From: mtaghavi@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Amir Taghavi)
Subject: Iran attempts to establish fundamentalist hold in Bosnia 
Organization: The Ohio State University
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 00:54:49 GMT


	WASHINGTON (UPI) -- Several thousand Iranian Revolutionary Guards are
fighting alongside Bosnian Muslims in an attempt by Tehran to establish
a fundamentalist foothold in Europe, an Iranian opposition leader said
Tuesday.
	Mohammed Mohaddessin, director of international relations for the
People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran, told reporters that Tehran had
dispatched a brigade-size force of Revolutionary Guards to arm and train
Muslims in Bosnia-Herzegovina as well as to help them repel Serbian
aggressors.
	Although Mohaddessin did not know the exact number of Iranian troops
deployed in the former Yugoslavia, he said it was made up of roughly 2,
000 specially trained holy warriors from the Al-Quds force.
	Revolutionary Guards attached to Al-Quds, the Parsi word for
Jerusalem, are trained to be deployed in foreign lands and to foment
fundamentalist unrest through military action and promulgation of
propaganda.
	Mohaddessin said, however, that Tehran is ``in no way concerned about
the fate of Muslims in Bosnia.''
	``The primary objective of the (Tehran) regime is to organize and
fund groups in Bosnia and use it as a base for future plans to export
fundamentalism and terrorism,'' said Mohaddessin, whose group's main
goal is to topple the current Iranian government.
	Iran has made only feeble attempts to mask its support for Muslims in
Bosnia-Herzegovina.
	The State Department said several months ago that an Iranian-
chartered transport aircraft full of weapons and troops bound for
Bosnia-Herzegovina was intercepted in Croatia. The weapons were seized
and the Revolutionary Guards sent back to Iran on board their aircraft.
	And Italian military vessels helping to enforce a naval blockade
around the former Yugoslavia Monday seized a ship carrying weapons and
other military equipment to Croatia, Pentagon and U.N. officials said.
	The shipment of Soviet and Chinese-manufactured rockets, guns and
ammunition -- destined for Muslim fighters in Bosnia -- are believed to
have originated in Iran, they said.
	The United Nations has imposed a complete arms embargo on the former
Yugoslavia. Most Muslim nations, including such key U.S. allies as Saudi
Arabia and Turkey, have called for the ban to be lifted so Bosnians can
defend themselves against Serbian attempts to annex the new republic.
	Saudi and Turkish officials have said they do not feel any particular
kinship with Bosnian Muslims, who are completely integrated into a
European lifestyle, but watching helplessly while Islamic bretheren were
raped, murdered and driven from their homes was just too much to stand
for.
	The Clinton administration has said it is considering lobbying for
the United Nations to lift the arms embargo on Bosnia-Herzegovina and to
militarily enforce tha ban on Serbian military flights in the region.


"Copyright 1993 by <UPI/Newsbytes>
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