Back to Brief on Iran
The Iranian regime's Supreme National Security Council convened on Saturday, November 29, to address the security of participating delegations in the summit of the Organization of Islamic Conference in Tehran next week, according to reports from Iran.
The regime's leaders stated their grave concern in this meeting at the lack of security in the capital in light of an increasing wave of public discontent, anti-government protests and especially the intensifying power struggle within the regime.
The eruption of unrest in different
parts of the capital, including in East Tehran and in West Tehran, since
Khatami was sworn in as president, reflect the country's explosive state,
and while clashes among the regime's rival factions continue, serious doubts
have been cast on the regime's ability to provide protection for the summit.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards to Ensure Security During OIC Summit, Agence France Presse, November 30
TEHRAN - Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards have been placed in charge of security during the upcoming summit here of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the commander of the force said Sunday.
General Rahim Safavi, quoted by the official IRNA news agency, said establishing "full security" for the December 9-11 summit would underline the "authority" of the Islamic republic.
Strong security measures are to be implemented at the site of the conference in Tehran as well as in the central city of Esfahan, the southern city of Shiraz and the northeastern city of Mashhad, he said.
"Our forces perfectly control the borders
so they can assure the security of the summit," the general added.
Few Days to Islamic Summit, Power Struggle Rises Among Mullahs, Iran Zamin News Agency, December 1
Ali Akbar Nateq Nouri, speaker of the mullahs' parliament, demanded yesterday that Montazeri and other dissidents be put on trial and suppressed. He urged the mullahs' Judiciary and security agencies to adopt a harsh approach to "violators and those who jeopardize the national security."
"People can't endanger our national interests and the country's security under the pretext of freedom," Nateq Nouri added. He further stressed that these "schemes and oppositions" can be traced to the "foreign espionage services," including those of the United States.
The speaker of the mullahs' parliament
demanded that the Ministry of Intelligence "conduct some intelligence work"
and find the "invisible hands of opponents." Iran's criminal rulers are
thus preparing the ground for a wave of arrests and crackdown on dissidents.
Clergymen Distance from Khamenei, Iran
Zamin News Agency, November 30
Mullah Ibrahim Amini, one of Khamenei's associates and the deputy head of the Assembly of Experts, rejected Khamenei's religious credentials.
Recalling the circumstances after Khomeini’s death, he said that the Assembly of Experts concluded that "This one [Khamenei] did have the minimum knowledge of religion."
On the same day, Hashemi Rafsanjani rejected Khamenei's religious qualifications during Tehran’s Friday prayers. A week before, during the Friday prayers of Qom, mullah Ali Meshkini, the head of the Assembly of Experts, had said the same thing.
In another part of his sermon, Amini pleaded with Montazeri as some one who had "a significant role in the founding of the regime" to stop opposing Khamenei for the "sake of the state" and "to safeguard Islam and Quran."
Iranian Mortars Used in Lebanon Attack,
Reuter, November 28
JERUSALEM - Israel said on Friday Iranian mortar bombs were used in an attack that killed eight civilians in south Lebanon.
"The shells that you have been shown here are shells from an Iranian factory and you can see the letters on it which say 'the official Iranian military factory'," said Colonel Reuven Benkler after showing a video tape of a 120 mm mortar bomb with Arabic writing on the bottom.
"I guess that the reason we usually can't show it is that they make sure that they rub it off before they send it to the Hizbollah...Usually there is no mark," he said.