Replies

Kerry Says He Will Repair Damage If He Wins Election

Tehran Times - By Mehr News Agency
Feb 8, 2004
WASHINGTON (Mehr News Agency) -- The office of Senator John Kerry, the frontrunner in the Democratic presidential primary in the U.S., sent the Mehr News Agency an e-email saying that Kerry will try to repair the damage done by the incumbent president if he wins the election. The text of the e-mail follows.

As Americans who have lived and worked extensively overseas, we have personally witnessed the high regard with which people around the world have historically viewed the United States. Sadly, we are also painfully aware of how the actions and the attitudes demonstrated by the U.S. government over the past three years have threatened the goodwill earned by presidents of both parties over many decades and put many of our international relationships at risk.

It is in the urgent interests of the people of the United States to restore our country's credibility in the eyes of the world. America needs the kind of leadership that will repair alliances with countries on every continent that have been so damaged in the past few years, as well as build new friendships and overcome tensions with others.

We are convinced that John Kerry is the candidate best qualified to meet this challenge. Senator Kerry has the diplomatic skill and temperament as well as a lifetime of accomplishments in field of international affairs. He believes that collaboration with other countries is crucial to efforts to win the war on terror and make America safer.

An understanding of global affairs is essential in these times, and central to this campaign Kerry has the experience and the understanding necessary to successfully restore the United States to its position of respect within the community of nations. He has the judgment and vision necessary to assure that the United States fulfills a leadership role in meeting the challenges we face throughout the world.

The current Administration's policies of unilateralism and rejection of important international initiatives, from the Kyoto Accords to the Biological Weapons Convention, have alienated much of the world and squandered remarkable reserves of support after 9/11. This climate of hostility affects us all, but most especially impacts those who reside overseas. Disappointment with current U.S. leadership is widespread, extending not just to the corridors of power and politics, but to the man and woman on the street as well.

We believe John Kerry is the Democrat who can go toe-to-toe against the current Administration on national security and defense issues. We also remain convinced that John Kerry has the best chance of beating the incumbent in November, and putting America on a new course that will lead to a safer, more secure, and more stable world.

SMCCDI Note: The bold and underlined of the original introduction of the article as posted are made by SMCCDI in order to show the fact, stated by the official Mehr News agency, that J. Kerry's offices have started to lobby beside entities affiliated to the Islamic republic regime while the very same regime is promoting violence in Iraq and elsewhere.

Anger grows among children of Iran's 25-year-old revolution

Guardian - By Dan De Luce in Tehran
Feb 9, 2004

They slice through traffic on their motorbikes, racing each other at breakneck speed while holding their mobile phones.

They listen to heavy metal, read Günter Grass and admire Tom Cruise. They don't go to the mosque the way their parents did, and they have given up on politics.

A third of Iran's 65 million people are aged between 15 and 30, struggling to find jobs, queuing for visas, and frustrated with the theocracy they have inherited.

As Iran this week marks the 25th anniversary of the revolution that toppled a monarchy and delivered clerical rule, members of the "third generation" won't be celebrating an event that they don't even remember.

"It was a futile revolution," says Sohrab, who is as young as the Islamic Republic. "It brought nothing but harm for the people."

He speaks amid the roar of traffic and choking pollution in the working-class district of Shoosh in south Tehran, a place where the revolution enjoyed enthusiastic support in 1979.

Now Sohrab and his friends blame the clergy for Iran's troubles. "You cannot accuse anyone else," he says. "The revolution was in their hands, they made it happen. They were responsible. They started with a slogan of Islam, but they betrayed Islam."

He complains about the social restrictions that make having a girlfriend a clandestine project; the risks of speaking out publicly against the theocracy; the inflation that eats away at his wages; corruption; and his country's pariah status. "Ask me what doesn't bother me," he says.

He worries about friends who have turned to drugs. More than a million young Iranians are addicts, and hundreds of thousands of young men are in jail for drug offences.

With the clergy so deeply identified with politics, young people are turning away from religion, he says. "After all this, do you expect us to go to mosque and listen to them?"

Like his peers, he wears his hair long and slicked back with gel. He has a "hidden friendship" with a girl; "people have learned to do everything they want in society behind closed doors". He adds: "We are human beings. It's natural."

Although he failed to secure a coveted place at university, he says he is lucky, because he works for his father's small transport business. His friends are scraping by and desperately seeking decent jobs.

Hoping for real change, Sohrab, along with millions of other young Iranians, voted for reformists four years ago in parliamentary elections. But the reformist majority was overruled in a system that gives final authority to appointed ideologues.

"They know how to fool us" he says. "I had a lot of enthusiasm at the time. But I won't vote again. Even if my father becomes a candidate, I won't vote."

At Tehran University, where student unrest in the 70s helped force the Shah from power, Islamic militancy lost its appeal long ago.

"The ideas of that time are now outdated," says Hooshang, an electrical engineering student. "Politically, we can't speak out. If we speak freely, they'll compile a file on us."

Some students who have dared to speak out have been imprisoned or summoned to court. One of them, Ahmad Batebi, appeared in a dramatic photograph on the cover of the Economist in 1999, holding up the bloodied T-shirt of a classmate beaten by vigilantes. Batebi was convicted of endangering national security and remains behind bars.

Apart from student leaders and a few young journalists, most Iranians are tuning out of politics. They are focusing on finding a job or an emigration visa, or the next heroin fix.

Unable to contain the vast youth population, the Iranian establishment has been forced to grant a limited degree of social freedom, allowing couples to hold hands on the street, spicing up programming on state television and permitting concerts and billiard halls.

Journalists say the leadership hopes to follow China's example, easing social and economic restrictions while holding on firmly to power.

Among young couples sharing ice cream at a shopping centre, there is no gratitude for the new social allowances.

"It's not a matter of tolerance. They were forced to act because society was about to explode," says Sadjad, 19, a university student.

"We are not the youth of 10 years ago and we have more access to the rest of the world, so they have to give us more freedom."

His girlfriend Mara says the concessions are meaningless. "Freedom is not only about going with your friend hand-in-hand. It's being able to speak freely, even in front of a policeman."

After Iraq invaded Iran in 1980, the founder of the Islamic republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, called on families to produce children for the defence of Islam and the revolution.

But instead of being disciples of the cause, the generation now coming of age poses a daunting challenge to the survival of his theocracy.

The road to theocracy

1977 US president Jimmy Carter toasts the Shah and calls Iran "an island of stability" in the Gulf

January 1978 Newspaper article written by the regime slanders the Shah's most outspoken critic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, as a British spy. Wave of anti-Shah protests follows

September Martial law declared as protests continue against the Shah and his notorious secret police, the Savak

October The Shah insists Iraq evict Ayatollah Khomeini after years in defiant exile. Khomeini refused entry to Kuwait and takes refuge in a suburb near Paris. The regime unravels and the Shah and his family flee

February 1 1979 Without permission to land, the ayatollah returns to acclaim

February 11 Government troops return to barracks

December New constitution ratified in a referendum declaring an Islamic republic

http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_4822.shtml

"Iran Guardian Council acts as a political party"

Sunday, February 08, 2004
IranMania News

Tehran, February 8 ( IranMania) – A student gathering called ‘Defense for Democracy’ was held in Elm-o-Sanat University of Tehran on Saturday. The reformist MPs, Elaheh Koulaee, Mohammad Kianoushrad and Ali Tajernia took part in the gathering. The get-together which was organized by the university’s Islamic Association was warmly welcomed by the students.

According to Iran’s Labor News Agency ( ILNA), Elaheh Koulaee said: “25 years ago we had some ideals in mind, but see what we have achieved today! Iranians have started struggling for democracy and a fair distribution of political power since a century ago, but today they face challenges they could never imagine. The question now is why we have problems in understanding such concepts as freedom, independence and Islamic republic which were clearly defined by the founder of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini.”

Elaborating on the hardliners’ recent moves, Koulaee reiterated: “The conservatives are inflicting a heavy blow on the entire nation by their shortsightedness. We have to be united inside the borders of our homeland. For as long as we don’t listen to different views, we will gain nothing.”

Concerning her disqualification by the Guardian Council, the MP stated:
“Two years ago, the Daricheh Internet site released an article saying that I cooperate with the Russian embassy. My friends repeatedly asked me to insistently deny the news. However I told them the issue is too comic and trivial to react to, for, my record is available to everyone. When the Guardian Council termed me unqualified to stand for the upcoming parliamentary elections, I found the same baseless reports as the body’s basis of decision-making. We have to learn from past experiences. Every 25 years the Iranian nation experiences a great development. Thus having this issue in mind, why should we repeat the same mistakes? The conservatives accuse us of skepticism the same way the anti-reform forces accused the constitutional revolutionaries at the end of the Qajarid era.”

The reformist MP noted: “How is it that if the members of the National Security Commission in their secret meetings talk about resumption of ties with the US, it is considered a crime and a reason for their invalidation, but those affiliated to the conservatives can talk for hours with US diplomats without being blamed?”

Mohammad Kianoushrad for his part said: “Presently some try to turn the Islamic Republic into an Islamic Monarchy. We are opposed to the change and defend the nature of the Islamic system. The disqualification of the candidates was a politically-motivated move and the Guardian Council acted as a political party which tried to do away with its rivals.”

http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=22425&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs

Charles on Iran Visit, the First Since 1971 by a British Royal

By REUTERS
Published: February 9, 2004

EHRAN, Jan. 8 (Reuters) — Prince Charles on Sunday became the first member of the British royal family to visit this Islamic Republic, arriving here after meeting with British troops in Iraq.

Charles, welcomed at Mehrabad Airport here by the British ambassador, Richard Dalton, will meet President Mohammad Khatami on Monday before traveling to the ancient southeastern city of Bam, where an earthquake on Dec. 26 killed more than 40,000 people.

Earlier on Sunday, Charles met British troops based in the southern Iraqi city of Basra and listened to prominent Iraqi officials discuss a range of political and economic problems.

British officials said Charles's visit to Iran, which comes at a time of political tension in a country once listed by President Bush as a member of an "axis of evil," was focused purely on relief efforts for Bam.

"Prince Charles is patron of the British Red Cross, and he is coming in that role," said Andrew Dunn, press officer at the British Embassy in Tehran. "It's a completely nonpolitical visit."

Diplomats said such a trip would have been unthinkable five years ago, before relations between the countries improved as Iran began a reform process and Britain adopted a more conciliatory approach.

Britain, France and Germany, members of the European Union, are following a policy of engagement with Tehran, in contrast to the line of isolation pursued by the United States.

The last official visit to Iran by members of the British royal family was in 1971, eight years before the Islamic fundamentalist revolution overthrew the monarchy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/09/international/middleeast/09PRIN.html

Risky Mission is Designed to Restore Western Ties with Iran

February 09, 2004
The Times
Richard Beeston

The Prince of Wales embarked on one of the most risky and overtly political missions of his career last night, when he arrived in Tehran on a ground breaking visit exactly 25 years after the Shah of Iran was driven into exile by Ayatollah Khomeini.

British officials admitted last night that the mission was unlike any other undertaken by the Prince, who normally confines humanitarian trips of this kind to the British Isles. Most of his foreign visits are to Commonwealth countries or to Britain's close allies.

Although his trip is ostensibly on behalf of the British Red Cross to help the victims of the Boxing Day earthquake in the city of Bam, it is hard to exaggerate the impact of the future King's arrival in Iran. The country, which has had a stormy relationship with Britain during the past quarter of a century, was until recently regarded as a pariah that supported terrorist groups and sought to build a nuclear bomb. Only two years ago it was branded part of the "axis of evil" by President Bush.

This time, however, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office clearly decided that the Prince could not only draw attention to a worthy cause -the plight of the tens of thousands of victims in Bam -but also help to promote relations with the Islamic republic.

Iran's co-operation is regarded as vital in helping the smooth transfer of power in neighbouring Iraq, bringing normality back to Afghanistan and stopping support for terrorist groups and the spread of nuclear weapons technology. It also co-operates in the war against drugs-smuggling.

In spite of the many shared interests, the timing of the visit could be risky for the Prince. Iran is in the throes of a bitter power struggle between reformers and the ruling conservative clergy over elections scheduled for February 20. The Guardian Council, a powerful religious watchdog, has barred thousands of reformist candidates from standing in the polls and the reformers have threatened boycotts and demonstrations in response.

Many Iranians on both sides will interpret the brief meeting scheduled for today between the Prince and President Khatami, the beleaguered Iranian leader, as a boost to his campaign to curtail the powers of the conservative clergy and open Iran to the West.

For Britain the visit will consolidate a foreign policy drive by Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, to restore normal relations between Britain and Iran and to open the way for a resumption of diplomatic ties between Washington and Tehran.

After the earthquake in Bam, the Bush Administration sent a humanitarian team to the site, the first official American delegation to Iran since the revolution.

When the Americans attempted to capitalise on the "earthquake diplomacy" by proposing a high-level delegation headed by Elizabeth Dole, the senator who is the head of the American Red Cross, the Iranians shied away. The Prince's visit, therefore, will be seen as an attempt to revive that dialogue.

British officials conceded last night that the Prince's visit was highly irregular and that the decision to go was taken only after careful consideration of the security risks. The announcement of the trip was not confirmed until the Prince had set foot in Tehran.

Given the long history of tension between Iran and what it used to refer to as the "little Satan", the caution was understandable. Many Iranian hardliners will be furious that the heir to the British throne, which was blamed in the past for meddling in Iranian affairs and keeping the country weak, is being greeted in Iran.

Only four months ago Britain was embroiled in a potentially explosive row with Tehran after the arrest of Hade Soleimanpour, the former Iranian Ambassador to Buenos Aires, who was studying in Britain. He was arrested and held on an extradition warrant from Argentina, which accused him of involvement in the bombing of the Jewish community centre in the capital in 1994 that killed 85 people.

The move triggered demonstrations outside the British Embassy in Tehran. Relations were restored when Mr Soleimanpour was released by Bow Street magistrates.

Nevertheless, the spat was a reminder of how volatile the relationship is between the two countries. Relations broke down after the revolution in 1979, when Britain closed its mission and was represented by an interests section in the Swedish Embassy. The British Embassy was reopened in 1988, but relations were broken again the next year when the late Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa (religious edict) calling for the death of Salman Rushdie for writing The Satanic Verses. Ties were restored, but not before several mini-emergencies.

There does seem to be determination on both sides to put the past behind them. In one of the breakdowns in relations, a young British diplomat was arrested and manhandled by Iranian Revolutionary Guards. However, Edward Chaplin, now the head of the Middle East and North Africa Department at the Foreign Office, has probably done more than anyone to make this visit possible.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/

Khatami's Party Declines to Follow Allies into Poll Boycott

February 09, 2004
Agence France Presse
Laurent Lozano

The party of Iranian President Mohammad Khatami Monday dashed its allies' hopes of a united response to the exclusion of hundreds of reformers from February 20 parliamentary elections, announcing it would take part despite the blacklist.

Two leaders of the moderate Association of Combattant Clerics told the pro-reform student news agency ISNA that, contrary to a previous announcement on the interior ministry's official website, the party would not be following its more radical allies into a boycott of the key poll.

"None of the candidates of the Association of Combattant Clerics intends to withdraw from the election," said Majid Ansari. "During last (Sunday) night's meeting, we decided that we would run a list."

His colleague Rassoul Montajabnia said the party was now looking to run a common list with other pro-reform candidates who had survived the mass disqualifications announced by the conservative-dominated Guardians Council last month.

The party was in talks with "some" of its partners in the 18-member pro-reform alliance that backs Khatami, said Montajabnia. "We are going to publish the joint list in the next few days."

A statement released by the party overnight called on supporters to vote for pro-reform candidates in constituencies where they were still able to stand and independents where they had been disqualified.

The decision to take part had been motivated by a determination to prevent "totalitarian candidates entering parliament" and stop the "organizers of this parliamentary coup de'etat from succeeding in their goal of electing a puppet legislature."

The moderates' decision to step back from a complete break with regime conservatives came after a menacing call to order from supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Organizing elections was "one of the officials' responsibilities vis-a-vis the devoted nation and the struggles of the sacred martyrs," Khamenei warned Sunday.

"It is appropriate that certain grievances of the organs against each other are ignored and all join hands in order to fulfil this grave task in the best and healthiest fashion."

The Association's decision not to boycott ran against the policy adopted by the Islamic Iran Participation Front, the biggest pro-reform party led by Khatami's brother Mohammad Reza, as well as by the more radical Organisation of the Mujahedeen of the Islamic Revolution.

It also conflicted with the policy of the pro-reform alliance, known as the 2nd of Khordad Front. Its coordinator Ali Mohammad Hazeri told ISNA Monday that the alliance's boycott decision still stood but conceded that its rules allowed each of its 18 member parties to "take their own decision."

Khatami himself had openly expressed frustration Sunday at the continued exclusion of more than 2,000 mainly reformist candidates, 75 of them sitting MPs.

"Those in power whose power doesn't come from the people, but who work against them, who use religion, science and even culture to reinforce their power and humiliate others, who deform history ... will be judged mercilessly by history," the president told a conference in Tehran.

According to figures carried by the official IRNA news agency Monday, a total of 5,650 candidates have been retained for the parliamentary elections out of some 8,000 originally nominated.

ISNA had reported that the Guardians Council would issue a definitive list of candidates on Monday after completing a review of the original blacklist which saw another 15 candidates reinstated Sunday evening.

The scale of the disqualifications ordered by the Guardians has sparked the resignation of some 120 MPs, as well as provincial governors and ministers, despite threats of prosecution from hardliners.

The conservative-controlled watchog prompted a new round of recriminations Monday with a decision to bar the use of computers in the count.

The Guardians said their decision had been motivated solely by the failings of the computer system prepared by the reformist-run interior ministry.

But the pro-reform governor of Tehran, Ali Awsat Hashemi, insisted: "All the problems were resolved ... We still don't know what the Guardians are making a fuss about."

http://www.afp.com/english/home/

Bam Residents Seemed Not to Care About the Visitor's Identity

February 09, 2004
Reuters
Christian Oliver

BAM, Iran -- Prince Charles has offered sympathy to earthquake survivors during the first visit by a British royal to Iran -- dubbed an "axis of evil" member by Washington -- since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Charles, whose trip should cement much improved ties between London and Tehran, spoke to people and officials in the ancient citadel city of Bam in southeastern Iran where more than 40,000 people died in a devastating December 26 earthquake.

"I wish we could do more. We've been trying to gather more assistance in Britain," Charles told Barani Baravati, a date farmer now living in a tent on the outskirts of the ruined city.

Scores of curious onlookers watched the prince's entourage as it swept through the dusty streets on Monday, but most seemed either not to know or care about the visitor's identity.

The last official visit by British royals to Iran was by the late Queen Mother in 1975.

Her trip followed a visit in 1971 by Prince Philip and Princess Anne who attended celebrations organised by the then Iranian monarch, Mohammad Reza Shah, for the 2,500th anniversary of the Peacock Throne. The shah was later overthrown in the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Iran is now in the throes of its worst political crisis for years.

President Mohammad Khatami and his reformist allies are outraged by a religious hardline body's move to disqualify hundreds of candidates from parliamentary elections this month.

The visit also coincides with celebrations to mark the 25th anniversary of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's revolution to create an Islamic state in Iran.

According to the official IRNA news agency, Khatami told Charles during a brief meeting in Tehran that Iran's recent negotiations with European countries over its nuclear programme were a sign of better relations with the West.

BETTER UNDERSTANDING

Following talks led by Britain, Germany and France last year, Iran agreed to allow snap inspections of nuclear facilities which Washington says are designed for making atomic weapons.

Iran insists its nuclear ambitions are entirely peaceful.

"We are trying to change misunderstandings into better understanding and cooperation through talks and logical behaviour," Khatami told Charles, IRNA reported.

IRNA said Charles told Khatami Iran's signature on a U.N. protocol on snap nuclear inspections was "very satisfying" and also welcomed Khatami's pet theme of promoting greater dialogue between religions and countries.

"Dialogue among civilisations and religions is a necessity of today's world," IRNA quoted Charles as saying.

Relations between Iran and Britain have often been strained since the revolution, notably when Khomeini issued a religious fatwa in the late 1980s calling for author Salman Rushdie to be killed for insulting Islam.

But Britain has in recent years been at the forefront of a European Union policy of engagement with Iran, in stark contrast with the line of isolation pursued by Washington.

While British officials stressed that Charles, who paid a morale-boosting visit to British troops in Iraq on Sunday, was in Iran for purely humanitarian reasons, some Iranian newspapers attached a political weight to the trip.

"This symbolic trip is a turning point in Iran's relations with the West," the liberal Sharq newspaper said.

Hardline newspapers and state radio and television, which often accuse London of plotting to destabilise the Islamic Republic, made no reference to Charles's visit.

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=454962&section=news

Students 'Watch In Silence'

February 09, 2004
Radio Free Europe
Bill Samii

The student movement's attitude towards the current political crisis in Iran is "worth elaboration," according to a commentary in the 29 January "Aftab-i Yazd." One could expect the students to be unsympathetic towards the parliamentarians' fate, because the current legislature never really followed up on the violent suppression of the students in July 1999 or on other similar incidents. However, they are not indifferent, they are "watching in silence," according to the commentary. What they are trying to determine is if they are just seeing a display of political gamesmanship, or are the parliamentarians serious about pursuing their goals and standing up for their rights?

Allameh Tabatabai University's Chancellor Najafqoli Habibi said that the country's university students must not be indifferent to events, and added that the universities have a duty to take the elections seriously, "Mardom Salari" reported on 28 January.

These are noble sentiments, but until 8 February the students were finding it difficult to act because the government refused to issue rally permits and it otherwise repressed them.

The Iranian press reported in January that a crackdown on student activists is under way. Tehran University Dormitory Guild Council Secretary Hamid Dehnabi received a court summons relating to the previous June's unrest, "Mardomsalari" reported on 21 January. Fifteen students from Malayer received prison sentences ranging from 91 days to six months for their roles in the previous year's unrest, "Aftab-i Yazd" reported on 20 January and "Sharq" reported the next day. A reformist website, roshangari.com, on 20 January reported on the filing of charges against a University of Rafsanjan student activist and the sentencing to prison of 15 students from Hamedan's Bu Ali Sina University.

The Isfahan Revolutionary Court summoned Said Razavi-Faqih of the Office for Strengthening Unity, "Hambastegi" reported on 13 January. The Revolutionary Court summoned Tehran University law student Payman Aref, "Etemad" reported on 12 January. Two websites, daneshjooyan.org and mellimazhabi.org, on 13 January and 20 January reported on the arrest of Isfahan University medical students and the receipt of court summons by Sabzevar students.

Student organizations' efforts to hold rallies were encountering problems, too. The government refused to issue a permit for an off-campus Students Day event in December (see "RFE/RL Iran Report," 8 December 2003).

The Office for Strengthening Unity's late-December annual meeting at the Medical Sciences University in Ahvaz was cancelled and it failed to secure a permit to hold the meeting at Tehran's Tarbiat Mudariss University. Tehran parliamentary representative Fatimeh Haqiqatju said on 4 January that she would ask the minister of intelligence and security about his agency's interference in the student organization's affairs, the Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA) reported.

The Islamic Students Union of Tehran University announced on 3 February that it wanted to hold a rally in front of the university's main gate on 8 February, the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) reported. Ali Talai, an official with the Tehran Governorate-General's Political-Security Affairs Directorate, said earlier in the day that the student's application to hold a rally on 4 February was rejected because it would have disrupted traffic, ISNA reported. The student organization asked why, if traffic is such a concern, conservatives are allowed to hold rallies in the same location after every Friday prayers.

By 8 February the students seemed to have had enough of watching in silence. On that day about 200 students affiliated with the Allameh wing of the Office for Strengthening Unity marched along Inqilab Avenue toward the University of Tehran and chanted slogans such as "Death to Tyranny," "Referendum, Referendum, This is the slogan of the people," and "Voting in Elections, Treachery, Treachery," Fars News Agency reported. At the university itself, the students called for President Hojatoleslam Mohammad Khatami's resignation, dpa reported, citing ISNA.

http://www.rferl.org/reports/iran-report/

Fresh demo rocks Shiraz University

SMCCDI (Information Service)
Feb 9, 2004

Fresh demo lead to sporadic clashes at Shiraz Medical School and its neighboring streets as tens of plainclothes men attacked identified protesters who seized the today gathering of the so-called reformist as an opportunity to show their rejection of the Islamic republic.

Students and supporters were shouting slogans angered by the desperate try of the Islamic Student Association to use the situation in favor of the regime's reformist camp.

The so-called reformists speeches were often cut, inside the university, by slogans, such as, "Referendum, Referendum, in ast shoar Mardom" (Referendum, Referendum, this is our people's slogan), "Sherkat dar entekhabat, khyanat, khyanat" (Participation in elections, a betryal, betryal), "Khatami, khejalat, khejalat", (Katami, shame, shame), "Ansar jenayat mikonad, Rahbar hemayat mikonad" (Ansar commit crimes, Supreme Leader support them), "Marg bar Dictatori" (Down with Dictatorship), "Marg bar Taleban, tche Kabol, Tche Tehran" (Down with Taleban, in Tehran as in Kabul), "Zendani e siassi, Azad bayad guardad" (Political Prisoners must be freed) and "daneshjoo mimirad, Zellat nemipazirad" (Student will die but won't accept submission) shouted by the students.

The very same slogans were responded by hundreds of supporters gathered outside and who were facing the regime forces which were trying to keep them affar.

Bassij forces were trying to confiscate any camera and placard from the hands of students and their supporters.

Hundreds of tracts were distributed in the premises denouncing the Feb. 20th sham elections. Same type of tracts have been distributed in wide scale in main Iranian cities calling for solidarity in the general boycott and predicting the future downfall of the regime.

http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_4828.shtml

Power Play

Newsweek - By Babak Dehghanpisheh
Feb 16, 2004

This week marks the 25th anniversary of the Iranian revolution, when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini orchestrated the fall of the monarchy and ushered in an Islamic regime. On the surface, Tehran is awash in revolutionary fervor. Colorful lights are strung between street lamps, and huge portraits of Khomeini and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei adorn the fronts of many buildings.

But the capital is also filled with disillusionment and anger. Nearly 130 sitting parliamentarians resigned last week to protest the barring of more than 3, 500 candidates from elections scheduled for Feb. 20. The leading reformist party is promising to boycott the elections. Khamenei is insisting that they be held as planned, and conservative candidates are expected to edge aside the reformists who have run the government since 1997. "Other countries in the region are moving toward democracy, but we're moving in the opposite direction—toward a religious monarchy," says Issa Saharkhiz, editor of the reformist magazine Aftab.

Iran's conservatives are not relying only upon electoral shenanigans to cement their hold on power. Until now the world has been mostly familiar with the more extreme face of the conservative camp, epitomized by the Guardian Council, responsible for scratching more-liberal candidates from the ballot, and by the likes of Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, who regularly blasts protesting students as traitors and refuses any dialogue with the United States. Now, analysts say, a new movement of "can do" conservatives is rising to the fore. These men, who include former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, hope to win over cynical Iranians by break—ing the longstanding political deadlock, strengthening the country's ties to the rest of the world and, importantly, projecting concern about people's pocketbooks. "Many conservatives have openly adopted the China model. It has been mentioned in official speeches," says economist Sayeed Leylaz. "This model would allow for economic reform without budging on political issues."

The rising star of this conservative movement is Hassan Rowhani, a cleric who heads the Supreme National Security Council. Many believe he's being groomed as the next president. Rowhani, 55, led Iran's nuclear negotiations with European Union ministers last fall. He followed up that high-profile deal with a visit to Paris last month to discuss Iran's nuclear program with French President Jacques Chirac. Unlike reformist politicians, Rowhani, who holds a Ph.D. in law from Glasgow University, is trusted by Supreme Leader Khamenei, which allows him to negotiate with authority. "He's not a charmer—he's a dealer," says one Western diplomat in Tehran. "Rowhani and people like him prefer survival to ideology. They would be willing to deal or sacrifice some of the sacred cows of the revolution if they got the right price."

One possible result: a rapprochement with the United States. There have been some positive signs. Two weeks ago Mohammed Javad Zarif, Iran's ambassador to the United Nations, met with a half-dozen members of Congress to discuss regional issues. It was only the second time an Iranian diplomat had visited Washington since 1979. And last month Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi met with Sen. Joseph R. Biden in Davos, Switzerland. Neither of these meetings could have happened without a green light from conservatives at the top. "By negotiating with America we can decrease international pressure on ourselves," says Amir Mohebian, political editor for the conservative daily Resalat. "Chanting 'Death to America' is not a goal in itself."

Closer relations could have a wide- ranging impact. Iran has the fourth largest oil reserves, and second largest natural-gas reserves, in the world. But production is limited by old technology, lack of capital investment and few partnerships with Western oil majors. If Washington were to drop sanctions, say analysts, Iran's oil production could jump by 20 percent, boosting state revenues by billions of dollars.

Indeed, improving Iran's economic fortunes could buy the conservatives the kind of widespread legitimacy they currently lack. The biggest issues are unemployment (roughly 20 percent), privatization and the need to attract foreign investment. Iran receives roughly $20 billion in foreign investment, mostly in the oil and gas sector, but nearly 80 percent of the economy is bogged down by inefficient, corrupt state-run institutions. Reformists' efforts to liberalize this sector and open the economy to foreign money, and ideas, have thus far been stymied. Two weeks ago Finance Minister Tahmasb Mazaheri announced the draft-ing of legislation aimed at selling off more than 400 state-owned companies. It remains to be seen whether the government can follow through with this type of sweeping initiative, but overhauling the public sector is one element of the reformist agenda that conservatives could well adopt.

Either way, the key to the success of this new conservative group is growing public cynicism. During municipal elections last year, turnout was extremely low, which gave conservatives their first victory at the ballot box since reformist President Mohammed Khatami was elected in 1997. Many ordinary Iranians have lost hope of drastic political reform, and have tired of Khatami's multiple, never-fulfilled threats to resign. (Last week he caved in again and agreed to stage the elections as scheduled.) "The public has lost faith in the situation," says the Western diplomat. "They think the parliamentarians are fighting for themselves. Everyone seems to hate the regime, and has lost respect for the reformists."

Even students, typically the most outspoken force in Iranian society, have barely stirred themselves over the current electoral controversy. Conservatives are counting on most voters to stay home on Feb. 20, and on those who do show up to vote for the camp that already seems to have all the power anyway. "In the next round of reform, the flag will switch to the other side," says Mohebian. "The reformists haven't been able to fulfill their promises. The people want to see results."

Still, that support will be fragile. Even old-school revolutionaries are troubled by where the country seems to be heading. Mohsen Rahami, a respected cleric and a law professor at Tehran University, identifies more with the parliamentarians who resigned than with their rivals. He accuses hard-liners of playing dirty by sending representatives to the lawmakers' neighborhoods to gather information about their daily life, particularly their devotion to Islam. He speaks from experience. Two years ago Rahami was disqualified from running for Parliament after government representatives canvassed his neighborhood to collect information on him. "They came and asked my neighbors, 'Does he pray?' " Rahami says, flinging his hands up in exasperation. "The ground floor of my house is a Husseiniya [Shiite mosque]! I taught people in my neighborhood how to pray! It can really make a person bitter."

That kind of bitterness will not be easily salved. The regime in Beijing has been able to buy some breathing room with stellar economic growth. The regime in Tehran has less credibility to start with, and can hardly expect the same kind of boom. For now conservatives will have to focus on the elections and the dozens of irate reformists who are hellbent on preventing them. If they do find themselves holding all the reins of power, though, Iran's can-do conservatives may find they have more to do than they think.

http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_4831.shtml

Students protest 'illegal' election

Washington Times - By Borzou Daragahi
Feb 9, 2004

TEHRAN — Several hundred students demanded a nationwide referendum on the country's future at a boisterous rally yesterday in the latest sign that a crisis over coming parliamentary elections has begun to shake awake a somnolent Iranian public.

A group of 500 intellectuals also announced it would boycott the balloting, ignoring a call from Iran's all-powerful spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for an end to factional differences.

Several previous rallies since the unelected Council of Guardians disallowed the candidacies of thousands of reformers drew only tepid crowds of unenthusiastic students, but yesterday's rally showed new depths of anger among students, long a barometer of Iran's political mood.

"Referendum, referendum, is the slogan of the people," nearly 1,000 students at the University of Tehran chanted while several prominent reformist legislators looked on.

Hard-line "ansar" vigilantes "commit crimes, while the supreme leader [Ayatollah Khamenei] supports them," they chanted. "Participating in the elections is the crime of crimes."

The entire reform bloc, which has won a majority in the past two elections but has seen most of its efforts overruled by hard-line clerics, has resigned from parliament and pledged to boycott the Feb. 20 balloting to protest the barring of like-minded candidates, including about 80 current deputies.

Yesterday, 500 political activists, journalists, academics and other intellectuals announced their support for the boycott in an open letter addressed to the people of Iran.

"We hereby announce that we won't take part in this illegal, un-free and improper election," said the letter, published in the daily Yas-e-nou. "The brave representatives acted upon their promises to the nation. Now it's time for other authorities and segments of the nation to support their historical, legal move."

The statement appeared to repudiate the remarks of Ayatollah Khamenei, the successor to revolutionary founder Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who said the parliamentary resignations were illegal and un-Islamic.

"Our country today, more than any time, needs unity and agreement between its esteemed officials," Ayatollah Khamenei said in a letter to reformist President Mohammed Khatami and parliament Speaker Mehdi Karroubi. "The elections are important for our nation, and our nation must be held in a healthy, lively and enthusiastic [climate]."

The hard-liners who control Iran's judiciary and intelligence apparatuses, meanwhile, have begun cracking down on those who have spoken out most forcefully during the crisis.

A special court has summoned Deputy Interior Minister Mustafa Tajzadeh, publisher Mashallah Shamsolvaezin and state news agency director Abdullah Nasseri. Several outspoken members of the clergy have also been ordered to appear before a special clerical court, newspapers reported.

Hard-liners have warned of consequences for those deputies who resigned from their posts. "To take one's name out of the ballot box is against Islamic rules and morality," said Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, secretary of the Council of Guardians, in the daily Resalat newspaper.

Hard-line clerics have often used charges of heresy or opposition to Islam to jail dissidents.

Isa Saharkhiz, publisher of the newspaper Aftab and one of the 500 signatories to yesterday's letter, said he feared the hard-liners would intensify the crackdown after filling the parliament with their own followers Feb. 20.

"The [hard-liners] won't be able to tolerate the departing parliamentarians going into the society, speaking at rallies and continuing their activities," he said. "It will be like a coup d'etat."

Mr. Khatami, the smiling, dapper cleric who once embodied the hopes of Iranians, spoke out bitterly against his foes at a Tehran cultural conference.

"Those in power whose power doesn't come from the people, but who work against them, who use religion, science and even culture to reinforce their power and humiliate others, who deform history, will be judged mercilessly by history," he said.

http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_4830.shtml

Hopes for US-Iranian Rapprochement Fade

February 09, 2004
Eurasianet
Jim Lobe

A recent US initiative to boost contacts with Iran appears to have become an election-year casualty in both countries. As reformers engage conservatives in a bitter dispute in Tehran over upcoming elections, Iranian diplomats have backed away from a plan that would have permitted the first US congressional mission to Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Meanwhile, American neo-conservative strategists continue to urge the Bush Administration not to normalize ties with Iran’s theocratic government.

In the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist tragedy, US President George W. Bush branded Iran as a member of the "axis of evil." In recent months, however, the Bush administration’s rhetoric towards Tehran softened, and the US State Department, driven in large part by a desire to hasten the stabilization process in Iraq, sought to engage Iranian officials. In January, expectations for a rapprochement were rapidly rising. Iran’s UN Ambassador, Mohammad Javad Zarif, traveled to Washington, DC, for talks with congressional leaders. Earlier, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi met with US Sen. Joseph Biden, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland.

On January 30, a historic breakthrough appeared at hand when Republican Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania announced that Iran had agreed to a bipartisan, 10-person congressional delegation trip to Tehran. But high hopes were dashed the next day, when an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman announced that such a visit was "not on our agenda."

Many US foreign policy observers see improved US-Iranian cooperation as critical to the stabilization of both Iraq and Afghanistan. Aside from the difficulty of policing the 795-mile border between Iran and Iraq, Washington’s success in rebuilding Iraq increasingly depends on its good relations with the majority Shi’a population over which Iran’s Shi’a clergy could exercise substantial influence, they say. Iranian assistance could additionally prove vital in containing resurgent al Qaeda and Taliban activity in Afghanistan.

Efforts to improve US-Iranian relations have experienced sudden stops and starts in recent years. For instance, the US-Iranian dialogue experienced a quick cut last May, when the Pentagon charged that a terrorist attack against a foreign residential compound in Saudi Arabia was organized and directed by al Qaeda from Iranian territory.

The engagement process took a turn for the better in October 2003 when Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage told Congress that the administration did not seek "regime change" in Tehran, and would consider "limited discussions with the government of Iran about areas of mutual interest." The declaration marked a significant departure from the talk of "pre-emptive warfare" that had earlier characterized policy discussions concerning the region. Two months later, with Washington’s backing, Teheran signed a special protocol with the International Atomic Energy Agency for inspections of its uranium-enrichment facilities.

Many in Washington view Iranian reformists as preferable to conservatives as the two countries strive to restore diplomatic relations, which were severed in 1979. The authority of Iranian reformists, however, has steadily dwindled in the face of conservative political pressure. With reform-minded President Mohammad Khatami’s failure to secure the reinstatement of 2,000 reform candidates for the February 20 parliamentary ballot, it appears as though Iranian conservatives are on the verge of returning to power.

Some experts say it does not matter whether reformists or conservatives are in control in Tehran; when it comes to US relations, Iranian leaders from across the political spectrum are cautious. Even though reformists have controlled both the executive and legislative branches of government in recent years, Iran has hesitated to seize opportunities to promote the normalization of US-Iranian relations. A major factor in this is Iran’s political system, in which conservative-dominated, unelected oversight bodies hold effective veto power over most presidential and legislative decisions.

Reformist caution towards the United States was evident following the devastating late December earthquake in the Iranian city of Bam. Reformist leaders and media welcomed the so-called "earthquake diplomacy" advanced by the US, under which restrictions on financial aid to Iran were temporarily lifted, and some 80 relief workers and 150,000 pounds in emergency aid were sent to the devastated Iranian city. But, in remarks to reporters, Khatami denied that US involvement in the disaster response signaled any change in Tehran’s relationship with Washington. "Humanitarian issues should not be intertwined with deep and chronic political problems," the official IRNA news agency reported Khatami as saying.

Some political analysts believe a conservative victory in the parliamentary election could result in renewed US-Iranian tension, diminishing near-term chances for a rapprochement. Converesely, some Iranian press reports suggest that conservative leaders are interested in engaging the United States. Citing "well-informed sources," the independent Iran Press Service recently reported that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameni, who often sides with conservatives, had endorsed high-level contacts with US officials. The report suggested that Iranian hardliners see engagement as the best way to reduce the chance that Washington might make Iran the next target in its ongoing campaign against terrorism.

With US forces struggling to promote stabilization in Iraq, and with the Bush administration under pressure over its use of faulty intelligence to launch the war to oust former dictator Saddam Hussein, talk of expanding the scope of anti-terrorism operations has greatly diminished in Washington.

While the Bush administrations political priorities have shifted, though, some prominent American neo-conservative strategists continue to argue against normalizing relations with the Islamic republic of Iran. Iran’s leadership, they argue, has supported Middle Eastern terrorist organizations, including Hezbollah and Hamas. Thus, engaging the Islamic republic would undermine the US interest in promoting stability in the Middle East.

In the recently published book "An End to Evil: How to Win the War on Terror," former Defense Policy Board Chairman Richard Perle and former Bush speechwriter David Krum argue that democratic change can occur in Iran only if the United States encourages dissidents to overthrow the country’s theocratic government. That theme has been echoed in the neo-conservative press of late. The weekly National Review has characterized those who seek dialogue with Iran as "abject appeasers of evil."

Given the extensive influence that neo-conservatives wield in Bush’s Republican Party, it is uncertain whether the president will make a hard push to overcome existing obstacles to the normalization of US-Iranian ties. Even if rapprochement efforts fade into the background for now, some US experts say that, ultimately, normalization is in the US national interest. ’’We surround Iran presently, and we’re going to be there for a long time and they’re going to be there for a long time, " said Gary Sick, former President Jimmy Carter’s principal Iran aide and the acting director of Columbia University’s Middle East Institute. "There’s a sense that now we’re neighbors."

Editor’s Note: Jim Lobe is a freelance reporter specializing in financial affairs. He is based in Washington.

http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav020904.shtml

Mullah's New Draconian Agenda

February 09, 2004
Iran va Jahan
Reza Bayegan

Mohsen Mirdamadi, Chairman of the Majlis' National Security and Foreign Affairs Commission has described the massive disqualification of parliamentary candidates in Iran as a civilian coup d'état. A more accurate assessment of the situation is that faced with the growing force of national discontent, the regime has been forced to employ new strategies. The reformist card has been played out and President Khatami and his cohorts have outlived their political usefulness as procrastinators of liberty. In the face of multiple challenges to its survival, the ruling establishment cannot afford any loose canons in the parliament and other organs of the state dividing its invaluable energy.

Mohammad Khatami who once upon a time enjoyed massive people power enabling him to encounter any ruthless display of force by the hardliners within the regime, has lost his hold on the minds and hearts of the population. Time and again he has proven to Iranians that the elements that unite him with the totalitarian mafia of the Islamic Republic are more numerous than those binding him to the electorate. For the regime Khatami's lost credibility has turned him into an ineffective force for foiling the drive for political transformation.

Nevertheless, far from being a thorn on the side of the regime (as he is portrayed by the Western media) Khatami has a proven record of commitment to the preservation of the country's dictatorial system. He himself is a full member, as it were, of the theocratic ruling club. This ruling club is now panic-stricken about losing its grip on the country. Getting jittery over the American wholehearted commitment to uproot terrorism in the region and its own increasing unpopularity amongst the Iranian population, the regime is desperately trying to put together a new game plan. This new agenda in the coming days and months will move the political situation in Iran towards further radicalizion and will make the lines of demarcation between the totalitarian establishment and the alienated population even sharper and more salient.

The auguries of what is in store for the Iranian nation by its ruthless rulers was given last week when the former president Hashemi Rafsanjani in his address to the Friday worshippers in Tehran called on the Iranian government officials to "adopt staunch measures to prevent the enemies of the Republic intervening in internal affairs of Iran". This Machiavellian mullah who is the kingpin of the Iranian political mafia reminded his audience that: "the chief of all these enemies has surrounded Iran on its Western and Eastern borders." Rafsanjani's rhetoric is redolent of a rough draft for a declaration of a state of emergency. Mohammad Khatami's democratic pretence will melt away as the regime's true draconian face will fully appear from behind the tattered mask of reform and so called 'religious democracy'. The decrees being cranked out by the supreme leader in recent days are meant to demonstrate that any resistance will be dealt with in the harshest of manners: "Evading responsibility by resigning or any other method is illegal and religiously forbidden" (February 4) "un-Islamic protests will not be tolerated (February 4) Some complaints need to be ignored”. “Stop moaning” (February 7).

As the prospect for a user-friendlier parliament (i.e. more amenable to tyrannical manipulation) is becoming well nigh certain and the faint pretence of democracy is disappearing from Iran's political landscape, the responsible response of international community towards this new draconian agenda cannot be overemphasized. If international help in reconstructing the ruins of the historical city of Bam is crucial, thinking of the right approach in assisting the cause of democracy and rebuilding the shattered dream of Iranians for political freedom is of far greater importance.

http://iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl?l=en&y=2004&m=02&d=09&a=12