Bahram Rafiee
The supreme commander of Iran’s elite Passdaran Revolutionary Guards (PRGC) Mohammad Ali Jaafari accused former two-time president Mohammad Khatami and former Majlis representative Mousavi Khoeniha who is currently the secretary general of the influential Majmae Rohaniyun Mobarez (The Association of Combatant Clerics) organization, of aiming to “unseat” the current leader of the regime. These remarks produced a strong rebuke from the Association which demanded the prosecution of the commander.
Speaking to a group of combatants from the 8-year Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, Jaafari said,
“When talking about overthrow, which in the past the Americans used to mean regime change while today they do not even dare use this term, the issue is change of behavior of the Islamic republic. In other words a change in the main course of the revolution and reneging from the ideals and principles of the revolution, which is also the current goal of the Americans.”
Jafari made numerous accusations against the reformists such as Khatami, Mousavi Khoeniha, and Mehdi Hashemi (Hashemi Rafsanjany’s son) and referred to them as pursuing the goal of overthrowing the regime.
“In February 2009 ayatollah Mousavi Khoeniha had said that they had to pull down the leadership at any cost. He had said that he (i.e. the leader) should be made to understand that he cannot take the country to any direction that he pleases as Khatami and his allies have plenty of experience as well,” Jafari alleged.
Turning to Khatami, Jaafari asserted that, “In February of 2009 Khatami had said that if Ahmadinejad was defeated, the leader would for all practical purposes be defeated as well and that if the reformers returned to power by whatever means there would no longer be an authoritative leader. He had said they had to control the authority of the leader by defeating the hardliners.”
Jafari then spoke about Behzad Nabavi [a leader of the Sazemane Mojahedin Engelab Eslami - Islamic Revolution Mojahedin Organization] and said that he had said that Ahmadinejad had to be portrayed as the leader’s presidential candidate so that if he was defeated, the leader too would be crushed which is when the final blow had to be struck against the leader.
Without clarifying where he had obtained this information about Khoeiniha and Khatami, Jafari quoted forced confessions of other reformers, namely Mohammad Ali Abtahi and Mohammad Atrian and claimed that, “Abtahi had said in his confessions that Khatami, Aboltafah (a manager in Mousavi’s election campaign) and Mehdi Hashemi used to say that winning in the 2009 election was very different from earlier elections and that after the elections the Principalists (i.e. idealogues generally supporting the president) and the leader would not be able to rise again and this would mean their end.”
He further asserted that “Mohammad Atrianfar (a press manager currently in prison) has confessed that Mr. Tajzadeh (the political deputy of the ministry of interior during Mohammad Khatami’s administration who is also behind bars now) used to say during the elections that they could easily contain the leader with the experience that they had accumulated over the years.”
Accusing Tajzadeh of laying the groundwork for launching the velvet revolution, he said, “Tajzadeh may be the only person who had had theorized the velvet revolution in his mind.”
Whoever Issued the Orders for the IRGC to Intervene had to be Prosecuted
In a strongly worded response to the remarks of the IRGC commander, the Association of Combatant Clerics condemned the Jafari’s assertions through a statement.
In its statement, the Association calls for a judicial response to the remarks of the IRGC commander and stressed that, “Is it inappropriate to ask the prosecutor general to appropriately respond to this slander and lies, and other similar remarks, which have incited public opinion and are the groundwork for dangerous plans, particularly as the head of the judiciary has stressed that any violator regardless of the office he holds has to be confronted?”
In another response to Jafari’s remarks, Mohammad Ali Tabesh, the secretary general of the minority faction in the national assembly, the Majlis, said, “Those who gave the IRGC permission to intervene in the elections and those who gave the Passdaran the warrants to arrest and extract forced confessions, must be prosecuted rather than those who have demonstrated they allegiance to the regime.”
Tabesh further stated, “I expressly announce that any remarks that are aimed at extracted confessions under completely unlawful conditions have absolutely no value.”
“I advise them to let us keep quiet,” Tabesh continued. “We have so far refrained from talking about many issues in order to preserve the regime and the revolution, and not allow the enemies to misuse such expressions under these conditions and do not intend to talk about them. So I hope these gentlemen do not do something that will result in posturing when some truths and realities will be made which will damage the regime.”
The Majlis representative continued, “How could you quote confessions that have been derived under unlawful conditions to mean that reformers are battling the faith and the leadership?”
Tabesh also said that he was preparing “a letter to the leader about the need to investigate the arbitrary actions and interference of certain circles,” which he said he intended to send to ayatollah Khamenei shortly. He concluded his remarks by saying, “Some hurt the whole regime through their interference and unilateral actions, and they must be prosecuted and their trials be aired on the radio and television just as were the courts of the political prisoners.”
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