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INTELLIGENCE MINISTER SAYS OPPOSITION UNDER SURVEILLANCE AND STUDENTS UNDER CONTROL.

Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) chief Hojatoleslam Ali Yunesi told a 6 October gathering of Iran's Friday prayer leaders that the opposition is being watched and anything it does to threaten Iran's national security will fail, IRNA reported on 7 October. "The [MOIS] has full grip over the issues related to the national security of Iran and is fully aware of all moves and intrigues made by the antirevolutionary forces, which have been relatively intensified recently," he said. Yunesi claimed that Iran is the target of a "heavy psychological war" and the opposition is part of this. "The United States needs to heighten the level of that cold war against Iran currently in order to justify its broad presence in this part of the world," he added. After discussing the security organizations' activities in the run-up to the anticipated unrest of last July, he turned to the school year that has just begun. "We have started this academic year in a position of total control over the situation, and we will neutralize any kind of counterrevolutionary movement throughout the world," ISNA reported. (Bill Samii)

Source RFE/RL Iran Report Vol. 6, No. 41, 13 October 2003

TEHRAN DENIES CONTACTS WITH WASHINGTON.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Assefi said on 5 October that Tehran and Washington have not had any secret meetings in Geneva or exchanged any diplomatic messages recently, dpa reported. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell in a 3 October interview with reporters from "The Washington Post" had said: "We have received a number of indications from Iran and we are responding to those indications.... But I think it's encouraging that they are sending out these signals and we are responding to the signals." "Their signals are not simply going into the ether," he added, "They are hitting a reflector and going back." The "Los Angeles Times" reported on 4 October that anonymous "senior U.S. officials" said that Iran wants to resume behind-the-scenes Tehran-Washington discussions that were abandoned in May. "We've seen some signs and heard from others that the Iranians want to talk," a "senior State Department official" said. "We're sending some signals back." (Bill Samii)

source RFE/RL Iran Report Vol. 6, No. 41, 13 October 2003