December 1998, Week 2

Iran Condemns Attack on Americans

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran's hard-line speaker of Parliament said Thursday that last month's attack on a group o f American visitors was ``inappropriate,'' according to the official news agency. Ali Akbar Nateq-Nouri's comments marked the first against the Nov. 21 attack from a conservative within Iran's ruling clerical hierarchy. He added, however, that a failure to explain the visitors' purpose had provoked ``su spicion'' about the delegation. ``From what I have read, the members of the delegation were businessmen, who traveled in the name of tourists,' ' the Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Nateq-Nouri as saying. Vigilantes wielding iron bars and throwing stones smashed the windows of a bus carrying 13 foreigners, mostly A mericans, on its way through Tehran. A radical Muslim group, Fedayeen Islam, claimed responsibility. Nateq-Nouri stressed the need to refrain from provocation. ``Violence has always been condemned and if it continues, it will lead to anarchy,'' he said. President Mohammad Khatami, a moderate engaged in a power struggle with hard-liners, has condemned the attack a s a national disgrace.