After the closure of 14 publications belonging to the Khatami faction, Mr. Massoud Rajavi, President of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, said today: "The overnight crackdown on the rival faction’s newspapers, at a time when the infighting between the factions has reached new heights, proves once again that all illusions and propaganda about political development and moderation in the mullahs’ regime are false and baseless."

"More importantly," he added, "the chain attacks by the dominant faction show that the entire regime is in the grips of a bitter, all-round crisis that is bound to lead to its overthrow."
 

Clergy Court Closes 14 Publications, Associated Press, April 24

TEHRAN - Iranian hard-liners closed down 14 pro-Khatami publications, leaving only five in print today in a media crackdown that appears part of a bigger plan to weaken Mohammad Khatami.

The crackdown was a blatant display of the immense power the hard-liners still hold.

"The power struggle in Iran is entering dire straits," said Saeed Leylaz, an analyst and writer for several newspapers.

Khatami made no mention of the closures or the future of his agenda during a speech today marking Armed Forces Day.
 

Christian Leaders in Europe And U.S. Call For An International Tribunal to Indict Iran Rulers, Iran Zamin News Agency, April 21

In statements addressed to heads of states and governments in their countries, 200 Christian leaders in Britain, the United States, Denmark, Sweden, Holland, France, Belgium and Germany called for the formation of an international tribunal to indict Iranian officials involved in the 1994 murder of three Christian leaders, the explosions in the Holy Shrine of Imam Reza in the northeastern city of Mashad, and the clerical regime's efforts to blame these crimes on the Mojahedin.

Cardinal Adrianus Simone, President of the Dutch Assembly of Bishops, Rev. Alfonso Chiazza, President of the Assemblies of God in Belgium, Bishop Jose Punt, apostolical administrator, Bishop Erik Svendsen of Denmark and his deputy, the Rev. Andrea Gadgaard, and Bishop Jacques Galliot, a renowned human rights activist in France were among the signatories.
 

A Country Making History Is Too Busy to Read It, The New York Times, April 23

… One might have expected that the surfacing of a secret official C.I.A. report that lays out the American plot in all its detail would have been the talk of Iranian political and journalistic circles last week. Not so.

This is not a moment for historical reflection in Iran.

Iranians are too busy fighting a brutal, open-ended political war in real time to worry much about a short, if equally brutal, war 47 years ago.

Today's war is waged on several fronts -- the courts, the press, television, the Parliament, the pulpit, the bazaar, the streets… The stakes are high -- the nature of the Islamic Republic itself -- and the outcome is uncertain.

The story mesmerizing the Iranian media last week was not out of Washington but out of Berlin; its subject was the disruption by opponents of the Islamic Republic of a conference there on Iranian politics…

The protest was videotaped and much of the footage was aired on Iran's state-controlled television, in an effort to discredit the reform movement.…

The Berlin incident was not the only example of a political bloodletting since the parliamentary elections….

There is even talk of a coup, but it has nothing to do with 1953. Last Sunday, the Revolutionary Guards issued an official threat against the reformists. "If necessary, our enemies, be they small or large, will feel the reverberating impact of the hammer of the Islamic revolution on their skulls," the communiqué said.

While all this has been going on, a council responsible for vetting candidates and overseeing elections has invalidated the first-round election victories of a number of reformist candidates and a run-off election has been postponed…

There is a lesson for the United States in all this. American policy makers have clearly been hoping for months now that modest concessions to Iran, like a lightening of sanctions, may encourage a dialogue -- and that a change in the American attitude toward Iran's history can only help. Last month, when Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright announced the easing of sanctions on non-oil exports from Iran, she called the "democratic winds" in Iran "so refreshing"… and acknowledged American errors in past dealings with Iran, including the C.I.A.-led coup in 1953.

But she is still waiting for the Iranians to respond to that speech with concrete gestures. The problem is that the political winds now blowing in Iran are more like a hurricane. And until they subside, there is little chance of meaningful movement toward the United States…

Back to Brief on Iran