ANTI-MONTAZERI CAMPAIGN REACHES THE PRESIDENT


	ANTI-MONTAZERI CAMPAIGN REACHES THE PRESIDENT
	By Safa Haeri
	TEHRAN-PARIS 23rd NOV. (IPS) As the anti-Montazeri campaign was extended to provinces and to the Bazaar, the conservative economic nerve centre of the country, the new President, ayatollah Mohammad Khatami was for the first time publicly took to task by pro-Khameneh'i newspaper for continuing his "strange, if not significant silence". In a first direct hint, the newspaper "Jomhuri Eslami" (Islamic Republic), which is the mouth piece of the ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i' warned Mr Khatami to "broke" his silence (over the present confrontation between Mr Khameneh'i and Mr Montazeri) "or face the same faith of that manipulated naïve", a reference to the grand ayatollah Hosseinali Montazeri. "Naïve and manipulated" are adjectives reportedly used by the grand ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeiny when, in 1989 and months before his death, he dismissed Mr Montazeri as his successor. "Non active binding and obedience to the Imam (the ayatollah Khomeiny) has consequences some of them one can see these days in the life of a man who for years fought in the line of the Imam but then betrayed him", the paper wrote, adding "if you think the way this man is confronted by the public wrath is illegal, you should have first condemned him because of his illegal activities. Your silence is not compatible with the line of the late Imam. You do not have any justification for your silence". The conservative's organ "Resalat" went even farther, telling the president if he think that he can not work properly under present conditions, he should "go to the leader, offer his resignation and explains his reasons to the public". The "demonisation" of Mr Montazeri in the largely pro-Khameneh'i controlled media continue unabated even as some leading conservative clergymen, some of them very close to Mr Khameneh'i, proposed a "cease fire" considering the forthcoming Islamic Summit which is to be held in Tehran in two weeks time and, in an effort to stop growing erosion of the leader's position and powers, drew a line between capacities and conditions to be a religious leader from that for becoming a valyi, by suggesting that while a marja (source of emulation) has to master all religious matters, the valy is not subject to the same conditions and may well not possess proper religious credentials. This theory was first publicly expressed Friday by the ayatollah Ali Meshkini, the Friday Imam of the religious city of Qom, who is also Speaker of the Assembly of Experts and a close family relative to the ayatollah Khameneh'i. "Someone who is not the most learned in religious matters but possess the conditions for the velayat can become the leader of the society but being the most learned one in religious matters is not enough to become a valy. In other words, one can be the religious leader while at the same time another person can be the leader of the society", Mr Meshkini said. What surprised many Iranian analyst is that Mr Meshkini and all other clerics who, in defence of Mr Khamen'i, are now taking the same line are openly admitting that he is not a marja, a position he and his supporters have fought by all means and ways to tailor for him. In the same Friday speech, Mr Meshkini condemned the physical attacks on the person of the ayatollah Montazeri as well as the ransacking of his office and the pillage of his official and personal documents by thugs of the Information Ministry. In a statement attributed to Mrs Zahra Mostafavi-Khomeiny, the elder daughter of the ayatollah Khomeiny and published by some newspapers, she quotes her father as having told her to "forget about Khamenehi's religious degrees because he has all the right credential to become a valy". But some persons who know Mrs Mostafavi doubted the authenticity of the statement, saying the "style" of writing was "definitely not her's, rather that of the same centre which is also distributing other materials against Mr Montazeri". Interesting enough, the "Institute of Documenting and Publishing Works of Imam Khomeiny" confirmed Sunday that some of the letters attributed to the latter condemning Mr Montazeri and published in the press were fake Iranian public mass media which are under the direct control of the ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i reported extensively the violent verbal campaign of organised by the conservative clergy and the political establishment against Mr Montazeri and the ayatollah Ahmad Azari Qomi, both of them accused of "plot" against the principle of the velayat e faqih, the very "pillar" of the present Islamic regime of Iran and its present symbol, the ayatollah Khameneh'i. According to Tehran Radio, as the Assembly of Experts reconfirmed the ayatollah Khameneh'i in his position of valy e faqih and leader, demonstrators in the provinces of Khorasan (north-east), Sistan and Baluchistan (east), Khuzestan (south west), Ilam, (centre) Eastern Azarbayjan, Esfahan and some others cities "ferociously denounced the dubious activities from naïve and manipulated men against the sacred regime and the person of the great leader in the one hand and renewed their total obedience from and allegiance with the ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i on the other". Iranian observers and analysts observed that people are reported in the mass media to "pillory" Mr Montazer even though they no nothing about his "sins and crimes" since no media has published the "incendiary" declarations he is accused of having made including "strong criticism" of both the ayatollahs Khameneh'i and Hashemi Rafsanjani, the former president in the one hand, his support of Mr Khatami and call on him to "stand" to both men who "are undermining his constitutional prerogatives and powers in governing the country according to law and the Constitution". They also were at pain explaining the logic behind the Assembly of Experts reiteration of the ayatollah Khameneh'i as leader, as, by this move, the Assembly confirms Mr Khamenehi's weackness.

Editor-in-Chief: Safa Haeri Tel: +33 1 43805838 Fax: +33 1 43805825 e-mail: safa@iran-press-service.com <- Back to Home Page