The National Leadership Assembly for Opposition to IRI

Iman Foroutan of Iran of Tomorrow Movement sent me the following declaration and introduction.

Finally, after 3 years of hard work and following the May 1st Washington Conference, we have been able to form the first National Leadership Assembly for Opposition to IRI.

This Assembly, not yet formalized and sworn in, now has 50 candidates from 8 countries including Iran (including the Mohammadi brothers, political prisoners plus 7 more). As per the protocol proposed in the Washington Conference, the candidates are individuals representing the majority of the IRI opposition spectrum (Pro monarchy, pro-republic, Pan Iranist, Jebheye Melli, Ashayer Bakhtiari, …) and all social groups, e.g. students, technocrats, teachers, university professors, military people, health specialist, journalists, political scientists, etc.

Below is the first official statement of this group. The deadline for candidate registration is July 19, 2005.

DECLARATION No. 1

June 29, 2005

Subject: Lack of legitimacy of Islamic Republic of Iran and its elections READ MORE

Honorable _______________,

After years of non-unified an uncoordinated struggles of Iranian freedom fighters, the National Assembly of IRI Opposition Leadership has been established representing freedom lovers and political activists from inside and outside of Iran. The goal of this Assembly is to support the people of Iran in replacing the IRI with a democratic and secular type of government. This Assembly requests your attention and the attention of organizations under your supervision to the reasons of illegitimacy of IRI and its recent so-called “Presidential elections”.

1. The government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, immediately after its formation in 1979, formed “The Assembly of The Elite” or “Khobregan” to write the Constitutional Law. However, the term of this assembly expired prior to the completion of this law. After its disassembly, the Constitutional Law was written and completed with Khomeini’s will only!

The basis and many of the articles in this Constitutional Law are in contradiction with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Within this Law, the power of government comes from God and the representative of God is the religious supreme leader (now Khamenei). The will of the people has been discounted.

(Actions like stoning, amputations of hands and feet, gouging of eyes, public execution, execution of members of opposition groups and killing non-Moslems, all are legal in Iran based on this Law. Refer to articles two, four, five, twelve and thirteen of the IRI constitution).

Within the composition of this Law, President is a ceremonial title, and only the supreme leader (Velayat Faghih, i.e. Khamenei) is the head of the regime with all and endless powers. Therefore, any type of election in Iran is in fact a setup for international propaganda and purely a sham.

In IRI Constitution, the supreme leader establishes an organization called Council of Guardians. This Council not only has to approve the Parliament’s proclamations, but also has to approve the candidates for presidency. Accordingly, in the recent presidential elections, from among one thousand and fourteen presidential candidates, the Guardian Council selected at first six candidates and then due to the order of the Velayat Faghih, added two more.

Based on different reports, which will be presented upon request, the most important reasons to prove the illegitimacy of this so-called election are as follows:

a) Most of the Iranian people rejected the elections and even stayed home in order to avoid being forced to go to the polls;

b) The minimum age requirement to vote was reduced from sixteen to fourteen;

c) The use of food coupons and admission in high school, college and university examinations required a seal on one’s birth certificate indicating that the person had participated in the elections;

d) Threatening hospitalized patients that if they did not vote, they would not receive their medications and other services;

e) Threatening government employees that if they did not vote, they would lose their jobs;

f) Increasing the hours of voting during the last minutes of the election day and transporting regime agents by bus from one polling place to others in order to increase the number of votes;

g) Printing more than three million birth certificates with fake names and announcing that birth certificates without pictures would also be accepted as well as passports;

h) Cheating in counting of votes which caused different voting results being announced by the Guardian Council and the Interior Ministry.

Note: According to the IRI Constitutional Law, women and members of other religions except for Islamic Shiites are not allowed to be candidates for presidency.

The “selection” of a well known killer, Mahmood Ahmadinejad, as the President-elect of IRI, one whose past, behavior, and fanaticism is no less than Molla Omar of Afghanistan, obliges the world community to assist the people of Iran in a much more serious manner in order to prevent further spread of religious terrorism.

Ahmadinejad had been personally involved in the assassination of many freedom loving activists such as Dr. Sharafkandi and his colleagues in the Mikonos Restaurant in Berlin, Germany. Ahmadinejad himself has claimed to be proud of personally releasing the last bullet in the heads and bodies of many political prisoners. According to available documents and photos, Ahmadinejad was one of the hostage takers at the American Embassy in Tehran in 1980.

The National Assembly of IRI Opposition Leadership, with membership from representatives of all Iranian social and political groups, from both inside and outside Iran, hereby presents its appreciation to all world leaders and political figures such as President George W. Bush and Ms. Dr. Condoleezza Rice, who have supported the struggle of the Iranian people for Democracy and Human Rights. Meanwhile, we expect and appreciate the support of all other political leaders and human right fighters, especially the European Union, to join the people of Iran in their fight for Democracy and their freedom from oppression.

Respectfully,

Mr. Reza Kermani, Temporary President - Iran
Ms. Homa Ehsan, Temporary Vice President – USA
Dr. Kourosh Sadri, Temporary Spokesman – Italy
Mr. Kiumars Farhoumand, Temporary Secretary – Sweden
Mr. Mohammad Ghassem Amin, Temporary Treasurer– USA

For more information call:

Dr. Iman Foroutan, Executive Director, Iran of Tomorrow Movement
imanf@sosiran.com

Office: 818-986-0200 Fax: 818-474-7229
24-hour Message Center: 888-SOS-IRAN
www.sosiran.com