The Mosque Fire and Blast Near Busher Carries Messages

Safa Haeri, Iran Press Service:

The fire at a big Tehran mosque, the over fly of Iranian sky by foreign drones and a mysterious explosion near the nuclear reactor in the Persian Gulf port of Bushehr are all “signals” heralding incoming operations for toppling the Iranian theocracy, Iranians says in the streets.

Five days after fire at a big and historic mosque in south Tehran killed at least 60 people and injured another 350, the clerical authorities, instead of explaining what caused the fire, have ordered the media not to carry any news about the drama. ...

General Morteza Tala’i, the Commander of Tehran police said "basic safety rules" were ignored, including the installation of the kerosene heater, the official Iranian News Agency IRNA reported on the fire.

But in the absence of any official account, Iranians in general think that the fire, far from being accidental, is the beginning of America’s operations aimed at toppling the present theocracy.

In their inauguration speeches, both President George W. Bush and his new Secretary of State Department tagged the Islamic Republic as a “tyrannical regime” and assured the Iranian people of Washington’s support for their struggle for democracy and freedom.

“This is the first mosque to be set ablaze and this is the beginning”, said a young Iranian who arrived in Paris on Wednesday.

“This is an American operation to change the regime”, he went on, adding that the explosion in Bandar Daylam and the drones overlying Iranian skies are also part of the operations.

He was referring to a mysterious explosion that the Arabic service of the Iranian State-run, conservatives-controlled Radio and Television known as “al Aalam” (the World) said was caused by a missile. ...

"After having crushed and killed the reforms the Iranians had put all their hopes for a smooth change of the present system, after taking the control of the Majles (parliament) with dubious methods and now preparing to grab also the presidency, one can be sure that the Iranians would not raise in support of the regime they hate more than ever", one source had told Iran Press Service, speaking on condition of anonymity.

He was reacting to assertions from some Iranian and Western experts and diplomats that any attack on Iran would mobilize the population in support of the ruling ayatollahs, as it happened after Iraq attacked Iran in 1980, resulting in the consolidation of the newly installed Islamic Republic.

“What ever the cause of the explosion near Busher, it carries a message, as the sound of the blast was heard in Tehran”, wrote Mr. Mas’oud Behnoud, a veteran Iranian journalist.

Reminding that the regime is more isolated than ever on the international scene, Mr. Bahnoud concluded: “The Iranians got the message from the explosion, but what about the officials? Did they hear it as well and were they able to decipher it. In this case, they have only one way and that is to change their policy of confrontation with the world outside and with the people inside”.