RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
_________________________________________ ____________________
RFE/RL Iran Report
Vol. 9, No. 26, 18 July 2006
A Review of Developments in Iran Prepared by the Regional Specialists
of RFE/RL’s Newsline Team
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HEADLINES
* IRAN PLAYING KEY ROLE IN ISRAEL-LEBANON CRISIS
* AHMADINEJAD LAUNCHES VERBAL ATTACK ON ISRAEL
* IRANIAN PILGRIMS DISCOURAGED FROM VISITING IRAQ
* IRAQ’S NEIGHBORS ISSUE STATEMENT
* IRAN TO BE REFERRED TO UN SECURITY COUNCIL
* RUSSIAN MINISTER RULES OUT USE OF FORCE AGAINST IRAN
* VOTING AGE TO RISE
* COUNTERINTELLIGENCE HEADQUARTERS CREATED TO DEAL WITH BORDER UNREST
* RESURGENCE OF RELIGION-POLITICAL SOCIETY RAISES CONCERNS
* AMERICAN AND IRANIAN SCHOLARS ALLY TO OPPOSE SEIZURE OF ANCIENT PERSIAN TABLETS
****************************************** ******************
IRAN PLAYING KEY ROLE IN ISRAEL-LEBANON CRISIS. As the conflict
initiated by Hizballah’s seizure of two Israeli soldiers and
killing of another eight in a cross-border raid on July 12 continues,
many observers are voicing concern that other regional actors —
notably, Iran and Syria — will be drawn into the conflict.
Iran has warned that it will respond if Israel attacks Syria.
Realistically, however, Iran and Syria have been involved with this
conflict from the outset because they are the main outside sponsors
of Hizballah. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton
alluded to this relationship on July 14 at the UN Security Council in
New York. "No reckoning with Hizballah will be adequate without a
reckoning with its principal state sponsors of terror," Bolton said.
Within hours of Israeli retaliation for the raid and
commencement of efforts to recover its soldiers, Israeli officials
began assigning some responsibility for the Hizballah attack to Iran.
"There is an axis of terror and hate, created by Iran, Syria,
Hizballah, and Hamas that wants to end any hope for peace," said
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, according to the Israeli
Foreign Ministry website.
Major General Udi Adam, chief of the Israeli Defense
Forces’ Northern Command, added: "Hizballah, which is a terror
organization, operates from inside Lebanese soil with Iran’s
assistance and financial aid," Jerusalem’s Channel 2 television
reported. "Iran signed a defense treaty with Syria not too long ago,
which is why they are all one single package."
"We know for a fact, and you know it too, that Iran supports
these organizations," Adam asserted, while also assigning some blame
to Lebanon’s government.
Iranian reaction was not immediately forthcoming. President
Mahmud Ahmadinejad had been touring East Azerbaijan Province for
several days, where he gave several speeches excoriating Israel.
"There are also some countries that claim to be democracies and
supporters of freedom and human rights but which keep silent when
this regime [Israel] bombs Lebanon in front of their eyes and
slaughters people in their houses," Ahmadinejad said in Sarab on July
13, state television reported. "They keep silent and they support
murderers with their silence." Countries that stay silent will be
viewed as Israel’s "accomplices," he said, and will be judged
accordingly.
In Tehran the same day, Supreme National Security Council
Secretary Ali Larijani and Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza
Assefi condemned Israeli actions, IRNA reported.
As hostilities entered their second day on July 13, the
Israeli Foreign Ministry voiced concern that its missing soldiers
will be sent to Iran. "We also have specific information that
Hizballah is planning to transfer the kidnapped soldiers to Iran,"
the ministry’s statement said, according to the government’s
press office.
Although Iran has rejected the possibility that the Israelis
will be transferred there, such speculation has historical echoes.
Israeli airman Ron Arad, who was shot down over Lebanon in 1986, was
reportedly sent to Iran. It is also believed that William Buckley,
the Central Intelligence Agency’s Beirut chief of station, who
was taken hostage in 1984, was sent to Iran for interrogation. He was
tortured to death.
The same July 13 Israeli government statement added that Iran
is Hizballah’s "main benefactor" and provides "funding, weapons,
and directives."
"For all practical purposes, Hizballah is merely an arm of
the Tehran jihadist regime," the Israeli government asserted. The
statement argued that Iranian and Syrian support for groups like
Hizballah, Hamas, and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade is ideologically
driven, but also serves as a diversion from other international
issues.
Some Iranian connections with Hizballah and Hamas are well
documented. Larijani was in Damascus on July 12 and, according to
KUNA, he met with Hamas leader Khalid Mishaal and leading figures
from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine-General Command, and other groups. He was to
meet with a Hizballah delegation, KUNA added, but the Lebanese could
not come. Representatives from all these groups participated in a
conference in Tehran in April, and they participated in similar
events in Tehran in 2001 and 2002. Furthermore, they met with
Ahmadinejad when he visited Damascus in January 2006, and they
frequently meet with Iranian officials in the Syrian capital and
travel to Iran.
Tehran has never tried to hide its support for these groups,
which it views as legitimate resistance movements, and it has taken
the lead in trying to raise funds for the Hamas-led Palestinian
Authority.
Among all these groups, Tehran’s relationship with
Hizballah is the closest. Iranian officials had a leading role in the
creation of Hizballah in the early 1980s, and the organization’s
ideology is based on the Iranian theocratic system of Vilayat-i
Faqih. Although it has never renounced its platform of creating an
Islamist government similar to Iran’s, Hizballah now operates
within the Lebanese political system, with its members running for
office and serving in the cabinet and the legislature.
A visitor to the Hizballah press office in southern Beirut
will see pictures of the founder of Iran’s Islamic republic,
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and of the country’s current supreme
leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Travelers in other predominantly
Shi’ite parts of Lebanon will note the numerous posters of these
Iranian clerics as well. Hizballah hospitals and schools continue to
receive funds from Iran’s Martyrs’ Foundation.
The U.S. government, which classifies Hizballah as a
terrorist organization, has asserted that Iran provides Hizballah
with funding and weapons. Press reports from September 2002 note U.S.
claims that Iran provided surface-to-surface rockets to Hizballah,
and there are repeated allegations that Tehran provides Hizballah
with millions of dollars annually. Tehran dismisses such accusations,
saying it supports Hizballah only with moral and political backing.
Hizballah has repeatedly denied, furthermore, that it is
directed by the Iranian government. Most recently, on July 15, Mahmud
Qamati, deputy chairman of the Hizballah Political Council, told
Al-Jazeera: "We would like to confirm today that the Iranians or
Syrians have nothing at all to do with the actions of the resistance
in Lebanon, or with the confrontation of the Israeli aggression." He
said such allegations are meant to pressure the two countries to
force Hizballah to disarm, as called for by UN Security Council
Resolution 1559.
Israeli sources claimed on July 15 that an Iranian C802
shore-to-ship missile that was operated by Iranians struck an Israeli
navy vessel off the Lebanese coast. The Iranian Embassy in Beirut
denied on the same day that any of the country’s military
personnel are in Lebanon, Al-Alam television and the Lebanese
National News Agency reported. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman
Hamid Reza Assefi denied on July 16 that Iranian missiles were used.
Iran’s support for Hizballah on Lebanon concerns the
international community. A UN report in April said the cooperation of
Iran and Syria is needed to bring about the disarmament of all
Lebanese militias, and it referred to Hizballah as "the most
significant Lebanese militia." The subsequent Security Council
Resolution 1680, which was issued in May, cited Syria’s negative
influence on Lebanese affairs and indirectly referred to Iranian
influence.
The relationship between Tehran and Damascus has grown warmer
in recent years, as both Iran and Syria face increasing international
pressure. The two countries have signed military agreements, and
their chief executives have exchanged visits.
Ahmadinejad telephoned President Bashar al-Assad on July 13
and declared that an attack on Syria would be an attack on the
Islamic world and would elicit a response, Hizballah’s Al-Manar
television, Iranian state radio, and SANA reported.
Iranian Friday Prayer leaders’ sermons, the content of
which is determined in Tehran by the 10-member executive board of the
Central Secretariat of the Central Council of Friday Prayer Leaders,
has echoed this theme, as well as support for Hizballah. In Tehran,
Ayatollah Mohammad Emami-Kashani encouraged Muslims to back Hamas and
Hizballah, the actions of which he described as "self-defense," state
radio reported. In the southern city of Ahvaz, Ayatollah
Musavi-Jazayeri said Hizballah has "smashed the myth of [Israeli]
invincibility" and described Hizballah’s actions as "a source of
pride for the world of Islam," provincial television reported.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in Tehran on July
16 that the most recent events in Lebanon and the Palestine
territories prove that "the presence of the Zionists in the region is
a satanic and cancerous presence and an infected tumor for the entire
world of Islam," state television reported. (Bill Samii)
AHMADINEJAD LAUNCHES VERBAL ATTACK ON ISRAEL. "The basic and
fundamental problem of the world of Islam is the existence of the
Zionist regime," President Mahmud Ahmadinejad said in a July 8 speech
in Tehran at a meeting of foreign ministers from countries
neighboring Iraq, state television reported. He said Islamic and
regional states must work to resolve this problem. Ahmadinejad
described Israel as a regional "threat and conspiracy" that was
imposed by the Islamic world’s enemies to cause discord, and he
added that Israel is delaying regional states’ "speedy progress
and development." "There is no logical reason for the continuation of
the life of this regime [Israel]," Ahmadinejad said, adding, "it is
necessary for all of the regional countries to completely isolate the
Zionist regime."
Anti-Israel rallies took place after the July 7 Friday
Prayers in many Iranian cities, and in the Fars Province city of
Shiraz the Students’ Justice-Seeking Movement circulated a
petition in which signatories indicated their willingness to go to
Palestine, Fars News Agency reported. The number of signatories is
unknown. Khuzestan Provincial television showed a rally in the city
of Ahvaz at which demonstrators, using both Persian and Arabic,
chanted, "Down with America," "Down with Israel" and "Palestine,
Palestine." Video of rallies in the Khuzestan Province towns of
Dasht-i Azadegan, Haftgel, and Shush, was shown, as well. Friday
Prayers leaders discussed Palestinian affairs in their sermons.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki said on July 9
that although Iraq was the focus of the July 8-9 conference in Tehran
(see below), events in Palestine necessitated a reaction, state
television reported. Therefore, he said, a separate statement on this
subject was issued.
Mottaki also responded to a question about Iran’s pledge
to fund the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority — many governments are
withholding funding until Hamas renounces violence and recognizes
Israel. "The process of that $50 million contribution is in the phase
of decision-making now," Mottaki said, Reuters reported. "The payment
that I talked about has not been paid yet." (Bill Samii)
IRANIAN PILGRIMS DISCOURAGED FROM VISITING IRAQ. Speaking to
reporters in Tehran on July 8, two days after several Iranian
pilgrims lost their lives in an Iraqi suicide bombing, Foreign
Minister Manuchehr Mottaki urged his compatriots to change their
travel plans, IRNA reported. Mottaki said Iranian travelers should
wait until the security situation in Iraq improves. Mottaki added
that some of the pilgrims are already breaking the law: "Some
Iranians still dare to travel to Iraq illegally to visit holy shrines
in that country. Based on regulations in Iraq, they are sentenced to
six months in jail when caught."
Substitute Tehran Friday Prayer leader Hojatoleslam Ahmad
Khatami told a gathering of Islamic Revolution Guards Corps personnel
on July 11 that, "America is trying to establish a permanent presence
in Iraq by way of provoking ethnic disputes and creating insecurity
inside that country," the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA)
reported. He added, "Ethnic and tribal clashes are America’s
bread and butter." To that end," Khatami claimed, "killing
Shi’ites on a large scale, and Sunnis on a smaller scale, is on
their agenda; by ascribing the killings to acts of revenge by the
Shi’ites, they seek to spread killings and insecurity in Iraq."
Khatami dismissed accusations of Iranian interference in Iraqi
affairs and said Iran hopes for a secure Iraqi state.
The Mujahedin Army in Iraq claimed in a July 12 Internet
posting that it was responsible for the shelling of the Iranian
Embassy in Baghdad on July 5. The attack is one in a series of recent
attacks on Iranians in Iraq. On July 6, a suicide car bomber targeted
Iranian Shi’ite pilgrims in the city of Al-Kufah, killing 12 and
wounding 39. In June, an Iraqi mob attacked the Iranian consulate in
Al-Basrah, reportedly in protest at an Iranian television program
that depicted local Iraqi Shi’ite cleric Mahmud al-Hassani as an
agent of Israel, police said at the time. (Bill Samii, Kathleen
Ridolfo)
IRAQ’S NEIGHBORS ISSUE STATEMENT. An official statement was
issued after the July 8-9 meeting in Tehran of foreign ministers from
the countries neighboring Iraq (Bahrain, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi
Arabia, Syria, and Turkey), and also from Egypt, IRNA reported. Also
in attendance were the secretaries-general of the Organization of the
Islamic Conference and of the Arab League, as well as UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s special representative for Iraq,
Ashraf Qazi.
Participants in the meeting declared their support for the
Iraqi government and national assembly, and also for the national
reconciliation plan of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. The statement
also underlined participants’ concern about the continuing
violence in Iraq, and it called for an end to the presence of foreign
forces in Iraq. Participating countries agreed to open embassies in
Baghdad and otherwise enhance their presence in Iraq. Participants
agreed to cooperate in fighting terrorism. The statement stressed the
need for a fair and transparent trial for former President Saddam
Hussein and other Iraqi leaders, IRNA reported. (Bill Samii)
IRAN TO BE REFERRED TO UN SECURITY COUNCIL. The international
community has decided to refer Iran to the United Nations Security
Council because of its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment, Radio
Farda reported on July 12, after foreign ministers from the five
permanent members of the UN (China, France, Russia, the U.K., and the
U.S.), Germany, and the European Union met in Paris.
The decision was based on EU foreign policy chief Javier
Solana’s report on his recent meetings with Ali Larijani,
secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, according
to the foreign ministers’ joint declaration of July 12. "The
Iranians have given no indication at all that they are ready to
engage seriously on the substance of our proposals," the declaration
continued, and it mentioned failure to comply with the International
Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) demand for "suspension of all
enrichment-related and reprocessing activities." "We have agreed to
seek a United Nations Security Council resolution, which would make
the IAEA-required suspension mandatory," the declaration added.
"Should Iran refuse to comply, then we will work for the
adoption of measures under Article 41 of Chapter VII of the UN
charter." Article 41 allows the Security Council to employ measures
other than war — such as economic sanctions, severing diplomatic
relations, or interrupting communications — in order to back its
decisions. Iranian compliance with IAEA and Security Council demands
and commencement of negotiations would preclude any further Security
Council action.
EU High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy
Javier Solana had delivered the proposal from China, France, Germany,
Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States during an
early-June visit to Tehran.
One day later, Iranian President Ahmadinejad said that the
U.S. aims to "create discord," state television reported. On the
other hand, "We are all trying to calm the situation and establish a
constructive, fair, and legal dialogue aimed at resolving the
issues." Ahmadinejad said Iran and the Europeans could resolve the
crisis, and a subject that has been problematic for so many years
cannot be resolved so quickly. He added that Iran only wants time to
consider the international proposal that it received on June 6.
In Tehran on the same day, Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki
also said time is needed to study the international proposal Iran
received, IRNA reported. He warned that haste will harm all the
interested parties.
Tehran had tried to prevent a referral through shuttle
diplomacy. Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Larijani
arrived in Rome on July 10 to discuss the nuclear issue with Italian
Prime Minister Romano Prodi and Foreign Minister Massimo D’Alema,
IRNA reported. Later that day, Larijani told Italian television that
the international proposal intended to resolve the nuclear crisis is
ambiguous and must be clarified before Tehran can respond to it, IRNA
reported. Therefore, he continued, a response will not be forthcoming
before the G8 meeting in Russia on July 15-17.
In an interview that appeared in "Corriere della Sera" on
July 11, Larijani said, "We don’t trust some of the European
countries that have played a leading role." Larijani criticized
British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s "deplorable pronouncements on
Iran that were quite out of place." Larijani did not cite which of
Blair’s statements he is referring to. He said Italy does not act
this way, and "Your country is our prime trading partner in Europe."
He encouraged Italy to be more active diplomatically in the nuclear
issue.
Larijani held formal discussions with Solana on July 11,
Radio Farda reported. The talks took place behind closed doors, but
in a subsequent press conference, Solana referred to his upcoming
meeting in Paris with foreign ministers of the countries involved
with the package of incentives offered to Iran. He said, "Tomorrow I
will have a meeting with the ministers of the six countries and they
will report — we will make an analysis of the situation after this
period of time and we will see how to proceed," Radio Farda reported.
Referring to the July 13 Paris meeting, U.S. national
security adviser Stephen Hadley said on July 10 in Washington that
participants will consider Iran’s response and determine "whether
it is enough to move towards negotiations or whether we need to
reopen a process at the Security Council," according to the State
Department’s Bureau of International Information Programs. (Bill
Samii)
RUSSIAN MINISTER RULES OUT USE OF FORCE AGAINST IRAN. Russian Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov told journalists in Paris on July 13 that
Russia "excludes any possibility of the UN Security Council
sanctioning the use of force against Iran," Russian news agencies
reported. Lavrov added, however, that Moscow is "disappointed with
the absence of a positive reaction from Iran" to the recommendations
and proposals worked out recently by the UN Security Council and
Germany on Iran’s nuclear activities. He noted that if Tehran
does not return to negotiations, "the Security Council will consider
steps appropriate to the situation." Russian and Chinese diplomats
reluctantly agreed with their Western colleagues on July 13 that Iran
has delayed too long in responding to the council’s proposals and
that the matter should be referred back to that body. (Patrick Moore)
VOTING AGE TO RISE. Legislator Kazem Jalali said on July 12 that the
National Security and Foreign Policy Committee has approved a bill
that would increase the voting age, Mehr News Agency reported. The
current voting age is 15, and the bill would raise the minimum age of
voters to 18. However, according to Jalali, this change applies only
to municipal council elections. As elections for councils and for the
Assembly of Experts are scheduled to coincide this year, it is not
clear how smoothly the voting process will go. (Bill Samii)
COUNTERINTELLIGENCE HEADQUARTERS CREATED TO DEAL WITH BORDER UNREST.
Judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmud Hashemi-Shahrudi said on July 12
that a special counterintelligence headquarters is being created to
handle insecurity in the provinces along Iran’s borders, Fars
News Agency reported. Hashemi-Shahrudi said there is a distinction
between antiregime efforts to stir up ethnic conflict and other
factors that cause public disturbances. The Islamic Republic faces
continuing unrest in the predominantly ethnic Azeri provinces in the
northwest and the Baluchi-inhabited regions bordering Pakistan in the
southeast.
There is trouble in the Kurdish regions that border Iraq and
Turkey, too. Operations by the Iranian and Turkish armed forces
against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) personnel are continuing, Roj
TV from Denmark reported on July 12. The PKK attacked an Iranian
military post in Zeman Griwi village in Kamyaran, while the Iranian
military shelled an area between Kamyaran and Hewraman. Meanwhile,
General Hassan Karami, the police commander in West Azerbaijan
Province, said PKK forces have suffered significant losses recently,
"Kayhan" reported on July 11. He added that many PKK members are
surrendering. (Bill Samii)
RESURGENCE OF RELIGION-POLITICAL SOCIETY RAISES CONCERNS. The recent
announcement by a former Iranian vice president of the arrest of
members of a banned and clandestine religio-political group probably
caught many observers by surprise. The secretive Hojjatieh Society is
unlikely to have many remaining members. And allegations in the past
five years of Hojjatieh activism have generally appeared in
connection with political disputes or to explain sectarian strife.
But statements by President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, who reportedly is
inclined toward Shi’ite millennialism, have contributed to
speculation that the Hojjatieh Society is making a comeback. Could
that include a run for Iran’s supreme leadership?
Given the opaque nature of Iranian government, the public
might never know just how pervasive the Hojjatieh Society’s
activities really are.
But Former Vice President Abtahi was quoted by the hard-line
daily "Kayhan" on July 5 as saying that several Hojjatieh Society
members were arrested recently. It is difficult to test the veracity
of the claim by Abtahi, who served as vice president for legal and
parliamentary affairs under ex-President Hojatoleslam Mohammad
Khatami. But it renews fears that the secretive Hojjatieh could wield
considerable power in the Iranian establishment.
The Hojjatieh group was formed by a Mashhad-based cleric in
the early 1950s to counter the activities of Bahai missionaries, who
claimed that the long-awaited Twelfth Imam of Shi’ite Islam had
already returned and been superseded by the Bahai faith. That cleric,
Sheikh Mahmud Halabi, recruited volunteers who could debate the
Bahais and who formed the original Hojjatieh Society (formally known
as the Anjoman-i Khayrieyeh-yi Hojjatieh Mahdavieh). But reference
sources say the society expanded its reach and its membership in the
1960s and 1970s.
Hojjatieh members initially opposed the ideas of Islamic
government and rule of the supreme jurisconsult (Vilayat-i Faqih)
espoused by the father of Iran’s revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini. Instead, they favored collective leadership of the
religious community and opposed religious involvement in political
affairs.
But founder Halabi feared a communist takeover after the
1978-79 Islamic revolution. So he urged his followers to abandon
their ideas about collective religious leadership and secular
government in Iran’s watershed referendum in December 1979.
That move reportedly paid off in the form of administrative
appointments in the postrevolutionary government for members, whose
religious credentials have been described as "impeccable" by author
Baqer Moin in his 1999 book, "Khomeini: Life Of The Ayatollah."
Khomeini and others appear to have grown concerned over
Hojjatieh members’ secrecy, however, and their success. By 1983,
Supreme Leader Khomeini was attacking the Hojjatieh Society and
demanding that they "get rid of factionalism and join the wave that
is carrying the nation forward" or be "broken." The Hojjatieh Society
announced its official dissolution the same day, according to author
Moin.
Fast-forward more than two decades to a speech just weeks
after President Mahmud Ahmadinejad’s August 2005 inauguration.
Outgoing President Khatami is warning of the emergence of an
extremist movement that is raising fears of corruption and claiming
that universities’ curricula are insufficiently Islamic. Khatami
adds that such groups aid foreigners who do not want to see Islamic
states succeed, according to Fars News Agency on August 19.
Reformist commentators quickly pick up on the same theme. A
member of the left-wing Mujahedin of the Islamic Revolution
Organization, Hashem Hedayati, says Khatami issued his warning
because extremists are entering the government, "Etemad" reports on
August 21. Hedayati adds that the phenomenon represents a strategic
shift by the Hojjatieh Society, which previously avoided involvement
in political affairs.
Less than a month later, a former interior minister and
parliamentarian who is a prominent member of the pro-reform Militant
Clerics Association (Majma-yi Ruhaniyun-i Mobarez), also warns of a
Hojjatieh revival. Hojatoleslam Ali-Akbar Mohtashami-Pur says the
society opposed involvement with politics before the revolution but
subsequently changed tack and displayed a more violent tendency,
"Etemad" reports on September 18. Mohtashami-Pur compares the
Hojjatieh Society with Osama bin Laden’s terrorist group,
Al-Qaeda, and accuses it of "speaking through various podiums,
brandishing a truncheon on a heretic witch-hunt, [and] accusing
[Iranian] youth" of wrongdoing.
Late last year, former Vice President Abtahi noted that many
grassroots religious groups had backed Ahmadinejad’s presidential
run. What stood out most, he said, was that these groups praised the
Twelfth Imam, rather than speaking in political terms, the "Financial
Times" reported on November 9. Abtahi speculated that Ahmadinejad has
"more important goals than politics," warning that the new head of
state "speaks with the confidence of someone who has received
God’s word."
Ahmadinejad’s references to the Twelfth Imam in a
September speech at the United Nations brought his affinity for
millennialist views to the world’s attention. Ahmadinejad’s
later observation that he was surrounded by an aura during the
speech, and that the spellbound audience in the General Assembly sat
unblinking, also drew attention to his unorthodox views.
More concretely, there are suggestions that Ahmadinejad has
earmarked millions of dollars in government funds for the Jamkaran
Mosque on the outskirts of Qom, where some Shi’a believe the
Hidden Imam will reappear. Finally, there has been a burgeoning of
Iranian websites that focus on the Hidden Imam.
A reformist legislator, Imad Afruq, cautions to the reformist
"Etemad-i Melli" daily on February 20 that many "pseudo-clerics" who
promote mysticism are distorting Islam and misleading the faithful.
Under these conditions, the lawmaker claimed, the Hojjatieh Society
will find it easy to operate.
At the same time, a Supreme Court judge, Hojatoleslam
Mohammad Sadeq Al-i Ishaq, is quoted by "Etemad" on February 20 as
warning of the persistent danger of reactionaries. He says Ayatollah
Khomeini regretted ever making use of the reactionary clerics, and
accuses the Hojjatieh Society of hiding its true intentions so it can
gain places in the government. The judge argues that society still
exists and that clerics should take the danger seriously.
There have been accusations that Ahmadinejad’s religious
mentor, Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi, is a member of the
Hojjatieh Society, a claim that he rejected, according to "Hemayat"
newspaper on April 30. The hard-line cleric prompted controversy when
he claimed last year that the Twelfth Imam prayed for
Ahmadinejad’s election, according to "Mardom Salari" on July 21,
2005.
Now, Mesbah-Yazdi’s name has surfaced in connection with
the upcoming election of the Assembly of Experts, which supervises
the Iranian supreme leader’s performance and selects a successor.
Mesbah-Yazdi has been mentioned by some as a possible successor to
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In an effort to preempt
Mesbah-Yazdi’s selection, opponents have criticized him on a
variety of pretexts — including his perceived lack of activism
against the monarchy before Iran’s Islamic revolution.
The outcome of this fall’s Assembly of Experts election
should help gauge the support that Ahmadinejad and his allies have
for placing Mesbah-Yazdi atop Iran’s theocratic system — if that
is indeed their objective. Given the lack of transparency in the
Iranian political process, however, it will be extremely difficult to
get an accurate reading of the Hojjatieh Society’s influence.
(Bill Samii)
AMERICAN AND IRANIAN SCHOLARS ALLY TO OPPOSE SEIZURE OF ANCIENT
PERSIAN TABLETS. Iran has strongly condemned a U.S. court ruling
authorizing the seizure of ancient clay tablets from Iran to
compensate American survivors of a 1997 Jerusalem bombing. Plaintiffs
claim the Iranian state should be made to compensate them because of
its support for Hamas, which claimed responsibility for the deadly
attack. Iranian officials have called on the United Nations
Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to force
the return of the Persian tablets, which are on loan to Chicago
University. The university has argued in favor of returning the
artifacts to Iran — and has vowed to protect them.
The clay tablets were discovered in the 1930s by American
archeologists in the former capital of the Persian Empire,
Persepolis. They were then sent for study to the University of
Chicago’s Oriental Institute, where researchers say they contain
a trove of information about the Persian Empire 500 years before the
Christian era.
Abbas Alizadeh is a senior researcher at the University of
Chicago and an expert on ancient Iran. He tells RFE/RL that the
2,500-year-old tablets constitute an invaluable part of Iran’s
historical heritage and provide details about the lives of ancient
Persians.
"They are the only documents we have about the Achaemenid
Period that give us valuable information about [Persian] society,
[and the] economy, and how they built Persepolis — for example, that
they didn’t use slaves, [or] that women had almost the same
rights as men," Alizadeh says. "And many Achaemenid locations that we
are still not aware of are cited there. [The tablets] are very
important, and we cannot put a price on them; they are priceless."
The tablets have been on loan to Chicago University for seven
decades to allow their study and translation.
But several Americans injured in the bombing of a Jerusalem
mall nine years ago won a court ruling in June that would allow them
to seize and auction off the collection.
Pursuant to a previous decision that ordered Iran to pay the
victims more than $400 million based on its sponsorship of Hamas —
the U.S. court concluded that the university cannot protect
Iran’s ownership rights to the tablets.
That paves the way for the plaintiffs to confiscate them.
Iranian officials did not show up in court — a factor that
weighed heavily against them in the court’s reasoning. But they
protested as soon as news of the verdict emerged.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki threatened to
retaliate if the ruling is implemented and the tablets are seized.
Other officials expressed outrage, too, saying they will
appeal to the International Court of Justice, UNESCO, and other
international bodies.
Iranian embassies around the world condemned the ruling,
which they say violates international norms and regulations.
Last week, Iranian government spokesman Gholam Hussein Elham
vowed that Iran would not permit its cultural heritage to be seized.
"Through [Iran’s] legal actions and the efforts of all
Iranians abroad, Iran’s cultural heritage will be snatched from
the claws of those who are not committed to any principles," Elham
said.
About 3,000 Iranians living outside the country have signed a
petition calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to step in to reverse the
ruling. They argue that the Iranian people should not be punished for
"whatever the Islamic regime of Iran is doing in the international
arena."
Alizadeh warns that implementing the U.S. court’s
decision could put museums at risk "by people who are trying to
profit from tragedies."
"These tablets belong to a [whole] nation. And any government
in power at any given time — now, in the future, or in the past —
is merely the custodian of these tablets, not the owner," Alizadeh
says. "Therefore you cannot seize them from the Iranian government —
or you would have to take the people of Iran to court, which is
impossible. But if the court disregarded these arguments and ruled in
favor of the plaintiffs, then all of the world’s museums would be
in danger."
Iranian Vice President Esfandiar Rahim Moshaei heads
Iran’s Cultural Heritage Organization. He warns that the U.S.
decision could endanger cultural exchanges at scientific centers
around the globe.
Moshaei says he expects cultural and scientific institutions
and organizations to oppose the ruling.
Alizadeh says the case has come as a surprise to many.
"When you speak to those who are involved in these issues,
they can’t believe this case has gone so far," Alizadeh says.
"And as far as I’ve heard, this case will have no chance in the
next court session."
The director of the University of Chicago’s Oriental
Institute, Gil Stein, has stated in a letter to Iranian officials
that the institute remains committed to safeguarding the Persepolis
tablets.
Stein called the tablets "every bit as unique and important
as the original document of the Constitution of the United States."
Reports suggest his institute will appeal last month’s ruling.
On July 10, Iran’s state news agency, IRNA, quoted UNESCO
Director-General Koichiro Matsuura as suggesting that the U.S. court
decision was "illegal."
Iranian officials have announced that they intend to hire
experienced U.S. legal advice to seek the return of the tablets.
(Golnaz Esfandiari)
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Copyright (c) 2006. RFE/RL, Inc. All rights reserved.
The "RFE/RL Iran Report" is a weekly prepared by A. William Samii on
the basis of materials from RFE/RL broadcast services, RFE/RL
Newsline, and other news services. It is distributed every Monday.
Direct comments to A. William Samii at [email protected].
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