Khatami retreats in the face of Khamenei faction's onslaught

As the increasingly bitter dispute between the mullahs' judiciary and the Ministry of Intelligence over the fallout from the attempted assassination of Saeed Hajjarian continues, mullahs' President Mohammad Khatami wrote a letter yesterday to Judiciary Chief Hashemi Shahroudi, stating that "everything in [the investigation into the incident] - from all the stages of interrogation to the verdict of the court - falls under the direct responsibility of the judiciary."

Khatami's letter came a day after Intelligence Minister Ali Younessi wrote to him to complain about the transfer of the Hajjarian file from under his authority to that of the judiciary. "As you know, despite earlier agreement, the accused and the file in the attempt on Mr. Hajjarian's life have been taken away from the Intelligence Ministry while investigations had not been completed and the Intelligence Ministry had not been able to discharge of its legal and intrinsic duties," Younessi wrote.

Khatami's greatest preoccupation is how to hold on to power and how to perpetuate the mullahs' rule. He thus beat the retreat in the face of the Khamenei faction's onslaught and agreed to have the arrested Revolutionary Guards in the custody of the judiciary. The aim of this arrangement was to prevent the role of the Revolutionary Guards in the assault on Hajjarian from being exposed, as the weakening of the backbone of the mullahs' religious dictatorship would be detrimental to Khatami's interests, too. After betraying Hajjarian, Khatami is now doing the same thing to his Intelligence Minister.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
April 9, 2000

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