Posted on 05/23/2005 5:57:33 PM PDT by blam
Consider reformers, orders Ayatollah
By Tim Butcher, Middle East Correspondent
(Filed: 24/05/2005)
Hardliners in Iran suffered a rare public rebuke from the country's supreme spiritual leader yesterday, when Ayatollah Ali Khamenei helped two reformist candidates running in the presidential election next month.
Mostafa Moin
State radio said Ayatollah Khamenei issued an official decree for the Guardian Council, an unelected body vetting all those standing for public office, to rethink its disqualification of reformists from the poll on June 17.
International concern over Iran's nuclear programme gives this poll significance beyond the Middle East.
The Ayatollah did not give his backing to either candidate, but said that for the legitimacy of the election it was important for various political opinions to be represented. "It is desired that all people in the country from different political interests have the opportunity to take part in the big test of the elections," the decree said.
The council must reconsider the candidacies of Mostafa Moin and Mohsen Mehr-Alizadeh, two of the highest profile reformists in a country where the clash of reactionaries and modernisers dominates politics.
The current leader, President Mohammad Khatami, is seen as a reformist but electoral law bars him from a third consecutive term.
The best known candidate approved by the council is Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the former president, whose reputation for conservatism is tinged with pragmatism. He is widely seen as the favourite.
Sounds like the Ayatolla knows his job is in trouble. There's a revolution brewing in Iran.
He's probably getting it from both sides. The Shi'ite tradition is for the clergy to stay out of politics and most clerics are opposed to the regime- of the thirteen Grand Ayatollah's, only two support the theocracy.
Khamenie sounds like a benevolent Supreme Leader. This unusual show of tolerance suggests he may review the idea of considering proposals for reform. Unlikely!
Khamenie and his oligarchy are stalling by any means necessary and their EU petro-buddies are trying to spin anything they do in their PR favor. But no matter how hard they try, the EU knows they’ve run out of excuses. That’s why the mullahs are trying to recycle all of their old excuses. Who’s going to tell Khamenie that his garbage can’t be recycled?
Khamenie and Valiat-e-Faghih have got to go! Reform in Iran always was and always will be imposable under Valiat-e-Faghih. The only plausible solution to end the ayatollah’s support for international terrorism, nuclear weapons ambitions and ruthless suppression of internal dissent is a regime change.
The nuclear negotiations in Geneva tomorrow are only going to give Tehran’s theocratic petro-cartel more time to accumulate power. The ayatollahs have threatened the world with unilateral retaliation if these talks do not proceed according to their script. Are these negotiations or are they a textbook gangster shakedown?
Let your congressional rep know you’re sick of the EU making cash while the mullahs are churning out Shahab IV missiles. They are parading these devices of death up and down the streets of Tehran with Farsi signs on them that roughly translate to “America, we will kick the life out of you!” It wouldn’t surprise me if our soldiers in Iraq can hear the chants “Death to America” coming from Iran next door.
Some say referendum, some say revolution… either way the goal must be regime change. The time has come to organize and get it done!
There is too much at stake to let the mullahs win the day.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.