The head of an influential committee in Iran's parliament said he believes the nominee for defence minister will be approved despite accusations he was involved in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish cultural centre in Argentina, the official IRNA news agency reported on Sunday.
The backing of the foreign policy and national security committee raises the likelihood that Gen. Ahmad Vahidi will be confirmed as defence chief in a vote in the full legislature, which is expected to be held on Sept. 1.
His nomination last week by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad angered Argentina, which accuses him of playing a key role in the Buenos Aires bombing. The United States, which has sought to reach out to Iran under President Barack Obama, has also said Vahidi's presence in the Cabinet would be disturbing.
The chairman of the parliamentary committee, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, said the allegations "will not have any negative impact on the assessment" of the nominee, who is currently a deputy defence minister. "Rather, it may increase his vote" in parliament, he said.
Boroujerdi rejected accusations that Vahidi was involved in the bombing.
Vahidi is one of five prominent Iranians sought by Argentina in the bombing, which killed 85 people. He was the commander of a special unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guard known as the Quds Force at the time of the attack. The force is responsible for the Guard's foreign operations.
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Iran's judiciary on Monday named as the Islamic Republic's top prosecutor the cleric who was sacked as intelligence minister by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the manager of a Tehran cemetery denied carrying out secret burials for vote protesters.
Ahmadinejad fired Intelligence Minister Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejei last month, a move Iranian media linked to disagreement over the conservative president's choice of a new first vice president.
Ahmadinejad was re-elected for a second four-year term in a disputed June presidential election, which plunged Iran into its deepest internal crisis since the 1979 Islamic revolution and exposed deep divisions within its ruling elite.
Some of Ahmadinejad's conservative backers have abandoned him since the vote, even though he enjoys the backing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's highest authority.
Pro-reform opposition leaders say the presidential vote was rigged and see Ahmadinejad's next government as illegitimate. The authorities reject such charges.
The official IRNA news agency said Mohseni-Ejei was picked as new general prosecutor in a meeting between new judiciary chief Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani and Supreme Court judges. He replaces Qorban-Ali Dori-Najafabadi.
State television said Larijani had confirmed Mohseni-Ejei's appointment.
Secret burials denied
Meanwhile, the manager of a Tehran cemetery denied it carried out secret burials of people who died in post-election unrest, as alleged by some reformist media, the Mehr news agency said on Monday.
Pro-reform opposition website Norooznews reported on Saturday that more than 40 people were buried on July 12 and 15 in unidentified graves in block 302 of the Behesht Zahra cemetery in southern Tehran.
But Mahmoud Rezaiyan, managing director of the Behesht Zahra Organization, said that these reports were only "rumors."
"In recent days we have not received any unidentified body and we were not forced to issue burial permits either," Rezaiyan said.
"The report that there are mass graves is not true."
According to Norooznews, the graves were only marked by the burial permit numbers. It also added that bodies, which were frozen, were brought to the cemetery from an "industrial cold storage" in southwestern Tehran.
It said the secret burials were hurriedly done to avoid spreading of reports that bodies of dead protesters were being held in a cold storage after a frozen corpse was delivered to a family.
Officially about 30 people were killed in the violence that erupted after the disputed re-election of Ahmadinejad. Opposition groups claim that 69 people died in the crackdown on protesters.
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[Asharq al-Aswat] An Iranian opposition leader has revealed details about a prisoner raped by his jailers in the country's postelection crackdown.
Mahdi Karroubi says he will detail more cases if authorities continue to deny his allegations. Karroubi's claims that protesters arrested in the crackdown have been raped have raised a storm of criticism from pro-government conservatives.
Karroubi posted to his party's Web site a statement by an unidentified male prisoner describing his rape in prison. The victim says a doctor verified his claims.
Allegations of torture have become a major embarrassment for Iran's clerical leadership after the fierce crackdown that crushed pro-opposition protests following the disputed June 12 presidential election.
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[Iran Press TV Latest] Months after Iran's controversial presidential election, officials at the military and the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) say the security situation in the country calls for prompt punitive action against voices of dissent.
Following the official announcement of the poll results, Iran witnessed widespread demonstrations as supporters of defeated presidential candidates Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi took to the streets to protest "fraud" in the June 12 election.
Nearly two months after the election, sporadic protests continue to take place -- mainly across the capital -- on various occasions.
Iranian authorities have since put hundreds of opposition activists and protestors in the dock, with many more implicating Mousavi and Karroubi as the driving force behind the recent turmoil which swept across the country.
Deputy Head of Iran's armed forces headquarters Brigadier General Seyyed Massoud Jazayeri said Monday that "Iran is not in a situation where it can afford to lose time for prosecuting rioters; the national security calls for swift retribution for rioters."
Iranian authorities have characterized the widespread post-vote unrest as a foreign-led attempt at a "velvet coup" seeking to topple the Islamic establishment.
The opposition, however, has denied having any links to foreign countries, adding that the outcry has been prompted by national doubts over the official result of the vote.
Jazayeri went on to claim that the alleged movement for a "soft overthrow" has managed to continue its existence in the country on a certain level.
"While basic layers of the 'soft coup' have been left untouched, we cannot be optimistic that the country will not face such threats and crises over again," the military official added.
Jazayeri said it was necessary that before such movements do refurbishments and renew their members, the country's judiciary and intelligence agency take crucial steps to quash their revolt.
Meanwhile, another senior military official Brigadier General Yadollah Javani, head of the IRGC's political bureau, said foreign countries know that the only way to overthrow a revolution staged by the people is to make use of the people.
He went on to accuse the opposition leaders, who claimed fraud in the election, of causing the unrest as well as killing civilians along with Basij forces.
"In this election, for the first time, certain candidates claimed fraud and by causing unrest killed and injured many including 8 members of the Basij," Javani claimed.
Another official at Iran's Naval Force accused the opposition of seeking to eliminate certain governmental bodies from the Islamic establishment.
"The velvet revolution sought to eliminate many fundamentals of the system such as the Velayat-e-Faqih and the Guardians Council," Commander of IRGC's naval forces Admiral Morteza Saffari said.
He went on further accusing the leaders of the alleged "velvet revolution" of working to facilitate the occupation of the country by foreigners.
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[Iran Press TV Latest] As Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad awaits the Parliament approval of his new Cabinet, his chief of staff says the president enjoys a "historic" approval rate around the globe following his disputed re-election.
Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaei, whose nomination as the vice president sparked a nationwide controversy in Iran, said on Monday that in the face of all developments following the June 12 election, President Ahmadinejad is more popular than ever, Parliament News reported.
"Right now, as Ahmadinejad enjoys a special and historic popularity," said Mashaei, whose daughter is married to Ahmadinejad's son, "The international community has realized that it has no choice but to cooperate with the Ahmadinejad administration instead of seeking to topple him."
The remarks come as the newly-introduced Cabinet awaits a Parliament approval, while criticism over his choice of nominees mounts among lawmakers and even Ahmadinejad's Principlist allies.
The Ahmadinejad administration, meanwhile, lacks the support of opposition as defeated presidential candidates, Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, continue to question the legitimacy of Ahmadinejad's government and his re-election.
The official result of the presidential election declared the incumbent as victor with a massive margin over his rivals.
"I cannot remember a head of a government so popular that would lead him to manage the country, create hope, and restore the Iranian nation's pride," Mashaei said.
Thanks to Ahmadinejad's efforts, "Iran is now ranked amongst the top 10 countries in the world," he added.
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#1
I can think of another head of state who is managing his country, creating home, and restoring the Iranian nation's pride.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
08/25/2009 21:25 Comments ||
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The head of an influential committee in Iran's parliament said he believes the nominee for defence minister will be approved despite accusations he was involved in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish cultural centre in Argentina, the official IRNA news agency reported on Sunday.
