Pink Floyd”s song ‘Another Brick in the Wall’ is being used as an anthem for Iran”s resistance movement. Two exiled Iranian brothers have reworked the 1979 song, which was released in the same year as the Islamic Revolution, reports the Telegraph. Roger Waters, a founding member of Pink Floyd, gave the right to Blurred Vision, [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Ayatollah Khamenei’
Pink Floydâ€s ‘Another Brick in the Wall’ a hit for Iranâ€s resistance movement
July 30th, 2010 |
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Growing desperation
December 29th, 2009 |
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Increasingly fierce repression in Iran suggests that the regime has begun to fear for its future
WHAT more can Iran’s ruthless rulers do to squash their opponents? Since nationwide protests broke out last June over the disputed results of presidential elections, the official winner, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has pulled few punches. His security apparatus has beaten and arrested thousands, tried scores of dissidents in kangaroo courts, hounded others into exile, throttled the press and jammed the airwaves. But the massive and violent demonstrations that engulfed the capital, Tehran, and other cities on December 26th and 27th suggested that repression only deepens and broadens the opposition.
Footage of the protests, shot by phones and spread via the internet, revealed scenes of mayhem unprecedented since the 1979 revolution that toppled the shah. Mobs of youths, including many women, attacked and in some cases overcame squads of riot police. The rioters, mostly unmasked in contrast to previous protests, apparently chanted as many slogans against Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as against Mr Ahmadinejad. They set police vehicles on fire and torched at least one police station. Plainclothes government thugs fought back, bludgeoning isolated protesters and apparently shooting several at close range. …
Iranian ex-MPs challenge Khamenei
August 14th, 2009 |
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A group of former Iranian MPs has appealed to a powerful clerical panel to investigate if Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is fit to rule.
The call was made to the Assembly of Experts, which under Iranian law has the power to remove the supreme leader.
The letter denounces the crackdown on protests after June’s disputed election and the trials which followed.
Meanwhile a senior cleric has said a reformist leader should be prosecuted for alleging protesters had been raped.
Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami said defeated election candidate Mehdi Karroubi’s remarks boosted Iran’s enemies, particularly the US and Israel.
Mr Karroubi has alleged that some protesters – male and female – were raped while detained in prison. He has also said that some were tortured to death.
"We expect the Islamic system to show an appropriate response to this"
Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami
Officials have denied the rape allegations, but have admitted that abuses have taken place.
During his sermon at Friday prayers in Tehran, Ayatollah Khatami said Mr Karroubi’s claims were "full of libel, a total slander against the Islamic system" and he demanded he be prosecuted.
"We expect the Islamic system to show an appropriate response to this," Ayatollah Khatami said.
In earlier remarks reported by the Iranian ILNA news agency, he said: "If someone libels the system by saying that rape takes place in prisons, then he must either prove it or, if he cannot, then the system must press charges and the public prosecutor must act."
Former MPs’ letter
The content of the letter from the group of former MPs appeared on several opposition websites. The reports did name any of the group, nor say how many had signed the letter.
Addressed to former Iranian President Ali Akbar Rafsanjani, who heads the Assembly of Experts, it demands "a legal probe on the basis of Article 111 of the constitution, which is a responsibility of the Assembly of Experts".
The article says that if the supreme leader "becomes incapable of fulfilling his constitutional duties" he will be dismissed.
The letter denounced the recent trials of protesters held in Tehran as a "Stalinesque court".
It also said Kahrizak prison near Tehran, where much of the alleged abuse of detainees took place, was worse than the US facilities at Abu Ghraib, Iraq, and Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
There has so far been no response from the assembly to the letter.
However, correspondents say that even if the call is ignored, it is the most direct challenge to Ayatollah Khamenei so far.
The letter breaks a taboo among Iran’s political classes against openly challenging the supreme leader, whose position has long been unquestioned, analysts say.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won June’s poll, but opposition leaders and their supporters claimed the election had been rigged. Security forces crushed the mass protests that followed.
Hundreds were arrested and opposition leaders say 69 protesters died – more than double the official figure of about 30 fatalities.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Divided leaders
July 27th, 2009 |
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By Jon Leyne
BBC News
With the row over Iran’s disputed election still bitterly dividing the country, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is now in a new dispute with fellow conservatives.
It is an argument every bit as heated as the election row, and potentially even more damaging to the president.
Just over a month after the election, Mr Ahmadinejad provoked fury amongst his fellow conservatives by promoting one of his vice-presidents, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, to the post of first vice-president.
The job would make him the president’s second in command, the man who would take over if Mr Ahmadinejad was run over by a Tehran bus.
As Mr Ahmadinejad must have known it would, the appointment infuriated conservatives.
Mr Mashaie had already angered the establishment by suggesting that Iran was friends with the Israeli people, even though he shared the Islamic Republic’s hatred of the state of Israel.
For days Mr Ahmadinejad rode the storm, ignoring behind-the-scenes hints that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei was not happy with the appointment.
Then, finally, a letter from Mr Khamenei was broadcast on state TV, calling for Mr Mashaie to go.
The president had to succumb. But the row is now having more lasting damage.
On Sunday it was announced that Mr Ahmadinejad had sacked his intelligence minister, Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie, after what sounds like a heated argument in a cabinet meeting over Mr Mashaie’s appointment.
At one point it was reported that four ministers had left the government. That was denied.
Later, the Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, Mohammad-Hossein Saffar-Harandi, announced he had resigned.
It was said that Mr Ahmadinejad had not accepted that resignation, but as of Monday the situation remained unresolved.
Mr Saffar-Harrandi said the row over Mr Mashaie had weakened the government, and that is one of the more polite comments from within the conservative camp.
The conservative newspaper Tehran Emrouz described it as a "chaotic" day for the government.
Determined to provoke
Another conservative paper, Khabar, published the headline: "Dismissal – the consequence of objecting to Ahmadinejad".
MP Ali Motahari called on Mr Ahmadinejad to "control his nerves" and accused him of intentionally bringing tension to the country.
But Mr Ahmadinejad seems determined to provoke even those who should be his allies.
He immediately appointed Mr Mashaie as his chief of staff and one of his closest aides.
There is also a new job also for Ali Kordan, the former interior minister who was impeached by parliament after falsely claiming to possess a doctorate from an institution he quaintly called the "London Oxford University".
The president has made him an inspector responsible for ministries and the government.
Mr Ahmadinejad’s behaviour may seem counter-productive, but it is completely in character.
When in a corner he likes to come out fighting. Compromise is not a word in his vocabulary.
But the reasons behind the row itself are harder to pin down.
In one version, Mr Mashaie is disliked by conservatives for his relative "moderation" in saying Iran was friends with the Israeli people.
Another analysis has it that conservatives are worried about Mr Mashaie’s links with the controversial sect the Hojjatieh, members of which believe in the imminent return of the so-called hidden imam, the Mahdi, in an apocalyptic scenario.
Certainly Mr Mashaie has been seen as a very powerful influence on Mr Ahmadinejad.
The argument may also indicate unease amongst conservatives over the disputed election itself.
Revolutionary Guards
There are many in Iran who see Mr Ahmadinejad’s re-election as a coup d’etat, in which the real winners were the Revolutionary Guards.
That worries even some dedicated supporters of the Islamic Revolution.
Guidance minister Mr Saffar-Harandi, for example, is not someone who could, by any stretch of the imagination, be called a moderate.
Mr Ahmadinejad has managed to alienate many fellow conservatives, figures like Ali Larijani, who now holds the powerful position of speaker of parliament.
The parliament, or Majlis, could be the next scene of confrontation.
Soon Mr Ahmadinejad is expected to be sworn in for his second term in office. The planned date keeps changing, indicating possible arguments behind the scenes.
Afterwards he must name his new cabinet to be approved by parliament. The present row shows that Mr Ahmadinejad is not likely to propose compromise candidates, and parliament is unlikely to give his nominees an easy ride.
Deadlock over the appointments could even lead to Ayatollah Khamenei being obliged to introduce some form of emergency powers, which would only further weaken his position.
Indeed, according to a strict reading of the constitution, the government would need a vote of confidence from the Majlis even to continue in office if the latest departures mean that more than half its members have been changed during Mr Ahmadinejad’s first term.
Parliament has already shown it can cause big trouble for the president.
According to one member, 200 MPs – a majority – have written to Mr Ahmadinejad asking him to "correct his behaviour so that he follows the leader’s opinion seriously".
Parliament has also set up a committee to look into the condition of detainees arrested in the post-election crackdown.
As much as Mr Ahmadinejad and Ayatollah Khamenei try to assert their power, it becomes clearer that they have become prisoners of their own constituency, right-wing conservatives.
Already there are whispers about possibly impeaching the president.
The key of course would be the position of the supreme leader, who would have to authorise such a move.
Equally damaging
Either keeping or ditching Mr Ahmadinejad could be almost equally damaging to Mr Khamenei.
All of this must be deeply satisfying for the opposition, as it continues its campaign to have the presidential election result overturned.
But reports continue to emerge of brutal treatment handed out to some of the many opposition supporters still held in prison. Two more detainees are reported to have died, 24-year-old Amir Javadifar and Hossein Akbari, aged 20.
Iran is approaching the Arbayeen or 40th day ceremonies to mark the deaths of those killed in the violence that followed the election. In Shia Islam it is a major date, often the spark for huge protests.
Thursday will be the anniversary of the death of Neda Agha-Soltan, the young Iranian woman who has become a symbol of the protest movement.
By all accounts, opposition supporters are as angry and motivated as they were on the day after the election. Now they face a government divided to its very core.</p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Iranian vice-president ‘sacked’
July 25th, 2009 |
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Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has ordered President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to dismiss his choice to serve as vice-president, state TV says.
Appointing Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie was "against your interest and the interests of the government", the ayatollah wrote to Mr Ahmadinejad.
His remarks came after another leading cleric also demanded the dismissal.
Mr Mashaie had caused controversy in 2008 when he said Iranians were friends with the Israelis.
According to Iranian state TV, Ayatollah Khamenei sent Mr Ahmadinejad a clear message.
"It is necessary to announce the cancellation of this appointment," he told the president.
Mr Ahmadinejad, who is known for his own outspoken views against Israel, has previously defended Mr Mashaie, calling him modest and loyal to Iran’s Islamic system.
The row over Israel broke out last year when Mr Mashaei, then minister in charge of tourism, was quoted as saying that Iranians were friends with the Israeli people, despite the conflict between their governments.
"Today, Iran is friends with the American and Israeli people," he said, according to the semi-official Fars News Agency. "No nation in the world is our enemy."</p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Israel condemns Iran-PA meeting
July 20th, 2009 |
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Israel has accused a senior Palestinian official of meeting "the extreme enemies of peace" after he held talks with Iran’s foreign minister.
The Palestinian Authority’s top negotiator Saeb Erekat said he had met Manouchehr Mottaki last week.
He rejected reports that these were the first such talks, saying the two had been meeting since 2006.
Iran backs the PA’s rival, Hamas, and its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for Israel’s destruction.
Mr Erekat said he and Mr Mottaki spoke for about half an hour at the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, last week.
"I told him that Iran should continue supporting the Palestinian people… and they should work towards our unity and he agreed," he said.
Israeli prime ministerial spokesman Mark Regev, said:
"Unfortunately, the Palestinian side has placed all sorts of preconditions on the resumption of peace talks. It appears though that they have no qualms about talking to the most violent and extreme enemies of peace."
The PA has been negotiating with Israel for years on a two-state solution, but is currently refusing talks unless Israel freezes all settlement activity – a condition of a 2003 agreement.
Israel accuses Iran of sending weapons to Hamas in Gaza and training its militants.
In March, PA President Mahmoud Abbas said Iran should "stop interfering" in Palestinian affairs, after its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei urged "resistance" against Israel.
"They are interfering only to deepen the rift between Palestinians," he said.
Street fighting erupted between Hamas and Mr Abbas’s Fatah faction in Gaza in June 2007, during which Hamas forces seized control of the coastal strip.
Egyptian-brokered unity talks between the two factions have so far failed to bear fruit.</p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Rafsanjani attacks Tehran regime
July 17th, 2009 |
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Iranian riot police used batons and teargas today to break up defiant protests after prayers in Tehran, where Hashemi Rafsanjani, one of the country’s most powerful clerics, warned that the regime was “in crisis” and urged a release of prisoners detained in post-election unrest.
Rafsanjani, a bitter rival of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, broke his month-long silence to issue a stark warning that the Islamic Republic had lost popular support. His carefully crafted address stopped short of directly attacking Khamenei or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose victory in June’s presidential poll has been widely denounced as a fraud. But its message was still strong.
“Today is a bitter day,” Rafsanjani declared from the pulpit at Tehran University’s sprawling prayer ground. “People have lost their faith in the regime and their trust is damaged. It’s necessary to regain people’s consent and restore their trust in the regime. Everyone has lost.”
Mir Hossein Mousavi, the moderate former prime minister who says he won the election, sat in the front row with other VIPs as Rafsanjani spoke. Mehdi Karoubi, a reformist cleric who was also a candidate, was there too — and was jostled by thugs afterwards.
Mousavi and Karoubi both insist the Ahmadinejad government is illegitimate. Khamenei has publicly backed the incumbent, hoping to see off the biggest challenge to the regime since the Iranian revolution 30 years ago.
Tens of thousands of Mousavi supporters, many wearing the green wristbands that became the symbol of his election campaign, packed the prayer ground, the stage for a peculiarly Iranian combination of religion and politics, prayer and agitprop. Rafsanjani’s first sermon since the disputed election was keenly awaited but was not broadcast on state TV. Foreign media access is now severely restricted. The mobile phone network was again completely blocked to disrupt communications between demonstrators .
“Doubt has been created [about the results],” Rafsanjani said. “There is a large portion of wise people who say they have doubts. We need to take action to remove this doubt. Where people are not present or their vote is not considered, that government is not Islamic.”
This passage needed little decoding: Khamenei and the guardian council, a clerical body which supervises elections, have declared the contest free and fair, dashing hopes of a re-run. Still, Rafsanjani – often accused of sitting on the fence – did not call outright for an annulment.
His words were repeatedly interrupted by slogans from the rival camps as well as by whiffs of teargas fired by security forces and which drifted in from the surrounding streets. Hardliners chanted the traditional “death to America” while opposition supporters countered with azadi (freedom) as well as “death to Russia” – a reference to the government’s ties to Moscow.
The chanting died away only after the speaker urged the crowd “not to contaminate the position and the sanctuary of Friday prayers”. Rafsanjani wept as he spoke of prisoners, and of the Prophet Muhammad as one who brought justice, and a man who “protected the rights of all those under his rule” – more thinly-veiled criticism of the government.
“Rafsanjani’s main message was for Ayatollah Khamenei,” said the analyst Baqer Moin. “Rafsanjani wanted to tell him, ‘You’d better be humble and try to find a way out of the current crisis.’”
The crowd at Friday prayers is usually made up extremely conservative government loyalists. But many Mousavi supporters were young women wearing the loose hijab head-covering shunned by the devout. Some had green-painted fingernails.
“This was not a normal Friday prayer,” said Fariba, a 24-year-old student. “The regime has killed people and we have got more united. They have not silenced us. Ironically, I thank Ahmadinejad for making us unite against him.”
The crackdown on the media was only partially effective. An unprecedented number of videos posted on YouTube on a single day showed masked protesters starting fires in the streets, or handing out flowers to policemen.
Teargas was fired at Mousavi supporters on their way to prayer but clashes with police and basij militia intensified afterwards. At least 20 people were arrested, witnesses said. Among those detained was Shadi Sadr, the prominent women’s activist and human rights lawyer.
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Iran’s ex-president attacks regime
July 17th, 2009 |
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Iranian riot police used batons and teargas today to break up defiant protests after prayers in Tehran, where Hashemi Rafsanjani, one of the country’s most powerful clerics, warned that the regime was “in crisis” and urged a release of prisoners detained in post-election unrest.
Rafsanjani, a bitter rival of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, broke his month-long silence to issue a stark warning that the Islamic Republic had lost popular support. His carefully crafted address stopped short of directly attacking Khamenei or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose victory in June’s presidential poll has been widely denounced as a fraud. But its message was still strong.
“Today is a bitter day,” Rafsanjani declared from the pulpit at Tehran University’s sprawling prayer ground. “People have lost their faith in the regime and their trust is damaged. It’s necessary to regain people’s consent and restore their trust in the regime. Everyone has lost.”
Mir Hossein Mousavi, the moderate former prime minister who says he won the election, sat in the front row with other VIPs as Rafsanjani spoke. Mehdi Karoubi, a reformist cleric who was also a candidate, was there too — and was jostled by thugs afterwards.
Mousavi and Karoubi both insist the Ahmadinejad government is illegitimate. Khamenei has publicly backed the incumbent, hoping to see off the biggest challenge to the regime since the Iranian revolution 30 years ago.
Tens of thousands of Mousavi supporters, many wearing the green wristbands that became the symbol of his election campaign, packed the prayer ground, the stage for a peculiarly Iranian combination of religion and politics, prayer and agitprop. Rafsanjani’s first sermon since the disputed election was keenly awaited but was not broadcast on state TV. Foreign media access is now severely restricted. The mobile phone network was again completely blocked to disrupt communications between demonstrators .
“Doubt has been created [about the results],” Rafsanjani said. “There is a large portion of wise people who say they have doubts. We need to take action to remove this doubt. Where people are not present or their vote is not considered, that government is not Islamic.”
This passage needed little decoding: Khamenei and the guardian council, a clerical body which supervises elections, have declared the contest free and fair, dashing hopes of a re-run. Still, Rafsanjani – often accused of sitting on the fence – did not call outright for an annulment.
His words were repeatedly interrupted by slogans from the rival camps as well as by whiffs of teargas fired by security forces and which drifted in from the surrounding streets. Hardliners chanted the traditional “death to America” while opposition supporters countered with azadi (freedom) as well as “death to Russia” – a reference to the government’s ties to Moscow.
The chanting died away only after the speaker urged the crowd “not to contaminate the position and the sanctuary of Friday prayers”. Rafsanjani wept as he spoke of prisoners, and of the Prophet Muhammad as one who brought justice, and a man who “protected the rights of all those under his rule” – more thinly-veiled criticism of the government.
“Rafsanjani’s main message was for Ayatollah Khamenei,” said the analyst Baqer Moin. “Rafsanjani wanted to tell him, ‘You’d better be humble and try to find a way out of the current crisis.’”
The crowd at Friday prayers is usually made up extremely conservative government loyalists. But many Mousavi supporters were young women wearing the loose hijab head-covering shunned by the devout. Some had green-painted fingernails.
“This was not a normal Friday prayer,” said Fariba, a 24-year-old student. “The regime has killed people and we have got more united. They have not silenced us. Ironically, I thank Ahmadinejad for making us unite against him.”
The crackdown on the media was only partially effective. An unprecedented number of videos posted on YouTube on a single day showed masked protesters starting fires in the streets, or handing out flowers to policemen.
Teargas was fired at Mousavi supporters on their way to prayer but clashes with police and basij militia intensified afterwards. At least 20 people were arrested, witnesses said. Among those detained was Shadi Sadr, the prominent women’s activist and human rights lawyer.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Melody Moezzi: Hey DJ Rafsanjani, Play Us Some Ayatollah Khomeini
July 16th, 2009 |
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At the heart of Iran’s Islamic Revolution was a stencil duplicator and a tape recorder. These were the Ayatollah Khomeini’s Facebook and Twitter.
Rafsanjani raises the stakes
Rafsanjani’s speech was the most dramatic in recent history. It gave the lie to those who think the opposition is finished
In the most dramatic Friday sermon in the history of the Islamic republic of Iran, former president Hashemi Rafsanjani slammed the results of the presidential elections, called for the release of political prisoners and set out the most formidable challenge to the leadership of Ayatollah Khamenei.
During the reformist presidency of Khatami the idea of “red lines” was a mainstay of Iranian political discourse. The press, arts, and political comment were all free up to a point. But red lines were drawn around the legitimacy of the basic tenets of the Islamic republic and they and the person of the supreme leader were deemed to be above the cut and thrust of political debate. Although we all suspected the sympathy of the leadership for more conservative political elements, on the surface and in mixed company Khamenei managed to maintain a degree of even-handedness that allowed him at least the illusion of non-partisanship. By his unreserved, premature and unconstitutional endorsement of the results Khamenei threw his hat into the political ring. By siding with the Ahmadinejad clique, he finally stepped off his apolitical pedestal.
If Rafsanjani’s criticism was biting in its rhetorical sharpness, its real power came in the context of its delivery. At the inception of the Islamic republic Friday prayers were instituted and led by Ayatollah Taleghani on what used to be the football pitch of Tehran University. It was designed to be a means of bringing together the brains of the revolution represented by the university students and its heart in shape of the religiously devout who flooded in from impoverished neighborhoods. Taleghani was the last Ayatollah who commanded almost universal national support across the political spectrum, whose legitimacy if not seniority could only be rivalled by Khomeini himself. Imprisoned and tortured by the Shah, he was elected to parliament as first deputy for Tehran in a landslide and was one of the most influential authors of the constitution whose very principles are now being contested in the streets of Tehran.
Ayatollah Taleghani, whose sudden death deprived the revolution of a counterweight to Khomeini’s power, was to many Iranians the conscience and soul of the revolution. It would be a mistake to regard him now as some obscure historical figure, as those participants in the Friday prayers who carried his portrait, prompted by instructions on opposition websites, testify. His deployment as the latest symbol for the green movement at the site of Friday prayers delivered a withering blow to the stature of the supreme leader on the subject and at the place where it might hurt him most. The slogan “Where is my vote?” seems to have extended its remit to “Where is my revolution?” and “Where are my Friday Prayers?”
Rafsanjani’s long sermon ended with 10 devastating minutes that went to the heart of the matter: the government of the Islamic republic can’t stay Islamic if it stops being a republic. He quoted both the founder of Islam as well as the founder of the Islamic republic. The gist of both the hadith from the Prophet Mohammed and his recollection from a conversation with Ayatollah Khomeini (coming as it does from Khomeini’s most consistent and trusted lieutenant), made the same point. Leadership in Islam isn’t a matter of force, not even a matter of who has the best qualifications. In Islam, without popular mandate, leadership is meaningless.
The people who surrounded his car on his arrival at the prayers were chanting “silence is betrayal”. He didn’t disappoint them, and according to many who I spoke to he delivered over and above what they had hoped for. The blood if not the resolve is slowly draining from organisers of the election fraud. The coup’s leaders are slowly coming to the realisation that they may have established order, but that is far from being the law.
The most formidable coalition of forces is lining up behind Mir Hossein Mousavi in recognition of his position as the legitimate president of the republic. A green grassroots movement is growing, based on a denial of the legitimacy of Ahmadinejad and the orchestrators of the coup. Though it lacks familiar characteristics, a potent political force is on the march. At times the movement itself seems to be leading its leaders and prompting them to action. Those who thought that the opposition had failed will surely see now that we are still in the opening stages of this drama.