Khamenei Acknowledges Scheme To Stuff Ballot Boxes, Iran Zamin News Agency, May 28

The National Council of Resistance said today that reports from voting stations and statements signed by the officials of the executive board of elections reveal the dimensions of fraud in the mullahs' election farce.

In another statement, the NCR reported that: "in a meeting with deputies of the regime's Majlis, the mullahs' leader Ali Khamenei acknowledged that the regime had devised a scheme since six months ago to fake a voter turn out of 30 million for the elections."

He said: "Since six months ago,... I have been repeatedly telling leading officials of the country... that I want 30 million votes from God."…

According to the NCR, Khamenei "expressed his enormous fear over the regime's disintegration and the escalation of its internal feuding, a direct consequence of Rafsanjani's removal on the one hand and the disastrous defeat of the ruling faction's candidate on the other. He said: 'Taking advantage of their media, enemies are trying to portray the people's vote as a kind of protest to and criticism of the regime.'"

The statement added: "In a brazen lie, the mullahs' leader tried to cover up his prior support for Nateq-Nouri and expressed his concern over the fact that a vast portion of the regime's forces were demoralized due to Nouri's defeat. He stated his dismay over the fact that 'a number of the regime's media were influenced by western culture and spoke of victory by some and the defeat of others.'"

According to NCR, Khamenei refuted claims about the regime's moderation, saying that: "The slogans by the President-elect...follow the Imam's instructions, revolution's slogans and the Islamic system... All candidates belonged to the system and supported the system and Islam."

Khatami Promises To Continue Export of Terrorism And Enmity Towards Peace, from a statement by NCR, May 28 

The remarks yesterday by Mohammad Khatami in his first press conference showed that despite the ballyhoo raised by some Western media, he lacks any power and all the decisions and policies are determined by the mullahs' leader, Khamenei. Khatami is not different from other leaders of the regime in the very basic policies at home and abroad.

Khatami made some general statements about freedom…. His remarks are nothing new. For 18 years, Khomeini and his heirs have been committing the most horrendous crimes against the people of Iran under the name of Islam.

Losing no opportunity to praise Khamenei, Khatami repeatedly affirmed that he is first and foremost absolutely obedient to Khamenei's orders. Regarding foreign policy, Khatami emphasized that he will continue the regime's policy of enmity to the Middle East Peace Process….

Sanctions Will Not Be Eased First, The Wall Street Journal, May 28 

Iran's newly elected president, in his first news conference, said it is up to the U.S. to take steps leading to improved relations between the two nations….

U.S. officials say signs that they hope to see include lifting the threat of death imposed on novelist Salman Rushdie…and ending violence against Iranian dissidents living abroad.

But they say they won't first ease sanctions against Iran's energy industry. A senior U.S. official underscored that by saying if Total SA, a French oil company, proceeds with tentative plans to head a $3.5 billion energy project, it would be subject to penalties under U.S. law. Similarly, a possible deal by a British-Canadian consortium would be penalized….

Where The Real Power Is Vested in Iran, The Washington Times, May 28 

[Excerpts from column by Amos Perlmutter]

…Let's be clear from the start. There are no moderates in Iran any more than there were moderates in the Soviet Union before Mikhael Gorbachev. Nor is the Ayatollah Khatami a Gorbachev, as some analysts claim. The president of Iran is an instrument of the most powerful institution that runs the country, Council of Guardians….

Let us not be beguiled by the election. I would tend to argue that "democratic" elections in totalitarian states have been, and continue to be, instruments of the authoritarian state….

The Ayatollah Khatami is presented as a moderate, as was former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. We hardly perceived during the tenure of the latter any moderation either on the issue of terrorism or in their attitude toward the United States….

No one ever believed that, whoever won the election, the Iranian ideological and totalitarian clergy would change an iota of its rigid reactionary foreign policy. The conduct of terrorism and foreign policy are totally in the hands of the ayatollahs' politburo, the Council of the Guardians….

The newly elected president is a legitimate member, and a significant one, of the Iranian revolution today. In that respect, he is no moderate and certainly is impotent when it comes, if ever, to challenging the Council of Guardians and, above all, the legacy of the late Ayatollah Khomeini as supreme leader….

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