"The Islamic Republic is running to its end much faster than one would think. It has exhausted all possibilities helping it survive. Having killed the reforms, it has even lost the support of the Armed Forces", commented Mr. Qasem Sho’leh Sa’di, a former member of the Majles, referring to the closure of two newspapers and the arrest of two prominent dissidents.

This is exactly what Judge Sa’id Mortazavi, better known as "The Butcher of the Press" did Thursday by ordering the closure of the daily "Rooz No", (New Day) that was supposed to hit the newsstands on Saturday, replacing the banned "No Rooz" (New Year), the semi-official organ of the Islamic Iran Participation Front, the country’s largest political organisation that supports the embattled President Mohammad Khatami.

Earlier on the day, Mr. Mortazavi, who, on orders from Mr. Khameneh'i, has so far closed 86 publications and jailed a dozen of prominent journalists, had shut the reformist daily "Ayenye Jonoob" (The Mirror of the South) on the pretext that the publisher of the daily, formerly a local weekly in southern Iran, Mr. Mohammad Dadfar, an outspoken MM, had been sentenced to jail on charge of propagating against the Islamic Revolution and insult to the leader.

As a result, some 2.000 journalists and their families are out of work.

"No Rooz", for its part, was closed on charge of publishing articles "contrary to the law".

Though the Judiciary has banned the media of publishing any article in favour of dialogue with the United States, yet this is the first time that a court is using such a vague pretext to shut a newspaper.

Dr. Naser Zarafshan, the outspoken lawyer who had defended some of the families of the victims of the "Chain Murders" case, in which high-ranking officers of the Intelligence Ministry had, on late November 1998, savagely assassinated six dissident politicians and intellectuals, was arrested Wednesday evening and Mr. Hashem Aqajari, a prominent islamist reformer was detained Thursday morning in the western city of Hamadan.

"The situation has reached the point where the monopolists respects no boundaries, have no regard for the international or domestic public opinion. But they are terribly afraid of the press and are deploying their best to finishes them all", said Mr. Isa Saharkhiz, Editor of the monthly "Aftab" (Sun).

"Visibly, the officials are frightened to see their regime crumbling fast. They are looking for ways of getting out, but all exits are closed on them, for, simply, there is no way out", said Mr. Sho’leh Sa’di who, in an interview with Mr. Alireza Meybodi, a newscaster with the AFNL Radio in Los Angeles, warned Mr. Khameneh'i not to count on the Armed Forces to bail his unpopular theocracy out.

According to Mr. Saharkhiz, the ruling conservatives are after eliminating influential Iranian journalists in order to close the links between the people with the elite. "It is easier, cheaper and less risky to force them out than put them in prison", he pointed out.

Mr. Mas’ood Behnood, a veteran journalist who’s 19 months jail sentence was just confirmed by an Appeals court noted that while most of the journalists are redundant and some have left, others have joined "less dangerous" publications.

"The reforms are dead. Mr. Khatami is already finished. Mr. Khameneh'i is no more feared or obeyed. Remains the third current that is emerging as an alternative to the present regime and can save Iran from total chaos by turning it into a full-fledged democracy", added Mr. Sho’leh Sa’di, a Law professor at Tehran University and a lawyer. ENDS REGIME REACHING END 9802