LEADER'S ANTI-US DIATRIBE IS FOR DOMESTIC USE ONLY
PARIS 26TH March. (IPS) In a speech designed to satisfy his own base, Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i again played Saturday his favourite but worn out and badly scratched anti-American record that analysts said should not be taken seriously at all as it has only limited domestic purpose aimed at fanatic, illiterate and lumpen Iranians on his payroll.
Addressing thousands of thugs and fanatic religious in his hometown of Mash-had, the Capital city of North-eastern Province of Khorasan, Mr. Khameneh'i lashed out at American leaders, including Mrs. Madeleine Albright's latest statement aimed at paving the road to normalisation of ties between Tehran and Washington.
In an effort to undermine the importance of the US's proposals and trying deliberately to belittle Mrs. Albright by referring to her as "vazireh", meaning female minister, Ayatollah Khameneh'i actually ridiculed himself in the eyes of the world and ashamed ordinary Iranians by uttering words not befitted to a leader, a language spoken by hooligans, bandits and thugs.
In a 2 hours long speech that could well be summed up in five minutes, Mr. Khameneh'i repeatedly questioned the "utility for the Iranians now" Mrs. Albright's admitting to the US wrong policies and mistakes concerning Iran in the past, including the coup staged in 1953 against the nationalist Prime Minister Dr. Mohammad Mossadeq and their support for the Iraqi regime in the war against Iran.
His address contained nothing new except a strong backing for the Basij, Revolutionary Guards (Pasdaran) and Ansar Hezbollah hooligans and other pressures groups formed and trained and paid to promote his prestige.
Despite orders from the leader who is also the Supreme Commander of all Iranian Armed Forces, the Pasdaran Intelligence Department to whom belongs the alleged suspects who attempted to assassinate Mr. Sa'id Hajjarian, the Publisher of the reformist daily "Sobhe Emrouz" two weeks ago, continue adamantly to keep the murderers in their custody, refusing to hand them over to the government.
In order to please the forces that are deserting him systematically for more radical Islamic groups and ayatollahs, a shift that results from his weakness and political fragility, Ayatollah Khameneh'i praised the pressure groups for their action in crushing violently last July's students uprising and condemned the students who had come out against Ayatollah Khameneh'i and the Islamic regime, defending democracy and reforms.
In an open criticism of President Mohammad Khatami's famous proposal of "tearing down the wall of mistrust" between Iran and the US, Mr. Khameneh'i observed that the main issue between the two sides was not "the wall of mistrust as coined by that gentleman and used immediately by some pencil mercenaries, but that the Iranian nation and officials consider America as their enemy".
Observers said Mr. Khameneh'i was angry at the welcome reserved by both the government and Iranian reformist groups and personalities to Mrs. Albright's overtures .
He said the latest proposals for talks with Iran put forward by the US is aimed at sawing diversions, more divisions among Iranians with a bid to regain its former interests in Iran.
As usual, Mr. Khameneh'i lashed out against Iranian moderate and reformist journalists and intellectuals, accusing them of "connivance" with the US "arrogance" that aims at "sawing division among Iranians, pitting one group against another, undermine the Islamic revolution and divert people from their beloved Islamic system".
"The Americans now admit to mistakes did half a century ago and during the war. How do we know that 25 years latter from now they would not come out admitting to mistakes they did these days by creating division, plotting against the regime, helping the enemies and the opponents inside the country?" he said with his usual paranoia.
"What is frightening for Mr. Khameneh'i is the welcome of the Iranians to latest US proposals, as there are no reason for Iranians and American not having normal diplomatic and trade relations. This is what the reformists are after and this is exactly what Mr. Khameneh'i is against, hence his old policy of slogans aimed at his own power base of religious fanatics and hooligans", one political analyst pointed out. ENDS IRAN US KHAMENEH'I 26300