Posted on 01/31/2004 7:56:38 PM PST by nuconvert
ABANDONED BY KHATAMI, REFORMISTS HAVE LOST THE ELECTORAL BATTLE
TEHRAN, 31 Jan. (IPS)
The Iranian crisis over mass disqualification of reformist candidates, among them several leading reformist lawmakers deepened on Saturday with contrary statements attributed to the government and the President, saying that an amiable solution of the raw has reached a "dead end" and warning that elections in such situation "lacked legitimacy and legality".
As the disqualified reformists announced their decision to resign, Iranian news agencies reported that obeying the Chief Executive, ministers and provincial governors decided to remain in office, forgetting earlier threats to resign and the office of Mr. Mohammad Khatami denied a report by the official IRNA news agency earlier on Saturday that he had told reporters talks with the Council of the Guardians to resolve the crisis were at a "dead-end".
"Khatami did not say such a thing", the British news agency "Reuters" quoted a spokesman as having said.
Mr. Khatami also cancelled an emergency meeting of his cabinet to review the situation.
According to the latest list of the approved candidates, the number of reformist deputies disqualified increased to 87 instead of the original 80 barred by the Council of the Guardians, humiliating further more the reformist camp.
Dr. Mohammad Reza Khatami, the younger brother of the embattled President and fist vice-Speaker of the Majles who is among the disqualified deputies, in a statement published Friday on behalf of the protesting deputies reiterated that they would resign in mass and again urged the Government to delay the elections.
"Now that the brave people of Iran has discovered the true visage of the Council of the Guardians as a body opposed to the reforms, representatives of the people have no other way but to boycott the elections", he added, again urging the Government to delay the date of the elections.
Also, Khatami has dismissed his Interior Minister Hojjatoleslam Abdolvahed Mousavi-Lari favouring postponing the date of the elections, due for 20 February, insisting forcefully that the voting must be organized on time, a new and major concession to the ruling conservatives.
According to a spokesman for the CG that has barred the majority of the reformist candidates on grounds of their "lack" of allegiance to Islam, the concept of velayat faqih, or the absolute rule of the leader etc. has re-instated several of the disqualified hopefuls, with only three incumbent deputies only.
"An election in which more than half of the seats are pre-determined is not legitimate", Mr. Mousavi-Lari who’s Ministry is responsible for organizing the elections told IRNA.
In a letter to the 12 members CG that is directly controlled by Ayatollah Ali Khameneh’i, the Minister had demanded that the elections be reported, waiting for the divergences between the Government and the Majles on the one side and the conservatives on the other be solved.
But in his answer, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, the Secretary of the CG reminded him bluntly that he could resign if he thinks that the Interior Ministry can not organize the elections on time.
"According to the law, the Interior Ministry is obliged to hold the elections on the legally appointed date," Guardian Council member Reza Zavarei told the independent Students news agency ISNA. He said the bans confirmed on Friday could not be appealed.
"It would be a shame for the government to hold the first ever sham election and Khatami should not do so", said Ali Tajernia, one of some 100 MPs holding a three-week sit-in protest at parliament over the candidate bans.
Despite the intensifying of the crisis, the first one of the 25 years-old Islamic Republic by its magnitude, public interest in the dispute remained muted, expressing the voters anger at the reformers, accused of failing to carry out their promised reforms.
According to a survey carried out recently by the Interior Ministry, more than 77 per cent have said they would not take part in the forthcoming elections against near 11 per cent saying they would. Some 7 per cent have said they "very probably" would not go to the poling stations while more than 2 per cent said they "probably would" and 2 per cent having "no idea".
"What the conservatives are after is to end the existing duality in the governance. They want to have the control of the regime in its totality and to this end, they do not care about what the world would say", commented Dr Qasem Sho’leh Sa’di, a former Member of the Majles and an opponent of the present political system of Iran.
"At first glance, the scheme might benefit both the people and the conservatives, but at a long range, they would have no other way but to bow to the people’s demands for a more democratic and free system", he added.
Meanwhile, the Iranian Foreign Affairs Ministry denied reports in the American press, quoting some American congressmen about a planned trip to Tehran.
"No plans for US congressmen or senators to visit Iran have been made and this sort of trip is not on our agenda", the Ministry’s senior spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told IRNA.
Iranian representatives at the Majles also expressed their objection to the invitation. "If American lawmakers are to come to Iran, it should be on our invitation, but we ignore everything and have not been informed about it", one member of the Foreign and National Security Affairs Committee observed
Asefi’s comments come a day after Senator Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, said the visit could set the stage for a later mission by US lawmakers.
Washington cut all relations with the Islamic Republic after revolutionary students, most of them now favouring resumption of ties, stormed the US embassy in Tehran on 4 November 1979 and held 55 American diplomats as hostages for 444 days.
The Senator made the statement after meeting the Iranian Ambassador to the United Nations Mohammad Javad Zarif over a diner in Washington D.C. on Tuesday. He gave no exact date for the trip, but press reports have pointed to the month of February, just over a week before the controversial Iranian elections.
Zarif's appearance in Washington was a significant gesture as for the White House, Iran is still considered as a "rogue State".
Like other diplomats from nations with which the United States does not have official relations, Mr. Zarif is confined to New York, where the United Nations is headquartered and a radius of 30 kilometres from the city centre.
Playing down the importance of the meeting, Mr. Asefi observed that this was not the first time that Iran's representative at the United Nations, "in order to explain things to non-governmental people in the United States, attends such sessions".
"Before this, Iran's representatives have been to Washington for similar purposes", he added, mentioning also that in the Swiss mountain resort of Davos Foreign Affairs Minister Kamal Kharrazi had met Senator Joseph Biden in the sideline of the World Economic Forum.
"Mr. Zarif would not agree with the visit of American lawmakers without having clear authorisation from the leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameneh’i, who decides on all major policies", one Iranian diplomat told Iran Press Service, adding that "sometimes, the Office of the Leader fails to inform the Foreign Affairs Ministry about its decisions".
That's what happens when you defy the Council.
PRICELESS! :)
On Friday, the hardline Guardian Council reinstated a third of the 3,600 candidates it disqualified from the election... But it falls far short of the full reinstatement demanded by protesting reformist MPs, 80 of whom are themselves on the blacklist. -- Iran leader Mohammad Khatami falls ill amid crisis
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