Posted on 05/01/2003 12:27:52 AM PDT by DoctorZIn
TEHRAN 30 Apr. (IPS) As Iranians expresses more and more their wishes to see the Americans take action against the present regime, the Revolutionary Guards issued warnings against those who call for normalising relations with the United States.
"The Revolutionary Guards would issues warnings and cautions for the society whenever it feel it is needed. This is one of its duties to enter the arena when it considers it as a necessity", said Mr. Ali Sa’idi, the acting Representative of the leader at the Army of the Guards of the Islamic Revolution, better known as Pasdaran, or Revolutionary Guards.
This was the Pasdaran’s second stern warnings in as many days, coming after foreign media reported of wide spread and generalised deception of the Iranians with the present rule of hard line clerics.
In an article carried on its 25 April issue, the influential French daily "Le Monde" said the Iranian rulers are worried by a "fierce pro-Americanism" expressed by the Iranian population. "They are especially worried of the vox populi, that asks for a change of the regime with the help of the American marines", the daily wrote in an article dated from Tehran.
"If one admits that the Iraqis are delighted with Saddam Hoseyn's end, one must also think about the possibility that maybe, the Iranians would celebrate at the end of the Islamic Republic as well", the paper quoted Mr. Behzad Nabavi, an influential member of the reformist camp and a Majles Deputy-speaker.
"The Revolutionary Guards must control the action of the Majles. They must know what the deputies think. They must know if they are with the leader or against him", responded Ayatollah Movahedi Kermani, the leader’s Representative at the Pasdaran, a force that serves as the Mollahrchy’s Praetorian Guard.
Iranian observers said the cleric’s harsh words against the Majles (Iranian Parliament) could not be ushered without prior authorisation of Ayatollah Ali Khamenehi’, the lamed and unpopular, but absolute leader of the Islamic Republic, who is also the commander of all Iranian armed forces, including the Revolutionary Guards.
"This is part of the policy of massive repression concocted by the Hashemi Rafsanjani-Khameneh'i duo", said former president Abolhasan Banisadr, pointing to the renewed wave of newspapers closing, jailing of political dissidents, journalists and students as well as appointing a hard line judge as the Capita’s Public Prosecutor and Islamic Revolution’s courts.
According to "Le Monde", most Iranians are openly calling for American intervention in Iran.
"We don't want the Islamic Republic anymore", an architect told the paper on condition of anonymity. "It took us a quarter of century to realise that the revolution is a failure", he added, calling like many other Iranians, for the American help for change the regime".
"The Afghans and the Iraqis have been freed from dictatorships, why not us?" a filmmaker said.
Both Ayatollah Kermani and Mr.Sa’idi warned what they described as "the enemy’s fifth column" against insisting on opening up relations with the United States in the aftermath of the Coalition’s rapid victory over the now collapsed regime of Saddam Hoseyn in Baghdad.
"The Americans have attacked Iraq and they might attack Iran as well. But we shall be united. Our armed forces must be ready against enemy’s psychological warfare", he warned, speaking on a gathering of the Pasdaran’s Ideological-Political Department.
He also criticised Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the Iraqi Shi’a’s highest religious authority, asking why he does not enter the "occupied" nation’s political vacuum left by the fall of the Ba’athist regime of Saddam Hoseyn.
Known for his "moderation’ compared to hard line Iranian clerics, the Grand Ayatollah was under house arrest under Saddam and after he recovered his freedom of action, he was attacked by hard-line Iraqi clerics taking orders from Tehran.
Referring to Washington's scenario on Iraq's future, Mr. Khameneh’i said that Washington has made it clear that it will not allow establishment of an Islamic government in Iraq even if the Iraq people voted for it.
He said the Coalition forces attacking homes of Iraqi people and firing at demonstrations are signs of "the American and British democracy and humanitarian principles" and added "other nations should take lessons from the events in Iraq".
For his part, Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said that the Iraqi people do not trust the Americans.
"The heavy US bombings of residential areas and Iraqi schools and the magnitude of the high human casualties are too hefty to forget in a matter of months or years. The Americans have a difficult time ahead with the antagonist sentiment the Iraqis hold toward them for the human cost of getting rid of the deposed regime", the powerful Chairman of the Expediency Council added, quoted by the official news agency IRNA.
The former president also lambasted the Americans on their "cooperation"
with Iraq-based terrorist Mojahedin Khalq Organisation (MKO), saying that it "indicates Washington's hypocrisy in the international campaign against terrorism".
According to the MKO, the American army commanders reached an agreement with them, allowing the Organisation, which is dedicated to overthrow the Islamic Republic by way of arms, to remain in their camps in Iraq.
Foreign journalists in Baghdad reported that following the "cease-fire agreement" between the American forces and the MKO, the Organisation was asked to check on the Iranians and the Iraqis Tehran has infiltrated into Iraq to stir trouble.
Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani described the ceasefire agreement between the US Army commander in Iraq with the terrorist MKO as a "great scandal" and said that in the wake of the terrorist attacks in the United States, Washington was portraying itself as anti-terrorist, but, it entered into a deal with the terrorist group which they have nurtured and gave it a safe haven in Washington. ENDS PASDARAN WARNINGS 30403
"They are especially worried of the vox populi, that asks for a change of the regime with the help of the American marines"
"We don't want the Islamic Republic anymore"
Sounds like dominos are falling. If Iran's theocracy is toppled, it would have a monumental effect on Mid-East politics. This would also make Wolfowitz a visionary, rather than a war-monger as his critics call him.
Wolfowitz has already been proven right in terms of the fall of Iraq: it went much closer to his predictions than to those of the doomocrats.
Hopefully Iran can take care of its own regime.
If he believes this he is living in fantasyland. More likely it's just propaganda for the masses.
At least their version of Hollywood has someone with half a brain.
Well, America could put pressure when Iran's regime cracks down on their reformist opposition. Especially when things turn violent. Position troops along the Iranian border. Officially, it would be a security precaution.
But it could serve as a veiled threat when Iran's regime gets out of line and begin killing its own people.
All the while, America should help the oppostion to dominate airwaves, especially ones originating outside Iran. American can help smuggle a lot of cell phones, satellite dishes, and computers with wireless connection. Install enough hardwares to support those connections in Iraq or in the Gulf area.
Let the opposition have unlimited access to information networks. This, along with the presence of U.S. troops at the Iran's border, will topple the regime, in the 21st century style.
So are the Democrats.
Why would the Iranians be worried about the voice of the Roman people? ;-/
You are funny.
I've not seen that spelling before. Perhaps it's as close to "Saddam Hosehead" as the French will venture.
I think it would be so cool if the Iranian people would formally and directly ask for our help through channels. Of course, the French and rest of the world would say we invited ourselves, so good records would have to be kept to prove the legitimacy of their first contact. The secondary benefit would be to watch the U.N. wither even further that they were bypassed!
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