Back to Brief on Iran
WASHINGTON - President Bill Clinton made fresh overtures toward Iran on Tuesday, offering an "honest" dialogue without expecting Tehran to drop its opposition to peace agreements with the Israelis….
The United States has wavered for years between trying to isolate Iran and trying to open a dialogue. The usual pattern is that when the chances of rapprochement look good, Iranian leaders slam the door shut for internal political reasons….
The president said talks would have to deal with three points of disagreement -- Iran's support for violent Islamist groups, its opposition to Israeli-Palestinian peace agreements and its policies on developing weapons of mass destruction….
The Iranian opposition-in-exile in Washington said on Tuesday it doubted much would come of the latest overtures.
"People are getting excited about something that really has no substance," said Alireza Jafarzadeh, a spokesman for the opposition National Resistance Council.
"The Americans have expressed this
willingness for dialogue for many years. The problem has been in Tehran.
It is not the first time someone in the Iranian government has adopted
a conciliatory tone but they have never delivered," he added.
Undermining Khamenie, Associated Press, December 16
Tehran - …. Even before Khatami's gesture to the United States, his rivals had started maneuvering against him.
Both factions had agreed to a tacit cease-fire during a high-profile Islamic summit last week, but the hardliners appeared to resume their attacks on Sunday with the arrest of Ebrahim Yazdi, head of Iran's token legal opposition group….
Iran's religious government was rocked last month when a senior cleric, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, questioned the legitimacy of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is revered across the board by hard-liners….
Montazeri did serious damage to the
idea that Khamenei was beyond question or criticism when he asked whether
a non-elected leader should be more powerful than the elected president….
Iranian Leader Slams Rival Factions, Western Media, Agence France Presse, December 16
TEHRAN - Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blasted liberal intellectuals on Tuesday for challenging the fundamental principles of the Islamic republic, saying they were serving the "enemy."
"Those who raise doubt about the Islamic ideology in the name of intellect and modernism are at the service of the enemy, whether they know it or not," Khamenei said at a public meeting to mark a religious event….
The Iranian leader was apparently referring to the growing challenges to the Islamic theocracy…
A dissident cleric, Ayatollah Ali Montazeri, provoked unrest last month when he raised questions about Khamenei's qualifications to rule as supreme leader and the source of Shiite Moslem emulation.
His call deeply angered Islamic conservatives, who staged widespread demonstrations in support of the leader….
Khamenei also accused the Western media of trying to "inject a spirit of hopelessness and desperation" in the Iranian people.
"The bulk of the poisonous news coming from the enemy is to make people hopeless about the economic, cultural and religious life," he said.