Mardom-Salari , Iran
June 9 2011
Commentary:
Ahmadinezhad’s aide explains cancellation of Armenia trip: travel ban
for Ahmadinezhad’s entourage denied
[translated from Persian]
Ahmadinezhad’s aide Mojtaba Samareh-Hashemi talks less than his other
aides and his few words are usually given to denials of rumours and
reports. On Tuesday [7 June], he gave a brief explanation of the
cancellation of Ahmadinezhad’s trip to Armenia and adamantly denied
that this cancellation was because a few members of his entourage were
banned from travelling abroad.
ISNA [Iranian Students News Agency] reports this senior aide to the
president told correspondents after the cabinet meeting that the
reason for the president’s cancelled trip to Armenia was because the
documents for bilateral cooperation were not ready. In answer to a
question from a correspondent on whether this trip was cancelled
because a few of the people accompanying the president were banned
from travelling abroad, he denied this completely and said: “This trip
was postponed because the documents for bilateral negotiations were
not ready. Since this trip was supposed to be a fruitful trip, it was
postponed until the documents are ready.”
Mahmud Ahmadinezhad’s trip to Yerevan was supposed to take place on
the morning of Monday 16 Khordad [6 June]. It was announced that this
trip was being made to strengthen and deepen relations between the two
countries. In this one-day trip that was being made in response to the
trip of his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sargsyan’s and was supposed to
include visits and talks with the president and other officials of
Armenia. Therefore it is unclear what Samareh-Hashemi meant by
cooperation documents! This trip was suddenly cancelled on the same
day (16 Khordad) and the president’s office announced that it with the
agreement of both sides the trip will be postponed to a future date.
On the same day, Ramin Mehmanparast said in answer to a question on
the reasons for the postponement of Ahmadinezhad’s trip to Armenia:
“As two neighbours, the Islamic Republic of Iran and Armenia have good
relations. In addition to neighbourly relations, there are continuous
interactions between officials of both countries, which is why
Ahmadinezhad’s trip to Armenia was planned in response to the recent
trip to Tehran by this country’s president to hold bilateral talks and
sign cooperation accords. With the agreement of both sides, this trip
was postponed to a later date because more time was needed to organize
and finalize the documents and the date will be announced soon.”
However, the Fararu website reported that, even though the Foreign
Ministry has said the reason for the cancellation of this trip is
organizing documents, an informed source who did not want to be
identified told this site that Ahmadinezhad’s trip was cancelled
because two members of his delegation were banned from leaving the
country. This news came out at a time when previously there were
reports on the need to arrest, or the imminent arrest of, the leaders
of the deviated trend in the government. After the arrest of 25 people
in this deviated group, including those who claimed sorcery, the
deputy commander of the Guard Corps [Islamic Revolution Guards Corps;
IRGC] political office referred to the events in relation to Masha’i
and the arrest of people connected to him. He said: “Masha’i has not
been arrested; only some people who had connections to an
insignificant trend at the Office of the President were arrested.”
After these developments, the representative of Vali-e Faqih [guardian
of the jurisconsult] and Kashan Friday prayer imam made statements
which were denied by the Guards Corps and the office of the leader.
Also, following the warnings by Mesbah Yazdi about the leader of the
deviated trend and the threat of this group to Islam, Qasem
Ravanbakhsh, one of Mesbah’s students, said in an interview with Ya
Lesarat [newspaper] that Masha’i is a very dangerous person like
Mohammad Ali Bab. Ya Lesarat wrote that Qasem Ravanbakhsh referred to
the warning by Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi and said: “The threat of Masha’i
is at the level of Mohammad Ali Bab, because he believes in direct
contact with Imam Zaman [12th Shiite Imam, who is believed to be
hidden]. However, there is one worry and that is in the future the
president may appoint Masha’i to hold government responsibilities.”
Stating that Masha’i is a freemason and must be arrested, he said:
“One of the principles of freemasonry is humanism. This can be seen in
Masha’i’s speeches and unfortunately also has affected the contents of
the president’s speech. I am referring to Mr Ahmadinezhad’s speech at
the opening ceremony of the Book Exhibition, where in a short speech
he referred many times to the term humanism and his previous
references to Islamic rule are being repeated.”
In Ahmadinezhad’s speech on 13 Khordad [3 June] people many times
changed slogans in opposition to Ahmadinezhad’s chief of staff and
chants of “death to… ” were heard. It is obvious that under these
circumstances when Ahmadinezhad’s trip to Armenia is suddenly
cancelled, the explanations of the Foreign Ministry’s spokesman will
not be accepted by the public and what the Fararu website has written
is more believable. Along with these reports, it is also strange that,
after the 10 days when Ahmadinezhad did not attend cabinet meetings
and the revelations about the deviated trend inside the government
emerged, Ahmadinezhad’s domestic and foreign trips have been reduced
so much in the past one and a half months. Why was preparing documents
not so hard in the past and did not cause delays?