IRANIAN LEADER’S RULE UNDER QUESTION
PARIS 29 Sept. (IPS) An Iranian lawyer and scholar says the continuation of the leadership of Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i faces "serious challenge", after a great majority of Iranians rejected his policy of no dialogue with the United States.
"Mr. Khameneh'i, in one of his statements, said those who defend
dialogue with Washington either ignore the abc of politics or that of honour,
but the result from the latest opinion poll (conducted on the matter of
relations with the United States), in which 75 per cent of interviewees favoured
normalisation with America, creates a great dilemma for the policy of the
leader", pointed out Dr. Qasem Sho’leh Sa’di, a former deputy
from Shiraz and a professor of international law at Tehran university.
According to an opinion survey registered last week by three different institutions, two of them close to the conservatives, and released by the official news agency IRNA, out of 75 per cent of Tehran inhabitants who voiced their support for dialogue with Washington, 65 per cent called for resumption of relations and only 17 per cent opposed it.
Iranian political analysts said the poll is an "alarm bell" for the very person of Mr. Khameneh'i who rules out any dialogue with Washington.
According to the survey, against the 26 per cent of the interviewees who said America’s policy on Iran was "wrong", 56 per cent considered the Iranian policy in regard to Washington as "irrelevant".
"If Mr. Khameneh'i is right by labelling as ignoring abc of honour those among Iranians who favours dialogue with the United States, then, according to this poll, three out of four Iranians are without proud and honour, but if we conclude that the Iranians are a very proud people and it is based on honour but also wisdom, that they approve of dialogue and resumption of relations, the simple meaning is that a great majority of Iranians do not approve Mr. Khameneh'i and in any case, the continuation of Mr. Khameneh'i rule faces serious challenge", he noted.
In the view of some Iranian observers, the release of the poll by IRNA is a "ploy" by the conservatives to prepare Iranian public opinion for a U turn in their stated anti-American policy.
"Seriously afraid of their survival, the conservatives are ready to drink their own cup of poison by yielding to American conditions for normalisation of relations, including stopping their support for terrorist organisations and ending opposition to the peace process between Israel and the Palestinian Authority", one Iranian political analyst told Iran Press Service.
In their last round of talks with Tehran on expanding Trade and Cooperation, the 15-members European Union urged the Islamic Republic to recognise in one go both the State of Israel and Palestine.
"The polls outcome confirms that the power centres have lost all popular legitimacy, as not only it confirms the great gap that divides the majority of Iranians with the ruling leadership, but places Mr. Khameneh'i in a difficult position", Mr. Sho’leh Sa’di told the Persian service of Radio France Internationale (RFI). ENDS SHO’LEH SA’DI ON KHAMENEH'I 29902