Raja News reports on the speech of the spokesman of the hardline Endurance Front (Jebhe-ye Paidari), Kamran Baqeri Lankarani. Baqeri Lankarani, also a former Minister of Health during Ahmadinejad’s first term, began his talk by stating, “when the Supreme Leader says “in a time without Martyr [Morteza] Motahhari and Martyr [Mohammad] Beheshti, great men like the learned Mesbah [Yazdi] fill the vacuum, because in life we must always judge individuals with respect to religious knowledge”.
Motahhari was one of the founding ideologues of the Islamic state, and Mohammad Beheshti was founder of the Islamic Republican Party and one of the Islamist clergy’s most acute political operators. Both were senior disciples of the theocratic state’s founder, Ayatollah Khomeini, and assassinated in the early years of the revolution. Ayatollah Khamenei has long sought to portray the right wing cleric and director of the Imam Khomeini Education and Research Institute in Qom, Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, as the inheritor of Ayatollah Motahhari’s mantle, as the most esteemed and officially sanctioned theoretician and ideologue of the Islamic state.
Baqeri Lankarani referring to Seyyed Mehdi Hashemi, a close ally and relative by marriage to the late Ayatollah Montazeri (he was brother to Montazeri’s son-in-law), claimed a reason why Khomeini chose to break with the latter was because Montazeri had fallen under the influence of Hashemi. Despite Hashemi’s “devout appearance” and resistance against the Pahlavi regime, he turned out to be a maker of “revolt and sedition”, arguing that apparent religious devotion shouldn’t be taken at face-value. He also alleges that Muammar Gaddafi had paid Hashemi to disseminate his famous Green Book.
Mehdi Hashemi was executed on the order of the Special Court for Clerics in 1987. Most historical accounts contend one of the chief reasons for Mehdi Hashemi’s execution was his leaking the Iran-Contra affair to a Lebanese newspaper, Al-Shiraa, much to the chagrin of the officials involved.
Hashemi’s widely publicized confessions and eventual execution were part of a process which eventually led to Montazeri’s forced resignation from the position of heir designate to the Supreme Leader, and his rapid marginalization from power, despite formerly being one of the leading lights of the Islamist clergy around Khomeini. Members and sympathisers of the Endurance Front are fond of bringing up the case of Mehdi Hashemi in order to discredit their Reformist opponents, many of whom till this day see themselves as his disciples and allies.
The spokesman’s aim was also most likely to promote the clerical and political leadership role of Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, who had been a stalwart critic of the Reformists during the tenure of President Mohammad Khatami. During the Ahmadinejad presidency, Mesbah was regularly dubbed the former’s spiritual mentor, but more recently has embarked upon a spree of political institution building, within which he has a very influential role. Most important is the Endurance Front, which despite its less than impressive performance in this year’s Majles elections, has shown itself to be a vociferous and tenacious player in the current factional infighting between Iran’s Principalist forces.
Bagheri concludes his talk by contending, “there were people who at one time were revolutionary, but today they receive their salary from the CIA. Some sought asylum in Israel, when no one says Israel is a good government, and Israel is the most despicable government and it is clear for everyone Israel is a murderer”.
Firuzabadi on Al-Qaeda in Syria
Fars News reports the comments of Major General Hassan Firuzabadi, Chief of the Armed Forces on the role of Western spy agencies in the formation of Islamist terrorist and jihadi groups. He stated, “the creation of sects in the Islamic world and the extremism of Al-Qaeda and jihadis is the plan of the CIA, Mossad and MI6 spy organizations, against the Islamic community”.
Referring specifically to Syria he said: “the appearance of the new problem of terrorism in the form of Al-Qaeda and jihadis in confrontation with the people and government of Syria is the long-term plan of the arrogant and colonialist regimes against the Islamic world”.
“The CIA and Mossad are the progenitors of Al-Qaeda, the jihadis and state terrorism in the region…They plan through the use of sects, which are apparently religious, but in fact terrorist, to initiate a targeted war between Sunni and Shi’a, despite the constant and serious efforts of some Islamic countries for the creation of unity and comprehensive alignment between Muslims”.
In other news
Aftab News reports the announcement of the Election Headquarters of the Country stating that the first midterm elections for four electoral districts will coincide with the 11th presidential election and fourth election of city and village councils on Friday 14 June 2013.
The hardline Mashregh News reports Turkish PM, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s warning in an interview with CNN that “an Israeli military attack on Iran would cause turmoil throughout the world”.
Jahan News reports on the latest appointment of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s son-in-law, Mehdi Khorshidi, as head of the Firoozabadi Hospital. Khorshidi, was previously appointed Secretary of the Council of Presidential Advisors and Chief of the Standard Organization. The latter appointment led to public objections of 42 MPs, claiming Khorshidi was unqualified for such a post.
The author queries Khorshidi’s latest appointment, asking “is the appointment of an inexperienced youth to the management of this hospital the meaning of meritocracy?”
Image source: Fars News