The World Community can not tolerate the Islamic Republic

Safa Haeri, Iran Press Service:

“The international community, nor the Iranian society can not tolerate a regime that has set its ideology over the destruction of another country, namely Israel”, assures a veteran Iranian political activist.

The assertion was made by Mr. Qasem Sho’leh Sa’di a university professor and one of the leaders of the Iranians neo-reformers calling for a radical change of the theocracy into a democratic, parliamentarian during an interview with Mr. Mohammad Reza Shaahid, the correspondent of the Persian service of the “Voice of America” (VOA) in France.

In his view, the annihilation of the Jewish State is the one of the fundamental principles and basis of the Islamic Republic, since it had been enshrined by the Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the Islamic revolution and founder father of the present Iranian regime.

“The Iranian regime is the only government in the world based on a clear cut ideology pointing to the total destruction of Israel, as stated by its founder. In my view, the international community not only would not allow such a thing to happen, but also would not let such a regime, branded by President George W. Bush as a rogue state, to be armed with nuclear weapons”, Mr. Sho’leh Sa’di said.

In a speech pronounced some years ago during the traditional Friday prayers, Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former president and the regime’s second man in command had urged Muslim nations to acquire an atomic bomb and drop it over Israel.

But Tehran insists that the device is for civilian uses, mostly generate electricity and to prove its sincerity, it signed on Sunday 27 February an agreement with Moscow for the return to Russia of the spent fuel of the nuclear powered reactor Russia is building in the Persian Gulf port of Booshehr.

Some Iranian and western analysts are of the view that the landmark agreement, delayed for over two years because of Iranian objections on the transfer of the spent fuel would further deteriorate Moscow-Washington relations, as the United States, Israel and some other European nations suspects the ruling Iranian ayatollahs of wanting to use nuclear technologies they are getting from Russia for producing atomic bomb aimed at Israel.

According to an accord reached last November in Paris between Iran in the one hand and Britain, France and Germany on the other, the Islamic Republic agreed to suspend all uranium enriching activities against receiving advanced nuclear technologies for civilian purposes.

But while the Iranians repeat that the agreement is temporary and valid for the duration of the ongoing talks with the European “Big 3”, the trio, under American pressures, wants Tehran to dismantle its atomic installations, something Iran adamantly refuses.

Known as the initiator of open letters to the Iranian leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameneh’i, whom he accuses of ignoring Iranian national interests by refusing stubbornly any dialogue with Washington and limiting freedoms at home, Mr. Sho’leh Sa’di says the other reason the world could not accept the present Iranian system is that it does not responds to internationally accepted standards of governance.

“How a world that could not tolerate a man like (the now toppled) Saddam Hussein, despite the fact that he had allowed (international nuclear experts) even his bed room be inspected can accept a regime like the one now in power in Iran?” he asked.

As a man who coined the now famous slogan of “defunct reforms” almost five years ago at a time that a good number of Iranians had still hope that President Mohammad Khatami would come up with the limited social, political and cultural reforms he had promised, Mr. Sho’leh Sa’di firmly believes that if not changed, the Islamic republic has no future.

“Since the process of reforms has totally failed to materialise in the one hand and as this regime is not acceptable by the international community, the only remaining solution open to the Iranians as well as to the ruling leaders is a referendum”, Mr. Sho’leh Sa’di reiterated.

He was referring to a project, supported by a large segment of Iranians of all political walks, including republicans and monarchists both inside and outside the country, calling for holding a nation-wide referendum allowing Iranians to freely choose the regime they would like to have.