Posted on 05/01/2003 12:27:52 AM PDT by DoctorZIn
TEHRAN 30 Apr. (IPS) As Iranians expresses more and more their wishes to see the Americans take action against the present regime, the Revolutionary Guards issued warnings against those who call for normalising relations with the United States.
"The Revolutionary Guards would issues warnings and cautions for the society whenever it feel it is needed. This is one of its duties to enter the arena when it considers it as a necessity", said Mr. Ali Saidi, the acting Representative of the leader at the Army of the Guards of the Islamic Revolution, better known as Pasdaran, or Revolutionary Guards.
This was the Pasdarans second stern warnings in as many days, coming after foreign media reported of wide spread and generalised deception of the Iranians with the present rule of hard line clerics.
In an article carried on its 25 April issue, the influential French daily "Le Monde" said the Iranian rulers are worried by a "fierce pro-Americanism" expressed by the Iranian population. "They are especially worried of the vox populi, that asks for a change of the regime with the help of the American marines", the daily wrote in an article dated from Tehran.
"If one admits that the Iraqis are delighted with Saddam Hoseyn's end, one must also think about the possibility that maybe, the Iranians would celebrate at the end of the Islamic Republic as well", the paper quoted Mr. Behzad Nabavi, an influential member of the reformist camp and a Majles Deputy-speaker.
"The Revolutionary Guards must control the action of the Majles. They must know what the deputies think. They must know if they are with the leader or against him", responded Ayatollah Movahedi Kermani, the leaders Representative at the Pasdaran, a force that serves as the Mollahrchys Praetorian Guard.
Iranian observers said the clerics harsh words against the Majles (Iranian Parliament) could not be ushered without prior authorisation of Ayatollah Ali Khamenehi, the lamed and unpopular, but absolute leader of the Islamic Republic, who is also the commander of all Iranian armed forces, including the Revolutionary Guards.
"This is part of the policy of massive repression concocted by the Hashemi Rafsanjani-Khameneh'i duo", said former president Abolhasan Banisadr, pointing to the renewed wave of newspapers closing, jailing of political dissidents, journalists and students as well as appointing a hard line judge as the Capitas Public Prosecutor and Islamic Revolutions courts.
According to "Le Monde", most Iranians are openly calling for American intervention in Iran.
"We don't want the Islamic Republic anymore", an architect told the paper on condition of anonymity. "It took us a quarter of century to realise that the revolution is a failure", he added, calling like many other Iranians, for the American help for change the regime".
"The Afghans and the Iraqis have been freed from dictatorships, why not us?" a filmmaker said.
Both Ayatollah Kermani and Mr.Saidi warned what they described as "the enemys fifth column" against insisting on opening up relations with the United States in the aftermath of the Coalitions rapid victory over the now collapsed regime of Saddam Hoseyn in Baghdad.
"The Americans have attacked Iraq and they might attack Iran as well. But we shall be united. Our armed forces must be ready against enemys psychological warfare", he warned, speaking on a gathering of the Pasdarans Ideological-Political Department.
He also criticised Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the Iraqi Shias highest religious authority, asking why he does not enter the "occupied" nations political vacuum left by the fall of the Baathist regime of Saddam Hoseyn.
Known for his "moderation compared to hard line Iranian clerics, the Grand Ayatollah was under house arrest under Saddam and after he recovered his freedom of action, he was attacked by hard-line Iraqi clerics taking orders from Tehran.
Referring to Washington's scenario on Iraq's future, Mr. Khamenehi said that Washington has made it clear that it will not allow establishment of an Islamic government in Iraq even if the Iraq people voted for it.
He said the Coalition forces attacking homes of Iraqi people and firing at demonstrations are signs of "the American and British democracy and humanitarian principles" and added "other nations should take lessons from the events in Iraq".
For his part, Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said that the Iraqi people do not trust the Americans.
"The heavy US bombings of residential areas and Iraqi schools and the magnitude of the high human casualties are too hefty to forget in a matter of months or years. The Americans have a difficult time ahead with the antagonist sentiment the Iraqis hold toward them for the human cost of getting rid of the deposed regime", the powerful Chairman of the Expediency Council added, quoted by the official news agency IRNA.
The former president also lambasted the Americans on their "cooperation"
with Iraq-based terrorist Mojahedin Khalq Organisation (MKO), saying that it "indicates Washington's hypocrisy in the international campaign against terrorism".
According to the MKO, the American army commanders reached an agreement with them, allowing the Organisation, which is dedicated to overthrow the Islamic Republic by way of arms, to remain in their camps in Iraq.
Foreign journalists in Baghdad reported that following the "cease-fire agreement" between the American forces and the MKO, the Organisation was asked to check on the Iranians and the Iraqis Tehran has infiltrated into Iraq to stir trouble.
Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani described the ceasefire agreement between the US Army commander in Iraq with the terrorist MKO as a "great scandal" and said that in the wake of the terrorist attacks in the United States, Washington was portraying itself as anti-terrorist, but, it entered into a deal with the terrorist group which they have nurtured and gave it a safe haven in Washington. ENDS PASDARAN WARNINGS 30403
You don't say?! Sources on this?
I don't really know for certain.
However, one thing to keep in mind was that the Iraqi regime was secular and the Iraqi Republican Guard thought they answered to Saddam while the Iranian Revolutionary Guards are very religious and belive they answer to Allah.
If I were an Iranian student going off to a demonstration to do potential battle with a religious zealot, I wouldn't leave home without my AK-47 and my RPG......and 20 of my closest, similarly armed friends. :-)
Here's a cryptic reference to the jamming from radiofarda.com (3/10/03):
Young Iranians Listen to "Great Satan" on Radio Farda
* Young Iranians listen to Radio Farda using small pocket receivers and earphones, according to the Italian daily Courier de la Serra's Tehran-based correspondent, who writes that Radio Farda is the most popular radio among young listeners. Despite the official ban on satellite TV receivers, the price of satellite dish and receiver has dropped to $150, and millions watch US-based Persian-language satellite programs that air interviews with former crown prince Reza Pahlavi. More than 5 million Iranians are connected to the Internet. Most log-on using Internet connection prepaid cards that allow anonymity. As the regime's officials continue to condemn the US as the Great Satan, it appears that the young Iranians secretly harbor a deep affection for the US. (Ahmad Ra'fat, Rome)
* Communications minister Ahmad Motamedi said his ministry does not know the source of the jamming of satellite and radio signals that block the US-based TV and radio programs, including Radio Farda, in some areas of Tehran and other big cities. He said the jamming interferes with Iran's own telephone, radio and satellite communications. His statement indicates that organs within the Islamic regime but outside the control of Khatami's government jam the US-based broadcasts to Iran. (Ali Sajjadi)
BTTT!
We here in California feel the same way.
I've been told that the Pasdaran are generally not Persian but Arab. Though I'm no expert in such things, to me Mr. Ali Sa'idi's name looks much more Arab than Persian.
So at a given "peace" rally in America, the majority probably sincerely wanted peace and were simply misled into thinking that somehow the status quo was "peaceful", while chances are the speakers at the rally or those who funded the rally were anti-Americans with a peace facade.
In reality Gulf War I hadn't really been finished, and the clock was just ticking until Saddam and Al Queda came up with another assymetrical tactic against us, in the manner that Saddam was actively funding the murder of Israelis (whose lives seem to be meaningless to "peace activists").
Hopefully some of those who were "for peace" have woken up by seeing the outcome of the conflict. It will be quite interesting to see what comes out of Iraq in terms of the collaboration between leading "peace activists" and Saddam's regime.
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