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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Iran jails Ahmadinejad’s vice president over graft

2018-03-14

[ARABNEWS] Iran on Tuesday placed in durance vile Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! Hamid Baghai, a vice president under former hard-liner Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad, following his conviction for corruption, media reports said. "Police officers apprehended and transferred the convict to prison," the Tehran prosecutor’s office said, cited by the Fars news agency. Baghai was sentenced in December to 15 years in jail for embezzlement and illegal business transactions. He is very close to Ahmadinejad, serving as his deputy before becoming chief of staff during the populist former president’s second term. The 48-year-old had been investigated for irregularities while in office and was imprisoned for seven months in 2015, although the reasons for this were never made public. Ahmadinejad and Baghai both hoped to stand in the May 2017 presidential election, but the conservative-dominated Guardians Council rejected their candidacy.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Rafsanjani Endorses Moderate Rowhani for Iran Presidency

2013-06-12

[An Nahar] Iranian ex-president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani ... the fourth President of Iran. He was a member of the Assembly of Experts until he was eased out in 2011 He continues, for the moment, as Chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council. In 2005 he ran for a third term as president, ultimately losing to rival Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was in Khamenei's graces back then. In 1980 Rafsanjani survived an assassination attempt, during which he was seriously injured. He has been described as a centrist and a pragmatic conservative without all that much reason. He is currently being eased out of any position of actual influence or power and may be dead by the end of 2012... backed Hassan Rowhani for Friday's presidential election, saying the former nuclear negotiator who champions better international ties is "more suitable" for the post. "I will vote for Dr Rowhani, who entered the race after consulting me," Rafsanjani said in remarks reported by the ILNA news agency on Tuesday. "I consider him to be more suitable to steer the executive branch," he said referring to the slate of five other hopefuls, most of whom are conservatives. It was the second major endorsement of the day for Rowhani, following that of reformist former president Mohammad Khatami, under whom he headed Iran's negotiations with the major powers on its nuclear program. Rowhani is facing stiff competition from the conservative camp, which has failed to field a single candidate. Tehran mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, ex-foreign minister Ali Akbar Velayati and former Revolutionary Guards commander Mohsen Rezai remain in the race to succeed President Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad. Mohammad Reza Aref, first vice president under Khatami and the only out and out reformist contender, dropped out of the competition on Tuesday. Rafsanjani's endorsement comes after his own candidacy was rejected last month by the hardline electoral watchdog, the Guardians Council, whose members are appointed by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, directly or indirectly. According to the ILNA report, Rafsanjani said his disqualification came after "a high-ranking security official, against the norms and law, attended the vetting meeting in the council." "The official said: 'Rafsanjani's presence in the election could lead to his decisive victory in a landslide'," the ex-president said of the meeting, without naming anyone. "The official then convinced the council to disqualify me on excuses of frailty," he said.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Iran Clerics Back Velayati for President

2013-06-10

[An Nahar] A leading Iranian conservative holy manal group has endorsed veteran diplomat Ali Akbar Velayati to succeed Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad in the June 14 presidential election, a media report said on Sunday. The Mehr news agency said a majority of members of the Qom Seminary Scholars Association at a meeting on Saturday gave their support to Velayati, quoting group chief Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, a former conservative head of the judiciary. The association is one of the two leading conservative holy manal groups in the holy city of Qom. The other, the Combatant Clerics Association, has yet to endorse one of the eight presidential candidates approved by the hardline electoral watchdog Guardians Council. Velayati, a former foreign minister for 16 years, is currently senior foreign policy adviser to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on all key issues in the Islamic republic. He pledges to repair strained relations with the international community if elected, and to shore up the struggling economy against Western economic sanctions imposed over Tehran's disputed nuclear drive. Considered a frontrunner in the presidential race, Velayati faces stiff competition from a number of candidates, including Iran's top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili. In a live televised debate on Friday, Velayati criticized Jalili's failure to make progress in talks with world powers on Iran's atomic program. "The current negotiations that are under way are definitely flawed," said Velayati, who says his diplomatic record will allow him to resolve the nuclear issue, by removing the sanctions and preserving Iran's nuclear "rights". Khamenei warned on Tuesday that the next president should avoid making concessions to the West. But he also insisted he will not throw his weight behind any candidate.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Iran Presidential Election TV Debate Fails to Inspire

2013-06-02

[An Nahar] Candidates in Iran's June 14 presidential election all agree that rampant inflation is the most pressing problem, but commentators Saturday bemoaned that in a first television debate none proposed real solutions. Press commentators accepted the complaints of several candidates that the Friday debate's format, which gave little scope for real discussion of issues, had not helped them present their policies. But with inflation topping 30 percent after a 70 percent fall in the value of the rial against the dollar sent the cost of imports soaring, editorial writers, analysts and ordinary viewers agreed that the presidential hopefuls needed to set out more substantial policies. The final eight candidates were approved by the Guardians Council, Iran's unelected electoral watchdog, from 686 who registered to stand. No women candidates were approved, and the disqualifications included moderate ex-president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani ... the fourth President of Iran. He was a member of the Assembly of Experts until he was eased out in 2011 He continues, for the moment, as Chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council. In 2005 he ran for a third term as president, ultimately losing to rival Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was in Khamenei's graces back then. In 1980 Rafsanjani survived an assassination attempt, during which he was seriously injured. He has been described as a centrist and a pragmatic conservative without all that much reason. He is currently being eased out of any position of actual influence or power and may be dead by the end of 2012... and incumbent Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad's close ally Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie. Constitutionally, Ahmadinejad himself cannot stand for a third consecutive term. "The candidates all said they were going to resolve the problem of inflation but none of them explained how they were going to do it," complained one viewer interviewed by state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe? Economist Hossein Raghfar told the reformist Aftab newspaper that none of the eight appeared to have established economic policies. "It had been expected that each candidate would present his own solutions to control inflation, unemployment or support for domestic production, but none of them showed a clear solution which means they did not have an established plan," said Raghfar. "In such circumstances, we cannot expect an improvement in the situation in the country." Analyst Mohammad Saleh Sedghian agreed. "There was no debate on their various economic policies, and this would not give the electorate a clear idea of each candidate's economic plans," he told AFP. Mohammad Mehdi Forqani, communications professor at a Tehran university, told the Mehr news agency that the candidates had not been helped by the format of the debate, which "did not have the element of challenge". "The multiple choice system of questioning was also not dignified for candidates in a presidential contest," he added. The lone reformist candidate, former first vice president Mohammad Reza Aref, refused to take part in one section of the broadcast in which each candidate was given multiple choice questions about his programme. And conservative candidate Mohsen Rezai, a former commander of the elite Revolutionary Guards, told his own Tabnak website he would boycott the next two debates scheduled for Wednesday and Friday if the format does not change. "I felt like I was back in elementary school... The fact that candidates were disrespected is not as important as the millions watching the debates being insulted," moderate candidate Hassan Rowhani told news hounds.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Iran amends law on stoning for adultery

2013-05-31

[Al Ahram] Iran has amended its internationally condemned law on stoning convicted adulterers to death to allow judges to impose a different form of execution, according to the revision seen by AFP on Thursday. The controversial practice, in which stones are thrown at the partially buried offender, has provoked outcries from human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... organizations, international bodies and Western countries urging Iran to abandon it. An article of Iran's Islamic new penal code, published earlier this week, states that, "if the possibility of carrying out the (stoning) verdict does not exist," the sentencing judge may order another form of execution pending final approval by the judiciary chief. The article does not explain what is meant by the possibility of stoning not existing. Mina Ahadi of the rights group International Committee Against Stoning told AFP the revision proved "international pressure and condemnations" had been effective. She condemned the revised article as "still being medieval and barbaric," adding that "we believe stoning should be omitted and no other punishment should replace it." Under Iran's interpretation of Islamic Sharia law in force since its 1979 revolution, adultery is punished by the stoning of convicted adulterers. Women are buried up to their shoulders, but men only up to their waists. They are spared if they manage to free themselves before dying. Murder, rape, armed robbery, drug trafficking are also punishable by death in Iran, which has one of the highest annual execution counts in the world, alongside China, Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... and the United States. In Iran, executions are normally carried out by hanging. According to Ahadi's group, at least 150 people may have been stoned in Iran since 1980. She said that 12 offenders in Iranian prisons are now facing stoning sentences. According to local media, MPs had removed stoning altogether from the bill that they adopted. But the hardline Guardians Council of holy mans and jurists, which must approve all legislation before it enters into force, reinserted it, with the new amendment. Stoning was removed, as it is enshrined in Sharia law, the front man for the parliament's judiciary committee, Mohammad Ali Esfandiari, said in April. The United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... has urged Iran to ditch stoning as a method of execution, with its experts saying last year that adultery does not constitute a serious crime by international standards. World criticism reached a strident pitch in 2011 when reports said a married woman, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, was about to be stoned over "illicit relationship" with two men. Iran halted the stoning, but Mohammadi Ashtiani, sentenced in 2006, is serving a 10-year sentence on separate charges of complicity in the murder of her husband in a lovers' spat. Her stoning could still be carried out. In December 2011, a local judicial official said that judiciary chief Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani had decided "to wait to get the view of other religious scholars" before making a final decision. The last reported case of stoning was in 2009, when an unidentified man was stoned to death in the northern city of Rasht. That came despite a directive in 2002 by then judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi to suspend the practice. His call failed to force any changes to the penal code.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Heavyweights Rafsanjani, Jalili Heat Up Iran Presidential Race

2013-05-12

[An Nahar] The race for Iran's highest elected office was revitalized on Saturday when former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani ... the fourth President of Iran. He was a member of the Assembly of Experts until he was eased out in 2011 He continues, for the moment, as Chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council. In 2005 he ran for a third term as president, ultimately losing to rival Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was in Khamenei's graces back then. In 1980 Rafsanjani survived an assassination attempt, during which he was seriously injured. He has been described as a centrist and a pragmatic conservative without all that much reason. He is currently being eased out of any position of actual influence or power and may be dead by the end of 2012... and top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili officially registered for the June 14 election. Rafsanjani, who was president between 1989 and 1997, registered at the interior ministry in the closing minutes of the five-day registration process for the presidential vote which wrapped up on Saturday. The final line-up of candidates will not be known until later this month when the Guardians Council releases the approved list of names after the vetting process. "I came to serve. It is the right of the people to choose me or not," Rafsanjani was quoted by Iranian media as telling news hounds. He is seeking to succeed Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad whose two-term presidency has left the Islamic republic isolated internationally, while the ailing economy struggles to cope with international sanctions over Tehran's nuclear ambitions. Rafsanjani, who will be 79 in August, had polarized Iran's complex political spectrum in recent weeks by announcing that he was considering standing again. He has been isolated by ultra-conservatives since Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election in 2009 sparked massive street protests, leading to a heavy-handed regime crackdown and the arrest of hundreds of journalists, activists and reformist supporters. Rafsanjani at the time called for the release of those rounded up during the demonstrations. Also on Saturday, Saeed Jalili, Iran's top nuclear negotiator and close figure to all-powerful supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, unexpectedly showed up at the ministry and registered his candidacy. A veteran of the 1980s war with Iraq in which he lost his lower right leg, Jalili, 47, did not speak to news hounds, an Agence La Belle France Presse correspondent said. Jalili heads the team in negotiations with world powers over Tehran's controversial atomic activities which the West fears are aimed at developing a military capacity, a claim denied by Iran. In Istanbul on May 15 Jalili is scheduled to meet the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... 's top diplomat Catherine Ashton, who represents the so-called P5+1 group of Britannia, China, La Belle France, Russia and the United States plus Germany in nuclear talks with Iran.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Iran Cleric Says Ahmadinejad Chavez Remarks 'Heresy'

2013-03-16

[An Nahar] A senior Iranian cleric accused President Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad of "heresy" on Friday by saying in his tribute to late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez that he would be resurrected with Jesus Christ. "Those comments on Chavez's return with Christ were heresy," Ayatollah Ahmad Janati, the hardline chief of the influential Guardians Council, told worshipers at Friday prayers in Tehran. Janati was referring to comments by Ahmadinejad on March 6 in which he called Chavez a "martyr" who would "return, along with the righteous Jesus and the perfect human." The last was an allusion to Shiite Islam's 12th imam that Iran's majority faith believes will return with Christ to bring peace and justice to the world. Janati said Iran's clergy had been "upset" by the remarks. "Should people say whatever comes to mind? I wish (Ahmadinejad) had spent a few days in a seminary before discussing such issues," he said. "Chavez was a populist and anti-American. His political agenda was completely acceptable. But he was not a Muslim," Janati added. Janati's Guardians Council is charged with overseeing elections and interpreting the constitution. Iran has scheduled a presidential election for June 14 to find a replacement for Ahmadinejad, whose disputed re-election in 2009 sparked street protests and a deadly crackdown by the regime in response.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Iran Parliament Apologizes to Khamenei over Infighting

2013-02-19

[An Nahar] Iran's parliament has apologized to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for a heated row during an impeachment session, joining the president, speaker and chief justice in pledging obedience to the supreme leader. Khamenei at the weekend had rebuked the deputies for their role in the squabbling that broke out in the February 3 impeachment session, during which President Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad and speaker Ali Larijani got into verbal fight. "For our part, we apologize for what happened ... during the impeachment," of the labor minister Abdolreza Sheikholeslam, said a statement signed by 265 members of the 290-seat parliament, media reported on Monday. The parliamentarians emphasized that obedience to the leader, who had dubbed the impeachment as a "bad decision", was a "religious and legal obligation". Following Khamenei's criticism, Ahmadinejad, the speaker and the judiciary chief Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani expressed "obedience" to him in separate letters, media reported. The parliamentary row, which was broadcast on radio, came as parliament proceeded to impeach Ahmadinejad's labor minister for refusing to sack Tehran's ex-prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi as head of a wealthy social welfare organization. In that session, Ahmadinejad played a video recording which allegedly incriminates Fazel Larijani, a brother of both the parliament speaker and the judiciary chief, who is a direct appointee of Khamenei. Fazel is shown in the clip as allegedly trying to bribe Mortazavi in exchange for political support from the parliament and the judiciary. Larijani in response charged that Ahmadinejad was impeding justice by shielding his inner circle from judicial investigation. Candidates seeking reelection and those who seek to become deputies, have to be vetted by the Guardians Council, whose members are appointed by Khamenei. The rift between Ahmadinejad and the parliament and judiciary, two bodies which are dominated by conservatives critical of his administration, first surfaced in April 2011 when the president challenged a ruling by Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters.

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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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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Candidates Register for Iran Legislative Elections

2011-12-25

[An Nahar] Candidates started registering Saturday to stand in Iran's March legislative elections in a process vetted by the Guardian's Council, the Islamic republic's electoral watchdog. "We recommend to candidates to come forward to serve the people and to keep the success of the Islamic revolution in mind," the ministry's website quoted Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar as saying. Registration was to continue to December 30, but the interior ministry urged would-be candidates to not wait until the last day. The Guardians Council, made up of holy mans and jurists, determines which applicants can be candidates in the election for the 290-seat parliament. It is also responsible for endorsing the final results of the March 2, 2012 poll. Candidates are required to be Iranian citizens aged 30-75 who are loyal to the constitution, including its recognition of the absolute authority of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamanei. Iran's current legislature is dominated by conservatives, with only around 60 reformists in the house. The parliamentary speaker, Ali Larijani, has repeatedly criticized the policies of President Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad, especially on the economy. The March poll will be the first since the 2009 presidential election which saw Ahmadinejad announced the winner over opposition claims the vote was rigged, triggering widespread mass protests.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Iran MPs Vote to Expel British Ambassador

2011-11-28

[An Nahar] Iran's parliament voted Sunday to expel the British ambassador in retaliation for fresh Western sanctions over Tehran's nuclear program and warned that other countries could also be punished. The bill they adopted, which now has to go to the Guardians Council for approval, demands Iran's ambassador to Britannia also be withdrawn as diplomatic relations are reduced to the level of charge d'affaires. Economic and trade relations with Britannia, already meager, would be pared "to the minimum" under the text, which requires the measures be effected within two weeks. The politicians also raised the possibility of punishing "other countries that behave in a manner similar to that of Britannia." "This is only the beginning," parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani warned. The session, carried live on state radio, saw 179 deputies vote in favor of the text, four against, and 11 abstain. On Wednesday, when the bill was introduced, Britannia said "it would be regrettable" if its ambassador to Tehran, Dominick Chilcott, were to be expelled. Chilcott took up his post last month. Britannia, whose City of London is the world's biggest financial center alongside New York, said on November 14 it was "ceasing all contact" between its financial system and that of Iran. That measure, announced in coordination with similar sanctions by the United States and Canada, came a week after a report by the U.N. atomic energy watchdog strongly suggesting Tehran was researching nuclear weapons. Britannia and Canada have embassies in Tehran. The United States does not, having closed it after Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution. Canada's mission is already headed only by a charge d'affaires. Iran has dismissed the U.N. report as "baseless" and insists its nuclear program is for entirely peaceful purposes. On Wednesday, Britannia called for senior levels of contact to be maintained despite the strains. Prior to Chilcott taking up his post, the British mission in Tehran was run by the embassy's charge d'affaires. "We believe that it is important to maintain senior channels of communication and especially at times like these. It is only through dialogue that we can solve the problems we face," a front man for Britannia's Foreign and Commonwealth Office said. But Larijani said Sunday that "the British government should be aware that the Majlis (Iran's parliament) is monitoring its actions carefully." The bill's author, Allaeddin Boroujerdi, who heads parliament's national security and foreign policy commission, said: "Should Britannia cease its hostile approach to Iran, then we can upgrade ties once more." Several politicians had wanted to take the bill further, by cutting off all diplomatic relations with Britannia. "We must sever all ties with Britannia," said one, Mahmoud Ahmadi Bighash. "We must place a lock on the British embassy and ignore them until they come begging like the Americans." Another, Hossein Sobhaninia, said: "Lawmakers should give a crushing response to British threats." And another, Zohreh Elahian, charged Britannia had an "agenda of sedition aimed at toppling the Islamic republic" following Iran's contested 2009 presidential election. A protest against the new sanctions was planned for Tuesday in front of the British embassy, the Fars news agency reported. EU nations were expected to unveil more sanctions against Iran at a foreign ministers meeting next Thursday. La Belle France has called for a freeze on Iranian central bank assets and an embargo on Iranian oil. Iran is already subject to four sets of U.N. sanctions designed to pressure it to halt its uranium enrichment activities, as well as unilateral Western sanctions. Russia and China have slammed the latest Western sanctions, calling them illegal and a barrier to resuming stalled negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Ahmadinejad under sorcerer's spell: top cleric

2011-05-16

Iran's diminutive President Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad has been put "under a spell" by his chief of staff Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, an ultra-conservative holy man was quoted by local media on Sunday as saying. Actually, that explains quite a bit... "I've told some of my close friends that I am more than 90 percent certain that (Ahmadinejad) has been put under a spell. This is not natural at all,"Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, believed to have once been a mentor of the president, told the weekly Shoma. "No sane person does such things unless his free will has been taken away,"Mesbah Yazdi said in reference to a crisis that has erupted since mid-April between Ahmadinejad and the hardline conservative camp close to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. "His actions have no justification. When he has 10 friends... does it make sense to constantly defy nine of them and defend (the actions of the) tenth person?" Mesbah Yazdi asked in an allusion to Mashaie. Mashaie, the president's top adviser and close relative who has worked alongside Ahmadinejad for more than 25 years, has been the target of a barrage of criticism from the conservative camp in past weeks. Mashaie, who has been condemned for being too liberal, holding nationalistic views dating back to pre-Islamic Iran, and for having a great influence on the president, is now accused of leading a "current of deviation" aimed at destroying the Islamic regime. Mesbah Yazdi said he sensed a "great danger" lingering over Ahmadinejad because of Mashaie. "I do not know if it is (because of) hypnotism, a spell or relations with yogis. But there is something wrong," said Mesbah Yazdi. "It is almost as if this questionable person (Mashaie) has put this man (Ahmadinejad) under a spell, as if he has wrapped him around his finger," he said. The conservatives also accuse Mashaie of orchestrating the attempted sacking of Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi in mid-April, which was vetoed by the supreme leader. The aborted dismissal triggered an unprecedented political crisis in the higher echelons of Iran's regime, with Ahmadinejad expressing his displeasure by withdrawing from public life and official duties for 10 days. Several conservative websites have recently hinted that Mashaie may be connected to the practice of dark magic, while the judiciary has announced the arrest of two "sorcerers" but stopped short of linking them to the chief of staff. The rumours have gained enough momentum to prompt Ahmadinejad to deny them publicly. "Those who have spoken in recent days about the influence of fortune tellers and jinn (shape-shifting spirits) on government were telling jokes,"Ahmadinejad said on May 8. Iran's first Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi hit back hard at the accusation by the ultra-conservatives. "Some people speak of sorcery and jinns and attribute them to the government. Is it possible to govern the country with sorcery and jinn? Is it possible to send satellites into the sky (using them)? Science is behind all these issues," Rahimi was quoted as saying in some local papers. "How could they attribute such things to Dr. Ahmadinejad, the president and a (university) professor?" Rahimi added. Another vice president, Hamid Baghaie, defended Mashaie against accusations of deviancy, describing them as "slander." Ayatollah Ahmad Janati, who heads the powerful Guardians Council, a body that oversees elections, interprets the constitution and vets parliamentary legislation, warned Ahmadinejad on Friday that he could not protect Mashaie forever. "Some people seek to deviate from and act against the country and Velayat-e Faqih (the supreme leader)," Janati said. "But there will come a day that the regime and the people will deal with them."

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