TEHRAN, Iran, July 13, 2009
Candidate: Iran May Face "Disintegration"
Conservative Takes Middle Road: Tells Reformists to Drop New Vote Push, Blasts Gov't Tactics Against Protesters
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Moderate-conservative Iranian presidential candidate Mohsen Rezaei in a May 3, 2009 file photo. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
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Who's Who Iran's Election: Key Players A look at the most important figures in Iran's contested presidential election.
In remarks published on his Web site late Sunday, Mohsen Rezaei urged the other two defeated candidates - both of them reformists - to drop their push for a new vote and work with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The former commander of the powerful Revolutionary Guard may be trying to position himself as a neutral figure in the dispute who could work to bring Iran's divided camps together.
The two other defeated candidates, including main opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, have charged that Ahmadinejad's landslide re-election was the result of fraud and want the results scrapped. The official outcome of the June 12 vote triggered days of street protests. Authorities responded with a violent crackdown and roundups of activists, academics, journalists and lawyers.
The election dispute also exposed rifts within Iran's clerical establishment.
"A continuation of the current situation will drive us toward disintegration," Rezaei said.
Rezaei also accused the United States and Israel of plotting against the country. Government officials have also accused foreign powers - the U.S. and Britain, in particular - of fomenting the unrest in the streets.
"They - the U.S and Israel - plotted this disintegration to weaken Iran and make it surrender through sanctions or attack" Rezaei said.
He also had words of rebuke for the government, saying it should have differentiated between protesters and what he called "counterrevolutionaries" and "violators."
Both sides, he said, were providing opportunities for Iran's enemies through their struggle.
"I believe the continuation of the way of some political activists will drive us backward and toward failure and the method of some others will take us to the precipice," Rezaei said.
He added, however, that "the damage by both sides is still repairable" and said Iranians could learn from the experience for the sake of the country's future.
On Saturday, one of the disputes between the two sides was settled by the Expediency Council, a body that arbitrates disagreements between parliament and the Guardian Council, whose powers include overseeing elections.
The Expediency Council - which is headed by a bitter enemy of Ahmadinejad, former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani - approved a bill in parliament that bars members of other branches of government from serving in the Guardian Council.
The Guardian Council's membership includes three members of Ahmadinejad's administration and judiciary, a fact cited by the opposition in its arguments that the council is not impartial.
Much of the post-election intrigue has focused on Rafsanjani and what role he might have played in the opposition to Ahmadinejad's re-election.
Iranian media reported that the powerful cleric, who also leads a body that has the power to remove the supreme leader, will deliver the sermon at this week's Friday prayers for the first time since the election.
That signals that Rafsanjani remains influential in Iran's clerical establishment, which is divided over the election.
Ruling clerics have called the election "pure" and "healthy," while others in the religious center of Qom have refrained from congratulating Ahmadinejad and have even openly supported Mousavi.
(AP Photo/Hasan Sarbakhshian)
"A political system based on force, oppression, changing people's votes, killing ... and using Stalinist and medieval torture ... is condemned and illegitimate," he said.
He made the comments during a clerical debate Friday about the qualifications for a supreme leader. He also challenged the use of detainees' confessions, which critics say are being coerced through abuse.
"According to the teachings of the prophet and his descendants, confessions in jail have no religious or legal validity and cannot be the criterion for action (against the confessor)," he said.
Montazeri was the heir apparent to the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini until falling out of favor with the ruling clerics in 1989 by questioning their almost limitless powers. Montazeri spent five years under house arrest in the 1990s in the city of Qom.
© MMIX The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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- Obama has to state that the U.S. can't engage the illegitimate regime in Iran and just see where that takes us. If Obama does engage the renegade government in Iran then he should be impeached. We elected him as leader of the free world and it's time for him to start leading by example, the whole world knows the Iranian election was rigged and they despise that ruthless dictatorship and they await leadership from Obama who has been sitting on the sidelines. He simply needs to state the obvious, we can't engage the illegitimate regime in Iran.
As far as religion goes, we are in a time in our evolution that with the knowledge we have developed and the rate at which our knowledge is growing that the blind faith in gods, goddesses, devils and other types of deities are not required. That being said, the blind faith in gods and goddesses will probably carry on for possibly another hundred years and maybe longer in the most backward nations. The most important thing concerning organized religions is the use of 'separation of church and state'. This idea is effective in keeping a lid on religous radicals but lets some of the belief systems permeate the society with out harming the overall populace, this idea is what makes the U.S. one of the most desirable societies on earth. - Reply to this comment
- We the People contribute to pension funds that invest in corporations that some other people would like to see dissolved. The Constitution allows for freedom of association, of which business-creation is a part.
Simply put, property rights are an expression of individual rights. Anyone who expects to have rights, without their taking form in the real world, will find that they have no rights. - Reply to this comment
- The people of EVERY country in this world face the very same problem,,,,,,We are governed by groups of greedy people who DO NOT represent the wishes of the people they are supposed to represent. However these elite groups called governments have crawled in bed around the world with lobbyists and are controlled by the mega rich. Citizens of countries don't start wars ,,,governments do,,,,,human nature seeks peace while governments and the corporate world thrive on wars , death and fear. The American government should start worrying, they have sold out way too many Americans at one time that is resulting in the separation of the classes, the ones who have ,,,and the ones who don't.time draws closer to the need for a second revolution to return this country and its wealth to those who rightfully own it,,,"We the People".
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- I agree with you on this.
The majority of politicians are a$$ kissers of the Rich. I still look for the rarity, the one who really cares about the countrys people... They exist but most times they are discovered by their co-office holders and labeled (unclean) by the majority in such a way as to make them look like they are (whatever is negative at the time). But I will still watch, ....... and hope....... and continue watching....... because, "someday"!!!!!!!!!!!!.... (sigh)
- I agree with you on this.
- by Void_Master July 13, 2009 5:30 PM EDT
You'd prefer he deployed a nuke against Tehran? Yeah, that would settle things down in a hurry.
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Get Isreal to do it - they'll do ANYthing. - Reply to this comment
- Obama has abandoned democracy around the world.
Obama The Weak
Obama The Coward
Obama The Appeaser - Reply to this comment
- The only legitimate form of government is a republic. Power is granted by the majority, protection is given to the minority. Theocracy is not and never has been a type of republic, because power is granted a supreme being as interpreted by clerics who cannot be questioned by the majority.
Iran is a dictatorship. Scapegoating foreigners doesn't change that. - Reply to this comment
- Antonio - We both know that the crowds of demonstrators, that we saw for two weeks, don't hate the United States or Israel. These people are simply fed up with the day-to-day anti U.S rhetorics spewed by the radical thugs. They want peace, and freedom, and they need our help to acheive it.
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- by antoniof123 July 13, 2009 12:44 PM PDT
"As long as religion is involved we will never have peace."
make that "As long as religion is involved as a lever to move the people we will never have peace" and I will agree. Religion should be a personal thing between you and your idea of GOD. I should not be allowed to force you to believe in my form of religion.. - Reply to this comment
- Let there be peace on earth .................
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- What typical KRAP, Antonio...
Buddhists, Hindi's, Christians have lived in peace for years and done good works all over the planet for their peoples...
To condemn them all because the crazy arabic/muslim extremists have to be murdering somebody else off to find their way to heaven and their 72 freaking virgins is quite frankly stupid.
- What typical KRAP, Antonio...
- The thugs are divided because they are, for the 1st time, seeing a ligitimate threat to their existance. They have no where to run to and they are scared.
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- Even though they are thugs the fact is that the losers don't like us either in fact they may be worst than the current bunch.
So ask yourself this why should we care if both sides hate us then who cares the winner still hates us and so does the loser.
- Well said and true!!!!!
The flailings of tyrants and Dictators to stay in unmerited power always drag a country to the brink of destruction and sometimes push it over the edge. Some of you people have been alive as long or longer than I have. You also know that I speak the truth in this case. All the know-it-alls and 'would be but not quite' Sages will twist the truth to suit their own agenda. Iran is in a 'transition' stage and must be left to make its own future possible without outside influence. For the US or any western power to interfere or "make minor adjustments" to Irans struggle in order to "make things more favorable to (whomever)" would be the utmost folly. That Beast once unleashed will come back to 'Bite' the hand that fed it. (As the US learned at the end of the Shahs reign)....
- To continue with the propaganda that the US brought down Massadegh when there are absolutely no facts backing up that myth when in fact it was the Imam's that brought him down themselves...
The CIA agents who claimed that krap were simply engaged in bar room bragadocious clap trap...and Obama even has the files and knows this...yet he still has these wet dreams that the US intervened in Iran's business and will continue that lie because it suits him.
The Imam's are the ones who have brought trouble to Iran for close to 100 years now through their preaching myth to their extremist believes that in order to get to heaven you must muder the infidels...
Anyone who dares to object to their murdering other peoples who refuse to convert to Islam becomes their great enemy...
- by IThoughtItWasFunnyNOPE July 13, 2009 1:16 PM PDT
To continue with the propaganda that the US brought down Massadegh when there are absolutely no facts backing up that myth when in fact it was the Imam's that brought him down themselves...
The CIA agents who claimed that krap were simply engaged in bar room bragadocious clap trap...and Obama even has the files and knows this...yet he still has these wet dreams that the US intervened in Iran's business and will continue that lie because it suits him.
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SAY WHAT!!!!!!!
http://www.mohammadmossadegh.com/biography/
"Meanwhile, the British continued to undermine Mossadegh's authority by inciting
division in the country, tightening the worldwide embargo on the purchase of
Iranian oil, freezing Iranian assets and threatening Iran with invasion by
amassing a Naval force in the Persian Gulf. When all attempts failed, Britain
concluded that "Mossadegh must go" by any means necessary. Working jointly with
the American CIA, they plotted a coup to overthrow his democratically elected
government.
On August 15, 1953, with participation of the Shah and their Iranian
collaborators, a CIA drafted plan codenamed Operation Ajax, headed by Kermit Roosevelt, went into action, but it failed to dislodge Mossadegh from power. In the second attempt on August 19, 1953, [28 Mordad 1332] the violent overthrow of the government was accomplished. Mossadegh escaped capture, but his home was invaded, looted and burned to the ground. The following day Mossadegh
surrendered to authorities and was imprisoned. During this bloody episode, many hundreds were killed or wounded. Followers of Mossadegh were arrested,
imprisoned, tortured or even murdered. Mossadegh's Foreign Minister, Dr. Hossein Fatemi went into hiding but was captured a few months later. He was beaten, stabbed and, after a show trial, executed by a firing squad. The reign of terror had begun."
Spew a few more lies, Rowdy..
- Even though they are thugs the fact is that the losers don't like us either in fact they may be worst than the current bunch.
- somebody still needs to put a bullet through "R's" head.
- Reply to this comment
- "Rezaei also accused the United States and Israel of plotting against the country. Government officials have also accused foreign powers - the U.S. and Britain, in particular - of fomenting the unrest in the streets.
Which only goes to prove that leaders of both parties in Iran are looking for a scape-goat on an issue they exposed themselves to.
What a bunch of idiots. If you suppress folks that don't like your reasons for suppressing them (no mater what the source - religion - political - or anything else), then FORCE them to like it by killing them if they protest, all you have done is put a insufficent lid on a pressure cooker.
It WILL explode.
And, I can't think of a nicer pair of monkeys to have it happen to... the Ayatollah and Ahmadinejad.
Mark my words - Ahmadinejad will be shot within the year by someone who is willing to give his life in Iran. - Reply to this comment
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