KHAMENEH'I SAYS NO TO DIALOGUE WITH THE GREAT SATAN
By Safa Haeri
PARIS 16TH JAN. (IPS) Islamic Iran's supreme leader and strongman ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i ruled out Friday any possible kind of relationship or even dialogue with the United States, saying normalisation with the "great Satan" was "against the interests of Islam, Islamic revolution, Iranian Muslim people and the world's Islamic movement".
In an hour long speech pronounced in Tehran during the Friday prier ceremony, Mr Khameneh'i also defended the occupation of the American Embassy in Tehran in November 1979, publicly rebuking the new president who had regretted the event.
In his first reaction to the controversial interview granted by the ayatollah Mohammad Khatami to the American Cable News Network television CNN aired on 7TH January which for the first time arised speculations as to resumption of some dialogue between Americans and Iranians, Mr Khameneh'i reiterated Islamic Republic's "definitive opposition" towards "any form of relation or even a dialogue" with the "great Satan", saying restoring relations with the United States "not only do not serve Iranian interests, but it is harmful".
"The first harm we shall suffer is that the great Satan will be able to tell the whole world that the Islamic Republic has stepped down from its basic principles, filling the world with their poisonous propaganda that we have turned our back to our revolution, dishonouring the Islamic revolution enjoys with the deprived, harming the world's Islamic movement" Mr Khameneh'i declared.
He also strongly condemned the attitude of the pro-Khatami movement inside Iran, particularly those newspapers which supported the president's interview, saying "This seditious propaganda wave which has its source outside Iran, has unfortunately infiltrated to Iran itself and regrettably, some who are less attached to the principle of the revolution have, in some newspapers, moved the same way as our enemy".
Iranian analysts speculated that by launching such a blistering and direct attack on both the personalities and newspapers supporting the president's stand, the ayatollah Khameneh'i wanted to stop at once the debate raging among the conservative-controlled and pro-Khatami newspapers, leading to more and more people, mostly youngsters, students, scholars, journalists and intellectuals coming in support of Mr Khatami.
"What we can expect now is to see all sides in Iran shutting up and be forced into a cease-fire, with the press and personalities stopping a debate which was getting out of control, at least for the coming months, waiting for Mr Khatami to prepare his next move, continuing with his promised policy of getting Iran out of international isolation", forecasted one Iranian analyst in Paris.
"Claims by American media that Iran aims at restoring relations with America is totally baseless. Americans are plotting against us, trying to transform our sacred anti-Americanism which makes the link between our people and our leaders into an instrument of division and disunity to better weaken Iran and force us into negotiations", he said.
In the interview, labelled by some American press and analysts as "historic", Mr Khatami offered the opening of a "thoughtful dialogue" between Iranian and American people and proposed the exchange of Iranian and American scholars, intellectuals and journalists.
Mr Khameneh'i strongly justified the occupation of the American Embassy he termed as "nest of spies", saying: "Despite years of betrayal, treason and enmity against the Iranian Muslim people, Iranians forgave Americans after the revolution. But the great Satan continued its crimes, its plots and provocation. Therefore, the occupation of the spies nest by Muslim students in the line of Imam was the justified punishment, the expression of Iranian people's anger against crimes and plots committed by America against our sacred Islamic revolution", he pointed out.
"The great Satan is and remain Iranian people, the Islamic revolution, the Islamic Republic and Islam's greatest enemy. Our position towards America, based on no to negotiations, no to relations, no to dialogue remains solidly the same and will never ever change", he added.
The warm welcome reserved by Iranian, US and Western analysts, the international media and public opinion, particularly in both the United States and in Iran itself to Mr Khatami's interview with the CNN had provoked the anger of Mr Khameneh'i and the conservative political-religious establishment he represents and who firmly control all strategic levers of the power, including Armed Forces, intelligence and security machines, the judiciary, radio and television as well as the legislative.
"We appreciate the spirit of the interview, when he (Khatami) regrets the hostage taking and talks about America as a great civilisation", said the State Department's senior spokesman James Rubin.
In the aftermath of the interview, several leading American analysts, scholars and politicians called on the Clinton Administration to take a positive step towards Iran, helping Mr Khatami in going forward with his attempt at "cracking the wall of mistrust" erected between Tehran and Washington by the Islamic revolution.
Mr Khameneh'i accused the American "mean" media's "provocative propaganda" over Mr Khatami's interview a "great injustice" to both the Iranian people and their president. "All the things he said in his interview, about the fact that we don't need relations with the great Satan or our position towards the occupying Zionist regime are and remain the eternal, intangible principles and basis of our policy which we shall never ever change".
According to Mr Khameneh'i, the "hole world" acclaims and applauds at Islamic Iran standing so firmly, so strongly so solidly to the United States. Afraid of our strength, that the whole world is looking at us, that Islamic movements throughout the world are taking example from us, America is trying hard to force us to the negotiating table. But we will resist as we have done for the last two decades, a period marked in the world by struggle between two opposing forces, Iranian Islam and American estekbar (imperialism).
Mr Khameneh'i, reported by insiders to be "very annoyed" at the growing popularity Mr Khatami enjoys in both Iranian and international public opinion and media also took aim at those in Iran who think that relations and dialogue with America will solve some of Iran's problems.
"As everyone is aware, America failed in isolating Iran. Sanction against our sacred Islamic system turned into a fiasco. Right now, there are many countries with close ties with the United States and having tremendous problems and difficulties. This is a prove that having relations with the United States is not a miracle solving our problems. Our grandeur and might dictates us to continue resisting and opposing America", Mr Khameneh'i noted.
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