Meeting yesterday with the Minister and other officials of the Ministry of Intelligence, mullahs' president Mohammad Khatami said: "My look to freedom is in the context of preserving the state. Security is the most fundamental pillar of the state and the sole axis for security is the Ministry of Intelligence. In practice, emphasis must be laid upon the pivotal role and awareness of the Ministry and this is a serious matter." He added: "The limit of freedom is not to disrupt religious foundations."
 
 

Rafsanjani: Friends of the Revolution Are Brandishing Their Daggers, Iran Zamin News Agency, May 28

Referring to the unbridled conflicts within the regime, mullahs' former president Hashemi Rafsanjani warned during Tehran's Friday prayers congregation today that "society would loose the good balance it has enjoyed since the revolution."

The Head of the Council for the Discernment of the State Exigencies displayed his extreme concern over the escalation of rival factions' infighting, adding: "I see the friends of the Revolution who are brandishing their daggers, eliminating, prohibiting and defaming the institutions and themselves."

Previously, on May 27, Rafsanjani had said: "If the Islamic nature and fundamental pillar of the state and the velayat-e faqih are undermined, nothing would be left around."

The same day, Khatami said in the city of Qom: "Society's parting with religion and the clergy is the beginning of our fall."
 
 

New Counterattack by Khamenei's Faction Against Khatami, Iran Zamin News Agency, June 1

228 members of the mullahs' Majlis (85% of the deputies) wrote a letter to the clerical regime's leader Ali Khamenei, today, declaring their support for the Guardian Council and non-revision of its supervisory role in determining the competence of candidates for elections.

The letter represents another serious political blow by Khamenei's faction to the rival faction, especially since Rafsanjani's supporters have reportedly signed the letter as well.

Some time ago, Khatami's faction had presented a bill to the Majlis, calling for a revision in the authority of the Guardians Council and its supervisory role.
 
 

Hard-Liners Go On Offensive, Associated Press, May 30

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- In a growing power in Iran, a former Culture Ministry official was put on trial Sunday for allowing a banned newspaper to publish.

Issa Saharkhiz, former head of the ministry's local press department, was charged with allowing the banned Zan daily to publish a special supplement last month, disobeying a judicial ruling, and failing to fulfill his legal duties over the ban, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

The action against the officials, who are close to Khatami, is part of a wider power struggle in the Islamic government.

Last week, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader and the beacon of the hard-liners, reappointed his own man as head of the state broadcasting service.
 
 

Conservatives Grip On Parliament, Agence France Presse, May 30

TEHRAN - Iran's conservatives confirmed their grip on parliament Sunday with the comfortable reelection as speaker of their leader Ali Akbar Nateq-Nuri in the last such vote among MPs before general elections next spring.

Nateq-Nuri won the support of 161 of the 245 MPs present for the vote.

His sole challenger, Majid Ansari, who heads a coalition of those who back Mohammad Khatami, won the votes of 85 MPs.

The annual vote for the speakership is the surest guide to the balance of power in the 270-seat parliament between Khatami's supporters and his opponents.

Conservatives also comfortably won reelection Sunday to both the deputy speakership posts on parliament's presiding board.

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