The Coup d'Etat is approaching:
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Khanjani warns military over mystery election plot
LONDON, June 2 (IranMania) - Certain sections of Iran's armed forces have laid out plans to interfere in the June 17 presidential elections, the interior ministry warned Tuesday without elaborating on what the alleged plot involved.
"In some military institutions, they have been preparing very elaborate and organised activities for the presidential elections," Interior ministry spokesman Jahanbakhsh Khanjani was quoted as sayign by the official news agency IRNA.
"We sense, behind these preparations, a whiff of military intervention in the election," he said, before mysteriously speaking of "10 plus one" and "20 plus one" plans.
The spokesman did not elaborate, although he was not believed to have been raising the spectre of some sort of armed intervention.
The interior ministry, still controlled by the reformist government of outgoing President Mohammad Khatami, is responsible for organising elections.
So far there have been no signs of military interference in the poll, yet there has been concern over a possible militarisation of the regime -- given that four out of the eight contenders have been former senior commanders in the Revolutionary Guards.
On Monday the ministry ordered the country's military forces to keep out of the polls, in a demand aimed primarily at members of a hardline Islamist vigilante milita.
The directive reiterated the law that soldiers and policemen are forbidden to participate in the election campaigns and cannot represent candidates at the polls.
Last week President Mohammad Khatami also called on the police, the army, the Revolutionary Guards and the Basij militia to refrain from any type of moves that might be interpreted as interference in the election.
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Lari warns against Iran army interference in poll
LONDON, May 31 (IranMania) Iran's Interior Minister dolvahed Moussavi Lari has asked military forces to steer clear of next month's presidential election, IRNA reported.
In a letter to the Guardian Council, Moussavi Lari has protested to remarks attributed to the supervisory body's spokesman who had reportedly said that there was no legal ban on the military forces' intervention in the 'executive and supervisory domains' of the polls.
In his letter, a copy of which was faxed to IRNA, the interior minister has described the remarks as 'the cause of escalating concerns and a note of alarm against the entry of armed forces into the electoral process and a direct threat to a healthy election'.
In similar statements in the central city of Shiraz, Moussavi Lari cautioned the volunteer Basij forces against interfering in the election.
"Basij, as a military force, cannot interfere in the presidential election and the interference of the Basij members amount to the interference of other armed forces," he said.
"The whole set of the laws and directives served by the chief commander to all military and police forces has banned the interference of these forces in the elections.
"According to these laws, none of the members of the Sepah (the Islamic Revolution's Guards Corps, Basij, army and police, have the right to interfere in the elections," Moussavi Lari added.
The Guardian Council has qualified eight candidates, including former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, to run in the June 17 election.
The other qualified candidates are former parliament speaker Mehdi Karroubi, Tehran Mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, ex-police chief Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf as well as Mohsen Rezaei, the former commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolution's Guards Corps, and the former head of the state broadcasting Ali Larijani.
Two other candidates, former higher education minister Mostafa Moin and Vice President Mohsen
Mehralizadeh, were reinstated after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei asked the Guardian Council to clear them.
The two were among more than 1,000 aspirants who were disqualified from the election as the Guardian Council expressed frustration with the high number of registrations.
Moussavi Lari also called on supporters of the candidates to observe 'legal norms' in the electoral campaigning.
"There are rules for campaigning which have been defined in the law, and if there are not respected...this will lead to general disappointment among the public," he said.
On Wednesday, Rafsanjani's office had to deny that the veteran politician was pulling out of the June 17 presidential election.
In a statement a copy of which was faxed to IRNA, the office said reports about Rafsanjani's intention to withdraw his candidacy 'lacked authenticity'.
"Certain currents ... are stoking up rumors about possible pullout of Hashemi Rafsanjani from the 9th presidential election and using rumor-mongering devices to spread them in the society which are not true at all," it said.
"Hashemi Rafsanjani's decision to participate at the election came after months of rumination and consultations ... and by registering he has stepped onto an irreversible road," the statement added.
As a matter of fact, Rafsanjani held Iranians on tenterhook after dropping a hint to make a comeback, but falling short of making a clear announcement.
He described presidential candidacy a bitter pill which he had to swallow.
"The issue of presidency is among the current preoccupations of my mind and although I would like someone else to accept this responsibility, I think I have to take this bitter medicine," he said.
Electoral campaigning began Wednesday morning but few hours later hackers targeted Larijani's website, defacing his home page which resulted in its subsequent crash.
The site www.larijani.ir was attacked by 'unknown elements during which main contents of the site were hacked and replaced with other sentences and minutes later the site totally crashed', the official in charge of the website announced.
"Ill manners like these unfortunately come in the early days of the electoral campaigning, serve as a warning to the related officials," he added.
Officials at the public relations department of Larijani's electoral headquarters were trying to maintain the site 'as soon as possible', he said.
A message on its home page reads: "The website www.larijani.ir is currently undergoing emergency maintenance. Please try the site again later."
Larijani's electoral headquarters had also to deny reports that he intended to pull out of the race in favor of other candidate Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
"Unfortunately, this news is mostly being reported in the press by the supporters of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani," it said in a statement, denouncing the report as part of a 'psychological war'.