Iran Document: Mohammad Khatami on Religion, the Islamic Revolution, and the Republic (15 August)

Former President Mohammad Khatami's statement on Sunday in a meeting with former members of the Union of Islamic Associations of Students in Europe, translated by the Facebook page supporting Mir Hossein Mousavi:

The answer is clear: religion in the Islamic Revolution was the supporter of freedom and wanted the people to rule their own destiny. It was calling for the situation in which the relationship between the rulers and the people would change from [the rulers] being Gods and [the people] being slaves to the relationship in which people were masters and the government their servant and responsible [to the people].

The outcome of the Revolution was the Islamic Republic: “Republic” with the same meaning everywhere in the universe, in which the base and the focus should be the people and in which the religious standards and Islamic values, especially morality, justice, and human dignity, are respected....

In our revolution, we wanted a regime and government in which freedom of expression and criticism was not only the right but even the responsibility of the people, and we heard this great remark from the late revolutionary leader (Aytollah Khomeini) that the rulers should not think that no one has the right to criticise. Rather the right to criticise is a God-given right.

Today we clearly and loudly announce that we do not regret that we carried out the Revolution; we are not sorry that we voted for the Islamic Republic; we are proud of our support for the Revolution and the Islamic Republic; but we say that the Islamic Republic should not divert from its path even in the name of Islam.

We say that in the Islamic Republic the opportunity to participation and a presence in deciding their destiny should be provided for all. Its necessity is to have an open environment and free parties and organisations and to allow their activities. Criticism should not only be allowed but rather considered valuable.

We say immorality and misconduct is a major problem for a government and we say that oppression in any form and by anyone is rejected and condemned. It is amazing that people who talk and act compassionately like this are accused of all sort of transgressions and are called conspirators.

The real conspirators are the persons or movements which bluntly lie and leave the responsibility on the establishment, which attempt to squeeze out everyone and every movement that they do not like and abolish legal freedoms, which discredit the law and portray the face of religion and the establishment as indecent and obscene, which reduce people’s satisfaction, and which weaken society’s trust in the government and make it easier for the enemies who want to bring the fatal blow to the establishment and the country.

Iran Latest (15 August): Revolutionary Guards' "Election Tape"

1400 GMT: Talking Tough (Larijani Edition). Iran's Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani said that the fake US claim of interest in talks with Iran, following their tireless efforts to push through sanctions at the UN, amounts to yet another scandal for the Americans:
"You have committed crimes in Afghanistan... We don't share a common path to negotiate with you."

1330 GMT: The Hunger Strike. Families of 16 hunger strikers have demanded visit permits from the judiciary, especially Tehran's Prosecutor General, after 21 days without news.

1300 GMT: Bazaar Batlle, New Round. During the month of Tir (July/August), 277,000 shops and firms were controlled, and 38,500 fines were given. Bazaaris have to pay millions, $400,000 for a pharmaceutical firm, $20 million for a textile company, high fines for airlines and smuggler of clothes. Government tries to put the blame on the inflation in Bazaar, while economic experts criticise the government's economic mismanagement as main reason for it.

1200 GMT: At a meeting with former members of the Union of Islamic Associations in Europe, former president Mohammad Khatami said that "criticism is equal to subversion in dictatorships." That is why we made a Revolution, in which free speech and criticisim are not only a right, but a duty of people. As Imam Khomeini said, rulers should not believe that people have no right to criticise, which is to sabotage heavenly benevolence.

1130GMT: The head of the trading arm of Lukoil said his company Litasco was not selling gasoline to Iran, after traders said sales had resumed despite US and European Union sanctions.

"We are not supplying to Iran. We have no existing contracts and we don't have any joint ventures with Chinese or any other companies to supply gasoline," Litasco chief executive Sergey Chaplygin told Reuters in Geneva.

1045 GMT: The heads of the three branches of goverment, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Sadegh Larijani, and Ali Larijani meet today in Majlis.

1030 GMT: Deputy Speaker of Parliament Boroujerdi blames Germany and France of having broken their contracts and calls them as "not trustable".

1000 GMT: The President's Right-Hand Man (cont.). MP Mohammad Javad Abtahi, from the Mojahedin of Islamic Revolution, has written to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, asking him to issue a caution against his Chief of Staff, Esfandiar Mashai. Many MPs, including some outside Abtahi's, have asked to sign, and there are now more than 50 signatories. The letter is likely to be read in the Majlis on Tuesday.
Yalthareth, quoting member of Parliament Hamid Rasaie, claims that there has been a secret meeting between the Supreme Leader and hardline MPs.
Ayatollah Khamenei reportedly defended the President and his Government because they have "more positive points than negative".

The news of the meeting was published after influential MP Ali Motahari compared Ahmadinejad with the extremist Forghan group, whose members killed Motahari's father, one of the key actors in the Islamic Revolution, and were executed shortly afterwards.

0900GMT: Senior reformist politician Mostafa Tajzadeh has been called back to Evin Prison after filing a lawsuit against several commanders of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps for their interference in Iranian elections.

0830GMT: Cinema Corner. Iran’s late-night Ramadan screenings have sparked outrage among some clerics. “Is there any control on cinemas that encourage people to watch films during Ramadan instead of praying and supplicating?” Mashhad Friday Prayer leader Seyyed Ahmad Alamolhoda said on Friday.

0700 GMT: The Revolutionary Guard and the "Election Tape". Brigadier Yadollah Javani, the head of the political bureau of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps has defended the audio tape (and thus confirmed it) in which IRGC Commander Moshfegh explained procedures to deal with the opposition before and after the election.

Seven prominent detained reformists have said they will bring a lawsuit for the comments.

"If the complaint of the 7 persons against commander Moshfegh will be taken to court, they have to appear and much more details will be published about the fact, who has inflicted blows to the Islamic system, unity and national security in this fitna (sedition)."

0445 GMT: I will be travelling across France today, so entries from me will be very limited. However, as usual, EA readers are invited to send in their news, ideas, and analysis.

Iran Document: Mousavi on "Constitutional Monarchy" Movement

Mir Hossein's letter of 5 August, published in Rah-e-Sabz and translated by Khordaad 88:




We are marking the anniversary of the "Constitutional Monarchy" movement that has echoed the necessity to condition power for more than a hundred years.

Aside from demands for justice, freedom, and establishment of law, the placing of conditions on power is the result of our ancestors' struggle and self sacrifice. The institutions that rose with the movement were constrained by the so-called modernising movement of Reza Pahlavi [the next-to-last Shah of Iran] and finally stopped developing despite the many lives lost. The movement that put people first stopped, and the dark era of the first and second Pahlavis overshadowed the fundamental values of the movement. However, these values that came about with great sacrifice continued to live on through people’s continual struggle to free themselves from despotism and authoritarianism and through people’s inclinations toward freedom, justice, and their demand to control their own destiny.

The martyrdom of those like Sattar Khan, the General of the People, and the brave representative of people in the Parliament, Modarres, and the killings and imprisonment of many other freedom-seeking activists are facts in our history that can testify today how hard has it been on this path where people have never given up. The movements that later nationalized the oil industry, the Rising of People on the day of 5 June [1963], and the tight struggles of the two decades that followed all show that what was achieved in the movement to condition power 100 years ago did not fade away from the sight of people. Instead it has always been looked upon by the people in their struggles.

The victory of the Islamic Revolution with the leadership of Imam Khomeini in February 1979 was the result of 100 years of ups and downs of our nation in its history. Today, witnessing signs like chauvinism, escape from the rule of law, and establishment of lies instead of laws indicates that despotism is reproducing itself and that the path that we have walked has not achieved its aims yet.

Oppression is doomed to falsity whether it happens during the Nasser-al-Din Shah a 100 years ago, during the Pahlavi Dynasty, or during the Islamic Republic. Oppression during the Islamic Revolution is even worse and darker because it is committed though the name of Islam.

We all know how even in those early years during the "Constitutional Monarchy" movement, intellectuals and religious scholars considered religious despotism as the worst kind of despotism. The experience of the last 100 years and what went on during the last year indicates that, from among all the key concepts of the movement of "constitutional monarchy" like freedom, justice, and rule of law, the concept of the conditioning of power has the most important effect on our destinies.

Today our nation is constantly asked to obey the systems of power in the name of religion without any allusion to the right of people to control their own fate or any talk of the respect for the innate human dignity and the basic rights of citizens. There are no mentions of arguments like those of Imam [Khomeini]’s when he spoke with the utmost clarity in speech and logic about the rights of people to choose their own destinies....

Instead of answering to the atrocities they committed on the streets on days of 25 and 26 of June [2009] and the day of Ashura [27 December] and in the universities and prisons, insteading of responding as to why the evade the law, the authoritarians only seem to get angrier. They become more and more involved with violence, insulting and accusing others of lies. They close down the newspapers and turn the national television to their own tool for propaganda.

They create armies to fight the freedom available on the virtual space that has risen out of the creativity of our youth...They can’t even tolerate this last remaining hole in their wall to block freedom and they close it down against all the rules and laws.

If we look carefully, we would easily notice that today there are no obstacles in the way of development of despotism. That is why the "constitutional monarchy" movement teaches us that the most important tool that can condition power is the non-violent struggle that our nation has recently started. Some of the demands of the Green Movement clearly reveal this side of the resistance against despotism.

Rights like the right to free demonstrations, freedom of press, and acceptance of national pluralism are facing serious opposition by the authoritarians, because they clearly limit their illicit influence. Moreover, their reluctance to fully abide to the Constitution, demonstrates the extent of the difficulty for those in power to abandon their thrones and assume accountability to the public.

We all know that the first step in agreeing to implement the Constitution would be for the rulers to declare that they recognise the people’s right to choose their own destiny. To ignore such a right is in fact to turn one’s back on everything that the nation of Iran has accomplished, with great struggle, throughout the past 100 years, especially during the Islamic Revolution.

Among all of the demands and resolutions that would lead to the people’s sovereignty over their fate and entailing accountability and restrictions on power, laying the ground for a free and competitive election is the most important: an election that would not compromise our national legacies with the prohibitions of the Guardian Council and their illicit supervision. It is for this reason that anyone who believes in pluralism in Iran must campaign for a free and competitive election.

Iran: Rafsanjani's Coded Call for Removal of Ahmadinejad? (Iran Dispatch)

Iran Dispatch picks up on an interesting entry on former President Hashemi Rafsanjani's website:

Is this talking about the impeachment of President Ahmadinejad?

“Diversion of the president was clear, but still it were people who paid the price. the constitution had solution for the diversion of the president: Dismissal.”

This is the top line of the latest update on Hashemi Rafsanjiani’s official site.

Despite appearances, these words do not refer to Ahmadinejad. They are a part of Hashemi’s memoir, published "randomly" on his site, referring to Abolhassan Banisadr, the first President of Iran who was dismissed by the Parliament and fled the country to escape possible trial.

But publication of such posts are not as random as it has been claimed. Hashemi, as a circumspect politician, has used this technique to announce his ideas about the issues when expressing them directly and publicly might put his positions ---as the head of the Assembly of Experts and chairman of Expediency Discernment Council --- in danger.

About a year ago when the tension between Hashemi and Ayatollah Khamenei, the Supreme Leader was at its highest, Hashemi published a part of his memoir about his role in introducing and appointing Khamenei as the successor of Ayatollah Khomeini. Many interpreted it as a pretentious display of power and political rank.

Now it seems that Hashemi, politically known as Ahmadinejad’s enemy, is putting a solution to Iran’s crisis in front of Khamenei: “Dismiss Ahmadinejad to save the country.”

Iran: Open Thread for News and Analysis (Monday 9 August)

2000 GMT: Picture of the Day. Human rights lawyer Mohammad Mostafaei, now in Norway, and his wife, recently released from prison. [Photo credit: The Times]

1715 GMT: Back to the Bazaar. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty carries a profile from the Tehran Bazaar, which was on strike last month, with critical remarks about the Government. Typical is the comment from "Hossein": "Nobody takes (Ahmadinejad) seriously. You just wonder what kind of logic he and his supporters are using. It is...baseless and aggressive statements that have triggered more and more sanctions against our economy."

The article claims that a combination of Government policies, Revolutionary Guard takeovers, and cheap imports are forcing more and more small businesses.

1610 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. There are persistent reports that detained journalist Isa Saharkhiz, moved to Rajai Shahr Prison in May, is in a state of “paralysis” and is “unable to move.”

The reports appear to be a heightening of information that Saharkhiz is suffering from paresis --- difficuties in moving parts of the body.

Seven Baha'i leaders have been moved to Rajai Shahr prison after sentence of 20 years each.

Photographer Hamed Saber has been temporarily released from prison on bail after being arrested on 21 June for photos of street protests.

1545 GMT: Drawing a Line? Abbaszadeh Meshkini, the political head of the Ministry of Interior, says the Hojjatieh association has not applied for a permit to become a party and, if it applies, it will not receive one.

Hojjatieh, which places great emphasis on the return of the "hidden" 12th Imam, was banned by Ayatollah Khomeini in the 1980s. There are persistent rumours that President Ahmadinejad and his spiritual mentor, Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, are followers.

1530 GMT: Another Larijani Challenges the President. Back to our lead story today....

Sadegh Zibakalam, a leading analyst inside Iran, says the quarrel between the head of Iran's judiciary, Sadegh Larijani, and President Ahmadinejad is not about language but is a sign of emerging deep rifts within the establishment.

Zibakalam asserts that --- as reformists and Greens have been imprisoned, have fled, or have been reduced to inactivity --- the battle is between rational, "Majlis- centred" hardliners like Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani, Deputy Speaker Mohammad Reza Bahonar, Tehran Mayor Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf, Ali Motahari, and Elyas Naderan and radical hardliners in the Ahmadinejad Government.

Zibakalam believes the radicals are imposing themselves at the moment, but in the long run rational hardliners will take over because of the Government's failures over the economy and the crisis in foreign policy.

1420 GMT: The Battles Within --- The President's Man and the Head of the Guardian Council. In what appears to be an attempt to take the heat out of the furour over Ahmadinejad Chief of Staff Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, Avaz Heydarpour, a member of Parliament's National Security Commission, has said Rahim-Mashai's "Iran v. Islam" comments will probably be discussed in the commission but it is not necessary for the aide to appear before the Majlis.

However, Parliamentary rumbling over Ayatollah Jannati, the head of the Guardian Council, continues after the cleric's accusations of US-Saudi funding ($51 billion) of the opposition for regime change.

Moh Ali Karimi, suggesting the former President Mohammad Khatami file a complaint, said allegations without proof should be punished by the judiciary.

Qodratollah Alikhani of the Majlis National Security Commission claimed the accusations against Khatami are "a show and a pretext" to make people forget economic, financial and political problems due to sanctions. He added that "slander against a respected member of the political elite is unbelievable and a sin", weakening the Iranian system.

Reformist Nasrollah Torabi charged, "Whenever they cannot eliminate a person with logic or votes, they use these methods (of slander)," and said the judiciary must act.

1410 GMT: Today's World Politics Lesson (Censored and Uncensored Versions). A classic speech from First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi and equally classic treatment in Iranian media....

Rahimi told an audience that English people are "a bunch of retards run by a Mafia, actually ruled by a youngster, who is even more idiot than his forerunner", and Australians are a bunch of shepherds. The dollar and Euro are najes (religiously impure), and before Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Presidency, "our whole oil industry was English".

But on Fars News' English-language website, the remarks are a lot less fun. There, Rahimi described new international and unilateral sanctions as an opportunity for Iran's further progress and said the government will endeavor to better the situation of the Iranians amid boycotts.

1400 GMT: Sanctions Watch. The list of countries backing pressure on Tehran appears to be slowly expanding. Following a US push to get Asian cooperation, South Korea has submitted a sanctions report to the United Nations.

1345 GMT: More Defiance. A senior aide to President Ahmadinejad, Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi, has said that Iran will not hold talks and negotiations with the US due to Washington's "disrespect and hostile stances".

1030 GMT: Economy Watch. In an indication of Iran’s difficulties with trade, the head of the central bank has demanded a cut in imports.

0945 GMT: Energy Squeeze. Peyke Iran claims that the Ministry of Energy now owes $5 billion to private companies.

0930 GMT: Clerical Challenge. Ayatollah Dastgheib has taken another swipe at the Government and President, alleging that mostakberin (oppressors) rule the country with one party.

Dastgheib also had sharp words for the Supreme Leader: “A sacrosanct person doesn’t send an army against people to maintain his position but is friendly to them.” Dastgheib added that a  bad defence of Islam is the biggest injustice to it.

0845 GMT: The Political Prisoners Challenge. Payvand has re-posted the news that seven prominent reformist politicians, all imprisoned after the June 2009 election, are filing a lawsuit against the Revolutionary Guard for manipulation of the vote.

0830 GMT: Economy Watch. Reformist member of Parliament Mohammad Reza Khabbaz has complained that Iran’s oil income is not making it to people’s tables and now Ahmadinejad is ”even taking away their bread”.

Khabbaz also jabbed that the Government had not yet implemented its subsidy cuts.

0815 GMT: Defiance. Amidst talk of renewed US-Iran discussions, Ali Akbar Velayati, the key foreign policy advisor to the Supreme Leader, declares, “Iran has the iron will to pursue nuclear development.”

0715 GMT: The US and Iran (and a Bigger Battle). We start the day with an analysis from Gary Sick considering American foreign policy and the latest state of play with Tehran.

The bigger battle, however, is the battle within, and there’s a new challenge to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad this morning.

Sadegh Larijani, the head of Iran’s judiciary, has said, “We expect our President to use a decent language and say the truth.” Larijani pointedly added that laws apply to everyone and, in a flexing of muscle for his judicial branch, said that judges are not bound to anyone.

But it’s not the independence of the judiciary that Larijani was asserting. He declared, ”Now they even want to bomb the Majlis (Parliament) and insult its chief.” The “chief” of the Parliament is Sadegh Larijani’s brother, Ali.

Sadegh Larijani concluded, “I told Ahmadinejad he doesn’t say the truth, stop the insults.”