FDI Board member Ayatollah Dr. Mehdi Rouhani was received by a seniorState Department official on Jan. 17, in a 90 minute meeting that focusedon U.S. policy toward the Islamic Republic and the clerical oppositionto the Tehran regime.
The senior official reassured Dr. Rouhani that the United States wasnot in the process of "making a deal" with Tehran, as some pro-TehranIranian exiles have suggested. Instead, he reiterated Washington's long-standingoffer to hold a public dialogue with the regime on subjects including theregime's support for international terrorism, its violent opposition tothe peace process, its nuclear weapons program, and its human rights record.
Dr. Rouhani explained that for most of Iran's senior religious authorities,the regime "lost its legitimacy" with the death of AyatollahKhomeini in 1989. "The ruling clerics have betrayed Islam, and theyhave betrayed the Iranian people," he said. He called Supreme LeaderAyatollah Khamene'i "a small time preacher," and argued thatthe clergy should leave government to more competent professionals. "AyatollahKhomeini was very good at destroying a regime - the regime of the Shah- but he was totally incapable of constructing a new regime. That job shouldbe left to individuals who have specific competence, not the clergy,"he said.
Dr. Rouhani called on the Clinton administration to maintain a toughU.S. policy toward the Islamic Republic, "to give time to opponentsof the regime both inside Iran and abroad." The opposition was notseeking direct U.S. help, or U.S. intervention, he said, "only moralsupport and a halt to trade that benefits the regime. The Iranian peopleare hoping for a sign from the United States to show its support for freedomand democracy in Iran."
During his brief visit to Washington last week, Dr. Rouhani met withrepresentatives from Congress and the Executive Branch, as well as withjournalists and prominent academics. He also addressed a forum hosted bythe Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, a conservative thinktank.
Dr. Rouhani's older brother, Grand Ayatollah Sadeq Rouhani, is one ofIran's most respected clerics. He has been under house arrest in Qom since1985 because of his opposition to the regime. [FDI press release, 1/20]
The Movement for Security, Justice, and Progress, a Paris-based exilemovement headed by Ali Farasati, held a conference on Jan. 19 in Paris,to analyze the political background and intentions of various oppositiongroups and individuals active on the Iranian political scene.
The meeting was the first of a series of seminars, Farasati said, aimedat "taking a closer look at the background and achievements of variousoppositions groups."
The Jan. 19 meeting focused on the ideology, background, and achievementsof the MKO. Farasati is a former member of the Mujahidin who has been publiclyreviled by the organization for allegedly collaborating with the regime.
Among those invited were Eslame Kazamieh, an aide to former Prime MinisterAli Amini in Paris, journalist Ali Reza Nourizadeh, Fereidoun Gilani, Dr.Nasr Ahmadi, and Ms. Nadereh Afshar, who addressed the issue of the roleof women within the MKO. [Kayhan London 1/16/97]
In his address, Dr. Farasati said "at this point in time it ismore important to leave our political, ideological, and ethnic differencesaside, and set our priority on peace and unity" among the differentopposition factions. Dr. Farasati said his position was the "revivalof a notion" held dear by former Prime Minister Ali Amini.
Dr. Farasati said he plans to leave for Iran on Feb. 21, to take partin the coming presidential elections. He did not say, however, whetherthe Islamic Republic authorities had granted him a visa. [SJP statement,1/20].
A popular Tehran University professor, Ahmad Tavazoli, was victim ofan unsolved hit and run accident last week, according to a statement bythe opposition Iran Nation's Party. Tavazoli, who was described by theINP as "a very well known and well-respected scholar... with a nationalreputation," was found dead next to his own car when he was apparentlytrying to change the tire. Authorities called it a hit and run accident.[INP statement 1/19]
Students at the Gilan province Teachers University have sent an openletter to the Deputy Minster of Education, alleging that money earmarkedfor their university has been misappropriated by university officials.Although they provided no specific examples in their letter, the studentsclaimed that university officials had diverted funds for their own personaluse. [INP statement 1/19]
Supporters of Dr. Manoucher Gandji's Organization for Human Rights andFundamental Freedoms in Iran (OHRFFI) met in Paris from Jan. 16-18, tomap out their plans for action against the Tehran regime. The leadershipconference brought together eighty representatives from Pakistan, Egypt,Israel, Germany, France, the UK, Sweden, Norway, and the United States,as well as representatives of OHRFFI cells operating inside Iran.
Dr. Gandji said the past 18 years have proven there "is no suchthing as a moderate faction" within the regime, "only factionalconflict within the regime." "The regime's leaders continue tobrand those advocating moderation, civil society, and respect for humanrights as 'hooligan,' 'fascists,' and 'foreign agents.'"
The regime's use of Islam as a tool to maintain power was also highlightedby Dr. Gandji. "What we have in Iran is not an orthodox Islamic regimebut a totalitarian regime fashioned after communist and fascist dictatorships,"Dr. Gandji said.
After two days of debate, the group called on all Iranians inside Iran"to continue their struggle" against the regime, "and tobe mindful of the importance of organized resistance, unity, and solidarityin their struggle for pfreedom and justice." The group called on Iraniansin exile "to work toward unity among themselves and to support andhelp Iranians inside in their struggle against the regime."
The group argued that it was the duty of Iranian exiles to "informthe world of the daily atrocities being committed against the Iranian people.They must demand that Western democracies acting in consort ... bring thepressure of world public opinion against it, to undermine its hold on thecountry and the tools of power."
Finally, the group called on "all democratic nations to supportthe Iranian people's struggle... It is in the long term interests of democraticgovernments around the world to politically and economically isolate themullahs and impose effective sanctions against them."
"Iran will be freed by Iranians supporting democracy and pluralism.We will remember friend and foe during these turbulant years in the historyof our nation. We will never forget those who have supported our people'sjust struggle in these difficult days and will not forget those who arethinking of nothing other than making a few million dollars more at thecost of the blood and enslavement of our people." [OHRFFI, 1/17]
More supporters of Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Shirazi have been arrestedin Qom, according to friends and supporters living in exile. Hojjat-oleslam Seyed Hussein Faali, 50, was arrested on Jan. 14, 1997 and his homesearched. According to supporters, he was blind-folded and beaten in thepresence of his family, before security officials took him away to an undiscloseddestination. His whereabouts remain unknown.
Seyed Faali had previously received separate one-year and three-yearprison terms for his relationship to Grand Ayatollah Shirazi. At leastnine of his family members have been jailed, tortured, or sent into exilesince 1979. [Supporters of the Iranian Muslim Nation, 1/17]
Also arrested in a separate incident on the same day in Qom was Hojjat-oleslam Shaikh Amin Ghafoori, 50, along with his wife. The two were handcuffedon the streets, blind-folked, and taken back to their home, where theywere beaten in front of their children. [Supporters... 1/16]
There have been unconfirmed reports that other Shirazi supporters havebeen arrested in recent days in Tehran and in Qom.
A former Mujahidin member, sentenced to 10 years in a British jail ondrug-trafficking charges, now faces deportation, but is appealing to theEuropean Court of Human Rights.
The man, identified only as "M.A.R." claimed he would riskof inhumane treatment and possible execution if expelled to Iran
M.A.R. left Iran illegally in December 1981 after becoming known asa political activist supporting the MKO. He was granted refugee statusby the UK in March 1982 after intervention by the UNHCR.
But M.A.R. was then convicted on three separate occasions of possessingand/or trafficking in drugs. The Home office recommended he be deportedback to Iran after his third conviction in 1988, but the Home Secretarydecided not to act.
It was only after his fourth conviction, in June 1988 for selling heroin,that the man was sentenced to 10 years jail and recommended for deportationafter his sentence.
M.A.R. was paroled in March 1993, and has been fighting the Home Secretary'sdeportation order ever since.
He applied to Strasbourg after appeals in Britain failed, but the EuropeanUnion's Immigration Appeals Tribunal judged that any risk to M.A.R. ifexpelled to Iran was outweighed by the risk to the British public if heremained in the UK.
The case is unlikely to be heard for another 18 months, with Governmentlawyers arguing that M.A.R. has not demonstrated any real risk of ill treatment.It was not known whether M.A.R.'s drug-related convictions bore any relationshipto suspected Mujahidin drug-trafficking rings. [PA News, 1/17]
"The resistance of the Iranian nation (against Israel) has injectedfresh blood into the dried veins of the Palestinian movement," SupremeLeader Ayatollah Khamene'i told an audience gathered for Friday prayersat Tehran University last week.
"If the movement of young Palestinians around the borders and insideoccupied Palestine continues, then all this peace for which they have sataround tables will turn out meaningless and void and will lead nowhere...Iranians shout in one voice that the usurper Zionist state should leavePalestine," he said. Voices in the crowd answered with chants of "Deathto Israel" and "Death to America." Tehran radio 1/17]
The authorities have arrested six persons accused of spying on behalfof foreign countries, IRNA reported from West Azerbaijan province lastweek.
The official news agency quoted the leading internal security officialin West Azerbaijan province as saying the six had confessed to having provided"foreign elements...with films and pictures of strategic and militaryareas (and) assisting these elements in their sabotage operations."[IRNA, 1/15]
Majlis deputies should overhaul the tax system in the Islamic Republic,a lead editorial in the Tehran Times said last week, because it was pushinggovernment employees below the poverty line.
While Iranian government employees were being hit hard by the taxationsystem, businessmen were growing richer because of rising prices, the papersaid.
"Most government employees live below the poverty line. And someof them have to work at more than one job" to be able to provide fortheir families, the paper said. Many businessmen, however, "do notface any financial problems but enjoy the bonanza of rising prices everyyear," the editorial claimed. [Tehran Times 1/14]
Majlis deputies last week approved a bill to earmark 25 billion rials($14.3 million) of this year's budget for "uncovering and neutralizingthe American government's plots and interference in the internal affairsof Islamic Iran."
The budget covers the Iranian year starting on March 21. The Majlisbill calls for the government to use the money to bring suits against Washingtonat international bodies and to fight a "U.S. cultural invasion,"Iran's term for Western cultural influences.
Last year, the Majlis appropriated $20 million to counter alleged U.S.covert action against the Islamic Republic. [Kayhan, 1/14]
It would appear either that the U.S. has scaled back its covert actionsbudget against Tehran, or it has gotten better at hiding it...
Twenty government officials in a poor suburb of Tehran, including theMayor, have been arrested for taking bribes, Iran News paper reported lastweek.
Those arrested included officials responsible for security in the working-classarea of Robatkarim, as well as the mayor of Sultanabad, the paper said."The mayor of the district of Sultan-Abad, whose name was not disclosed,is among those being prosecuted," the paper said. [Iran News, 1/13]
Members of the opposition Mujahidin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) werekilled by security forces in a series of border clashes during the firstten days of January, according to government accounts and statements issuedby the Iraq-based opposition group.
The Islamic Republic News Agency announced that three MKO rebels hadbeen killed when they tried to enter Iran from a base in Iraq. Accordingto the official account, the two men and one women were chased by localtribesmen into a mine field, where they were killed. [IRNA 1/6/97]
Reuters quoted Islamic Republic officials as saying that two MKO fighterswere killed and a third arrested in a separate attack [1/6]. However, ina statement issued by the "command Headquarters of the Mujahedin insideIran," the group said that "no Mujahedin members were arrestedor slain last week in western Iran," and called such reports "adesperate attempt." [NCR statement 1/6/97].
In a separate statement, issued in Baghdad on Jan. 10, the group claimedresponsibility for "popular uprisings in different cities in Kermanshahprovince" in late December, and claimed that "Dozens of Guardsand other agents of suppression were killed in Kermanshah, Ilam and Khuzestanprovinces. In one of the clashes in Dasht-e Khuzestan, the regime's forceshad to use helicopters and armored units for five day to follow and suppressa group of Mujahedin." [NCR statement 1/10/97].
Three days later, the group's news agency acknowledged that six MKOmembers and 15 sympathizers had been killed during "uprisings,"and that many others were "arrested and executed secretly by the regimeforces [Iran Zamin News Agency 1/12].
The MKO has been stepped up its media campaign over the past two weeks,and has invited reporters from major U.S. and western media organizationsto visit their military training camp in Iraq, perhaps to coincide witha military incursion into Iran. [FDI sources 1/17/97]