Thursday, July 22, 1999

NICOSIA [MENL] -- In a letter published by the daily Jomhuri-e Eslami, 24 Revolutionary Guards chiefs attacked President Mohammed Khatami for failing to control the students. They said he allowed the students to criticize Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

"[Your] way of dealing with events has encouraged those hostile to the revolution and discouraged and humiliated the revolution's supporters," the letter said. "Is the sanctity of supreme clerical rule less than that of university hostels?"

The reference was to an attack by police and regime supporters on the dormitories of Teheran University in which four students were reportedly killed. The killings sparked the unrest.

Meanwhile, Iran says it has evidence that Israel and the United States helped sponsor violent student demonstrations that rocked the Islamic republic last week.

An Iranian government statement said a dissident student leader arrested in connection with the violent unrest had confessed to serving U.S.-based "spies and Zionists." The leader was identified as Manouchehr Mohammadi.

On Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi continued the Iranian attack on Israel. He said U.S. support for the Jewish state is jeopardizing the Middle East.

"The White House is following partial and biased policy to reinforce the interests of the Zionist regime by ignoring and sacrificing the interests of the Muslim and Arab states in the Middle East region," Asefi said.

The Intelligence Ministry said Mohammadi had confessed that he and his colleagues received money from supporters abroad. The statement said Mohammadi held talks with a "counter-revolutionary element to enter America to meet and hold talks with runaway spies and Zionist elements...to receive directives about setting up political and student organizations...and provoking and spreading violence."

Iranian television showed a tape of what appeared to be a speech by Mohammadi to Iranian royalists during a recent visit to the United States. In the speech, Mohammadi called for the separation of church and state in Iran, for the last 20 years ruled by the clergy.

The television accused a detained colleague of Mohammadi, Malous Radnia of involvement and said she participated in the violence and has "regularly given false news to foreign media."

Iranian sources said on Tuesday that most of the reported 1,400 students detained in connection with the unrest have been released.