The armed Iranian opposition denounced Friday a $440 million credit deal extended to Tehran by French bank Credit Lyonnais as an aid to the regime's "machinery of suppression." The People's Mujahedeen, in a statement received in Nicosia, said the deal, worth €500 million, "comes at a time when human rights violations in Iran have taken a sharp turn for the worse."
"Foreign aid to the ruling mullahs, and offer of credit and loans, will not solve the problems of this faltering regime," it said. "These concessions only serve the mullahs' machinery of suppression and executions inside Iran, and (the) export of terrorism and fundamentalism beyond the country's borders," it said.
Credit Lyonnais on Thursday, September 6, announced the export credit deal with Iran's principal banks to cover the financing of machinery from France, Italy, Germany, South Korea, Switzerland and other nations.
The statement gave no details on the terms of the credit, except to say that it would have a maximum repayment period of 12 years, calculated either from delivery or from contract completion. The Iraq-based Mujahedeen often claim responsibility for armed attacks inside Iran. — (AFP, Nicosia)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
