Posted on 10/11/2004 9:43:47 PM PDT by DoctorZIn
Iran vice-president quits
Tue 12 October, 2004 16:53
"Yes, it's true I have been replaced," Abtahi told Reuters on Tuesday, confirming his third resignation letter in eight months had been accepted by his close ally President Mohammad Khatami.
Reformist cleric and former parliamentarian Madjid Ansari takes Abtahi's post as vice president for legal and parliamentary affairs. Iran's cabinet has six vice presidents.
Abtahi was retained as an adviser to Khatami whose second and final term in office ends in mid-2005.
A rotund and jovial figure who expressed liberal views on issues such as human rights that drew the ire of hardliners in the Islamic state, Abtahi told Khatami he was unable to work with the new parliament elected in February.
Islamic conservatives won a comfortable majority in the February polls after hundreds of reformist candidates were barred from running.
"Since the formation of the parliament until now I have submitted my resignation to the president three times," Abtahi wrote on his often-entertaining Web site (www.webnevesht.com) where he often posts pictures of senior officials snapped by a camera on his mobile telephone.
"I was unable to create any cooperation between parliament and government," he said.
Since taking their seats in May, lawmakers have drastically revised a government economic plan which was aimed at opening up the state-run economy to foreign investment and voted to impeach Transportation and Roads Minister Ahmad Khorram.
Abtahi, who is best known abroad as the first Iranian official to publicly acknowledge that Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi was killed in a Tehran prison last year, said he remained faithful to the reformist cause.
"I believe the only way to rescue this country is Mr Khatami's pro-reform thoughts," he said. "Although there are many problems and there may be more in the future, I will help this nation."
Here is his resignation letter:
http://www.webnevesht.com/en/weblog/?id=950748022
October.4.2004
My resign
Today and yesterday some news agencies mentioned my resign from being the vice president in parliamentary legal affairs. I found it better to set up the text of my resign which I gave to President Khatami before his trip, for today's webnevesht. President Khatami is supposed to announce who will take my place after he comes back.
As soon as this resign be formally accepted by president Khatami, I will explain more about it.
Dear President Khatami;
The honorable president of Islamic Republic of Iran
Undoubtedly, the grounds for works and offering services for public will be prepared under the umbrella of coexistence between the government and the parliament and if this coexistence does not take place, people will suffer mostly.
Since the vice president in parliamentary legal affairs have the main role in coordinating between the government and the parliament, I offered you my resign right after the seventh parliament election and when this parliament started officially because I'm not able to make this coexistence and coordination happen in the best way but you didn't accept it.
Now after 4 months of beginning of the seventh parliament, I feel it more that this important task is not of my ability and therefore I offer my resign once again and hope you do accept it.
It is natural that wherever I am, I will work hard for the country's development and also for your great ideas and thoughts as the only way of the success of this country.
Sincerely
Seyed Mohammad ali
10/12/2004 4:01:00 PM
To: Assignment and National desks, Daybook Editor
Contact: Aryo Pirouznia of Student Movement Coordinating Committee for Democracy in Iran, smccdi@daneshjoo.org or 972-504-6864 or Fax: 972-491-9866
News Advisory:
When the Student Movement Coordinating Committee for Democracy in Iran (SMCCDI) -- http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/ publish/article_8640.shtml -- and its coordinator, Aryo Pirouznia, uncovered evidence that totalitarian Iran's American propagandists were channeling hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Kerry campaign, SMCCDI shouted it from the cyber mountain tops. The Kerry Campaign is now desperately trying to distance itself from one of its Iranian-American "Trustees" and his highly questionable lawsuit against SMCCDI.
These propagandists know that the best defense is a good offense, and Hassan Nemazee filed a $10 million suit against SMCCDI and Pirouznia in Texas in March and immediately adopted a strategy of delay until after the presidential elections. Perhaps because it knows the suit would embarrass the Democrat nominee, Nemazee has sought to postpone if not avoid answering questions about his suit in a deposition. Thanks to a counter-suit, faith in democracy, and a clear-headed judge in Texas who refused the delay, SMCCDI is going public with the evidence.
Joining SMCCDI are two journalists: Insight Magazine's Kenneth Timmerman and the author of the bestselling "Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry," Dr. Jerome Corsi -- http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0895260174/ 104-0642313-4295949 -- who is writing a book based on the Kerry-Namazee nexus.
Corsi, Timmerman, SMCCDI, and their legal counsel will hold a press conference, "The current Iranian Regime's Influence on Senator John Kerry's Presidential Campaign," -- http://www.regimeinfluence.com/ -- at the National Press Club on Thursday, October 14, 9:15 AM, in the First Amendment Room on the 13th floor.
The event is scheduled to be satellite uplinked for US-based TV and radio networks. Those interested must call 214-906-8181, on Wednesday, in order to obtain the downlink references or to check the SMCCDI's Website -- http://www.daneshjoo.org ("Public Statements" section).
Key statements by the Kerry Campaign on Iran
Before the Council on Foreign Relations in December 2003, Kerry announced "As president, I will be prepared early on to explore areas of mutual interest with Iran, just as I was prepared to normalize relations with Vietnam a decade ago."
Then the Kerry Campaign sent out an email that somehow made its way to the government-controlled Mehr News Agency in Tehran, where it was trumpeted as evidence of his resolve to patch things up with the mullahs. "It is in the urgent interests of the people of the United States," the message read, "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."
Kerry's senior foreign affairs advisor, Rand Beers, confirmed the message was genuine, saying: "I have no idea how they got hold of that letter, which was prepared for Democrats Abroad. I scratched my head when I saw that. The only way they could have gotten it was if someone in Iran was with Democrats Abroad." (R. Beers' statement was made in an interview with K. Timmerman which was published by Insight Magazine on March 1, 2004.)
Then in the first Presidential Debate Kerry said, "I think the United States should have offered the opportunity to provide the nuclear fuel, test them, see whether or not they were actually looking for it for peaceful purposes."
Statement by Hassan Nemazee at AIC Fundraiser
Hassan Nemazee spoke at an American Iranian Council (see page 6) dinner declaring that the AIC "does not attempt to explain or rationalize the position of the government of Iran, nor does it attempt to do so for the government of the United States. Its mission is to educate both sides and to attempt to establish the basis and the vehicle for a dialogue which will ultimately lead to a resumption of relations." (Nemazee's statement was made on June 1, 2002, at the San Francisco Ritz-Carlton Hotel in presence of Sen. Kerry during an AIC event organized for boosting relations with the Mullahs' regime).
If Kerry registered any protest against this assertion that the United States should normalize relations with one of the worlds bloodiest dictatorships, it was not recorded.
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