation in Shenzhen, China, and stressed Turkey's importance. Previously, on Feb. 14, China and Turkey signed their first bilateral security cooperation agreement. And, the Chinese president is tentatively scheduled to visit Turkey between April 12 and 16. ……"

Reuters 2/24/00 Christopher Wilson "…..The U.S. Senate on Thursday unanimously approved legislation designed to punish Russia and other countries if they help Iran develop weapons of mass destruction. In a move many senators hope will aid reformers who won a big victory over hard-liners in Iran's parliamentary elections last week, the Senate voted 98-0 to hand President Bill Clinton's administration the discretionary authority to impose sanctions on any country that supplies nuclear, biological or chemical weapons equipment or technology to Tehran. The U.S. House of Representatives last year overwhelmingly approved similar legislation, aimed at prodding the Clinton administration toward a more aggressive stance on Russian weapons proliferation to Iran. ….."

U.S. State Department Press Briefing 2/23/00 James Rubin Barry Schweid AP "…..QUESTION: About a month or so ago, after great effort, we managed to extract from this department the statement of opposition to World Bank loans to Iran. Does the election - could the election have any effect on this position?
MR. RUBIN: The World Bank itself is, of course, best placed to respond to questions about the World Bank. Let me just finish. Just hang in there. Our understanding is that the World Bank has not finalized any proposals for loans to Iran for Executive Board consideration and there are no such proposals on the agenda for the World Bank Board at this time. Congress has directed that the United States oppose multilateral lending to countries designated by the Secretary of State as state sponsors of terrorism. Iran has been so designated. Furthermore, the United States does not believe that conditions favor restarting World Bank lending to Iran at this time. Iran has yet to make progress in a number of fronts that should precede such action, including pursuing meaningful economic reform and abandoning support for terrorism. Our position on lending to Iran is well known to the Bank. The United States opposes World Bank lending to countries we have determined support international terrorism. We will not, therefore, support any loan to Iran that comes to the World Bank's Executive Board.
QUESTION: Does that legislation --
MR. RUBIN: I thought that was pretty clear.
QUESTION: That's very clear, yes. But --
MR. RUBIN: What do you mean? I did it right away.
QUESTION: No, it's very good. But does that legislation --
MR. RUBIN: You didn't have to drag it out of me, none of that.
QUESTION: -- contain any kind of national security waiver or national interest waiver or anything at all? Is it set in stone, when you say Congress has directed that we oppose --
MR. RUBIN: We don't believe that Congress can, in fact, as a constitutional matter, direct how we vote, and the Executive Branch considers such direction from Congress as beyond congressional authority. We've made this point to Congress; we're going to continue to disagree on that. But we have, as a matter of practice, followed congressional proscriptions. Beyond that, I would have to get the text of the law to answer your question about waivers.
QUESTION: Do you have the right to ignore congressional guidance on this point?
MR. RUBIN: I think we've made it clear to Congress for some time that we disagree with their authority to direct our --
QUESTION: Do you think maybe Iran may be a test case for this right --
MR. RUBIN: I wouldn't assume that at all. ……"

The Economist 2/19-25/00 "….. Can a good Muslim be a good democrat? ARE Islam and democracy compatible? Iran's parliamentary election this Friday will not provide a definitive answer, but it may provide some hints. It turns, in any event, on the issue of how democratic an Islamist regime can be. Iranians can elect, in a tolerably fair way, the representatives they want; the question is how much authority and freedom their system then allows these representatives. Our conclusion, suggested in another article, is not much. President Muhammad Khatami has succeeded in making the theocratic state less restrictive. But a growing number of Iranians-the bold, the thoughtful, the young-want an administration and a judiciary that are free from clerical despotism. The turbaned are finding it ever harder to slap these hungry reformers down. Outside Iran, political Islam has long since lost the cohesive, cataclysmic energy that the western world, perhaps wrongly, detected in the years after Iran's 1979 revolution. It has not, however, lost its power to alarm. The concept of "Islamic terrorism" still chills people, in Moscow these days as well as in New York. Christians in Nigeria's Muslim states quail at the introduction of the sharia (religious law). And most Arab countries are still so wary of political Islam that they refuse to allow it any political licence at all. ….."

Times of India 2/20/00 "….. Teheran: Iranian reformers crushed their conservative rivals in parliamentary elections as first results on Saturday showed voters shared President Mohammad Khatami's vision of a more liberal Islamic republic. Pro-Khatami reformers have won about 70 per cent of the seats in the legislature so far, according to official results and estimates, and analysts said the conservative movement had been "shattered." ...,,:

Korea Times 2/17/00 "…. North Korea and Iran are jointly developing an advanced version of a Chinese cruise missile sold to Tehran in the mid-1990s, a Japanese daily said Thursday. The missile is based on China's C-802 cruise missile which has a range of 120 kilometers (74 miles), the Sankei Shimbun said quoting Western military sources. In the mid-1990s, China began selling C-802 missiles to Iran before freezing exports in 1996 when the United States demanded a halt saying such arms transfers could destabilize the Middle East, the daily said. Then chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, John Shalikashivili, warned Chinese Defense Minister General Chi Haotian In December 1996 that arms exports would increase destabilizing factors in the region, it said. ``Iran expected to purchase 150 C-802 missiles from China but only received a half of them because of the arms suspension,'' the daily quoted a source as saying. ..."

UPI via Drudge 2/17/00 Lee Michael Katz "…..The State Department has been buffeted by its need to support U.S. citizens who want to make Iran pay for terrorists attacks in the Mideast and its deep diplomatic concerns about seizing the property of another country. The department floated a possible solution on Thursday: pay victims out of Justice Department funds designed to compensate U.S. citizens who have suffered from terrorist acts outside the United States. Basically, a State Department official described it as using billions of dollars seized from drug dealers and other criminals to compensate the victims of terrorism. The move comes as former Lebanese hostage Terry Anderson pursues a $100 million judgment in federal court against Iran for supporting his kidnappers. Other U.S. citizens held as hostages in Iran and the family of a New Jersey college student killed by a bombing in Israel linked to Iran-backed guerillas have successfully sued Iran. The victims and family members have been awarded hundreds of millions of dollars. But they haven't been able to collect any of the money. The parents of Alisa Flatow have tried to legally attach the former Iranian embassy in Washington to help pay a nearly $250 million award against Iran. ……"

The Associated Press 3/2/00 "…..Iran has successfully test-fired two missiles during military maneuvers in the Persian Gulf and Sea of Oman, an Iranian admiral said in remarks published Thursday. ``The sea-to-air Standard missile was successfully testfired by the army as part of Vahdat 78 (Unity 78) war games,'' the naval spokesman, Rear Adm. Abdollah Manavi, was quoted by the Iran Daily as saying. Manavi told the paper it took four years to develop the missile. An air-to-sea missile also was test-fired during the war games, Manavi said, according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency. ......"

Reuters 3/1/00 "…..Iran said it had successfully test-fired an "upgraded" version of a surface-to-air missile during naval manoeuvres in the Gulf on Wednesday. "For the first time a surface-to-air missile partly manufactured and upgraded by the navy was tested with success," the official IRNA news agency quoted a navy official as saying. He said the "Standard" missiles would be installed on Iran's "Paykan-Class" carrier. He did not give the missile's specifications or say where it was originally designed. Iran's regular navy and the naval arm of the elite Revolutionary Guards began 10 days of air, land and sea manoeuvres in the Gulf and Sea of Oman last Thursday, involving 60 warships, 120 rocket-launching speedboats, 45 helicopters and jets and Iran's three Russian-made Kilo-class submarines. …."

worldtribune.com 2/28/00 "…..Iran has delivered long-range rockets to Lebanon meant for use in any offensive against Israel, government sources said on Sunday. The sources confirmed a report in the Israeli Haaretz daily that Iran has delivered two types of rockets that can strike Israeli cities from Lebanon. The first is the Fajr-3 240 mm rockets with a range of 43 kilometers and the second is Fajr-5 with a range of 70 kilometers. Both rockets can be launched from vehicles and can be easily concealed. The sources said the rockets are being kept with Iranian forces in Lebanon for use in any future conflict with Israel. The Fajr-5 rocket can strike suburbs of the Israeli city of Haifa, the third largest in the country. …."

Reuters 3/12/00 Jonathan Lyons "…..Saeed Hajjarian, one of the leading architects of Iran's reform movement, was shot on Sunday by unknown attackers who fled on a high-powered motorcycle, witnesses said.They said Hajjarian, a former deputy intelligence minister and a confidant of President Mohammad Khatami, had been hit in the face and possibly in the shoulder from a distance of less than three yards.``The gunman had aimed his gun at Hajjarian's temple but because his hand was shaking the (first) bullet struck him the face,'' Mahmoud Alizadeh-Tabatabaei, a colleague of Hajjarian's..."

AP via Fox News 3/24/00 Laurie Asseo "……Former hostage Terry Anderson was awarded $341 million from Iran on Friday by a federal judge who said his treatment during his nearly seven years of captivity in Beirut was "savage and cruel by any civilized standards." U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson ordered Iran to pay $24.5 million to Anderson, $10 million to his wife, Madeleine Bassil, and $6.7 million to their daughter, Sulome. The judge also ordered the Iranian Ministry of Information and Security to pay the three $300 million in punitive damages. ….."

The Daily Oklahoman 4/13/00 "……. THERE was a time when the Jews of Iran enjoyed "protected minority" status in the mostly Islamic nation. Since the revolution of 1979, their situation has worsened. That year, a leader of Iran's Jewish community, Habib Alqanayan, was executed. There have been confiscations of Jewish-owned property. Iran's Jewish population has declined -- from 80,000 to 25,000 -- as most found ways to flee to Israel, Europe or the United States. Still, there remains a remnant in a land which was once like home. For more than a year now, 13 Iranian Jews have been imprisoned in the city of Shiraz, accused of spying for the "Zionist regime" (Israel) and "world arrogance" (United States). Both governments deny these people have been involved in espionage. Today, without counsel of their choice and hidden from the scrutiny of the world's free press, these 13 Jews go on trial for espionage -- which, in Iran, is punishable by death. ….."

The Straits Times 4/15/00 AFP "……The United States on Friday imposed sanctions against North Korean and Iranian entities involved in Scud missile technology transfers, complicating rapprochement efforts with those countries. Under the two-year penalties, the United States is to deny the entities all new US contracts and new individual export licences for items controlled by the State and Commerce departments. The sanctions cover a category of weapons that includes complete missile systems, major subsystems, rocket stages or guidance systems, production facilities for MTCR (Missile Technology Control Regime) class missiles or technology associated with such missiles. ……"

WORLD TRIBUNE.COM 4/4/00 "……An Iranian truck that contained nuclear material was seized along the border with Kazakhstan. Russian sources said the truck driven by an Iranian national carried 10 containers of nuclear material when it was stopped along the border of Kazakhstan and Uzbekhistan. The sources said the truck was headed for Pakistan. The Russian Itar-Tass agency confirmed the attempted smuggling of the nuclear material. They quoted Kazakh sources as saying a probe was launched but did not provide details. The truck was stopped by Uzbek security officers. They said the trailer, which was manufactured in Iran, arrived from Kazakhstan. Documents in the truck identified the addressee as a Pakistan firm in the town of Quetta. ……"

DAWN 4/6/00 "…….Iran said on Wednesday it was considering legal action against the United States for its support of the Shah and Iraq, saying it was not satisfied with the "confessions" of US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. "Mrs Albright's admissions constitute an acceptance of responsibility and we are considering legal action," because Washington must "pay reparations for its actions," Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi said at a joint press conference with his Danish counterpart Niels Helveg Peterson. "Our decision will be announced at an appropriate time," he said, without specifying where and how the legal action would be taken. During an announcement of a partial lifting of the US trade embargo against Iran, on March 17, Albright admitted to past errors in US policy towards Iran She recalled Washington's role in the 1953 coup d'etat against nationalist Prime Minister Mohammad Mosadegh, its "short sighted" support of Baghdad in the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war, and its endorsement of the Shah of Iran, overthrown by the current Islamic regime in 1979. ......"

New York Times 5/2/00 Susan Sachs "…….The first of 13 Jewish men who are accused of espionage went on trial today, and Iranian authorities displayed him on television admitting that he had spied for Israel. The defendant, Hamid Tefileen, made the public confession after the government had adamantly refused to allow family members, human rights groups or the public to witness the opening of the politically charged trials of the 13, who are to be tried, one by one, in coming weeks, on vague charges of spying. Mr. Tefileen, 31, described by his family as a clerk in his father's shoe store, told an interviewer that he was part of a network of spies who were trained in Israel "to get information from Muslims." ……."

AP 4/24/00 "…….A dozen pro-democracy newspapers and magazines were missing from newsstands Monday following a ban by Iranian hard-liners who have openly challenged presidential reforms widely backed by the liberal press. Eight major daily newspapers and four weekly or biweekly magazines were among the publications closed down by order of the hard-line judiciary in Tehran late Sunday, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported. A judiciary statement quoted by IRNA said the publications were closed for "printing material against the lofty Islamic principles and commands." The closures intensified a media crackdown that has included the imprisonment of two leading reformist journalists over the past two days. ……"

Stratfor 5/25/00 Chris Treadaway "……In a departure from past rhetoric, Iran is dispelling the illusion of a Russo-Iranian partnership. While on a state visit to Armenia on May 21, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Morteza Sarmadi stated May 21 that while initially the Caucasus Stability Pact should be limited to regional players, eventually outside powers could join, according to the Armenian news agency Snark. This is the first time that Iran has stated its willingness to allow outside powers have influence in the Caucasus. As Russia's foreign policy under Russian President Vladimir Putin becomes bolder, more coherent and more threatening to Iranian interests, Iran is reacting by seeking assistance in restraining Russia. Sarmadi's statement indicates that Iran is even willing to help smooth the path into the Caucasus for the United States……"

Jordon Times 5/10/00 George S. Hishmeh "……The bottom line, in the opinion of several observers here, is that the Clinton administration is unlikely to reconsider its policies toward Iraq and Iran, primarily because this is an election year. But this does not mean that the Clinton administration is escaping harsh criticism, the harshest this writer has heard against a U.S. administration in his over 30 years in this country, from many Americans, some were ambassadors positions in the Arab world or other high government positions. But the recent experience of a tenured journalism professor at the University of Texas maybe the tip of the iceberg, lending potency to the increasing outcry against U.S.-led sanctions. ……"

drudge 6/10/00 "…… The CIA and the FBI have concluded that an Iranian defector in Turkey who claimed on CBS's 60 MINUTES be a former Iranian intelligence official and terrorist mastermind -- is an impostor who lacks basic knowledge of Iran's intelligence apparatus! "He has been lying about lots of stuff,'' a senior U.S. official tells Sunday's WASHINGTON POST, according to publishing sources. ….."

Israel Wire 6/10/00 "…..Israeli officials said recently that Russia's decision to lift the ban on selling nuclear components to Iran is a worrisome trend, Ma'ariv reported. The sources said that the new, more lenient Russian nuclear policy "helps Iran come nearer to its strategic goal-nuclear capability." Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin lifted the ban prohibiting the sale of nuclear components to any country which does not follow international regulations and treaties, and permitted sales to all countries that guaranteed that components would not be used for military purposes. The Israeli sources said the new policy "completely lifts the last restrictions the Iranians faced on the way to nuclear capability." ……"

World Tribune 6/6/00 Steve Rodan "…….Russia has transferred to Iran technology and components for the development of nuclear weapons, Israeli and U.S. intelligence sources said. The sources said Russia has recently transferred technology and components for the enrichment of uranium to produce fissile material needed for nuclear weapons. The technology includes the capability to produce highly enriched uranium through one of several methods -- including centrifugal separation. "I call this the year of decision because Iran is developing nuclear weapons," Brig. Gen. Amos Gilead, head of military intelligence research division, said. "Iran is trying to gather resources to develop the nuclear weapons. If they're not stopped now, in five or seven years, Iran will deploy nuclear weapons. In strategic terms, seven years is the blink of an eye." ….."

The Associated Press 6/6/00 Ali Akbar Dareini "…….Seven Iranian delegates to a women's conference at the United Nations complained Tuesday they were treated like criminals by U.S. immigration officials who demanded they be fingerprinted upon arrival in the country. The delegates from three non-governmental organizations returned home on the weekend, choosing to miss the conference, which began Monday, rather than submit to the procedure. "We had been invited by the United Nations, so U.S. immigration officials had no right to fingerprint us," said Sediqeh Hejazi, a member of the Islamic Revolution Women's Association. ......U.S. federal law requires nonimmigrant visitors from four countries that are on unfriendly terms with the United States - Iran, Iraq, Libya and Sudan - to be fingerprinted and photographed on arrival in the United States.......... "

Oakland Tribune 6/7/00 Charley Reese "…… EVERY time I think the Clinton administration has reached the apex of outrages, it tops itself. The latest? The administration apparently intends to trade a young woman's life for some secret back-room deal it is trying to make with the mullahs ruling Iran. Mahnaz Samadi, 35, an Iranian feminist and human-rights activist who was granted political asylum in 1995, was arrested this year and is being treated by the Immigration and Naturalization Service almost as inhumanely as the Iranian government treated her. Her alleged crime? She tried to liberate Iran -- not during the years she has lived in this country but before she arrived. ……… Now make sense out of this. The U.S. government has officially branded Iran as a sponsor of terrorism. It has passed all kinds of punitive laws against Iran. Yet it has now belatedly decided that those Iranians who fight against the same Iranian government the United States opposes are now terrorists. Since she was granted asylum, Ms. Samadi has simply made speeches on behalf of human rights and particularly on behalf of the rights of women in Iran. ...... Now, get this. The resistance she joined, the National Liberation Army, was not designated a terrorist organization at the time she was a member. The Clinton administration arbitrarily labeled it terrorist in 1997 -- two years after she was granted asylum. Members of Congress, members of the U.S. Senate, and parliamentary majorities in Britain, Italy and Belgium have recognized the NLA as a legitimate resistance organization. …….. If the Clinton administration sends this woman back to Iran, it will be an act of coldblooded murder. She will be tortured and publicly executed, and the Iranian government is already saying publicly that Clinton is going to deport her -- before she's even had a hearing……."

AP 6/3/00 "….. An Iranian defector says he has evidence that Iran planned and financed the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103, which exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people. The defector, who says he is Ahmad Behbahani, coordinator of Iran's terrorism operations for a decade or more, told CBS New's 60 Minutes that he has documents to prove his claims in an interview scheduled to air Sunday. ……."

Yahoo 6/3/00 Reuters "……CBS television said on Saturday it would air an interview with an Iranian intelligence service defector on Sunday who claims the bombing of a Pan Am aircraft over Scotland was masterminded by Iran and not Libya. The defector, now in protective custody in Turkey, told the ''60 Minutes'' current affairs program airing on Sunday that he had documental proof Tehran was behind the Lockerbie bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988, CBS said in a news release. A spokesman for program said the Iranian, who had been in a refugee camp in Turkey, was checked out with senior administration officials in Washington and was now being de-briefed by CIA officials. …….. "

Times of India 6/5/00 Reuters "……CBS Television has said it would air an interview with an Iranian intelligence service defector on Sunday who claims the bombing of a Pan Am aircraft over Scotland was masterminded by Iran and not Libya. The defector, now in protective custody in Turkey, told the `60 minutes' current affairs programme that he had documental proof Teheran was behind the Lockerbie bombing of Pan Am flight 103 in 1988, CBS said in a release on Saturday. ......... "

Time Magazine Online 6/12/00 Scott macCleod Azadeh Moaveni "…. President Mohammed Khatami strides across the Mehrabad Airport tarmac to the salute of soldiers in ceremonial sashes. Mullahs in dark robes, bearded aides in suits with tieless shirts and militiamen carrying Kalashnikovs trail him up to Iran's equivalent of Air Force One--an old American-made Boeing 707 from before the Islamic Revolution. …..It's a good day for Khatami. When he lands in Khorramshahr and heads to a local mosque to speak, the crowds are spread in front of him like a giant Persian carpet: turbans, signs, balloons. He speaks to thousands, delivering the scrupulously worded message of moderate change that has made him a hero to many--and a terrifying figure to the hard-liners who have dominated Iran's politics since the death of Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989. Khatami's struggle to reform Iran is proving a dangerous task. One of the President's closest friends is recovering from a gunshot wound to the head, nearly assassinated by hard-liners. Dozens of other supporters are in jail or heading there. Iran's hard-liners have sent a chilling message that they won't go without a fight.Through all this, Khatami has been conspicuously quiet, hoping his absence of comment would be seen as thundering determination. His supporters approvingly call it "Khatami's silence." ......"

New York Post 6/5/00 William Neuman "…..The CIA spent the weekend grilling an Iranian defector claiming to have proof that Iran plotted the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, it was reported yesterday. ….. CBS's "60 Minutes" reported that Ahmad Behbahani, the defector supplying the stunning information, says he is the former head of Iranian state-sponsored terrorism. …… It said CIA debriefers met with Behbahani in Turkey on Friday and Saturday. CIA sources told the program they had confirmed he was a member of the Iranian intelligence service but provided no further details on the debriefing. ……. A "60 Minutes" producer sneaked into the camp and met with Behbahani, who said:
* Iran, not Libya, planned and financed the Lockerbie bombing.
* He personally proposed the plan for the bombing to Palestinian terrorist Ahmed Jabril.
* A group of Libyans was recruited for the operation and trained at a special Iranian terror school.
That could shake up the trial of alleged Libyan operatives Abdel Basset Ali Mohammed al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah in a special Scottish court set up under United Nations auspices in the Netherlands. ......Behbahani also told "60 Minutes":
* Iran carried out the 1996 bombing of a U.S. military housing complex in Saudi Arabia in which 19 American GIs were killed.
* Iran was behind the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, which killed 86 people - training the bombers and even shipping explosives from Tehran to the Iranian consulate in Buenos Aires. ......"

World Tribune 7/6/00 "……Iran has built five launchers for ballistic missiles and intelligence sources said this includes that of the Shihab-3. The five launchers come as the Iranian military is preparing to deploy intermediate- and medium-range ballistic missiles developed over the last five years. The military has organized special units to operate the missiles. Gen. Rahim Safawi, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, announced that five launching pads for ballistic missiles have been completed. Safawi told the official Islamic Republic News Agency that the launching pads have "substantially increased Iran's defensive capacity and the country now ranks among the leading military powers of the region." …."

Washington Times 7/7/00 Tom Carter "….. Mahnaz Samadi, an Iranian dissident and human rights activist, faces an Arlington, Va., immigration court Monday for a deportation hearing that could be a death sentence. If the immigration judge decides that she is "inadmissible" for political asylum in the United States, she could be deported to Iran, where at the least she faces a lengthy jail term for opposing Iran's Islamic regime and could be executed. "I have no doubt that I will be tortured to death, not simply executed," said Miss Samadi, in a telephone interview Thursday from the Richmond jail where she is being held…….She and her supporters, who include scores of congressmen and dozens of human rights organizations, fear she is being sacrificed by the Clinton administration as it seeks better U.S.-Iranian relations now that so-called "moderates" are in power in Tehran…….."

World Tribune 6/29/00 "……Iran has launched what officials termed as high-level defense cooperation talks meant to launch new military projects in Teheran. The talks were held during the current visit by a Russian delegation headed by Col. Gen. Leonid Ivashov, chief of the Defense Ministry's international military cooperation agency. Iranian officials said Ivashov's arrival marked the highest-ranking visit by a Russian defense official to Teheran since 1991. Ivashov's visit comes after Iranian National Security Council secretary Hassan Rowhani held talks in Moscow with Russian defense leaders, including Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev. ……Russia is regarded as Iran's leading defense contractor. Moscow is said to be involved in virtually every military aerospace and missile program. Russian companies are also constructing the Bushehr nuclear reactor. Western intelligence sources said the civilian project is a cover for a nuclear weapons program denied by both Iran and Russia. ……"

BBC 6/23/00 "….. China and Iran, two unlikely friends, are eager to co-operate The Iranian president Mohammad Khatami, on his first visit to China, has called on Asian civilisations to unite against western dominance. In a speech to several hundred students at the prestigious Beijing University, Mr Khatami said both their countries were cradles of human civilisation with cultural and spiritual bonds that reached back over many centuries. He insisted that the cultural, economic and political systems of the world could not be left to the whims of the dominant powers - a clear reference to the US and its western allies. "In the current process of globalisation, the needs of the under-developed countries should not be overlooked," he said. …."

Reuters 6/19/00 Jonathan Wright "….Iran, Libya and North Korea are rogues no longer, the U.S. State Department has decided. Now they're just "states of concern", Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said in a radio interview. "Some of those countries aren't as bad as they used to be. They say: 'We've done some stuff so why are you still calling us a rogue state?'," one State Department official said...."

AFP 6/20/00 "…..Iranian President Mohammad Khatami arrives in China on Thursday for a six-day state visit, his first since being elected in 1997, with plans to strengthen the two countries' already close political, economic and military ties. The length of Khatami's stay and the make-up of his entourage demonstrate the importance attached to the trip. Khatami, traveling at the invitation of Chinese President Jiang Zemin, will be accompanied by Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi, Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani, Mines and Metals Minister Eshaq Jahangiri and Culture and Islamic Guidance Minister Ataollah Mohajerani. …."

World Tribune 6/20/00 "……Intelligence officials here project Iran will exploit the current sharp rise in oil prices to accelerate its medium- and long-range missile and nuclear weapons programs, Middle East Newsline reports. Israeli government sources as well as other Western analysts say the billions of dollars in higher oil revenues over the last year appear to have solved Teheran's financial problems with its suppliers in Moscow, Beijing and Pyongyang. …….China, North Korea and Russia are regarded as the leading contractors in Iran's strategic weapons programs. ……"

World Tribune.com Via WorldNetDaily.com 7/16/00 "…..Iran has succeeded in test-launching the Shihab-3 and Israeli military sources said the intermediate-range missile appears ready for operational deployment. It was the first test of the Shihab-3 since July 1998, when the missile exploded in mid-flight. The Shihab-3 is modeled after the North Korean No-Dong missile and improved by Russian technology and subsystems….."

Washington Post 7/16/00 "……Iran successfully test-fired its Shahab-3 missile today, state media reported, the second trial in two years of the medium-range weapon capable of reaching Israel or U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia. The Defense Ministry refused to comment., ..."

Freedom Forum 8/10/00 "...Although parliamentary debate on proposed changes to Iran's restrictive press law has been halted, the battle between hard-liners and reformists for greater press freedom continues, with the hard-liners in the driver's seat, and developments including: Bahar, possibly the last major reformist daily and arguably the most popular, was closed yesterday because of its coverage of the press-law debate. The parliamentary official responsible for the easing of press restrictions tried to resign but was talked into remaining in his position. The United States was told to stop meddling in Iran's internal affairs after expressing its concern about the parliamentary action. Various international media groups protested the decision to stop action on a revised press law. ...."

World Tribune.com 8/8/00 "…..The Islamic Republic of Iran regards communist China as a role model. The reason, Iranian officials say, is that China has succeeded where the much larger Soviet Union has failed. China has kept the communist leadership intact while it has reformed the economy, attracted Western investment and built its military. Some officials said this has been the model for Iranian President Mohammad Khatami since his election in 1997. Khatami plans to run for a second term next year. ….."

Opinion Journal 8/5/00 Richard Miniter "……Three years ago in a secret house church near the city of Ahwaz, Iran, Akbar realized that his life was about to change irrevocably. On Jan. 11, 1997, he was baptized. As he stepped into the cool water of the impromptu baptismal pool, he shuddered. Once a faithful Muslim, he had covertly converted to Christianity--a life-changing act in any country but a dangerous one in Iran. Akbar had seen Christian converts hanged in the street and his relatives jailed and beaten for talking about their faith………. Many non-Muslims in Iran are able to practice their faith--but converts are treated differently. "There is no persecution in Iran," a political science professor at Tehran University insists in an interview outside Iran. "It is not as bad as you reporters in the West think." (Still, he demands anonymity.) But what about some 10,000 Muslims who have converted to Christianity? "Ah, that is different. They will die." Both Iran's shari'a (religious) law and the country's civil code punish "crimes against God" with death. ……. So pervasive is the climate of fear that refugees are afraid to have their names published. As a result, all of the names of Iranian Christians in this article, including Akbar's, have been changed……."

Deutsche Presse-Agentur 7/24/00 "….. A special envoy of Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Teheran next week for talks on a legal regime to govern the Caspian Sea, the official news agency IRNA reported Monday. Iran has several times criticised recent oil contracts signed between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan with American consortiums on use of Caspian Sea oil reserves and termed them "illegal". "The Russian president's special envoy, Viktor Kalyuzhny, is to arrive in Teheran next week for talks on the Caspian Sea and further discuss the forthcoming foreign ministerial meeting of the Caspian Sea littoral states," foreign ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Assefi told IRNA. ….."

Akhbar.com 7/22/00 "……Iran and Syria will enter talks with Baghdad after signing an agreement to build railroads linking the two countries via Iraq, according to the head of Iran's railroad authority quoted Saturday by the press. Rahman Dadman, who was meeting in Tehran with his Syrian counterpart Mohammed Ayad Qazal, said railroad lines would extend from Syria to Iraq and then between the southern Iraqi city of Basra and the southwestern Iranian city of Khorramshahr. "Studies and construction of 150 kilometers (90 miles) of railroad between Syria and Iraq have been entrusted to an Iranian company," Dadman said. ….."

World Tribune.com 7/19/00 "……Iran, fresh from its success in launching the Shihab-3, now aims to launch a more advanced missile, Western defense officials said. The officials said Iran will focus its efforts on completing development of the Shihab-4 and staging its first test launch. The Shihab-4 aims to have a range of at least 2,000 kilometers, 700 kilometers more than the Shihab-3. U.S. defense officials said the Shihab-4 will be a breakthrough for Iran. Unlike the Shihab-3, the Shihab-4 will be completely based on Russian technology -- probably that of the SS-4 missile. The Shihab-3 is essentially a North Korean No-Dong missile, U.S. officials said. They said the missile was improved by Russian technology. ……"

Excite News 8/14/00 AP "……North Korean leader Kim Jong Il admitted that his country has been selling missiles to Iran and Syria, according to South Korean newspaper reports Monday. North Korea had previously said it has sold missiles abroad but not identified customers. Kim reportedly said his country has to develop missiles to earn foreign currency, and that he was not serious when he told Russian President Vladimir Putin about a possible deal to stop his country's missile development. Kim's comments come amid thawed relations between the two Koreas since their leaders held a historic summit in Pyongyang, North Korea's capital, in June. ……"

WORLD TRIBUNE.COM 8/18/00 "……Iran has purged scores of senior officers as disaffection against the regime spreads following the closing of major newspapers and the neutralization of reformers in the parliament loyal to President Mohammed Khatami. A massive peaceful demonstration is planned Saturday in Teheran near Baharestan Circle, dissident sources in Washington told World Tribune.com. The sources also said Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei had written the speaker of the parliament, Mehdi Karrubi, directing that the Press Law not be debated in the parliament (Majlis). The public mood has soured since the parliamentary elections led to the convening of the Sixth Majlis in late May with the reformists holding the majority. ……"

Middle East News Line 9/17/00 "…..Iranian fighters who participated in the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo are illegally resettling in Western Europe. Russian diplomats said many of the Iranian fighters trying to enter Western Europe have participated in the current war in Chechnya. NATO said the Iranians have not been training in Bosnia but sources in the alliance acknowledge that the fighters have been traveling with their weapons. Their first stop has been Croatia and hundreds have entered the country illegally over the last few weeks...."

Newark [NJ] Star Ledger 9/6/00 Farnaz Fassihi "……Secretary of State Madeleine Albright made a special effort yesterday to hear Iranian President Mohammad Khatami explain his proposal of a "dialogue among civilizations." Khatami, whose country has not been on speaking terms with the United States for 20 years, was the star speaker at a roundtable organized by the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization on the sidelines of the Millennium Summit. Albright listened, sitting to the side in the front row of the conference room in the General Assembly building. Albright had advanced her visit to the U.N. in order to hear Khatami speak. She arrived shortly before he delivered his speech and left immediately after he finished. …….. ''She's purposefully here to listen to what President Khatami has to say," an Albright aide said. …….."

Reuters 9/12/00 "……An opinion poll carried out by Iran's culture ministry shows that only 8.1 percent of Iranians perceive the United States as an enemy, newspapers reported on Tuesday. Contrary to the official no-compromise line pushed by establishment hard-liners, 55.7 percent said they wanted the restoration of full diplomatic ties with the United States, the daily Entekhab said. Only 29.7 percent of the 1,839 Tehrani citizens aged over 15 polled said they were against the resumption of ties and 14.6 percent said they had no opinion. The U.S. government broke ties with Iran in early 1980 to protest against the occupation of the U.S. embassy compound in Tehran by militant students. Some 52 Americans were held captive in the compound for 444 days. The two countries have been parties to bitter diplomatic tugs-of-war ever since. Hopes for normalization of ties after Iran's moderate President Mohammad Khatami took office in 1997 quickly faded as both sides continued to accuse each other of wrongdoing. ….."

Middle East News Line 9/8/00 "……Iran is preparing another launch of the Shihab-3 intermediate-range missile. The Washington Times said on Friday that the test is expected to take place by the end of the month. The newspaper said the test was postponed from its original launch date of last week to avoid embarrassing Iranian President Mohammed Khatami during his visit this week to the United Nations. The last test of the Shihab-3 was in July. The missile has a range of 1,300 kilometers. The Shihab-3 is regarded as a North Korean No-Dong missile modified by Russian contractors. Russia has supplied subsystems and helped integrate the missile. ……"

Reuters 8/21/00 "……Fifty-three percent of Iranian girls interviewed in a recent survey said that if they could be born again they would prefer to be boys, a newspaper reported on Sunday. The study was carried out by Manouchehr Mohseni, a professor of sociology, Kar Va Kargar newspaper said. Further details were not reported. Although the social reforms of Iran's moderate President Mohammad Khatami, elected with the overwhelming support of women, have somewhat eased social restrictions, many women still feel burdened by their gender. An Iranian man who recently had a sex change to become a woman finds life so difficult she has been trying to reverse the operation. ……"

Newsmax.com 8/26/00 "……. The man who boasts he was responsible for killing 243 U.S. Marines and thousands of others is coming to the United States, with nary a protest from the Clinton State Department. Mohsen Rezaii, former commander in chief of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps is due to arrive in the United States as part of an Iranian delegation to a conference of the Interparliamentary Union to be held at the United Nations Aug. 30 through Sept. 1. The delegation is headed by Sayad Mohammed Khatami, Iran's president, who the Clinton-Albright State Department has been selling as a "moderate" since his election on May 23, 1997………. According to the Washington Times' columnist Arnold Beichman, however, the real power in Iran is Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Rezaii was named to his notorious command in 1981 by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomenei, revolutionary founder of the Iranian theocracy, after he had organized the Guards Corps intelligence section. He was the Corps commander in chief for 16 years and is credited with a number of terrorist coups. Rezaii, who once said "The day will come when, like Salman Rushdie, the Jews will not find a place to live anywhere in the world," is blamed for the 1983 suicide bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, which killed 243 Marines. ……."

Dawn 8/26/00 "…..Iran has successfully developed an electronic radar detector, defence minister Ali Shamkhani announced on Saturday. The development is the most significant of eight military research programmes that have recently been successfully concluded, the minister said in comments quoted by IRNA. "The most important project that we have completed is that of an electro-optical detector equipped with cameras. It will correct, as of today, the weakness we have in the air defence anti-radar war," said Shamkhani. ….."

Washington Times 8/21/00 "...... "Iran will never become the Soviet Union," said a leading Iranian cleric on Friday. By that he meant the current regime would not fall, either at the hands of the United States or anyone else. But recent events highlight how much Iran currently resembles the late Soviet Union. Iran's "supreme leader," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been using Soviet-style, thought-control repression, crushing the freedom of the press with his considerable powers. That suppression is beginning to dampen the widespread, though misplaced, optimism generated by reformers' sweeping victory in February's parliamentary election. Mr. Khamenei has made clear that he, and not the pro-reformist President Mohammad Khatami, controls Iran......"

NewsMax.com 10/6/00 "…….In 1995, Gore negotiated an agreement with Viktor Chernomyrdin, then Russia's prime minister, who close friendship the Democratic vice president has touted five years later in his campaign for the presidency against his Republican opponent, George W. Bush. Shortly after the 1995 deal, Chernomyrdin fell into disgrace under a welter of accusations of political corruption involving Russian business interests. ………. The agreement signed by Gore and his ally Chernomyrdin required Russia to halt its weapons trade with Iran, in exchange for a United States promise to let Moscow do business with its defense contractors. …….Under that Gore deal, the United States has given Russia $7.7 billion, mostly from satellite launches. But a State Department officer told the Senate that the 1995 agreement Gore engineered contained a loophole that allowed arms shipments to continue under existing contracts. ……In testimony to a Senate subcommittee Thursday, a high-ranking CIA official, John Lauder, said the agreement for which Gore has been taking credit is now a dead letter, ignored by the Putin government. Moreover, Lauder testified that "Iran is acquiring Russian technology, which could significantly accelerate the pace of its ballistic-missile development program. "Assistance by Russian entities has helped Iran save years in the development of the Shahab-3, which was flight-tested in 1998 and twice again this year."……"

Washington Times 10/6/00 Bill Gertz "..... "Iran is acquiring Russian technology, which could significantly accelerate the pace of its ballistic missile development program," CIA official John Lauder told a Senate subcommittee. "Assistance by Russian entities has helped Iran save years in the development of the Shahab-3, which was flight-tested in 1998 and twice again this year." The Russian missile assistance also is helping Tehran build longer-range missiles named the Shahab-4 and Shahab-5, Mr. Lauder said....."

World Tribune 9/27/00 "….. The U.S. intelligence community forecasts an Iranian launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile by 2005. The assessment by the CIA predicts an Iranian crash development program that completes the intermediate-range Shihab-3, Shihab-4 and then focuses on a three-stage intercontinental ballistic missile that could strike the United States. The program would be aided by China, North Korea and Russia and continue regardless of whether Iranian reformists gain power. Robert Walpole, the CIA's national intelligence officer, said most of the U.S. intelligence community predicts that Iran will be able to launch a three-stage rocket based on North Korea's Taepo Dong missile. ..."

World Tribune.com via WorldNetDaily.com 9/22/00 "........Iran has launched fresh military exercises meant to demonstrate its strength toward neighboring Iraq and to respond to the current regional tensions. Officials said Iran is staging several maneuvers to mark the 20th anniversary of the war with Iraq. This includes a month-long exercise by the Basij militia and five days of naval exercises in the Gulf. The Basij exercise take place near the Iraqi border. ....."

WorldNetDaily.com 9/23/00 Charles Smith "…... Iran announced Thursday that "the first Shahab-3 missile, using liquid and solid fuel, was successfully test-fired on the first day of the Holy Defense Week," as reported in the Tehran-based Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran. …… Clinton's move to release oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve -- an action that is not popular inside the Defense Department -- is coming under heightened criticism by some in the Pentagon who are openly saying the reserve should be kept intact in case of war. …….Richard Fisher, a senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation, sees the missile firings as a warning. "Iran's latest missile test illustrates the insanity of playing with our strategic petroleum reserve," he said. ….."

Ha'aretz Daily Newspaper 9/18/00 Reuven Pedatzur "…….Far from the public gaze a revolutionary security process is underway in the Israel Defense Forces concerning the long-range missile threat.An interesting analysis of the new concept can be found in Aviation Week magazine, which discusses the developing plans of the IDF and way senior officers are thinking. The emerging threat most worrying the army is the long-range ballistic missile. These weapons would be launched by peripheral enemy states like Iran and Iraq - missiles with a range of thousands of kilometers, which are in advanced stages of development. The Iranians are equipping themselves with the Shihab 3, which has a range of about 1,300 kilometers, and it is certain that in coming years they will have missiles with even greater range that can be launched from deep inside Iran…….."

Middle East News Line 11/8/00 ".....Iranian authorities are on the alert for another wave of student unrest against the Islamic regime. The issue is once again democracy in Iran and student leaders said they will take to the streets to press for civil and human rights reforms. The students expressed disappointment with the parliament, which contains a majority of reformers but has been unable to effect change. Speakers pointed to the power of the regime over the judiciary and law enforcement authorities. ....."

MIDDLE EAST NEWSLINE 11/1/00 "….. Congressional critics said the Clinton administration has allowed a Russian effort to rearm Iran that threatens the U.S. presence in the Gulf. Leading Republican senators said in the mid-1990s Russia supplied to Iran more than 300 T-72S tanks, MiG-29 fighters, attack jets, attack helicopters. Other weapons include 1,000 sea mines and torpedoes and perhaps shoulder-fighter Stinger anti-aircraft missiles. ….. "This is from open newspaper sources," Senator Sam Brownback said. "There's probably more." Brownback said the United States might face these weapons in any confrontation with Iran amid the current tension in the Middle East. Iran has encouraged attacks against Israel and has supported Islamic militants who have also targeted the United States. "Are we going to face this weaponry now, or are some of our allies or some of the commercial shipping now going to face this weaponry that's flowing from Russia to Iran?" Brownback asked. ….."

ALBAWABA NEWS 11/1/00 "……Iran has told Syria it will react if Israel attacks Syria or Lebanon, a hardline Palestinian leader said Wednesday after meeting a visiting Iranian official. "The Iranians have informed Syria that they will not stand still in case of an Israeli attack against Syria or Lebanon," Ahmad Jibril, head of the militant Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, told AFP. "The Iranians are looking to help the Palestinians in all ways and want to give concrete support to the Arab and Islamic nation," he said. ….."

Dawn 10/30/00 "…..The Iranian President Syed Mohammad Khatami said the defence capabilities of Pakistan and Iran would be used to defend their own territories and independence, and their cooperation was not aimed against any other country. He made these remarks in a meeting with Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Abdul Aziz Mirza, according to a press release of Pakistan Embassy issued Monday. Khatami said cooperation with Pakistan was a priority for Iran and the two countries should cooperate in the defence field also. The naval chief also delivered a letter from Chief Executive General Pervez Musharraf to the Iranian President. …… Khatami said, "The Tehran-Islamabad cooperation and the unity are not against any other country. The two countries' defence capabilities will be employed for defending their territories and independence." ….."

CNSNews.com 10/31/00 Patrick Goodenough, CNS London Bureau Chief "……Efforts by the Clinton-Gore administration to persuade the Russians to stop arming Iran in 1996-97 were widely regarded in the Israeli military establishment as "too much carrot, not enough stick," CNSNews.com was told Tuesday……. Well-placed Israeli officials, who did not want to be identified, recalled a period during the Binyamin Netanyahu administration when "a dozen" meetings with U.S. officials had discussed Israel's concerns about Russian "leakage" of military technology to Tehran……. The Russians, perceiving a "fickle" American approach, had continued their "defiant" cooperation with Iran, confident their relations with - and financial aid from - the U.S. would not be jeopardized, they said……. It was at this time that Vice President Al Gore and his aides oversaw the administration's dealings with the Russians. Gore was engaged with then Russian premier Viktor Chernomyrdin in a commission that is currently the focus of congressional hearings……"

Middle East News Line 10/31/00 "……. U.S. officials said that despite Russian aid the Shihab-3 has not demonstrated the success of the system's engine and guidance system. The officials attributed this to the incompatibility between the North Korean missile and the Russian subsystems. The officials pointed to a Sept. 21 test of the Shihab-3, which was deemed a failure both by the United States and Israel. Officials said the failure set back Iranian plans to produce the missile, which has a range of 1,300 kilometers. ….."

AP 10/23/00 "......Iran will reportedly test a modified version of a Chinese-made anti-ship missile during naval maneuvers in the Persian Gulf next week. Iran's regular army and the elite Revolutionary Guards will test C-802 Silkworm missiles in eight days of war games starting Sunday, the daily Iran quoted Morteza Saffari, commander of the Revolutionary Guards' naval forces, as saying. The war games will be staged in the Straight of Hormuz and the Sea of Oman, the paper said Monday. ..."

Middle East News Line 10/23/00 "..... Russia has violated a commitment to the United States to halt the sale of systems required for nuclear weapons to Iran. ......U.S. intelligence sources said that such a commitment was provided by Russian President Boris Yeltsin to President Bill Clinton in 1995. The sources said U.S. intelligence obtained a copy of a contract for the Russia construction of an Iranian nuclear reactor at Bushehr. During his meeting with Yeltsin, Clinton presented the contract. .....The $1 billion contract called for the delivery of centrifuge system that would enrich uranium for nuclear weapons. The system comprised about half of the contract. .......But in 1999, the sources said, Russia supplied the centrifuge system, or at least parts of it, to Iran. At that point, Yeltsin was no longer in office and his successor, Vladimir Putin, was intent on honoring the original deal with Teheran and accused Washington of trying to damage Russia's weapons industry. .....Putin was said to have accused Clinton of continuing to supply weapons to Middle East countries near Russia. ........"

Savannah Morning News 10/23/00 "....... THROUGHOUT THE presidential campaign, Vice President Gore has trumpeted the fact he has more foreign policy experience and global political connections than his opponent George W. Bush. But to what end would he wield that influence? Recent revelations about his dealings with a former Russian official provides some unsettling insight. ....... First, The New York Times revealed that in 1995 Mr. Gore signed a secret agreement with then-Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, whom he has characterized as a close friend. It essentially exempted Russia from American sanctions on arms deliveries to Iran. ......We're not talking salvage AK-47s and some loose ammo. Those weapons included sophisticated fighter jets and bombers, anti-ballistic missile systems and Kilo-class submarines, the most advanced subs in the world, armed with torpedoes designed to sink U.S. aircraft carriers. Imagine the havoc they could wreak on Navy ships in the Persian Gulf. Mr. Gore agreed to allow Russia to arm a known state sponsor of global terrorism, one of the most virulent anti-American regimes in the world and which also holds enormous antipathy toward Israel, this nation's strongest ally in the Middle East. And the vice president did this in apparent violation of existing U.S. law. ........."

David Ho 10/23/00 AP "......The U.S. Treasury will pay Terry Anderson and other American terrorist victims and their families hundreds of millions of dollars in legal damages owed by Iran, according to White House and congressional officials. President Clinton is expected to sign legislation -- already approved by Congress -- that would pay a limited group of victims with U.S. funds and then make the government responsible for collecting the claims through an international court or negotiations with Iran, an administration official said Sunday, speaking on condition of anonymity. .......If signed, the new law also would allow the government to use frozen Cuban assets to pay the families of pilots shot down off the coast of Florida by Cuban fighter jets in 1996. ....."

WORLD NET DAILY / HAARETZ 10/21/00 "...... Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khomeini said on Friday the only way to resolve the Middle East crisis is by eradicating Israel, and called on the participants in the upcoming Arab summit to help Palestinians create their own state. "The only way to end the crisis in the Middle East is to dry up its roots. What is at the roots of this crisis? It is the Zionist regime that has been imposed on the region," Khomeini told some 100,000 Basij Islamic militia members gathered on the outskirts of Tehran for military exercises. ........Khomeini also called on Arab leaders attending the summit that will opens in Cairo on Saturday to help "clean Holy Quds (Jerusalem) of Zionists," and said those responsible for killing Palestinians in clashes with Israeli forces should be tried by Arab or Islamic courts. ....."

Bahrain Tribune 10/21/00 "…….Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said yesterday that Arab leaders have an "immense responsibility" towards Palestinians and urged them to resist "all American influence" at their Cairo summit. "The Arab heads of state will meet. I feel it's necessary to remind them of their immense responsibility, since the Muslim people expect much of them," Khamenei told 110,000 bassijis, or volunteer fundamentalist militiamen.......... "Certainly, the Palestinian problem will not be fixed by a summit. But such a summit can carry the demands and hopes of the Palestinians, and every decision taken this day will be forever judged by history," he said. "The Arab heads of state must throw off all American influence and can become the glory of Arabs by taking adequate positions," he added….. Khamenei also also called for an "Arab and Islamic court" to judge those responsible for recent "crimes" in the Palestinian territories. Non-Arab Iran has not recognised Israel since the 1979 Islamic Revolution and is strongly opposed to the US-brokered peace process…….."

Middle East News Line 10/19/00 "...... Russia has pledged to continue nuclear cooperation with Iran despite the objection of the United States. Diplomatic sources said the Russian message was relayed during the current visit by Russian National Security Adviser Sergei Ivanov. Ivanov is preparing a visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Ivanov told his Iranian hosts that Moscow wanted nuclear cooperation with Teheran to continue. The Putin aide said Russia would not be influenced by anyone to curb the relationship. The United States has pressed Russia to end its nuclear cooperation with Iran. ....."

Opinion Journal(Wall Street Journal) 10/17/00 "……. The fifth session of the Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission, in June 1995, lasted three days. When it was over, the Russian Prime Minister and the American Vice President emerged to announce their accomplishments to the press--more than a dozen agreements. Among other things, Mr. Gore happily reported that Russia would cease its deliveries of conventional arms to Iran within a few years time. "This is significant, very significant," Mr. Gore declared. Those were encouraging words. ………… As we now know, Russia wasn't serious at all, nor was Al Gore. What Mr. Gore did not reveal at the press conference, nor subsequently to Congress, was that in exchange for Russia's agreement to cease weapons sales by 2000, Russia had been given a free pass to sell conventional weapons to Iran until then. We say "free" because the weapons allowed would likely have triggered sanctions under U.S. law, specifically the 1992 Iran-Iraq Arms Nonproliferation Act, co-sponsored by then Senator Al Gore and Arizona Republican John McCain. ……… The agreement did not appear on a list of Gore-Chernomyrdin accords the White House released. Congress was not informed or given access to the document or its annexes. Indeed, nothing further was heard about the secret agreement until its leak to the New York Times last week. ……….Mr. Gore's chief foreign policy adviser, Leon Fuerth, argued last week that the deliveries permitted under the agreement did not meet the 1992 act's definition of "advanced conventional weapons" or change the balance of power in the Persian Gulf. Laying aside any issues of corruption, just the sheer strategic implications of these actions are daunting enough and worth thinking seriously about. ……. Russia was in violation of the letter and spirit of the 1992 law before Mr. Gore's pact, and most certainly afterward as well. Cumulatively, it has shipped Iran three of the new generation of Kilo class submarine--the most advanced, quietest, diesel-electric submarines built in the world today. Then there are the wake-homing torpedoes, which are designed to destroy U.S. aircraft carriers. Add to the list other items delivered after the 1995 agreement: MiG-29 fighter jets, SU-24 fighter bombers, strategic bombers, jet trainers and anti-ballistic missile systems--hardly garage sale leftovers as the Gore camp's spinners have tried to describe the equipment. The Gore-Chernomyrdin pact was a coup of major proportions for Moscow. ……."

CNN 9/23/97 "…….Vice President Al Gore said Tuesday that new intelligence information provides more details on Iran's efforts to gain ballistic missile and nuclear weapons technology. ….. But he would not disclose what the new information is. ….. After meeting with Russian officials, including President Boris Yeltsin, Gore said a new report exists which sheds more light on Iranian efforts. ….. "There is a vigorous effort by Iran to obtain the technology for building a ballistic missile and acquire nuclear weapons -- but that's not new," said Gore. "But this report adds new details to it. But the U.S. and Russia agreed not to divulge the information from this study because it includes intelligence information." …..Gore has been meeting with Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin on a range of issues including preventing the spread of nuclear weapons technology. ….."

IRNA Headlines 1/4/01 "..... Head of the Chinese Oil Company M. A. Foukai in meeting Wednesday with Iran's Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh called for boosting of the Iran-China cooperation in the area of the oil industry. ..."

Russia Today 1/1/01 AFP "......Iran on Monday defended its moves to expand military cooperation with Russia that have come under fire from the United States, which opposes arms sales to the Islamic republic. Foreign ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi told a Tehran press conference that the growing cooperation, sealed with a visit last week by Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev, was a "crowning success." He said military ties with Moscow "conform to international norms and do not threaten any third country," adding that the relationship was aimed at "strengthening security and stability in the region." ......"

Middle East News Line 12/20/00 "..... Iran could test an intercontinental ballistic missile as early as next year, the CIA says. The National Intelligence Council, a 15-member CIA-sponsored panel, says Iran could test either an intercontinental ballistic missile in 2001 and a land-attack cruise missile in 2004. "Iran sees its short- and medium-range missiles as deterrents, as force-multiplying weapons of war, primarily with conventional warheads, and as options for delivering biological, chemical, and eventually nuclear weapons," a new global assessment by the council said. ....."

Worldtribune 12/27/00 "…..Iran has threatened to fire intermediate-range missiles toward Israel and the United States. The threat was issued by the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Brig. Gen. Rahim Safavi said Iran was prepared to defend its interests or the country. Safavi said Iranian missiles can cause irreparable damage to either Israel or the United States. "The strong missiles of Iran are capable of imposing a very harsh blow that will be impossible to bear," Safavi was quoted as saying by the Paris-based Radio Monte Carlo. But Safavi added that the missiles are meant to defense purposes……"

Middle East News Line 12/17/00 "...... Russia wants to include Iran in a new alliance for security in an area from the Middle East to the Far East. The alliance would include other friends of Moscow such as China and India and develop a security regime that would extend from Europe through the Middle East until the Sea of Japan. Iran and Russia already cooperate in Central Asia and in Afghanistan. The goal, officials said, would be to counter NATO's growing influence. ....."

World Tribune 12/14/00 Patrick E Tyler "..... MOSCOW Iraq's foreign minister, Tariq Aziz, was in town doing some lobbying on behalf of Saddam Hussein last month, and while he was here, he took the opportunity to say on national television what a number of former Soviet client states may have been wanting to say for a long time. For the last 10 years, some people have held jobs in the Russian government without knowing the country's "history of relations with its Soviet-era friends," he said. "Many of them viewed the West as the sole way to resolve Russia's problems." .......But under President Vladimir Putin, that is beginning to change, he added. "Now, Russian authorities can feel the traditions extending over the centuries of good relations with the East - with Iraq, the Arab world, India and China." .....He could also have added North Korea, Iran, Libya, Angola and, this week, Cuba, where Mr. Putin was awaited Wednesday as the first Russian leader since Mikhail Gorbachev, the reformist former Soviet president, to visit the island that radiates so much history of Cold War tension for Russians and Americans alike. ....."

AFP 11/24/00 "…..Certain NATO countries are engaged in active military cooperation with Iran, Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov said Friday, responding to US threats of sanctions if Moscow resumed arms deliveries to Tehran. Confirming Russia's intention to resume arms sales to Iran, Klebanov was quoted by Interfax agency as saying certain NATO countries had "already started cooperating with Iran in the military sphere." Klebanov, whose portfolio covers Russia's military-industrial complex, did not identiify the countries concerned. ..."

The Associated Press 11/19/00 Camelia Fard "….U.S. companies hoping that the new president will lift some sanctions on Iran have asked to be considered for a project to develop Iran's largest natural gas field, the country's oil minister said Sunday. U.S. sanctions in place since 1979 currently bar American companies from taking part in large energy projects in Iran. …."

Middle East News Line 11/13/00"….. Iran might be advocating and paying tens of millions of dollars for Israel's destruction. But quietly the Islamic republic continues to seek help from the Jewish state. Arab and Israeli sources report that cooperation continues between Israeli companies and Iranian state institutions in such fields as agriculture and infrastructure. They said much of the cooperation is conducted through European companies. …..The sources said Israel is quietly helping Iran with an infrastructure renewal project in Teheran. They said Israel and a French partner are reviewing Teheran's underground pipe and sewer network as part of a plan to install new systems. ….."