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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Iranian senior cleric dies from coronavirus as president says infections peak has passed

2020-03-17

[THEBAGHDADPOST] A senior Iranian holy man has died from coronavirus ...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men... as the country continues to battle the pandemic, which has killed more people in Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... to date than any other country outside of China and Italia. Ayatollah Hashem Bathaei-Golpaygani died Monday, according to multiple Iranian news outlets. The 79-year-old holy man was a member of Iran's Assembly of Experts, the body that chooses the country's supreme leader‐currently Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ...the very aged actual dictator of Iran, successor to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini... Bathaei-Golpaygani was taken to the Shahid Beheshti Hospital in the city of Qom to the south of Tehran on Saturday. Despite treatment, he passed away on Monday morning, Mehr News Agency ...And if you can't believe Mehr News Agency who can you believe?... reported. The chairman of the Assembly of Experts, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, said his late colleague had "devoted his life to serving the Islamic establishment, promoting the teachings of the Prophet and lecturing in seminary and university." The speaker of the Iranian parliament, Ali Larijani, also expressed his sadness at the news. He said Bathaei-Golpaygani had been devoted to "compiling valuable intellectual and religious works, and educating students" in his role. Iran has been one of the nations worst affected by coronavirus. The Iranian health ministry said Monday the number of confirmed cases had risen to 14,991 with 853 deaths. The pandemic has taken hold at every level of Iranian society, infecting and killing normal citizens as well as senior regime officials.

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Europe

Europe demand for more talks does not help Iran nuclear deal, cleric says

2018-09-05

[AlAhram] Europe ...also known as Moslem Lebensraum... is not helping preserve the agreement on Iran's nuclear programme by asking for additional negotiations on issues like missiles, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, a powerful anti-Western holy man, said Tuesday, according to the Islamic Theocratic Republic News Agency. Jannati is the head of the Assembly of Experts, an influential body that can select and dismiss the supreme leader, the highest authority in Iran. Last week, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Tehran should be ready to negotiate on its future nuclear plans, its ballistic missile arsenal and its role in wars in Syria and Yemen. Iran's foreign ministry rejected the idea. President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... pulled the United States out of a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers in May and is re-imposing sanctions on Tehran. The other parties to the accord - China, Russia, Britannia, La Belle France and Germany- are trying to find ways to save the agreement. "Europe has announced that they won’t leave the deal," Jannati said, according to IRNA. "In practice, by bringing up a discussion of missiles and other issues they are not following an appropriate path." Last month, the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... decided to provide 18 million euros ($21 million) in aid to Iran to offset the impact of U.S. sanctions, part of efforts to salvage the deal.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Iranian cleric praises atom talks, signals shift

2012-04-20

Analysts point to change in strategy, say Iranian leaders may be paving the way and preparing their public for a deal with West. An influential Iranian cleric praised recent nuclear talks between Iran and world powers on Friday, the latest in a series of positive statements from senior figures that analysts said could signal Tehran is softening its stance. Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, secretary of the powerful Guardian Council, said the talks showed "success and progress" but added Tehran would break off the negotiations if Western countries carried on imposing sanctions while negotiating.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Head of Iran's Guardians Council Now The Principal Butt Of Jokes

2012-01-25

Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, the head of the powerful Guardians Council, is Iran’s oldest man. No one knows when he was born. He is said to have been on planet Earth before all of us, even before Adam and Eve..." That's the gist of numerous jokes that are making the rounds about the senior cleric who is in his mid- eighties. “Jannati has a copy of the Torah signed by Moses,” is how one joke goes. Another one has Jannati speaking to scientists: "For you the Big Bang is just a theory," he says. "For me it's a memory.” In a similar vein, another joke has Ayatollah Jannati talking to the Fars news agency about his memories of the extinction of the dinosaurs. The jokes seem to be a reaction to Jannati’s three decades on Iran’s political scene and his status as one of the country’s key players. As the chairman of the Guardians Council since 1988, Jannati has played an active role in banning any attempt at political reform and disqualifying reformist and liberal election candidates. Sociologist Saeed Peivandi believes the continuation of Jannati's “negative role” and his disconnectedness with the realities of Iran and its young population are among the main reasons for the many jokes making fun of his age.

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Arabia

Hardline Iranian Cleric: Saudi 'Pharaoh' will have Same Fate of Mubarak

2011-11-26

[An Nahar] Soddy Arabia's ruling al-Saud dynasty should give up power, a hardline senior Iranian holy man said Friday, warning that the fate of Egypt's toppled president Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... awaits King of the Arabians, Sheikh of the Burning Sands #65;bdullah ... Fifth out of 37 sons of King Abdulaziz to ascend to the throne. He is, after his half-brothers Bandar and Musa'id, the third eldest of the living sons of Abdul Aziz ibn Saud. Abdullah's mother is from the Rashid clan, longtime rivals of the Saud. He has 6 sons and 15 daughters and about $20 billion. His youngest son is just seven years old... "You should give up power and leave it to the people. They will establish a people's government," Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati said in the weekly Moslem prayers at Tehran University. "It is better for the al-Saud to awaken. The fate of the Egyptian pharaoh (Hosni Mubarak) and that of the (fallen) strongmen in Libya and Tunisia, ultimately, awaits the Saudi pharaoh (King Abdullah)... You should be careful," he said, as worshippers chanted "Death to al-Saud." His remarks, broadcast on state radio, follow protests this week among the Shiite minority in Soddy Arabia's oil-rich east, resulting in four deaths since Sunday. Shiite activists in Arab states of the Gulf are frequently accused of having links with their co-religionists in the Islamic republic. On Wednesday, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal accused Iran of interfering in neighboring Gulf states. Tensions have heightened between Tehran and Riyadh following a U.S. allegations of an Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington, something Tehran has repeatedly denied. Another point of contention between the two has been the Saudi military intervention in March in the Sunni-ruled Gulf kingdom of Bahrain to help its government quash pro-democracy protests led by the Shiite majority there.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Iran cleric warns Egyptians of US plots

2011-02-19

[Iran Press TV] A senior Iranian holy man has praised the Egyptian Revolution against Western-backed geriatric President Hosni Mubarak, but warned against replacing a puppet leader with another. "Egyptian people felt humiliated for being a subsidiary to Israel and could not take it any longer and thus the youths took action," Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati said during a Friday sermon in Tehran, IRNA reported. Ayatollah Jannati criticized the "imprudent" US policy to adopt an ambiguous stance in support for Mubarak despite their better knowledge that the countdown had started for the dictator's rule. "Our concern is that lest only pawns might be replaced," he said, warning of an "enemy" plot to sweep new US puppet into power to parry the pro-democracy uprising in Egypt. "The Egyptians should listen to our message. Many such acts were carried out in our country but resistance and reliance on God stopped them all." The Iranian holy man expressed dismay at the Egyptian clergy's failure to "move ahead of people and side by side with them." Recalling the holy manal leadership in the 1979 Islamic theocracy in Iran, Ayatollah Jannati called on the Egyptian holy mans to play a more active role and have share in the formation of the government in-the-making. "Act like in Iran, do not sit on your hands," he urged. Tehran's interim Friday Prayers leader also criticized the Western-backed Arab leaders especially in Bahrain and Yemen. In January, a popular uprising in Tunisia sent President Zine El Abedine Ben Ali fleeing to Soddy Arabia after 23 years of authoritarian rule. Egyptians followed suit to oust geriatric President Hosni Mubarak -- widely viewed as Israel's closest regional ally. The revolutions have inspired popular protests in Bahrain, Jordan, Libya, Soddy Arabia, Yemen and other Arab and North African nations.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Israel, US nearing their fall: Jannati

2010-08-12

[Iran Press TV Latest] Israel and its main supporter, the US, are speeding toward their decline, while Islamic countries such as Iran and Turkey are rising, says a senior Iranian cleric. In a Wednesday meeting with Turkish Ambassador to Tehran Umit Yardim, secretary of the Guardian Council Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati urged Muslim countries "to unite, set aside their differences, use their vast potentials and not fear threats made by the US and its allies." "After suffering successive defeats over the past years from Lebanon's Hezbollah and Hamas, the Zionist regime (Israel) is seeking to take revenge on the resistance in Lebanon and Palestine," Fars News Agency quoted Ayatollah Jannati as saying. Ayatollah Jannati said the recent border clashes between Israeli and Lebanese soldiers were a move on the part of Tel Aviv to assess their readiness for a confrontation. "Despite such efforts, Hezbollah, the Lebanese government and people are united [when it comes to] resisting any assault by Israel." Yardim for his part said Turkey considers Iran a key player in the region and the world, and is interested in expanding ties in all sectors. "Cooperation between Iran and Turkey is essential to establishing peace, stability, welfare and security in the region and throughout the world," the Turkish envoy was quoted as saying.

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Iraq

Iran top cleric says dogs unclean as pets

2010-06-20

[Al Arabiya Latest] A senior Iranian cleric has decreed dogs are "unclean" and should not be kept as pets -- a move aimed at discouraging Western-style dog ownership in the Islamic state, a newspaper reported on Saturday. Dogs are considered "unclean" under Islamic tradition but, while relatively rare in Iran, some people do keep them as pets. By issuing a fatwa -- a religious ruling -- Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi has sent a clear message that this trend must stop. "Friendship with dogs is a blind imitation of the West," he was quoted as saying in Javan daily. "There are lots of people in the West who love their dogs more than their wives and children." Guard dogs and sheep dogs are considered acceptable under Islamic law but Iranians who carry dogs in their cars or take them to public parks can be stopped by police and fined. The Quran does not explicitly prohibit contact with dogs, Shirazi said, but Islamic tradition showed it to be so. "We have lots of narrations in Islam that say dogs are unclean." The interpretation of religious rules on personal conduct is a constant source of debate and potential conflict in Iran which has been an Islamic republic since a revolution ousted the Western-backed Shah in 1979. In a television interview last week, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad weighed in on the issue of the Islamic dress code, saying women who fail to cover their hair completely should not be harassed by the police. Morality police are conducting their annual crackdown and women who reveal strands of hair are liable to be stopped in the streets for failing to respect the dress code, or "hijab". Ahmadinejad's surprisingly liberal view was condemned by fellow hardliner politicians and senior clerics "I wish he had not said those words about the hijab," Grand Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati told the faithful during the week's Friday prayers, in a rare criticism of the president. "We are grappling with many problems including economic and political ones but the issues of morality and ethical security are among the important issues that cannot be ignored," he said. Tehran University has set up a think-tank "to investigate the problems related to hijab", the representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to the university announced on Monday.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Iranian Cleric Defends Earthquake-Promiscuity Link

2010-05-15

[Asharq al-Aswat] A prominent hard-line Iranian cleric elaborated on his claim that promiscuity and immodest dress cause earthquakes, saying Friday that God may be holding off on natural disasters in the West in order to let people sin more and doom themselves to hell. The cleric, Kazem Sedighi, sparked widespread derision with his pronouncements in a prayer sermon last month that women who don't dress modesty spread adultery in society, in turn increasing earthquakes. In Tehran's main weekly prayer sermon on Friday, he defended the claim but added some further explanation on why some places are hit more than others. "Some ask why (more) earthquakes and storms don't occur in the Western world, which suffers from the slime of homosexuality, the slime of promiscuity and has plunged up to the neck" in immorality, he said. "Who says they don't occur? Storms take place in the U.S. and other parts of the world. We don't say committing sin is the entire reason but it's one of the reasons," he said. But, he said, "sometimes, God tests a nation. ... (God says) if believers sin, We slap them because We love them and give them calamity in order to stop their bad deeds." "And those who have provoked God's wrath, He allows them (to commit sins) so that they go to the bottom of hell," Sedighi said. Iran is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has warned that a quake is certain to hit Tehran and that many of its 12 million inhabitants should relocate. Tehran straddles scores of fault lines, though it has not suffered a major quake since 1830. Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, another prominent hard-line cleric, urged Iranians last month to give alms and pray for forgiveness to prevent earthquakes. Hours later, four small earthquakes struck different corners of Iran.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Iran to hang nine more over election turmoil

2010-02-03

[Al Arabiya Latest] Iran said on Tuesday it would soon hang nine more rioters over the unrest that erupted after the June presidential vote, and the leader of the opposition said such repression showed the 1979 Islamic revolution had failed. "Nine others will be hanged soon. The nine, and the two who were hanged on Thursday, were surely arrested in the recent riots and had links to anti-revolutionary groups," said senior judiciary official Ebrahim Raisi, the semi-official Fars news agency reported. The two men hanged last week were among a group of 11 people sentenced to death on charges including "waging war against God" and being members of armed groups. Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, said on Tuesday the repression showed the 1979 Islamic revolution that overthrew the U.S.-backed Shah "had not achieved its goals". The ex-premier, once rated as a key pillar of the Islamic revolution, added in a strongly worded interview posted on his website Kaleme.org that present day Iran showed the "attitude of a historic tyrant regime everywhere." "Filling the prisons and brutally killing protesters show that the root of ... dictatorship remain from the monarchist era," he said. "Dictatorship in the name of religion is the worst kind. The most evident manifestation of a continued tyrannical attitude is the abuse of parliament and judiciary. We have completely lost hope in the judiciary," he added. Mousavi also slammed influential cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati for praising the hangings and for urging the judiciary on Friday to execute more. "The cruel cleric praises the judiciary for the hangings despite serious concerns over the methods used for getting confessions from detainees," Mousavi said. Eight people, including a nephew of Mousavi, were killed in demonstrations during the Shiite ritual of Ashura on Dec. 27 and officials said over 1,000 were arrested. "The 'green movement' will not abandon its peaceful fight ... until people's rights are preserved," Mousavi told the Kalemeh website. "Peaceful protests are Iranians' right."

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Iranian cleric: More opposition should be executed

2010-01-29

Barack Obama's Iran Outstretched Hand holds a hangman's noose. A senior hard-line Iranian cleric has called for more activists to be executed to silence anti-government protests, a day after two men were hanged. Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati says in a Friday prayer sermon that the clerical leadership's opponents must be killed "for the sake of God" and that Islam permits rulers to execute "hypocrites." I'm guessing 308 million Americans minus ~2 million are also included in this category. He also praises the hanging on Thursday of two men who were accused of belonging to armed groups aiming to topple the ruling system. Nine other people arrested in the heavy crackdown against opposition protests have been sentenced to death, according to officials. Massive protests erupted after disputed presidential elections on June 12, and hundreds have been arrested.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Iran cleric urges 'strong action against rioters'

2010-01-02

Senior Iranian cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati on Friday called on the judiciary to deal much more strongly with rioters. "The judiciary system should act with more speed in dealing with rioters [who took part in illegal rallies]," said Ayatollah Jannati, who led the Friday prayers in Tehran. Jannati's remarks come in the wake of anti-government protests during Ashura ceremonies marking the anniversary of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein (PBUH). Police used tear gas to disperse the protesters who used the religious ceremony to chant slogans against top government officials, vandalize public property, and set fire to trashcans. Seven people were confirmed dead during the unrest. Confirming the deaths, Deputy Police Chief Ahmad-Reza Radan said the force had not used violence against protesters, rejecting any involvement in the killings. The Guardian Council secretary said the Iranian people respect the laws and guidelines set by Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei "because they want to restore peace in the country." "However, the Islamic establishment in Iran will not tolerate any attempt to undermine Islam." Ayatollah Jannati called for the immediate arrest and trial of rioters. He said the rioters are clear examples of those who deserve the harshest punishment for desecrating Islamic beliefs. He added that US plots against the Islamic Republic over the past 30 years were aimed at undermining Islam and the revolution. He said the recent unrest was part of a plot hatched by Iran's enemy and stressed that all such efforts were doomed to failure. Ayatollah Jannati said that the Iranian nation has proved that it will strongly stand against any effort to harm the Islamic Revolution.

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