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Recent Appearances... Rantburg

Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Ahmadinejad served Israels interests: Karroubi
2010-06-10
[Al Arabiya Latest] A year after hundreds of thousands of Iranians poured onto the streets to protest President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election on June 12, 2009, the Persian section of alarabiya.net held an exclusive interview with Iranian reformist and opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi, who has been distinguished along the past year with his frankness and strictness in refusing the legitimacy of Ahmadinejad and in revealing the torture to which the detainees were exposed to in Iran's prisons.

Karroubi, who is one of the leading reformist trio in Iran that includes Mirhossein Mausavi and former president Mohammed Khatami, alleged that the detained protesters have been savagely raped in Iran's prisons.

Karroubi, who was a presidential candidate in 2009 election, chaired the Martyrs Association that took care of the families of martyrs of the Iraq-Iran war and the revolution. He was also a former parliament speaker.

The interview went as follows:

*Mr Karroubi, less than a month from now, the Green Movement will be a year old, you and Mr Mousavi announced in February that you would determine the strategy of the Green Movement and inform the people about it. Could you please explain this strategy?

There is a small introduction and it is that the regime made the issue so complicated and intricate. The basis for this Movement was protesting [last June's] election results. But it was also about other election results, because in recent years intractable forces had existed during other elections too. This recent election led to an explosion of the massive demonstrations and the people's protests. This is why the people's slogan was "Give our votes back." This is what we wanted too, as well as the formation of a trusted committee to examine the elections because we believes that if it were to be examined accurately and impartially, the election would have been annulled.

The fraud in this election was so monumental that no amount of reasoning could explain it. Therefore at the heart of our Movement was the election fraud and the fact that we must try to hold fair and free elections.

Unfortunately, because of the special events, the pressures and the imprisonments, up until now we have not dealt with the question of strategies in order to prevent an increase in the number of arrests. But at the very minimum, our demands are [an implementation] of the constitution which states that we can have free press and newspapers as well as the freedom to assemble without arms. We have made a request for holding free elections. This is the essence of our protest movement.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran hardliners protest outside Karroubis house
2010-03-16
[Al Arabiya Latest] A group of hardliners besieged the Tehran home of opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi, shouting death slogans and calling for him to be put on trial, reports said on Monday.

The Fars news agency identified the small but vocal crowd which gathered on Sunday outside the building where Karroubi lives as "students and families of martyrs" of the Iran-Iraq war.

Pictures carried by the pro-government Borna news agency showed the building had been defaced with red coloring and slogans pronouncing "Death to Karroubi" had been scribbled on the walls.

The walls had also been plastered with death slogans against main opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi and former president Mohammed Khatami.

"We want the judiciary to put the leaders of sedition on trial as soon as possible," Fars quoted the protesters as saying. They also denounced Karroubi as a "hypocrite" -- the term used by Iranian officials for the enemies of state.

Some brandished placards that read "Karroubi is a Mossad agent" -- linking the two-time former parliament speaker to the intelligence service of Iran's arch foe Israel.

A relative of Karroubi confirmed the incident to AFP and said the cleric would soon make a statement.

Karroubi and Mousavi have led a protest movement against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after his June re-election, which they reject as massively rigged.

Karroubi was attacked by hardliners during Iran's annual revolution day rally on Feb. 11 and his car was shot at earlier in January in the city of Qazvin west of Tehran.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Police attack Iran reformists on Revolution Day
2010-02-12
[Al Arabiya Latest] Iran's security forces attacked a number of reformist leaders, including Mehdi Karroubi and ex-president Mohammed Khatami on Thursday as Iranians mark the 31 anniversary of the Islamic revolution, opposition websites reported.

Karroubi's son Hossein told AFP that his father was "not injured but his guards who were accompanying him were."

"They (police and plainclothes men) fired tear gas and were brandishing knives when they clashed with our supporters" before the cleric reached western Tehran's Sadeghieh square from where he was supposed to join the marches.

Rahesabz website reported that also ex-president Khatami's brother Mohammad Reza and his wife were arrested by security forces.

Security forces detained the granddaughter of late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and her husband, the Jaras opposition website reported.

Zahra Eshraqi and her husband Mohammad Reza Khatami, a brother of reformist former president Khatami, were detained during rallies marking the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution, the website reported.

State television showed footage of men, women and children carrying banners reading "Death to America! Death to Israel!" as they headed to Azadi (Freedom) Square in southwest Tehran to mark the day the U.S.-backed shah was toppled in 1979.
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Bits about Iran
2009-07-02
Three of Iran's most prominent opposition leaders flagrantly courted arrest yesterday by denouncing President Ahmadinejad's Government as illegitimate, one day after the regime said that it would tolerate no more challenges to the election result.

Mir Hossein Mousavi, the former Prime Minister who lost the election said that he was forming a political group to defend citizens' rights and votes, which suggested that he is preparing a campaign of resistance against Mr Ahmadinejad and his patron, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader. He still has powerful supporters including two former presidents, Mr Khatami and Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Ali Larijani, the parliamentary speaker. Ayatollah Mohammed Khatami, 65, a popular former President, accused the regime of mounting a "velvet revolution against the people and democracy" and called the security crackdown "poisonous". Mehdi Karroubi, 72, another defeated presidential candidate, said that "visible and invisible forces blocked any change in the executive power". He added: "I will continue the fight under any circumstances and using every means." The regime responded by shutting down his newspaper.

One Iranian analyst expressed astonishment at their audacity. "It looks like they're trying to become living martyrs," he said. "At the very least they will be put under house arrest. At worst they will be taken to jail and charged with threatening national security."

Forced from the streets by the security forces, Mr Mousavi's supporters are also preparing a campaign of civil disobedience. They are talking of strikes, boycotting goods advertised in the state-controlled media, moving money out of government-controlled banks and giving money directly to the needy instead of government-controlled charities.
That last would actually be felt by President Ahmadinejad and his supporters among the mullahs.
Analysts say that anger will grow and could erupt at football matches, prayer meetings or anywhere that large numbers gather. They say that opposition supporters will go underground and stage lightning demonstrations. They also expect some elements to start launching violent attacks on government targets.

In a possible sign of the regime's anxiety Mr Ahmadinejad abruptly cancelled a visit to Libya for an African Union summit yesterday.
That last bit may actually be meaningful information. After all, didn't Mr. Ahmadinejad run off to some meeting in Russia when things started getting interesting back home?
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iranian mob attacks moderate ex-president Mohammed Khatami on anniversary
2009-02-10
Iran’s former president was set upon by an angry stick-wielding mob today amid celebrations of the 30th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution on the streets of Tehran.

The attack on Mohammed Khatami came just two days after the reformist cleric announced he would be running against the hardline incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June's presidential elections.

Mr Khatami, then a little known cleric, came to global attention when he was elected to the presidency in 1997, capturing almost 70 per cent of the vote. Succeeded in 2005 by Mr Ahmadinejad, he blamed hardline elements in the clerical establishment for obstructing his reformist agenda.

During the revolutionary celebrations, attackers waving sticks approached the cleric, shouting “Death to Khatami. We do not want American government.”

According to Mr Khatami’s Baran Foundation, the attackers were repelled by his own supporters, who chanted, “Khatami, Khatami, we support you.”

Mr Khatami was escorted from the street by his bodyguards who took him to shelter in a nearby building.

The attack emerged as Mr Ahmadinejad led Iran in its celebrations by hinting at a softening of relations towards the US.

The President – internationally isolated because of his country's nuclear ambitions, sponsorship of Hezbollah and Hamas and threats towards Israel – said that he was ready for talks, but only if US policy changes dramatically.

"It is clear that the change [by Obama] must be fundamental and not tactical," the Iranian leader said, in a speech in Tehran. "The Iranian nation will welcome true changes and is ready for dialogue in a climate of equality and mutual respect."

However, cloaking his new rhetoric with threats to respond if the Obama Administration follows the policies of his predecessor, he added: "The world does not want the dark era of (former President Bush) to be repeated. If some people seek to repeat that experience... they should know they will face a much worse fate than that of Bush."

Iran's political system is a combination of theocracy and democratic republic, with the country holding elections for the presidency and Parliament. However, its clerics and – ultimately – its Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, decide on the candidates and disqualify those considered contrary to Islamic values.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Why Ahmadinejad Fears Khatami
2008-12-19
The Islamic Republic in Iran is facing "a sinister international conspiracy" designed to "replace religious rule with secularism." The plot was allegedly hatched by a "secret society of Freemasons" known as the Bilderberg Group whose members include many of the Western world's richest and most powerful businessmen and politicians.
Oh, man, not the Bilderberg Group.
You people are screwed. Don't even try to resist. They'll just enjoy it more.
The alleged conspiracy was finalized at a secret meeting of the group in June 1999 in Caesar Park Hotel in the Portuguese resort of Penha Longa. Inside Iran, the executors of the "plot" included the so-called Reform Movement symbolized by former President Mohammed Khatami who attended the meeting along with his then assistant on environmental affairs Mrs. Massoumeh Ebtekar.
Were you followed?
I'm...not sure.
Dammit! This is not a game, Mr. Khatami!
The so-called Bilderberg "lodge" is often described by conspiracy theorists as "the secret government of the world".

According to the report published by IRNA, the "plot" included building up Abdul-Karim Sorush, a self-styled philosopher and erstwhile Khatami protégé, as "the Martin Luther of Islam" with a message of separating religion from politics. They also tried to "transform Khatami into an Islamic [version of Mikhail] Gorbachev."

Wow! A tall story from the rumor-mills in the marshlands of the Internet?

Not at all. The claim comes in a lengthy report published by the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), the official organ of the Khomeinist regime in Tehran.
Oh. Well. Glad it didn't come from the marshlands of the Internet...
The claim is worth noting for two reasons. The first is that it is presented by the official organ of the state. Claims that the former president had a part in foreign plots against the regime have been made by radical Khomeinist groups and websites since 2005 when Khatami's eight-year presidency ended. However, this is the first time that such a claim is given prominence by mainstream organs of the regime.
I got your organ. Right here...
The accusation was first published by the mass-circulation daily newspaper Kayhan whose Editor-in-Chief is appointed by the "Supreme Guide" Ali Khamenei. The paper, which has promised "more sensational revelations", has often been used for character-assassination campaigns against critics of the regime, and makes no secret of its dislike for Khatami and his supposedly "reformist" supporters. Putting the claims on IRNA, however, marks a new step in the campaign against Khatami.

The second reason why the episode is worth noting is that it indicates a dramatic intensification of the power struggle in Tehran. The radical revolutionary groups led by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are beginning to fear a possible Khatami candidacy in next June's presidential elections.

However, before we deal with the political implications of the campaign let us first deal with its substance.

Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as the Bilderberg Group or Masonic lodge. What we have is an annual private meeting of influential individuals, mostly from Europe and the United States, designed to generate free discussions on a range of issues without a pre-set agenda and according to the so-called Chatam House rules under which there are no reports of the proceedings and none of the participants could be quoted by name.
"There is no such thing as the Bilderberg Group or Masonic lodge."
Yeah. You keep thinking that...
The first meeting was held at Hotel de Bilderberg near Arnhem in Holland in 1954 at the invitation of Prince Bernhard, the husband of the then Queen Juliana. The number of guests was fixed at 130 and initially only limited to politicians, academics and business people from member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Later, the meeting extended its reach and started inviting personalities from all over the world, according to which countries happened to be in the news. The invitations were designed to include two representatives from each country, one liberal and one conservative.
...and any interplanetary aliens that happen to be in town.
Over the past half a century, almost anybody who was somebody in international business or politics has made at least one appearance at the group's annual meetings. Thus, if this were a gathering of conspirators we would have to assume that virtually the whole of the global leadership elite consists of Masonic plotters. Last June, for example, Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both attended the Bilderberg meeting along with more than 60 other political figures from across the globe.
Where they received their orders from their Bilderberg puppetmasters...
From the late 1960s until 1977, a number of Iranian politicians, academics and business people attended one or more of the group's gatherings - always with the understanding that they were there as private individuals. However, no Iranians were invited after the Khomeinist seizure of power in 1979. That such invitations were resumed in 1999 indicated the hopes raised by Khatami that the Islamic Republic could close its revolutionary phase and return to the mainstream as a normal nation-state.

The IRNA campaign against Khatami shows that those hopes were premature. Even if one assumes that Khatami was sincere in his desire to normalize the Islamic Republic, the election of President Ahmadinejad showed that a majority of Khomeinists who provide the regime's support-base reject such change.

Nevertheless, the question has not gone away.

Many within the Khomeinist establishment realize that a majority of Iranians are tired of Khomeinism and desire normalization. The next presidential election, to be held in June, is likely to be fought on that issue. And Khatami is coming under pressure from inside and outside Iran to stand for election again, challenging Ahmadinejad's radicalism with a message of reform and moderation.

The IRNA report shows that the radical factions fear a Khatami candidacy and are trying to terrorize him into not becoming a candidate. As always, the Khomeinists shun serious arguments. They prefer accusing their critics of atheism, secularism or, as in this case, collaboration with foreign conspiracies.

The tactic may work against Khatami who has never been much of a fighter. But even if Khatami does not enter the presidential race, the main question will remain: how should Iran come out of the impasse created by a bankrupt ideology?
The Bilderberg Group will make Ahmadinejad their new shoeshine boy. Mark my words...
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Ahmadinejobless
2007-12-12
By Monica Maggioni

Iran’s radical president is sinking fast, and he knows it. Now, there’s only one man who can keep Mahmoud Ahmadinejad out of the unemployment line: George W. Bush.

In Tehran, the mood is quickly shifting. And it’s easy to feel it every time you stop to buy a newspaper, have a coffee, or wait in line at the grocery store. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s star is fading fast.

Since his election in June 2005, Iranians have had conflicted feelings about their president. At first, he evoked interest and curiosity. And there were great expectations from this humble man who was promising economic reform, an anticorruption campaign, and a rigid moral scheme for daily life. Then came fear—when Ahmadinejad began to destroy any chance of good relations with the outside world.

But today in Iran, laughter is supplanting fear. Mocking the president has become a pastime not only for rebellious university students, but also members of the establishment and the government itself.

Behind the high walls of Iranian palaces or in the quiet of Tehran’s parks, Iranian elites will indulge in a quick laugh about the president’s intelligence or his populist bombast. Jokes about his résumé are especially popular. Many refer to his “Ph.D. in traffic” or his letter last May to U.S. President George W. Bush, in which he proclaimed, “I am a teacher.”

The jokes—and who is delivering them—tell the story of a man whose power is on the decline as Iran’s economy collapses around him. Prices for basic goods are skyrocketing, and the government is unable to cope with increasing poverty. Just last month, over 50 Iranian economists sent an open letter excoriating the president’s mismanagement of the economy.

For each public gathering, his loyalists must now arrange hundreds of buses from the remotest and poorest regions of the country. The president’s rented crowds shuffle off the buses for an hour or two and then enjoy Tehran sightseeing, lunch, and dinner paid for by Ahmadinejad’s inner circle in the administration.

Perhaps the best evidence of the president’s decline, though, is the single-digit support obtained by his party in last December’s administrative elections. A personal defeat for Ahmadinejad, the loss reduced his base of support to an elite minority inside the powerful, hard-line Revolutionary Guards, also known as the Pasdaran. It’s this same minority that struggles against any attempt to open Iran’s economy and political system; with their extensive oil holdings, they are unperturbed by the country’s isolation or its economic woes. But even inside the Pasdaran, one can find distinct viewpoints and conflicting interests, which is why Ahmadinejad’s political stronghold is far from secure.

In fact, there are already signs that his job is in jeopardy. Tehran is rife with speculation that Ali Larijani, who is now widely seen as positioning himself for the post-Ahmadinejad era, and Mohammed Baqer Qalibaf, who competed against Ahmadinejad in 2005 and is still popular with members of both conservative and reformist camps, are already working to undermine the president. The next presidential elections are scheduled for June 2009. As a pragmatic conservative and one of Iran’s most prominent politicians, Larijani in particular is likely to do well. To be sure, he is no reformist along the lines of Ahmadinejad’s charismatic predecessor, Mohammed Khatami; in fact, Larijani was happy to see the reformists swept from the political scene following Ahmadinejad’s election. And as his tenacity as Iran’s top nuclear negotiator shows, he would be no shrinking violet on the international stage. At the same time, however, Larijani fairly drips with disdain for his boss, a president he sees as devoid of skill or rational stratagem in dealing with the rest of the world.

But it’s likely that Ahmadinejad’s power will decrease dramatically even before 2009. The elections for Iran’s parliament in March 2008 could represent a turning point if the majority inside the parliament shifts against him. Ahmadinejad still has a strong supporter in Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, who heads the 12-member Guardian Council that holds the political reins in Iran. The Council must clear all candidates for the presidency and parliament. But the Council itself is not monolithic, and it will be impossible to keep all the reformists and pragmatist conservatives out of the electoral race. But even if Ahmadinejad makes it through next spring, many analysts in the country are ready to bet that he won’t be reelected in 2009; the opposition is just too strong, and the economy will likely be in worse straits by that time.

In fact, the only thing that could save him now is the United States. Nobody knows this better than Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
And George Bush. While Monica doesn't realize it, GWB has done a pretty good job isolating Iran without giving Short Round any pretext to declear martial law (for example) or round up his opponents.
As his support within Iran has evaporated, he has cranked up the anti-American rhetoric, and the U.S. military has publicly accused the Pasdaran of arming insurgents in Iraq and even Afghanistan. At this point, the only way Ahmadinejad can revive his flagging fortunes is by uniting his country against an external threat. U.S. officials adamantly maintain that Washington is committed to using diplomacy to resolve the conflict over Iran’s nuclear program and its aggressive role in the region. Yet pressure is mounting in some branches of the Bush administration to take military action against Iran. That pressure should be resisted. For military action would give Mahmoud Ahmadinejad exactly what he wants most: job security.
Again, Bush knows this: we're waving the big stick with one hand and using the other to subvert Short Round quietly.

Monica Maggioni is a Middle East special correspondent for Italy’s RAI TV.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Realism isn't, when it comes to Iran
2006-12-05
Wall Street Journal house editorial

Realism is an academic theory that holds that nations should, and typically do, conduct foreign policy with greater regard for their interests than their values. But realism is also an ordinary word that tells us that good sense and experience are better practical guides to action than theory. That's a distinction worth bearing in mind as the Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group releases its report this week and we debate whether the U.S. should engage diplomatically with Iran.

To hear the so-called realists tell it, engaging Tehran is a matter of necessity and ought to be one of choice. Necessity, they say, because there will be no good outcome in Iraq--or Lebanon and Palestine--without Iranian acquiescence, which can only be achieved through face-to-face talks and confidence-building measures. Necessity, too, because they think that neither the U.S. nor Israel can stop Iran's nuclear ambitions militarily and so they must be dealt with as part of a broader negotiation.

Yet the same people who now call for engagement also believed in it long before the invasion of Iraq or the recent revelations about Iran's nuclear advances. They argue that Iran's pressing political and economic problems--the country's huge youth cohort, cleavages within the regime and its loss of popular legitimacy, ethnic and labor unrest and growing unemployment--mean the Islamic Republic has reasons of its own to come to the table. The same logic also suggests that the real purpose of its nuclear program is to serve as a bargaining chip to obtain bigger concessions from the West rather than as an end in itself.

But here's where realism of the common sense kind should intrude. Iran's domestic problems are hardly new and in some ways have been eased by the high oil prices of recent years. In 1997, Iranians "elected" a supposedly moderate president, Mohammed Khatami, on a reformist platform. As Iranian journalist Amir Taheri notes in the November Commentary magazine, the Clinton Administration sought to establish openings with the Khatami government by lifting some sanctions and apologizing for U.S. political meddling. President Clinton even planned an "accidental" encounter with Mr. Khatami during the U.N.'s millennium summit, but Iran's Supreme Guide Ali Khamenei canceled it at the last minute. The stood-up President "was left pacing the corridors of the U.N.," writes Mr. Taheri. . . .

Finally, there is the matter of values. One has to wonder about "engaging" a regime whose recent domestic practices include taking a razor to the tongue of labor leader Mansour Ossanloo, whose crime was to have organized an independent union for bus drivers. Realists would have us believe that a country that indulges such barbarism can still be expected to act as a predictable and, under certain conditions, reliable partner in diplomacy.

It's true that we also "engaged" the Soviet Union during the Cold War, but most successfully when Ronald Reagan also spoke candidly about Soviet reality and on behalf of Russian freedom and the U.S. resisted the Kremlin's global designs. We suppose in that sense the Gipper was an idealistic realist. President Bush has spoken repeatedly, in his major speeches and in interviews, about American support for Iranians who aspire to more freedom, which is one reason the U.S. is popular among the Iranian people. What message would it now send those Iranians if the U.S. turned around and embraced the rule of Tehran's mullahs?

We think it's simple realism to believe the fate of people like Mr. Ossanloo explains Iran's past behavior, and well predicts its future.
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Home Front: Politix
Mass Gov orders state gov agencies to decline support of Khatami's Sept 10 visit
2006-09-06
The day before......
Governor Mitt Romney today ordered all Massachusetts state government agencies to decline support, if asked, for former Iranian President Mohammed Khatami’s September 10 visit to the Boston area, where he is scheduled to speak at Harvard University. “State taxpayers should not be providing special treatment to an individual who supports violent jihad and the destruction of Israel,” said Romney.

Romney’s action means that Khatami will be denied an official police escort and other VIP treatment when he is in town. The federal government provides security through the U.S. State Department.

Romney criticized Harvard for honoring Khatami by inviting him to speak, calling it “a disgrace to the memory of all Americans who have lost their lives at the hands of extremists, especially on the eve of the five-year anniversary of 9/11.”

Said Romney: “The U.S. State Department listed Khatami’s Iran as the number one state sponsor of terrorism. Within his own country, Khatami oversaw the torture and murder of dissidents who spoke out for freedom and democracy. For him to lecture Americans about tolerance and violence is propaganda, pure and simple.”

Romney cited a litany of hateful actions by Khatami, including his support for violent jihadist activities:
  • During the period of time he was in office, from 1997 to 2005, Khatami presided over Iran’s secret nuclear program. Currently, the Iranian Government under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is snubbing the international community’s request to cease nuclear weapons production.
  • In the recent conflict along the Israel-Lebanon border, Khatami described the terrorist group Hezbollah as a “shining sun that illuminates and warms the hearts of all Muslims and supporters of freedom in the world.”
  • Khatami has endorsed Ahmadinejad’s call for the annihilation of Israel.
  • During Khatami’s presidency, Iran refused to hand over the Iranian intelligence officials who were responsible for the attack on the Khobar Towers that killed 19 U.S. military personnel.
  • In his own country, Khatami oversaw the torture and murder of Iranian students, journalists, and others who spoke out for freedom and democracy. Khatami relaxed freedom of speech laws giving democracy reformers a false sense of security only to engage in one of the largest crackdowns in the country’s history.
  • In Khatami’s Iran, there was no religious tolerance. According to the U.S. Office of International Religious Freedom, Iran was one of the worst offenders of religious persecutions. Minorities, such as Evangelicals, Jews, Catholics and others, have suffered.

    • “Khatami pretends to be a moderate, but he is not. My hope is that the United States will find and work with real voices of moderation inside Iran. But we will never make progress in the region if we deal with wolves in sheep’s clothing,” said Romney.
    This is good, but better yet: challenge Khatami everywhere he goes. Demonstrations. Protests. Courageous speakers who question the man openly. Let Khatami see what a real democracy is like.
    Link


    Syria-Lebanon-Iran
    Police in Tehran ordered to arrest women in 'un-Islamic' dress
    2006-04-29
    Iran's Islamic authorities are preparing a crackdown on women flouting the stringent dress code in the clearest sign yet of social and political repression under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

    From today police in Tehran will be under orders to arrest women failing to conform to the regime's definition of Islamic morals by wearing loose-fitting hijab, or headscarves, tight jackets and shortened trousers exposing skin.

    Offenders could be punished with £30 fines or two months in jail. Officers will also be authorised to confront men with outlandish hairstyles and people walking pet dogs, an activity long denounced as un-Islamic by the religious rulers.

    The clampdown coincides with a bill before Iran's conservative-dominated parliament proposing that fines for people with TV satellite dishes rise from £60 to more than £3,000. Millions of Iranians have illegal dishes, enabling them to watch western films and news channels.

    The dress purge is led by a Tehran city councillor, Nader Shariatmaderi, a close ally of Mr Ahmadinejad who helped to plot last year's election victory.

    Loosely arranged headscarves - exposing glamourous hairstyles - and shorter, tight-fitting overcoats (manteaus) became a symbol of the social freedoms that flourished under the reformist presidency of Mohammed Khatami.

    During his election campaign, Mr Ahmadinejad dismissed fears that his presidency might herald a forced reversal, saying Iran had more urgent problems.

    However, Mr Shariatmaderi denounced the trends as "damaging to revolutionary and Islamic principles". "We are looking for a social utopia to live in but in the last couple of months, our attention has wavered," he told fellow councillors. "In the present international situation, people must unite under known principles."

    The clampdown recalls the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic revolution, when women wearing lipstick were often confronted by female vigilantes wiping their faces clean with handkerchiefs, which were said to often conceal razor blades.

    The new campaign will hold taxi agencies accountable for their passengers' attire, police will be able to impound cabs carrying women dressed "inappropriately". Agencies guilty of repeat offences will be closed. Police have reportedly been stopping women motorists recently whose hijab was judged inadequate. Police have also raided fashion stores and seized brightly coloured manteaus.

    Tehran's police chief, Morteza Talai, said the campaign would try to clamp down on people making "the social environment insecure".

    Young women shopping in north Tehran's fashionable Tajrish neighbourhood yesterday, however, were uncowed. Matin, 24, a nurse, was wearing a gaudily patterned light-blue head scarf pushed back to reveal sunglasses and bleached blond hair. Her tight, short black manteau with intricate gold patterns seemed designed to provoke the ire of the authorities. But she was unrepentant. "I'm a married woman and it should be my husband who tells me what and what not to wear. He likes the way I dress," she said.

    Surprisingly, Narges Asgari, 20, a dressmaker wearing an all-encompassing black chador, was also critical. "I don't think people will listen because they want to take decisions themselves," she said. "Clothes depend on the culture of their families. I wear the chador because, in my family, it's something we accept."
    Link


    Syria-Lebanon-Iran
    Iranian police ordered to arrest women in "un-Islamic" dress
    2006-04-20
    Iran's Islamic authorities are preparing a crackdown on women flouting the stringent dress code in the clearest sign yet of social and political repression under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

    From today police in Tehran will be under orders to arrest women failing to conform to the regime's definition of Islamic morals by wearing loose-fitting hijab, or headscarves, tight jackets and shortened trousers exposing skin.

    Offenders could be punished with £30 fines or two months in jail. Officers will also be authorised to confront men with outlandish hairstyles and people walking pet dogs, an activity long denounced as un-Islamic by the religious rulers.

    The clampdown coincides with a bill before Iran's conservative-dominated parliament proposing that fines for people with TV satellite dishes rise from £60 to more than £3,000. Millions of Iranians have illegal dishes, enabling them to watch western films and news channels.

    The dress purge is led by a Tehran city councillor, Nader Shariatmaderi, a close ally of Mr Ahmadinejad who helped to plot last year's election victory.

    Loosely arranged headscarves - exposing glamourous hairstyles - and shorter, tight-fitting overcoats (manteaus) became a symbol of the social freedoms that flourished under the reformist presidency of Mohammed Khatami.

    During his election campaign, Mr Ahmadinejad dismissed fears that his presidency might herald a forced reversal, saying Iran had more urgent problems.

    However, Mr Shariatmaderi denounced the trends as "damaging to revolutionary and Islamic principles". "We are looking for a social utopia to live in but in the last couple of months, our attention has wavered," he told fellow councillors. "In the present international situation, people must unite under known principles."

    The clampdown recalls the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic revolution, when women wearing lipstick were often confronted by female vigilantes wiping their faces clean with handkerchiefs, which were said to often conceal razor blades.

    The new campaign will hold taxi agencies accountable for their passengers' attire, police will be able to impound cabs carrying women dressed "inappropriately". Agencies guilty of repeat offences will be closed. Police have reportedly been stopping women motorists recently whose hijab was judged inadequate. Police have also raided fashion stores and seized brightly coloured manteaus.

    Tehran's police chief, Morteza Talai, said the campaign would try to clamp down on people making "the social environment insecure".

    Young women shopping in north Tehran's fashionable Tajrish neighbourhood yesterday, however, were uncowed. Matin, 24, a nurse, was wearing a gaudily patterned light-blue head scarf pushed back to reveal sunglasses and bleached blond hair. Her tight, short black manteau with intricate gold patterns seemed designed to provoke the ire of the authorities. But she was unrepentant. "I'm a married woman and it should be my husband who tells me what and what not to wear. He likes the way I dress," she said.

    Surprisingly, Narges Asgari, 20, a dressmaker wearing an all-encompassing black chador, was also critical. "I don't think people will listen because they want to take decisions themselves," she said. "Clothes depend on the culture of their families. I wear the chador because, in my family, it's something we accept."
    Link


    Syria-Lebanon-Iran
    Iranian reformist confirms al-Qaeda in Iran, protected by IRGC
    2006-03-23
    One day after a US daily reported that American intelligence officials believe the Iranian regime is hosting al-Qaeda militants and allowing senior operatives to help plan the network's operations, an Iranian source close to the reformists confirmed the report to Adnkronos International (AKI). "With the victory of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad relations with al-Qaeda have been resumed and strengthened," said the source, who used to work for Iran's intelligence services under the government of Mohammed Khatami.

    The Los Angeles Times said US intelligence officials cited evidence from highly classified satellite feeds and electronic eavesdropping as proof that the recently elected Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may be forging an alliance with the terrorist network's operatives as a way to expand Iran's influence. The report said the president might also simply be looking the other way as al-Qaeda leaders in Iran cooperate with their counterparts abroad.

    According to the source consulted by AKI, around 100 members of the terrorist organisation are living in Iran under the protection of the Pasdaran, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps.

    Soleyman Abu Gaith, Seif al-Adel, Abdullah Mohammad Rajab, Abdulaziz al-Masri and Abu Mohammed al-Masri are men close to al-Qaeda currently in Iran, according to the United States. The former intelligence official told AKI the list also included "three children and two wives of Osama bin Laden." He also recalled that al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri recently visited the Islamic Republic "to meet with three envoys of Jordan's Abu Mussab al Zarqawi."

    Ties between Iran and al-Qaeda were highlighted by the US September 11 commission, which disclosed many details on possible connections in its final report. The commission said Iran and the terrorist group had worked together sporadically in the 1990s, reportedly trading secrets on how to make explosives.

    Many al-Qaeda operatives and family members, however, have reportedly lived in Iran since 2001, when they fled the US-led bombing of Afghanistan.

    Iran declared four months ago that no al-Qaeda members live in the country, though officials have in the past claimed that some members of the terror network are kept under house arrest and their activities monitored.
    Link



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