Back to Brief on Iran
The National Council of resistance of Iran issued a statement today indicating that pursuant to the biggest public political feuding among the mullahs, reports from within the clerical regime indicate that Khamenei, the mullahs' leader, has turned down the requests by Hashemi Rafsanjani, the regime's former President, and Mohammad Khatami, the mullahs' new President, to release Gholam Hossein Karbastchi, Tehran's mayor who is presently in detention.
Quoting the reports, NCR said Khamenei did not accept to take any public position on Karbastchi's case and said every form of intervention, for example to halt the proceedings, is not in the regime's interests and will create more problems.
According to the statement, the clerical regime's officials acknowledge that Karbastchi's arrest is one of the most serious crises for the regime in the past ten years following the ceasefire in the Iran-Iraq war and has created more turmoil in the already turbulent political atmosphere in Iran.
The NCR added that the escalation of
the power struggle among the mullahs and the open confrontation among rival
factions will seriously weaken the regime and expedite its inevitable overthrow.
Iran's Internal Struggle Dims U.S. Hopes for Détente, Los Angeles Times, April 9
Three months after the first diplomatic opening in a generation between the United States and Iran, the Clinton administration is deeply concerned that rapprochement is now threatened by a fierce power struggle between Mohammad Khatami, the reformist Iranian president, and hard-line conservatives in his country….
In Iran, with the arrest Saturday of Gholamhossein Karbaschi, the mayor of Tehran and his chief political ally, Khatami is in the most perilous position since his surprise election in May….
But the real motive behind the arrest appears to be attempts by conservatives, who control Iran's judiciary, to destabilize Khatami's power base. "The arrest of the mayor is the biggest challenge Khatami has faced," a senior Clinton administration official said.…Tehran's political rivalries, which have simmered since Khatami's inauguration in August, have begun to boil in recent weeks….
…the State Department also is to release this month its annual global terrorism survey, which, according to U.S. counter-terrorism officials, will identify Iran as the world's top sponsor of state terrorism, though it does take note of the "conciliatory" statements made by Khatami early this year. The report links Tehran with 13 political assassinations in 1997, mainly of opposition leaders in the People's Moujahedeen and the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran, both based in northern Iraq. Most but not all predate Khatami's inauguration.
Tehran also hosted a conference last
fall of the region's leading militant groups, including Lebanon's Hezbollah,
or Party of God; the Palestinians' Islamic Jihad and Hamas; and Egypt's
Gamaa al Islamiya, the report charges.
Khatami's Intelligence Minister Warns Supporters of Dissident Cleric, Agence France Presse, April 9
Iran's Intelligence Minister Qorban-Ali Dorrie Najaf-Abadi on Thursday warned followers of dissident cleric Hossein-Ali Montazeri against continuing their protests in his support.
Najaf-Abadi told a public meeting in the holy city of Qom, central Iran, that the National Security Council (NSC), Iran's highest security and military decision-making body, had "allowed the judiciary to take action against those who seek in Montazeri's name to provoke public opinion and cause problems."
Montazeri has been under tight police surveillance and his case has been handled by the NSC, headed by President Khatami, since November when he criticized supreme leader Ali Khamenei for dominating political affairs.
The measures against him provoked anger among many clerics and supporters of Montazeri, a former designated heir to Ruhollah Khomeini.
The bazaar in Najafabad, Montazeri's hometown, has gone on strike twice in the past month to demand the restrictions on him be lifted.
Report: Iran Has Nuclear Warheads, The
Associated Press, April 9
Iran acquired several nuclear warheads from a former Soviet republic in the early 1990s, an Israeli newspaper reported today, saying the warheads have been maintained by Russian experts.
The Jerusalem Post said it had obtained Iranian government documents relayed to Israel that detailed Iran's successful attempts to acquire nuclear warheads.
However, the Post said that the documents, which it said had been authenticated by American experts, supported reports from 1992 that Iran received enriched uranium and up to four nuclear warheads from the former Soviet republic of Kazakstan.
The acquisition was made with the help of Russian underworld figures, the newspaper said.