FDI's Weekly Newswire

The life and [troubled] times of the IslamicRepublic of Iran

Available on the Internet or by e-mail for a $25 per yeartax-deductible contribution at http://www.iran.org/ Tel: 1+ (301)946-2910. Fax: 1+(310) 942-5341

 

FDI WEEKLY NEWSWIRE NO 24

Oct. 28, 1996

 

CONTENTS:

 

* Universities to purge all experienced professors

* Pelletreau clarifies remarks

* Iraqi envoy leaves mystery in his wake

* "Anti-Islamic" magazines on the rise

* 80,000 "illegal" arms collected

* Troubles in Balouchistan

* The Beijing meetings

* Shirazi son temporarily released from jail

* Former Mujahidin member expelled to Iran

* British embassy garden party

* State Department condemns death sentence

* Twenty-five "drug-dealers" condemned to die

* Thieves get fingers chopped

* Conservatives blast Taleban

* Children forced to pay for parents

* U.S. leaders are "mentally deficient," says NN

* Khamene'i represents entire Islamic world

* Rouhani proposes "solution" to Rushdie affair

* Mujahidin sides with Islamic Republic

* Opposition group meets in Cologne

 

Universities to purge all experienced professors

 

In a move which shows just how concerned the authorities havebecome with the growing unrest in Iran's universities, the MohammadReza Hashemi-Golpayegani, Minister of Culture and Higher Education,recently announced that all University professors and academics with30 years or more seniority would be forced into mandatory retirement,to make way for younger colleagues "completely devoted to Islam andthe revolution."

In a public speech on Oct. 15, he announced that the forcedretirements were necessary in order to succeed with the regime's goalof completing the "Islamization" of the universities. [Salam10/15]

 

Pelletreau clarifies remarks

 

In informal remarks to business executives in Dubai on Oct. 24,Asst. Sec. of State Robert Pelletreau said the United States was"open to dialogue with the government of Iran" and hinted there couldbe a change of U.S. policy after the November elections. "I amhopeful that when we enter the longer phase... we will be able tomake a match in trying out that dialogue," he said. "Because inWashington these days, there are two phases: the short term, and thesecond term."

The State Department downplayed Pelletreau's comments at the noonbriefing the next day, saying they had been taken out of context andthat there was "no change" in U.S. policy. "We always ready to talkto the Iranians about their misdeeds," a State Department officialsaid.

However, Pelletreau's remarks angered many Iranians, since thereappeared to be a clear suggestion that a second Clintonadministration would back off from its current policy of pressuringthe Islamic Republic. In a statement issued by the FDI board onFriday, the Foundation argued that "the United States has spent somuch effort to isolate the regime that an offer of dialogue at thispoint will be seen by Tehran as a sign of weakness." Instead of adialogue with the Islamic Republic leadership, the Foundation urgedthe State Department to "publicly support the legitimate aspirationsof the Iranian people to choose their own form of government throughdemocratic means." [Washington Times, 10/24; FDI ActionMemorandum 22, 10/24]

Pelletreau appeared to have heard the criticism, and in revisedremarks, carried by a local UAE paper on Sunday, said that anydialogue with Tehran should focus on "real differences between thetwo countries such as Tehran's support to terrorism, its oppositionto the Middle East peace process and its desire to acquire weapons ofmass destruction." Pelletreau added: "We would also like to discusswith the government of Iran its intervention in the affairs of otherGulf states." [Khaleej Times, 10/27]

Tehran reacted predictably to the Pelletreau offer, howeverconditional it may have been in the end. The official Jomhouri-eEslami daily noted "this isn't the first the U.S. administration hasasked for negotiations with the Islamic Republic of Iran," and thatPelletreau's offer would be rebuffed, as were all previous U.S.offers. "Clinton is just trying to win the votes of Americancompanies in the coming Presidential elections," the paper added.[10/27]

U.S. officials have also contended that it was Tehran, notWashington, that was opposed to dialogue.

 

Iraqi envoy leaves mystery in his wake

 

An unnamed emissary from Iraqi President Saddam Hussein visitedTehran in mid-October, to deliver an undisclosed message to PresidentHashemi-Rafsanjani. Although the official account, carried by IRNA,claimed that the Iraqi had voiced his country's "interesting inboosting good neighborly talks and cooperation on regional issues,"speculation in Tehran was that he delivered a warning to the IslamicRepublic not to get too deeply involved in backing the PUK innorthern Iraq.

Apart from a fruitless visit by an Iraqi Foreign Ministrydelegation in September 1995 and a planned visit by Velayati to Iraqlater that year that was eventually canceled, this was the firstpublicly-announced meeting between top officials of the two countriessince the 1991 Persian Gulf war.

According to the IRNA account, Rafsanjani called for renewedefforts to settle the problem of prisoners from the 1980-1988Iran-Iraq war. A commentary by the English-language Iran News saidthat "observers believe the regional issues, particularly theexplosive northern Iraq situation, were the focal points of themessage of the Iraqi president."

Ten days later, on Oct. 26, Tehran announced it was releasing 150Iraqi POWs. [IRNA 10/16; Iran News 10/17; AFP 10/26]

 

"Anti-Islamic" magazines on the rise

 

Anti-Islamic magazines are on the rise, a radical monthly recently warned. In stinging criticism of the government, Sobhmonthly said that too many licenses have been granted in recent yearsto magazines "which throw the fundaments of the Islamic Republic -including the principal of velayat-e faghih- into question."

Sobh noted that 700 publishing permits have been granted toperiodicals over the past few years. "The people who are drunk fromthe wine of so-called progress like to boast of such statistics. Butthis is not the sign of progress. These licenses have been issued toperiodicals which are the vehicles of the cultural destruction of oursociety."

To illustrate its point, Sobh quoted from an unnamed women'smagazine which it said called supporters of velayat-e faghih"fascists," and compared Islamic rule to fascist ideology.

Without mentioning the name of the women's magazine (we wouldcertainly like to read it!), Sobh complained: "In another article inthis magazine, Islamic rules about women were called "elements ofsexual apartheid that ignore women's rights."

Sobh lamented: "A great number of the country's publications aremore or less like this one." The magazine concluded by calling on thegovernment to ban "anti-Islamic" publications. [Sobh monthly,Sept.-Oct.., 1996]

 

80,000 "illegal" arms collected

 

Interior Minister Ali Mohammad Besharati, who is otherwise introuble (see below), thanked the "brave and true believer Iraniannation" in a paid political advertisement in many daily papers onOct. 16, for having surrendered illegal weapons during a three-monthcampaign.

The government claimed that hundreds of thousands of firearms,machine-guns, and rocket launchers had been stolen from the army,police, and security barracks around the country during therevolution and then during the Iran-Iraq war, and promised to amnestyany individual who turned them in during the three month collectioncampaign which just ended.

But underneath, it appears that fear was the primary motivationbehind the campaign - fear that the firearms might be turned againstthe regime.

In an article "Why should Illegal arms been turned in," theconservative daily Resalat wrote: "In recent years, our society hasbeen targeted by growing violence and mental and moral decadence. Insuch an atmosphere, the danger of having access to firearms,especially for young people, is obvious... At the same time, theplots against the Islamic Republic regime by satanic forces. make itnecessary to collect illegal weapons, in order to preserverevolutionary values, the security of the regime, and the territorialintegrity of the country."

The campaign ended on Oct. 13 after a last ditch effort by thecampaign to cajole people to turn in their weapons. Intelligenceminister Ali Fallahian warned that anyone who failed to turn in theirweapons would "pay heavily for their possession."

When the campaign ended, the government announced it had collected80,000 firearms - far short of the estimated 500,000 weapons believedto be illegally in circulation. [Resalat 10/9; Etelaat 10/10;Kayhan 10/16]

 

Troubles in Balouchistan

 

FDI has received numerous detailed reports of recent clashes alongIran's border with Pakistan. Normally kept quiet by the officialIranian press, news about the growing insurgency in Balouchistan isslowly leaking out.

A terse announcement by Interior Ministry earlier this monthrevealed that Mohammad Ali Besharati had convened a little-knownEastern Borders Security Council on Oct. 9, "due to the recenttroubles caused by some thugs and bandits along the eastern bordersof the country."

According to Kayhan, which printed parts of the Interior Ministryannouncement, Besharati asked the security and military forcespatrolling the eastern provinces to keep the border with Pakistanclosed to prevent incursions.

Besharati "promised these forces that the government will providethem with all the resources the need, including sophisticatedmilitary equipment, and will support them fully," Kayhan said.

The paper noted that the commanders of the regular army, thePasdaran, the security forces, the Intelligence Ministry, and the LawEnforcement Forces attended the meeting. [Kayhan 10/10]

On Oct. 27, 22 members of Parliament once again requested ano-confidence vote in Besharati, "because of the security problems inSistan and Balouchistan province, the problems in Tehranmunicipality, and the recent anti-Islamic statements of Mr. Besharatiin the city of Tabriz." [Tehran Radio 10//27]

 

The Beijing meetings

 

In one of the more curious encounters in recent Iranian diplomacy,two Iranian members of Parliament had a brief, "accidental" meetingin Beijing with the speaker of the Israeli Knesset. The meeting tookplace during an inter-parliamentary conference in Beijing, Israeliradio reported on Sept. 23, quoting an Israeli government spokesmanwho confirmed that the meeting had taken place.

Iranian sources say several other meetings have taken placebetween senior Israel and Iranian officials, in Germany and in othercountries in recent weeks. Israel "informed the Iranians that Israeldid not consider Iran to be an enemy," one source reported. U.S. oilindustry sources confirmed that they had received similar reports.[Iran Brief, 10/1]

In Tehran, news of the meeting created an uproar. A Majlis deputyfrom Khaf, Mohammad Ebrahim Bay-Eslami, called for a commission ofinquiry to investigate his colleagues.

Mohammad Javad Larijani, who headed the Majlis delegation toChina, denied any wrong-doing and called the account of his meetingwith the Israelis "completely baseless information, broadcast byZionist radio." He insisted that his delegation's "anti-Israeli andpro-Palestinian attitude... was exemplary" throughout theconference.

Another member of the delegation, Abu-Fazel Razavi, a deputy fromSepeadan, gave his own account of the meeting. "At an official party,a man came up to me and introduced himself as an Iraqi-born Jew. Westarted to explain to him that we are against Zionists, not Jews. Butwhen he explained that he was an Israeli parliament member, Iseverely denounced him." [Hamshahri 10/2]

The story took on a new dimension when the Radio Israel's FarsiService broadcast an interview with the Israeli deputy, who said that"by chance" the wife of one of his Knesset colleagues had videotapedthe encounter, and could make it available if the Iranians continuedto deny the meeting....

 

Shirazi son temporarily released from jail

 

The second son of Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Shirazi, Seyed MurtadhaShirazi, was temporarily released after exactly 11 months in jail onOct. 21, then returned to prison two days later. Several otherShirazi followers have also been temporarily released; some wereinstructed to warn the Grand Ayatollah that if he did not cease hisoutspoken opposition to the regime his son Murtadha would becondemned to death.

The head of the Special Court for the Clergy, Hojjat-ol EslamMohammad Reyshari (former Intelligence Minister and now a candidatein next year's presidential elections) has been seeking to quellopposition to the regime from the senior clergy through threats andimprisonment. He reportedly recently paid a visit to the home ofGrand Ayatollah Wahid, an opposition group claims, and threatenedthat if he did not cease his opposition he would have "the sameending" as Shirazi's followers. [Supporters of the Iranian MuslimNation 2023/]

 

Former Mujahidin member expelled to Iran

 

A former member of the outlawed Mujahidin-e Khalq organization hasexpelled from Turkey, FDI learned from Iranian sources on Oct. 23,after his request for political asylum was denied. Hassan Khalaj hadbeen writing in opposition newspapers from Turkey over the past yearafter his break with the MEK. He was handed over the agents of theIslamic Republic's Ministry of Information and Security at the borderby Turkish border police.

 

British embassy garden party

 

The British embassy in Tehran opened its rose garden to the publicfor the first time on Sept. 28, selling tickets for a garden partywith the staff of the embassy. For 20,000 rials (around $5), Tehranresidents could mingle with embassy staff and enjoy the flowers... Itwas the first time an Iranian government is known to have allowed theBritish embassy to hold such an event in Tehran. [FDIsources]

 

State Department condemns death sentence

 

State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns strongly condemned thegovernment of Iran for having sentenced to death a Bahai, MusaTalibi, on charges of apostasy.

"The United States Government strongly condemns this convictionand calls on the Government of Iran to repudiate it immediately, torelease Mr. Talibi from custody, and to guarantee his safety. Wefurther urge that the Government of Iran release all other Baha'isimprisoned on apostasy charges."

Burns also said the U.S. was calling on the Tehran government "todesist in its persecution of members of the Baha'i and otherreligious minorities residing in Iran, and to comply fully with theInternational Convention on Civil and Political Rights." [StateDepartment briefing 10/1]

 

Twenty-five "drug-dealers" condemned to die

 

A revolutionary court in Mashad (the capital of the Northeasternprovince of Khorasan) has condemned twenty-five men to death oncharges of drug smuggling.

Hojjat-ol eslam Abbas Ali Alizadeh, the head of the Khorasanprovincial office of the Justice Department, told Iran daily on Oct.8 that two international drug smuggling rings had been broken up and81 of their members arrested by agents of the Ministry of Informationand Security, the Islamic Republic's intelligence services.

"Fifteen members of the first and ten of the second ring werecondemned to death by an Islamic revolutionary court in Mashad,"Alizadeh said.

He claimed that the accused, who were not named, were benefitingfrom the legal services of 42 attorneys, but gave no details on trialdates or the names of the attorneys. [Iran daily 10/8]

Meanwhile, an 18-year old youth was hanged on Oct. 9 in Saravan(southern Iran), after being convicted of having killed a six yearold boy and burned his body. According to the official account, theconvicted man, Ali Farangi, "confessed four times during hisinterrogations and trial." [Kayhan 10/10]

 

Thieves get fingers chopped

 

Two thieves received "Sharia" punishments recently in the northerntown of Babol, and were amputated of four fingers of the right handin a public ceremony held in the main square of the town that wasattended by "hundreds of people," the conservative daily Resalatreported (10/9]

 

Conservatives blast Taleban

 

Conservative clerics have blasted the Taleban militia inAfghanistan, which has invoked "Sharia" law punishments similar tothose practiced by the Islamic Republic since conquering Kabul lastmonth.

Now the official media is accusing the U.S. of supporting Taleban,in order to counter the type of Islam the Islamic Republic "isspreading throughout the world."

"Despite its claims about human rights and its rejection ofso-called extremism, the United States supports Taleban, which isviolating the most fundamental rights of human beings," Resalat wrotein an editorial. [10/9]

Jomhouri-e Eslami printed a strongly-worded editorial accusingPakistan for supporting Taleban and of "participating in U.S. plotsagainst the Islamic Republic," the first time a semi-official mediain Iran has directly attacked the Pakistani government.[10/23]

 

Children forced to pay for parents

 

According to a new law, children who do not support their elderlyparents will now face prison terms, an Islamic Republic judgerecently announced. The provision is part of the Islamic PunishmentLaw enacted earlier this year, and obliges children to make "elderlysupport" payments to their parents, or face three to five months injail.

The enforcement of the new measure, as announced in the officialmedia, has been criticized as a clear denial of the government'sresponsibility toward senior citizens, as well as indicative of adecline of moral values in Iran's traditional society. It is also aclear sign of worsening economic conditions. The Tehran papersfrequently run stories about parents who are unable to feed theirchildren, let alone their own elderly parents.... [Hamshahri,10/2]

 

U.S. leaders are "mentally deficient," says NN

 

Majlis speaker and presidential candidate Hojjat-ol eslam AliAkbar Nateq-Nouri has once again shown his knack for turning aphrase. In a recent speech carried by IRNA, he claimed that "theruling political clique in the United States have betrayed theiraddled brains, their reactionary nature, and their mental deficiencyin their dealings with Iran."

Speaking at the closing ceremony of the 22nd International TradeFair in Tehran, NN said that Washington "has long since flattereditself that following the collapse of communism it would emerge asthe only superpower in the world capable of running the world'saffairs as it wished." However, he pointed out, the U.S. had totallyfailed in imposing its course on Western Europe, which continued totrade with Iran despite U.S. injunctions to restrict commercial anddiplomatic ties. [Etelaat International, 10/10]

 

Khamene'i represents entire Islamic world

 

Ayatollah Ali Khamene'i is not just the Supreme Leader of theIslamic Republic. According to deputy Foreign Minister AlaeddinBoroujerdi, his comments represent "the entire world of Islam and theIslamic ummah."

Boroujerdi was commenting Khamene'i's criticism of the Taleban inAfghanistan. He added that the Foreign Ministry agreed with theSupreme Leader that "no one has the right to present Islam in such anugly manner." [Etelaat International 10/11]

Boroujerdi's elevation of Khamene'i to world-class status doesn'tsit very well with the senior Shiite clergy in Iran, whichoverwhelmingly rejected Khamene'i's attempt in December 1994 to claimthe title of marja taqlid ("source of imitation" - or head of theShiite faith). They claimed that before his appointment as SupremeLeader of the Islamic Republic in 1989 he had not even reached thestatus of Ayatollah, let alone Grand Ayatollah, and has published nosignificant works of religious scholarship, a prerequisite to suchelevation.

As for presenting Islam in an ugly manner... readers are invitedto turn to the annual reports of the United Nations Human Rightssubcommission of Iran, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, orto FDI's Human Rights page.

 

Rouhani proposes "solution" to Rushdie affair

 

Ayatollah Mehdi Rouhani, the spiritual leader of the Shiitecommunity in Europe, and an FDI board member, has proposed a"solution" to the Rushdie affair to the European Union.

When Ayatollah Khomeini condemned Rushdie to death, he issued a"hokm," not a "fatwa," Rouhani says. The difference between the twois crucial, and generally gets lost on the public. "Fatwas are moralor religious guidelines pronounced by a religious leader, which canbe modified or annulled after his death by another religious leaderor Ayatollah... whereas a hokm is a legal sentence."

Thus, Rouhani writes, "for Khomeini's religious school, whichdespite its minority status within Shiism holds the keys of power inTehran, the sentence pronounced against Rushdie has a legal characterand remains valid after Khomeini's death." Dr. Rouhani estimated thatKhomeini's school currently has "around two million followersworldwide."

Because to Khomeini's logic the death edict against Rushdie was alegal sentence, it can only be repealed by a legal authority. Underthe current constitution of the Islamic Republic, the competentauthority would be the Counsel of Experts, "which as the legal powerto annul the sentence against Rushdie."

While Rouhani urged the European Union to suggest his solution toTehran, the fact that the Islamic Republic continues to insist thatthe death edict against Rushdie cannot be repealed suggests thatthere is no political will to resolve the issue - even using thetools of the Islamic Republic's constitution. [Rouhani letter tothe EU, 10/2]

 

Mujahidin sides with Islamic Republic

 

An opposition conference originally to be held on the campus ofUCLA was moved to a downtown Los Angeles hotel, after vigorousintervention by supporters of the People's Mujahidin Organization ofIran.

The Mujahidin, also known as the MEK, bombarded the office of thePresident of UCLA with more than 200 faxes and several hundred phonecalls, demanding that the conference be banned because scheduledspeakers were planning to criticize their organization and expose itsties to the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The overseas representative of the Iran Nation's Party, HomayounMoghaddam, issued a statement on Friday, Oct. 25, charging that theMEK and "agents of the intelligence services of the Islamic Republic"had made "an unprecedented and coordinated effort" to block theconference through oral and written "threats" to the Universitysecretariat.

Speakers at the conference, which was subsequently moved to theDoubletree Hotel in Westwood, included Hossein Malek, a formerNational Front leader, Ali Reza Nourizadeh and Mehrdad Khonsari, ofthe Iran and Arab Research Center in London, Nasser Khajeh-Nouri,formerly a senior official in the office of deposed PresidentBanisadr, Dr. Bahman Yar, a former member of the MEK centralcommittee who has turned against the organization, and MahmoudMalek-Afzali, the son of the famed Iranian popular singerMarzieh.

The presence of Mr. Malek-Afzali, who publicly embarrassed hismother at a London pop concert sponsored by the Mujahidin earlierthis year, raised speculation that the seminar had been financed inreality by the Islamic Republic. Western intelligence agencies havereceived credible reports that Mr. Malek-Afzali was urged to upbraidhis mother for collaborating with the MEK by Tehran's Ministry ofInformation and Security. After Mr. Moghaddam's statement,Malek-Afzali said he would withdraw from the conference.

The Baghdad-based radio of the MEK broadcast vehement statementsdenouncing the conference and its organizers as "a coalition ofZionists, monarchists, reactionaries, and nationalists," sources inTehran who heard the broadcasts reported. Opposition radio stationswhose messages are displeasing to the Tehran regime are normallyjammed. The fact that the MEK radio station can easily be picked inTehran suggests a certain amount of complicity on the part of theregime. [Iranfax 10/25]