Hezbollah Secretary-General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah renews calls for the Lebanese nation to embrace resistance as the only way to counter Israeli threats.
In a Monday address to Lebanese officials in Beirut, Nasrallah criticized Israel for its ongoing military maneuvers and for holding hundreds of Lebanese and Palestinians in jail.
"They are speaking of a war that will eradicate the resistance from the Lebanese territories," Nasrallah said, calling on the nation to embrace the culture of resistance.
Nasrallah accused Israeli leaders of greed and seeking to usurp Lebanese lands, saying that under such circumstances negotiations would be futile.
He went on to warn Iraqi leaders against what he called an American plot for fueling sectarian strife in the country, urging Iraq's political and religious figures to take preventative measures against such attempts.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned senior officials on Monday not to help Tehran's enemies after two former presidents expressed defiant opposition to the result of June's disputed presidential poll.
Clashes erupted between police and reformist protesters for the first time in weeks in Tehran on Friday after former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani declared the Islamic Republic in crisis and said there were doubts about the election result. That statement was a clear challenge to the authority of Khamenei, Iran's most powerful figure whose endorsement of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's landslide victory was meant to be the final word on the fairness of the June 12 poll.
Reformist former president, Muhammad Khatami, on Monday weighed in, calling for a referendum on the legitimacy of the government and defeated reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi called for the release of hundreds arrested in widespread June street protests against the election result.
"Elites should know that any talk, action or analysis that helps (the enemy) is a move against the nation. We should be very careful," Khamenei said in a speech to Iranian officials in a clear reference to recent statements questioning the poll. "People regard with hate anyone, in any position, who wants to move society towards insecurity," Khamenei said. "There are things that should not be said. If we say them, we have moved against the nation. This is now a test for the elites and failing in this test ... means falling down." Mousavi said it was wrong to accuse those detained after the protests to plots by foreign powers. It was unclear whether he made the comment in response to Khamenei's remarks.
Referendum: "The only way out of the current situation is to hold a referendum," websites on Monday quoted Khatami as saying. "People should be asked whether they are happy with the current situation ... If the vast majority of people are happy with the current situation, we will accept it as well." The election dispute has further strained ties between Iran and the West, already at odds over Tehran's nuclear programme, with Western powers criticising the crackdown. Iran's government accused them of plotting the overthrow of the Islamic Republic. At least 20 people died in the violence before riot police and Islamic militiamen suppressed the daily June protests and, rights groups say, arrested hundreds of people, including senior pro-reform politicians, journalists, activists and lawyers.
Release: Defeated reformist presidential candidate Mousavi said mass arrests would not solve the dispute. "Let people freely express their protests and ideas," Mousavi was quoted as saying by the reformist Mosharekat website. "Our dear ones in prison have no access to lawyers and are under pressure to make confessions."
Mousavi was critical about linking those detained with plots by foreign countries. "Isn't it an insult to 40 million voters ... linking detainees to foreign countries?," he asked. "Who believes these people, many of them prominent figures, would work with the foreigners and to endanger their country's interests? ... They should be immediately released."
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Posted by: Fred ||
07/21/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11138 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
[Al Arabiya Latest] Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's controversial choice for vice president, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, denied media reports he had quit as a group of reformist clerics called for a referendum over the country's election process.
"Certain Internet sites published a report about Mr. Mashaie's resignation as first vice president in a coordinated action aimed at tarnishing the government," said a statement on his personal website.
"This is a lie, and these rumors have been spread by the enemies... of the government," it said.
On Sunday, state-owned English-language channel Press TV reported that Mashaie, a close aide to Ahmadinejad, had resigned three days after his appointment, which was strongly opposed by hardliners among the newly-re-elected president's own support base.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Senior Lebanese cleric Seyyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah rules out the possibility of a US and Israeli military strike against Iran. "I don't believe there is any aim to take military action against Iran by the United States or Israel because the current stage the world is going through doesn't allow any military action against another country," Reuters quoted the Shia cleric as saying on Monday.
He went on to add that another military action in the Middle East would further destabilize the region. "Any war against Iran will ruin the whole region," he said.
Fadlallah's remarks come while Israel has repeatedly threatened to put an end to Iran's nuclear program, which it describes as a 'threat' to its existence, by resorting to military action.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred ||
07/21/2009 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[11135 views]
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#1
Delusional Thinking is so rampant in the world today.
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/21/2009 8:47 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Yeah, wouldn't want to ruin the ME, given the place is ticking along like a fine Swiss watch, a veritable shining city on a hill, an Eden of peace and tranquility. The whole place needs to be picked up and shaken like a carpet.
Former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami proposes a "referendum" on the legitimacy of the government as a means to end the crisis over the recent presidential election.
In a meeting on Sunday with family members of the detainees who protested against the result of the presidential vote, Khatami said what happened after the poll had blemished the "Republican and Islamic nature of the establishment", the Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA) reported.
"The only way out of the current situation is to hold a referendum," he said. "If the majority of people accept the situation, we will accept it as well."
Elsewhere in the meeting, his comments echoed those of influential cleric and politician Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, who said Friday that officials must move to regain the trust of Iranians whose faith in the establishment was shattered after the poll in June.
Officials and the electoral body, the Guardian Council, have dismissed claims by the opposition that the vote, which gave a landslide victory to incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was rigged.
However, Rafsanjani, a two-time former president -- who heads both the top political arbitration body and the clerical body -- criticized the government for its handling of the "crisis", which, he said, had created "doubt" among the people.
He also called for the release of those detained during the post-election developments.
On Sunday, Khatami praised Rafsanjani's speech and said the adoption of his perspective and suggestions were necessary in restoring trust.
"As Rafsanjani said, public trust should be returned to the society ... We announced from the start that there are legal ways to bring back that trust, but our calls were ignored," the former Reformist president said.
"I say again that the only solution is to consider the people's votes and to hold a legal referendum."
Iran's Association of Combatant Clerics on Monday touched on Khatami's call for a referendum and endorsed the suggestion, according to ILNA.
"As millions of Iranians have lost confidence in the electoral process, the Association of Combatant Clerics insists on the organization of a referendum... by independent bodies," the Reformist group said in a statement on its website.
Khatami had called for an independent body, such as the Expediency Council headed by Ayatollah Rafsanjani, to oversee his proposed referendum.
President Ahmadinejad, who has hailed the June 12 poll as the "freest and healthiest" election in the world, says defeated candidates and their supporters should forgo their stance and work alongside his government.
On Monday, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on all matters of the state, warned the country's "elite" to be vigilant when commenting on the political situation.
Ayatollah Khamenei urged the political elite to avoid any measure that could play into the hands of those deemed as "enemies of the nation".
According to Ayatollah Khamenei, the current developments in Iran are a product of "common political games" pushed by certain political officials who are required to be rational if they want the continued support of the nation.
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[Iran Press TV Latest] Senior Lebanese cleric Seyyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah rules out the possibility of a US and Israeli military strike against Iran. "I don't believe there is any aim to take military action against Iran by the United States or Israel because the current stage the world is going through doesn't allow any military action against another country," Reuters quoted the Shia cleric as saying on Monday. 
