Iranian Alert -- January 12, 2004 -- IRAN LIVE THREAD --Americans for Regime Change in Iran

EU Diplomats: Political Crisis Dominating Iran Talks

January 13, 2004
Reuters
Ha'aretz

TEHRAN - A political crisis in Iran which broke on the eve of a visit by the EU's top diplomat has not derailed delicate talks with the bloc but has left Iranian government officials "ashamed", EU diplomats said on Monday.

Iran was thrown into turmoil on Sunday when the conservative Guardian Council, a constitutional watchdog, barred thousands of liberal candidates from standing in next month's parliamentary elections, including 80 who are members of the current assembly.

The European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, arrived in Tehran the same day to pursue long-running talks on four issues of particular concern to the EU - Iran's nuclear program, its role in the Middle East peace process, the fight against international terrorism, and human rights.

Solana also wanted to convey the EU's support to Iran, with which it is pursuing a policy of engagement in stark contrast to the U.S. line of isolation, following last month's devastating earthquake in Bam which killed at least 30,000.

Instead, his talks with top officials from the government - though not the Guardian Council, with whom he has not met - have been dominated by the political standoff which has led to threats to boycott the elections.

"The Iranians try to say that it's not so dramatic, that they'll try to find a compromise. They are so ashamed, they try to say it will be solved," said one EU diplomat.

Asked to elaborate on this shame, he replied: "No doubt about that. It's very tough for them that it's happened on the same day we're here. The centre of gravity that they wanted to transmit, Bam, has fallen off the map."

Solana told a news conference he did not want to interfere in Iran's internal affairs but said he would find it very difficult to explain in Europe how people elected to Iran's parliament would not now be able to stand as candidates.

Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi, following his meeting with Solana, said the crisis could be resolved.

"Certainly the authorities are aware of these issues, and I hope they will find a solution to this problem and we are not going to see rights violated or trampled on," he said.

But one top Iranian official said the Guardian Council's decision had come as a bombshell.

"We've had two earthquakes, one in Bam and one political," an EU official quoted him as saying.

The EU and Tehran have long been trying to improve ties, with Solana noting that this trip is his fourth in 20 months.

The two sides appeared to have been making progress on the nuclear question. Iran agreed last month to allow snap inspections of its nuclear facilities following suspicions that it had been developing a weapons program.

Solana had long talks on Monday with Hassan Rohani, head of the National Security Council and the chief nuclear negotiator, suggesting there were still plenty of issues open to discussion.

But the talks seem to have been overtaken by events.

"We have moved very rapidly from a situation where we had put the nuclear issue on track and now we are facing the reality of this country, which is how solid the electoral process is... going to be after the elections," an EU official said.

"In less than 24 hours we've gone from the shock of Bam to political shock."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=382264&sw=Iran

"As much as American conservatives want the US to push for a regime change in Iran, they should relax."

I DON'T THINK SO.....

This article is really off the mark in so many ways.......

" European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, arrived in Tehran the same day to pursue long-running talks on four issues of particular concern to the EU - Iran's nuclear program, its role in the Middle East peace process, the fight against international terrorism, and human rights."

Kind of messed up Solana's plans.
But if he wanted to know if the regime has any intentions of changing their policies on any of the above issues, I think it's safe to say, their answer is "NO".
Next....?

"The people of Iran must not fall into this trap."

I agree. The people of Iran must stay focused on what they truely want and act accordingly. Falling for this and voting for the reformist will just get them right back to where they are right now. There will be no better future unless there is real change. God willing, that is forthcoming.

REJECTED LAWMAKERS DETERMINED TO RESIST DISQUALIFICATIONS

TEHRAN 12 Jan (IPS)

As Iranian reformists, frustrated at the decision by the conservatives-controlled Council of the Guardians (CG) to disqualify tens of leading reformist candidates from running in the coming Legislative elections, threatened Monday to boycott the race on a nation scale, Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i indicated his reluctance to intervene in the unprecedented showdown.

"I hope the problem will be resolved through legal channels. Of course, if the legal process failed to resolve and the problem requiring the leader’s intervention, I’ll do my job", he emphatically told a gathering of provincial governors expressing their grievances about the performance of the Supervisory Board in rejecting the credentials of more than eighty prominent reformist Members of Majles.

To the governors who observed that the law has not been respected in disqualifying the hopefuls, Mr. Khameneh'i, who, as the leader of the Islamic Republic, has the last word on every major issue recommended to "explore legal channels" to resolve their dispute with the Supervisory Board.

"The Supreme Leader advised those who think their rights have been violated by the Supervisory Board to observe calm and avoid tension to give the legal channels envisaged in election law the opportunity to examine the complaints", the official news agency IRNA reported from the meeting.

In a letter to President Mohammad Khatami, the governors gave him one week to stand up to the CG and overturn its controversial decision or they would resign, joining the rejected deputies who, led by Dr. Mohammad Reza Khatami, the younger brother of the President, have staged a protest sit in at the Majles.

"We will continue our sit-in until politically motivated disqualifications are reversed. If it is not reversed, there will be no elections. There is no reason to participate in so-called elections where hard-line thinkers run without any rivals", ", lawmaker Elaaheh Koola’i told "The Associated Press".

In response, Mr. Khatami appealed for calm and called on all parties to avoid tension while he was discussing the issue with the leader.

But as Mr. Khatami refused to brand his earlier threats of resignation, one of his aides, Mr. Mohammad Sattari-Far warned, "the Government would resign if it fails to carry out its duties and defending people’s right for clean, fair and democratic elections".

"The Government finds itself in a very difficult situation, for, in the one hand, it is responsible to the people to whom it has promised fair and clean elections, but on the other, if he can not offer the promised religious democracy, it doesn’t make difference if it resigns or not", he told the governors.

For its part, Interior Minister Hojjatoleslam Abdolvahed Mousavi Lari said that his ministry and the governors have done "what they could" to hold elections in the best manner, "but, the Supervisory Board have not considered the report of the Executive Board in confirming eligibility of the candidates".

The row between the powerful but un-elected ayatollahs who rule the Iranian system of theocracy and the elected, but powerless organs of the regime erupted last week after the 12-members, leader-appointed CG announced the disqualification of more than 2.033, among them 80 reformist MMs out of the 8.145 candidates who registered for the coming Majles elections, due on 20 February.

According to statistics released last week by the Supervisory Board, some 44.4 per cent of the candidates were rejected on the basis of lack of allegiance to the fundaments of Islam, the Islamic Republic and the Constitution.

"This is a civilian coup, a move to change the regime by no military means", Chairman of the Majles’ National Security and Foreign Affaires, Mr. Mohsen Mirdamadi said about the mass disqualifications.

Dr. Mohammad Reza Khatami, the younger brother of the beleaguered President who is both a first deputy-Speaker and leader of the Islamic Iran Participation Front that controls most of the parliament’s 292 seats, Mr. Behzad Nabavi, the second deputy-Speaker, Mohsen Mirdamadi, Naser Shirzad, Mohsen Loqmanian, Ali Akbar Kho’eini and Mrs. Elaaheh Koola’i, Fatemeh Haqiqatjoo and Shahrbanoo Amani are among outspoken and popular incumbent deputies who have been refused.

"When half of the 8.000 people running for the elections are disqualified, this means they are against the system", Mr. Sattari-Far noted, acknowledging that the Government "feels its incapacity". "The message is we shall stand firm not allowing illegality", he added.

IRAN DISQUALIFICATION 12104

http://www.iran-press-service.com/articles_2004/Jan_04/iran_disqualifications_12104.htm

Frum & Perle dare to win, rather than to appease with political correctness and diplomincing.

Terrorism is evil, and there is no coexisting or containment with or of evil.

The EU is complicit with the murdering mullah Tehranosaurs--just as it was complicit with Mass Grave Hussein of Iraq.

As for france,

Some enchanted evening
you may meet a stranger
you may meet a stranger
across a crowed reactor. . . .

sic semper tehranus

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