The Danger is Absolutely Serious

Mehrdad Sheibani, Rooz Online:

While visiting the military berthing facilities in Iran’s northern port of Bandar Anzali, president of the State Expediency Council Hashemi Rafsanjani said for the second time last week, “The danger is absolutely serious.” In his talk, he again warned of the “enemy’s mischief”, a reference to the Europeans and the Americans and their positions and statements regarding Iran’s nuclear stand off with them after Iran broke the seals on the research facilities in Isfahan.

The weekly International Research wrote last week that “there has never a more dangerous situation for the world, the Middle East and Palestine as the one today.” READ MORE

This is the week when nuclear talks between Iran and members of EU again reached another dead-end and Iran was again the headline of the international press. Even Mohammad AlBaradei, the director of UN’s IAEA nuclear watchdog said in Vienna that the patience of the international community had worn out, as had his. Al-Jazeera TV reported that everyone was aware that it was now Iran’s turn. And the British weekly the Economist reviewed the various military scenarios and economic sanctions by the UN Security Council against Iran. It also viewed a change or regime in Iran in the manner those in Kabul and Baghdad were carried out as favorable and expressed lamented that there were no viable alternative forces in Iran.

Domestically, the strategy that has been labeled “the policy of elimination” by Abdollah Ramazanzadeh, the spokesman for former president Mohammad Khatami’s government, continued its march. And while it was announced that the Passdaran Revolutionary Guards Corps bureau of Intelligence Protection would no longer play the role of parallel intelligence groups – a reference to groups that carry out identical intelligence activities at different government agencies – the Political Bureau of the Passdaran has become more active.

The Passdaran which in effect runs the country today, issued a statement to the press instructing it not to publish any news about the crash of the C-130 military aircraft that crashed a month ago killing all on board, which included a large number of journalists. This request came exactly a day before another air crash – this time a Falcon - also belonging to the Passdaran, which killed its senior commanders.

While the “hidden party” could not control the “air crises”, it continued its drive to take over all the levers of the country. A new government agency to monitor non-government news agencies was created and the right-leaning director of Gods news agency was appointed as its first director. So now, not only are the news agencies barred from publishing any news about any detentions around the country, they fall completely under government management and control as well. Last week also saw the birth of yet another violent newspaper: Organe Hizbullah (the official newspaper of Hizbullah) and its theme was “death”.

With these events, Mr. Ahmadinejad’s government has created the most stringent controls over the national media. The media of the critics has been completely filtered out or banned. Even the official reformers inside the government have not cyber sites as their news outlets and can only have domestic publications, which fall under strict official control. And with the government of Dubai’s new policies on live satellite broadcasts of Persian language TV stations, another independent channel was completely shut. And still, government closure of student newspapers and publications continues. The only outlet that is notably not touched yet is the Etemad Melli (National Unity) newspaper which is expected to hit news stands soon. Unless … .

Civil institutions too had a hectic and devastating week. Sherkate Vahed workers union that organizes workers in the national city bus transportation system was confronted when government’s anti-riot forces stopped a planned workers meeting. NGOs in general have been ruled to be organizations that work to “overthrow” the regime, thus preparing the ground work for their final dissolution and ban.

Ultra-conservative and fundamentalist Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi’s activities to take over the control of the Majles Khobregan (Experts Assembly for the Leadership) and the news that he met the supreme leader of the country was the main topic of many political activists around the country.

Newly published documents reveal that Yazdi had opposed the founding leader of the Islamic Revolution. President Ahmadinejad even went so far as to expressly state that he is a follower of Navab Safavi, the founder of the armed group Fadayane Islam that took the responsibility for assassinating Mohammad Ali Razmara Iran’s prime minister in 1951. (Some of its members eventually joined the Heyate Motalefe party (Islamic Coalition party.) The approval of Ahmadinejad’s policies by Egypt’s Akhvan al Muslemeen (Muslim Brotherhood) attest to the warnings that former president Mohammad Khatami and former Majlis leader Mehdi Karoubi had issued that the current official ideology would lead them to that of Bin Laden’s.

Last week also was witness to the elimination of “Khomeini the Leader” line in the national anthem played everyday on national television, while the Majlis (Iran’s Parliament) conspicuously eliminated 12 Farvardin (Islamic Republic Day) and 15 Khordad holidays (the day recognized to be the first spark of Khomeini’s Islamic Revolution when he was arrested and subsequently exiled). The Majlis even proposed to eliminate the Nowrooz official holiday. Nowrooz mean new day which commemorates the first day of the Iranian new year and has been with Iran since its pre-Islamic days, much to the dislike of the clerics.

At the international level, US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice now openly talks of an international consensus to refer Iran to the UN Security Council, after Iran’s 3-day talks with the Russians broke down. Germany and the US seem to be now united on Iran as expressed by the US-visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Washington.

Ultra-hardline Jomhurie Eslami (Islamic Republic) newspaper which is close to the power apex of Iran announced the new strategy of the leaders: enlighten world opinion about Iran’s right to nuclear energy, and, expose the true anti-human policies of Western powers.

This decision was made most likely in response to the announcement of a new UN human rights council to replace the aging UN Human Rights Commission, which would be barred to those countries that are known violators of human rights. It appears that the first item on the Human Rights Council’s agenda is Iran.

But the anti Iranian posture is more than just threats and words. While Turkey recently cancelled president Ahmadinejad’s trip to Ankara, it announced it will soon be the host to US Secretary of State and Britain’s Foreign Minister. Baku of Azarbaijan too played host to a gathering that Iran’s Baztab news-site that is close to the government called “an anti-Iranian seminar with US management.” Some 50 countries participated in the gathering and talked of security in the Caspian Sea, which borderers Iran on the north. Iran was never invited and was in fact referred to as the source of terrorism.

Iran’s response to all this has been counter threats and retreats. The commander of the army talked of the army’s ability with withstand all eventualities, and Tehran’s bill boards wrote: Military is Ready for Any Event.”

And while Iran’s chief negotiator at the nuclear talks told CNN that the Russian proposal for enriching uranium for Iran on Russian soil is still debatable, and Ahmadinejad retreated from his statement on Israel in an international press conference.

The Tsunami that is sweeping the Middle East has also hit Syria whose president may be the next victim. It is already knocking on Iran’s beaches. But whatever the outcome, what is clear is that the danger is real and very serious.

An important read.