According to the new survey, carried recently in the central city of Esfahan, 70 per cent of the interviewees consider that the Islamic revolution of 1979 was the work of the United States and Britain and not Grand Ayatollah Roohollah Khomeini.

"This is a great betrayal against both the Islamic revolution and the Emam, who led the revolution", Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati told worshippers at the Friday prayers, bussed to the Tehran University campus in Police and revolutionary guards trucks and buses.

The interviewees, most of them families of the victims from the devastating Iran-Iraq eight years war also said Iran does not need a nuclear powered electricity plant, like the one which is under construction in the southern port of Booshehr, on the Persian Gulf, with the active assistance of Russia.

The hard line Ayatollah, who is the Secretary of the leader-controlled Council of the Guardians, blasted the "internal and foreign agents" who are after creating tension and trouble in the Islamic society of Iran by persuading the Muslim people of Iran have no more faith in the sacred Islamic regime, in the leader and in the Islamic revolution.

The statement said "confessions" from other directors of the Ayandeh Research Institute and documents discovered at their official and secret work places showed that Mr. Haqiqi was the "link" between the accused and American and other foreign nations agents".

According to the survey, carried out by three polling institutes, 74 per cent of the people who responded to questions said they were supporting normalisation with the United States. 1.4 per cent said they consider Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i, the lamed leader of the regime, as a popular politician fit to lead the nation.

As a result, two out of the three institutions were shut and directors of one of them, Mr. Behrooz Gernapayeh, Abbas Abdi and Hoseyn Qazian were arrested, charged with espionage, conspiracy against the Islamic Republic, selling highly classified information to foreign agents and receiving money from un-named American officials and contact with Iranian counter-revolutionary elements.

The unpopularity of the present Iranian ruling ayatollahs was also confirmed by the new poll, as, according to the results, the great majority of the interviewees had said that they doubt the capacities and potential of the officials, particularly Mr. Khameneh'i, in ruling the country

"Reverting to polls means that one is after certain specified goals, like proving to the Iranian and international opinion that the Islamic revolution, the regime and the leadership are weak, that fidelity to the emam (Khomeini) and antagonism against America have ended, all the things that have proved wrong", Mr. Jannati said, without providing any explanation.

Commenting on the polling case, Mr. Jannati said what has been discovered was "only part of the illegal actions done".

The Ayatollah termed as "treason" the acts of the pollsters, thanked the Judiciary for having severely dealt with the agents behind the public opinion and criticised the Intelligence Ministry for its handling of the case, the official news agency IRNA said.

"There are a small number of students and academics who have not enjoyed the lofty instructions and values of Islam and that is why they spark trouble and tensions at times in the campus circles", the Ayatollah said, referring to the thousands of reform seeking students who, in their daily protest meetings, call for holding a referendum on the future of the Iranian regime.

The protest movement started last month after the leader-controlled Judiciary imposed death sentence on Mr. Hashem Aqajari, a popular university professor and Islamist thinker.

Confirming Iran’s siding with neighbouring Iraq, a policy decided by Ayatollah Khameneh'i and strongly opposed by the great majority of the Iranians, Ayatollah Jannati accused Washington of "hatching ploy to launch attacks against Islam under the pretext of fighting terrorism. This is in line with the same inhuman policy that the United States plans to assault Iraq", he said. ENDS NEW POLL 201202