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Frank Gallagher

Ahmadinejad Cancelled Libiya and Egypt Trips - 1 views

  • In foreign affairs, the president has already registered two negative points: the first was that he was forced to cancel his previously accepted trips to the OAU in Libya and the Non-aligned movement meeting in Egypt, both indicating a depreciation of the stature of Mr. Ahmadinejad (and the country) domestically and on the international scene as noted by observers.
Frank Gallagher

Rafa and Khamenei Talking to Senior Clerics - 1 views

  • After delivering his landmark sermon last Friday, Rafsanjani left for the city of Mashhad to consult with senior clerics there, particularly ayatollah Vaeze Tabasi (the head of the memorial of the Shiite’s eight saint in that city) and other clerics such as Safi Golpaygani and Makarem Shirazi (both of whom are on a visit to the city) about the post election crises that has erupted in Iran. Among those who came to welcome Rafsanjani in Mashhad were Mohammad Javad Mohammadizadeh, the governor of Khorasan province, ayatollah Elm-alhoda, the Friday prayer leader of Mashhad, seyed Ahmad Alavi, the deputy of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Ghods
  • It should be noted that in Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s latest trip to <st1:place w:st="on">Mashhad</st1:place> recently, senior cleric Vaez Tabasi notably refrained from welcoming him.
  • In a related news, reformist website Moje Azadi (Wave of Freedom) wrote that ayatollah Khamenei plans to meet with a number of senior clerics in Qom (including ayatollah Javadi Amoli and ayatollah Amini, both Friday prayer leaders of Qom). It is said that he will be talking about his support of Ahmadinejad and discussing options for a political solution to resolve the current crises, among other topics.
Frank Gallagher

We Are Summoned and Threatened Every Day - roozonline.com - 0 views

  • Reza Moeini, head of the Reporters Without Borders’ Iran Bureau
  • “The resignation and dismissal of a large number of journalists from media outlets close to the administration points to the extent of the pressure exerted on journalists.  They are also under pressure and cannot work freely.” 
  • We are certain that the number of detainees is far higher than the number on our list.” 
Frank Gallagher

Clash Between ahmadinejad and Principlalists over Cabinet - 0 views

  • With the reappointment of Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaei, Hashemi Samareh and Masoud Zaribafan to several key posts in the new administration, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad continued with his insistence on using close friends in the tenth administration.
  • hmadinejad also appointed Samareh Hashemi as his senior advisr and Masoud Zaribafan to head the Martyrs Foundation.  Previously, he had appointed Akbar Salehi to head the Atomic Energy Agency following Gholamreza Aghazadeh’s resignation. 
  • Ahmadinejad is appointing his friends to serve at posts that do not require confirmation by the Majlis.
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  • In another appointment, Baghaei was appointed to head the tenth administration’s Cultural Heritage Organization.  Also, it was announced that Parviz Davoudi will serve as the president’s advisor.  Mehrdad Bazrpash, who has been with Ahamdinejad since his time as Tehran’s mayor, was promoted from presidential advisor to vice president and head of the National Youth Organization.
  • Within hours of the appointment Principalist lawmakers in the Majlis reacted to it.  Ali Motahari said that Ahmadinejad had not made the correct decision given the opinions of Ayatollah Khamenei, grand ayatollahs and the elite. 
Frank Gallagher

Two Iranian ministers fired in cabinet feud - FT - 0 views

  • Domestic news agencies did not explain why Hossein Saffar-Harandi, the culture minister, and Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, the intelligence minister, lost their jobs. There was speculation their dismissals followed a row within the government over the post of the first vice-president.
Frank Gallagher

Ahmad Khatami Criticises Mashai as VP - 0 views

  • Ahmad Khatami, a hardline cleric who strongly backed Mr Ahmadi-Nejad’s “landslide” victory, has called on the president to reverse his decision.Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi, one of the most influential religious leaders, on Wednesday joined the calls when he said in a religious decree that anyone who had said Iran was “a friend of [the] Israeli people” would “surely lack legitimacy” and such an appointment should be “corrected as soon as possible”.Fundamentalist parliamentarians have threatened the government with a vote of no confidence on other appointments unless Mr Mashaei steps aside.
  • Reformist papers have said that the premature appointment of a controversial figure before the government had been fully sworn in was a tactical move by the president to distract attention from the post-election protests
Frank Gallagher

Khamenei weighs in to Sack Mashai - The Daily Star - 0 views

  • Meanwhile, media reported Wednesday that Iran’s supreme leader handed a humiliation to the president, ordering him to dismiss his choice for top deputy after the appointment drew sharp condemnation from their hard-line base. The move by the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, appeared to show his need to keep hard-liners’ support even at the cost of angering the president, a close ally – at a time when Khamenei is facing unprecedented opposition after the disputed June 12 election.
  • The supreme leader is believed to informally weigh in on senior government appointments behind the scenes. But he does not have a formal role in approving appointments and it is extremely rare for him to order an official’s removal.
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    Khamenei is not normally forced to interfere publically. Presidents resepect the red lines by not appointing ministers who will incur his wrath.
Frank Gallagher

US Touts 'Defense Umbrella' Against Iran - 0 views

  • The United States is ready to help its Gulf allies establish a "defense umbrella" if Iran does not back down over its nuclear program, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday.
  • we will take action, as I've said time and time again, crippling action, working to upgrade the defense of our partners in the region,"
  • "If the US extends a defense umbrella over the region, if we do even more to support the military capacity of those in the Gulf, it is unlikely Iran will be any stronger or safer," Clinton said.
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    Previously no statesman from the US or Europe has discussed containment, claiming instead that there was no way Iran would be allowed to attain nuclear weapons. This seems to be an end to that taboo and possibly a recognition that it's associated ambition is also unrealisable. It also claimsthat nuclear capability will not be allowed to enhance Iran's standing in respect of Saudi Arabi or Egypt.
Frank Gallagher

21st July - Demo and Arrests in Tehran - 0 views

  • TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian riot police clashed with hundreds of pro-reform protesters in central Tehran on Tuesday and detained dozens of them, a witness said, in the latest unrest over last month's disputed election.
  • The witness said police beat protesters who had gathered in Tehran's Haft-e Tir square
Frank Gallagher

Excellent Review of the Campaign and the Elections- MERO (via Zmag - 0 views

  • The morning after Iran's June 12 presidential election, Iranians booted up their computers to find Fars News, the online mouthpiece of the Islamic Republic's security apparatus, heralding the dawn of a "third revolution." Many an ordinary Iranian, and many a Western pundit, had already adopted such dramatic language to describe the burgeoning street demonstrations against the declaration by the Ministry of Interior that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the sitting president, had received 64 percent of the vote to 34 percent for his main challenger, Mir Hossein Mousavi. But the editors of Fars News were referring neither to the protests, as were the people in the streets, nor to the prospect that the unrest might topple the Islamic Republic, as were some of the more wistful commentators. Rather, the editors were labeling the radical realignment of Iranian politics that they wish for. This realignment would complete the removal of the old guard, as did the "first" revolution of 1978-1979, and consolidate the rule of inflexible hardliners, as did the "second revolution" symbolized by the US Embassy takeover of 1979.
  • The number of deeply conservative voters, of the sort who back Ahmadinejad, has not exceeded 12 percent of the electorate since 1993. True, in 2003, these voters seized control of the city councils of major cities, not because of a surge in the popularity of their agenda, but because of the widespread abstention of those who had lost hope in the effectiveness of reformist candidates.
  • But instead greater mass participation in the local elections of 2007 cost the hardliners their grip upon local councils. In Tehran, Ahmadinejad's men lost two thirds of their seats and had to share power with reformists and moderate conservatives.
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  • Khatami, then president, promised he would reveal details of election irregularities before leaving office, but this was a promise he did not keep. Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, another contestant who later replaced Ahmadinejad as mayor of Tehran, announced that $330 million of the municipal budget was unaccounted for, hinting broadly that the monies had been illegally diverted to the Ahmadinejad campaign. Parliament formed a commission to investigate, but the new speaker, loyal to Ahmadinejad, suspended the investigation.
  • Incredulously, the ex-premier exclaimed: "They keep telling me, 'They used to cut neckties in your era.' Who do you think used to cut neckties? Who do you think Imam Khomeini forbade from interfering in people's lives? It was the same people who are in the administration now!"
  • Unlike in previous elections, the Ministry of Interior authorized deployment of 14,000 mobile voting booths, making it very difficult for candidates to send monitors to observe the balloting at every booth. Some 14.5 million extra ballots, by some reports, were printed and no clear system was delineated to track them. When several polling stations in urban centers ran out of ballots, Mousavi supporters asked where the extra ballots were, but they could not be found, and remain unaccounted for to date.
  • Yet the clearest violation of the law would be Mousavi and Karroubi's claim that their observers were not allowed to be present when ballots were counted and the ballot boxes sealed. By law and custom, these observers confirm that the boxes are empty before voting starts, and they are present at the count, sign the result sheet and take away a copy. They are also supposed to be present when the ballot boxes are finally sealed and sent to the Interior Ministry.
  • Unlike in previous elections and despite the enormous turnout, the Ministry of Interior was quick to declare a victor and the Leader officially congratulated Ahmadinejad before a final tally was released or the Guardian Council could make time to review complaints. The "result" generated sub-controversies as well. To highlight just a few, Karroubi is said to have won less than half a million votes (less than the number of spoiled ballots), when in 2005 he earned about 5 million votes, or 17 percent of the total vote. The initial count, oddly, did not include any ruined ballots.
  • During the campaign, opposition candidates repeatedly argued that Ahmadinejad had flaunted regulatory procedures in attempts to circumvent the constitutional checks and balances on the powers of the presidency. Today, it is apparent that this major campaign theme has been borne out in the election itself.
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    Great detail on the political background (inc. 2003, 4 and 7 elections); no the campaign, and on the result. Some good points on electoral processes as well, and the congruence between Ahmadinejad's circumlocation of proceedures for accountability whilst in office, and the conduct of the election.
Frank Gallagher

Khatami: Referendum Can End Iran's Election Crisis Asharq Alawsat - 0 views

  • "Durability of order and continuation of the country's progress hinge on restoring public trust," Khatami, a popular reformist, said, according to the Web sites. "From the start, we said there is a legal way to regain that trust. I openly say now that the solution to get out of the current crisis is holding a referendum."
  • Under Iran's constitution, a referendum has to be ordered by Khamenei himself. All popular votes in Iran are monitored by an oversight body called the Guardian Council. Khatami, however, proposed that a neutral body, such as the Expediency Council, should monitor the proposed referendum instead.
Frank Gallagher

Profile of Mojtaba Khamenei - Tehran Bureau - 0 views

  • Karroubi was certainly not the first senior figure to protest Mojtaba Khamenei’s intervention on behalf of the extreme right. Before him, Ali Akbar Nategh Nouri, another former Speaker of the Majles and a close aid to Ayatollah Khamenei, had quietly protested the younger Khamenei’s meddling in the political process. (Nategh Nouri, a mid-rank cleric, heads the Supreme Leader’s Office of Inspection)
  • In the last year before the 1979 Revolution, Ayatollah Khamenei and two other clerics, Abbas Vaez Tabasi and Sayyed Abdolkarim Hasheminejad, formed a sort of leadership ring that led most of the demonstrations and political activities against the Shah in Mashhad and the Khorasan province, which was Iran’s largest province at that time.
  • Vaez Tabasi is now a powerful cleric who runs the shrine of Imam Reza (the Shiites’ 8th Imam), in Mashhad. He is believed to be a Rafsanjani ally.
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  • His son, Mojtaba, attended Alavi High School, a private religious school with a rigorous course load. (The school is located on Iran Street in central Tehran, where the author grew up.) Many of Iran’s present leaders are graduates of this high school.
  • His first teachers were his own father and Ayatollah Sayyed Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, the current judiciary chief. Mojtaba was not a cleric yet. In 1999, he moved to Qom to study to join the ranks of clerics. He was taught there by conservative and ultraconservative clerics such as Mesbah Yazdi; Ayatollah Lotfollah Safi Golpayegani, the first Secretary-General of the Guardian Council in the 1980s; and Ayatollah Sayyed Mohsen Kharrazi, the father of former foreign minister Kamal Kharrazi. (Kharrazi’s real name is Sayyed Mohsen Agha Mir Mohammad Ali and his daughter is married to Mojtaba’s younger brother, Mohsen, a junior cleric.)
  • Mojtaba Khamenei is also very close to Ayatollah Abolghasem Khazali,
  • One link is a mysterious figure not known to most Iranians. His name is Ayatollah Aziz Khoshvaght, who is a great supporter of Mojtaba Khamenei. Ayatollah Khamenei’s third child, Mostafa (Mojtaba’s older brother), is married to Khoshvaght’s daughter.
  • Khoshvaght is the prayer leader of a large mosque in northern Tehran, and a radical hardliner. Saeed Emami, the notorious figure who was responsible for the infamous Chain Murders in the fall of 1998, which resulted in the murder of six Iranian dissidents (and the murder of close to 70 other dissidents from 1988-1998), was a follower of Khoshvaght.
  • Khoshvaght is also close to and influential in the affairs of Ansar-e Hezbollah,
  • Mojtaba Khamenei and the paramilitary groups is Brigadier General Sayyed Mohammad Hejazi,
  • The third link between Mojtaba Khamenei and the paramilitary groups is Hassan Taeb, the current commander of the Basij. A hardliner and cleric, he is also linked with Mesbah Yazdi and his followers.
  • Other relatively young radicals and disciples of Mesbah Yazdi include Mohsen Gharavian and Ghassem Ravanbakhsh. The former always attempts to present a moderate and reasonable image of Mesbah Yazdi and his thinking, whereas the latter who is the editor-in-chief of Partow Sokhan, the weekly published by Mesbah Yazdi, is virulently opposed to the reformist-democratic movement.
  • However, many clerics in Qom dispute Mojataba Khamenei’s religious credentials.
  • There have been persistent rumors that Brigadier General Ali Fazli, who lost his left eye in the Iran-Iraq war, the commander of the IRGC forces in the Tehran province, has been opposed to the harsh crackdown on the protesters and demonstrators (reportedly ordered by Mojtaba Khamenei). Both he and Major General Mohammad Ali (Aziz) Jafari, the top commender of the IRGC, are said to be opposed to Mojtaba Khamenei’s meddling and power plays.
  • Mojtaba Khamenei is married to a daughter of Gholam-Ali Haddad Adel, a university professor and former conservative Speaker of the Majles. After he was elected the Speaker of the 8th Majles in 2004, Haddad Adel once said, “We were told [by Ayatollah Khamenei] to be here [in the Majles to control it for the Ayatollah],” for which he was widely mocked by the reformists. But this statement indicated how the Ayatollah was putting his loyalists everywhere. Ayatollah Khamenei’s oldest daughter is married to Hojatoleslam Mohammad Mohammadi Golpayegani, his chief of staff.
Frank Gallagher

Purported Discussion between Members of the Iranian Security Forces Regarding Control o... - 0 views

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    These purported discussions between members of Iran's Hamayeshe Kousar security forces were leaked during 2007. They appear to have gone entirely unnoticed by the mainstream press- likely due to their language (Farsi) and size. By their nature, the recordings are difficult to verify, however, they are over eight hours in duration. It is very rare for long documents or recordings to be fabrications due to increased production costs and an increased difficulty in keeping cohesion without exposure.
Frank Gallagher

An Account of the July 17th Firday Prayers - Tehran Bureau - 0 views

  • Strangers chatted about what Rafsanjani might say and expressed happiness at the turnout. The non-religious asked the religious about how to execute namaz (prayers). For many, it was their first time at this decades-long public ritual.
  • Some in the crowd, obviously novices unfamiliar with the conventions of Friday Prayer, began applauding and whistling. Pro-Mousavi unity aside, I feared that the religious men and women sitting nearby would take offense at this inappropriate behavior. But they merely tittered — and astonishingly, the cleric was clapping along!
  • Another phenomenal spectacle, a first in the history of Friday Prayers in Iran (and perhaps in a large part of the Muslim world), men and women were not segregated. Thy prayed side by side. This did not appear to offend the religious-minded; they seemed to accept the situation. Women and girls who by Sharia law can pray only when covered with a prayer-chador were doing so in short manteaux, and this too did not upset the religious-minded. In fact, they were probably happy to see non-religious girls and women praying at all.
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  • As we moved toward the sound, our eyes began to sting, and upon enquiry, the incredible met our ears: Security forces had thrown tear gas among the prayer-makers. “God is Greater!” had been the collective response, and after fumes dispelled, people had resumed their praying.
Frank Gallagher

Another Transcript of Rafsanjani's Speech - 0 views

  • This week, Imam Jafar Sadigh’s martyrdom’s celebration will be held. He spent his entire life either in prison or being censored.
  • The Islamic Revolution was the way of Mohammed. People should be brought into the system first, This is why Imam Khomeini was successful.
  • We were with Imam Khomeini, He always said that without the participation of the people the Islamic government would never be successful. The role that Imam gave the people was very high. (Story about Mohammed’s late life about how important people are)
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  • When we were writing the new constitution, We asked the Imam for advice, He put a lot of emphasis on the role of the people. He also knew that people’s vote was the most important thing inside our country. Everything depended upon the people’s vote. People should directly elect the president, the parliament, the local council. It was all about the vote of the people. This is a theocracy, A theocratic republic.
  • We need to be able to sit down like brothers and sisters and talk about our differences. Unfortunately, The chance that was given to the Guardian Council of five days to get people together and regain their trust was not used.
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    Less polished English, but perhaps thus closer to the original Persian!
Frank Gallagher

Rafsanjani's Speech at Friday Prayers - July 17th 2009 (English) - 0 views

  • 13:41 Rafsanjani is getting teary. “The prophet respected the rights of all those under his rule.” He brings an example from the end of the prophet’s life where the prophet comes to the people and asks that if he ever treated anyone unfairly, they speak up and let him know.
  • 13:46 The prophet went to Baghi [where his old friends were buried] and said to them: you are lucky that you are no longer here to see that your old brothers are killing and destroying one another.
  • 13:54 Rafsanjani condemns China. People chanted “Death to China” . He asks that people stop their chants.
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  • 14:03 We agreed that you will stop chanting. If we do not have the votes of the people behind us, we will have nothing. The guardian council, the expediency council, EVERYONE gets their legitimacy from the vote of the people.
  • 14:09 I have some suggestions. I have spoken to some members of the the expediency council and the assembly of experts about them too.14:10 We must bring back the trust of the people. First of all, everyone must accept the law. The people, the parliament, everyone.14:11 We must create a condition so that everyone can speak. We must speak logically. And a part of this is on the shoulders of the broadcasting corporation.14:12 The guardian council did not make good use of the extra fives days given to them by the leader.14:13 We do not need people in prison for this. Let’s allow them to return to their families.14:14 We must join hands with those who have incurred great loss and try to lesson their pain.14:15 We must give freedom to the press within the confines of the law.14:15 We are all members of the same family. We must remain friends and allies. Why have we gone so far as to pain some of our marajeh [top religious leaders]?14:16 I hope this sermon will pave a way out of this current situation. A situation that can be considered a crisis.14:17 The sermon is finished.
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    Translation by a reliable opposition blog.
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    Translation by a reliable opposition blog. Probably a crucial landmark in the working out of Iran's crisis.
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