Crisis at the top: Having failed to hold joint meeting, heads of branches will meet again under Khamenei

Only three days ago, the mullahs' leader, Ali Khamenei, instructed "the heads of the Executive and Judiciary branches" to coordinate their efforts to examine the case of Tehran's mayor and present their "joint view."

Reliable reports from Iran, however, indicate that feuding within the regime is so intense that Mohammad Khatami and Mohammad Yazdi, the head of the Judiciary, could not present a "joint view" and are, therefore, planning to submit separate reports to Khamenei.

At the same time, contrary to the instructions of the mullahs' leader, the heads of the three branches did not hold joint meetings. Khamenei will be presiding over the their first joint meeting, Sunday (tomorrow).

While the crisis is aggravating every passing day at the top, the mullahs' internal feudings have surfaced at various levels and in different parts of the country.

The deputy head of the Assembly of Experts, mullah Ibrahim Amini, declared his support for Karbastchi. Also, the Friday prayers leader of Isfahan, Taheri, vehemently denounced the arrest of Tehran's mayor and said it was politically motivated. His sermon, however, was disrupted yesterday, forcing him to cut short his sermon as a group of participants began chanting, "down with Karbastchi, down with Montazeri!"

Meanwhile, the Judiciary arrested and condemned to 30 months in prison, a pro-Montazeri former deputy of Majlis, mullah Gholam Hossein Nadi. For eight years, Nadi was the deputy from Najafabad, which is Montazeri's hometown in the central province of Isfahan.

Ghorban Ali Dorri Najafabadi, the clerical regime's Minister of Intelligence, warned on April 9, that the government would no longer tolerate the activities of Montazeri's supporters and will crack down on them.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
April 11, 1998


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