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In a message to the people of Iran, Mr. Massoud Rajavi, President of the National Council of Resistance, referred to the deepening crises within the regime and to the fact that many of Khamenei's closest associates had rejected his religious credentials.
At this crucial juncture, Mr. Rajavi noted, I deem it my patriotic duty to call on all individuals and groups, particularly those clergymen who at one time or another cooperated with this theocratic regime but are now subject to its unbridled assault, to draw a clear line between themselves and the ruling mullahs, underscore the illegitimacy of the regime and all its factions, and apologize to the Iranian people. Needless to say, on the day of victory, the Iranian people and Resistance will take note of this demarcation.
Tension in Majlis, Iran Zamin News Agency,
December 5
The escalating power struggle within the regime has spilled over to the mullahs' Majlis (parliament) as the majority of deputies have to date refrained from endorsing or supporting Khamenei, the mullahs' leader.
The brutal conduct of the Guards Corps and Intelligence Ministry agents against Montazeri and other dissident clergymen and theology students, has also aggravated the conflict among various factions within the Majlis.
To maintain control of chaotic situation within the regime, the Majlis held a closed-door meeting on Tuesday, December 2. The regime's Minister of Intelligence, Ghorban-Ali Dorri Najafabadi also attended the meeting.
Najafabadi, reiterated that by virtue of gaining widespread support among the public in recent years the Mojahedin were the only ones to benefit from the current challenge to the velayat-e faqih and Khamenei. If this opposition were to continue, he said, the country will quickly be turned over to the Mojahedin.
Dissident Disrupts Friday Prayer Sermon, Reuter, December 5
TEHRAN - An Iranian religious leader declared Friday that the national soccer side's qualification for the World Cup finals, where it will meet the U.S. team, was a political victory for Islam over its foes in the West.
During this sermon, a bearded man tried to shout at him and was wrestled to the ground by worshippers who clamped their hands over his mouth, picked him up and carried him struggling from the prayer hall at Tehran University campus.
[An Iranian dissident by the name of Kheirollah Mirachi, chanted slogans against the leaders of the clerical regime and disrupted the heavily guarded Friday prayers ceremony, reports from Iran say. Chanting "death to Khamenei," he shouted: "People are starving to death! How can you spend the people's money on this [OIC] conference?"
[This incident occurred while the regime has taken enormous security measures on the eve of the Islamic Conference summit in Tehran and put the Guards Corps in charge of security in the capital.]
Ecstasy In Iran, Agony For Its Clerics,
The Christian Science Monitor, December 5
QOM, IRAN -- ... unprecedented questions are being raised about the nature of Velayat-e-faqih, a post whose sacred primacy has been a pillar of Iran's revolutionary Islamic regime. It is a debate that has begun to expose a complex power struggle... among Iran's clerical hierarchy. The outcome is likely to directly shape Iran's future.
The words of Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri drew the most violent reaction. The Veli-e-faqih's duty, he said, was to "supervise" only and "should not interfere in all affairs."
Ayatollah Montazeri's criticism is particularly cutting, because by rank the cleric should have been supreme leader himself, diplomats and analysts say, to follow in the footsteps of the charismatic leader of the revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini...
"I established Velayat-e-faqih myself, and now they call me anti-Veli-e-faqih," Montazeri said in a controversial Nov. 20 speech.
Ruling clerics have responded noisily at this unprecedented public attack. Khamenei declared that dissidents who questioned his authority "were enemy agents, even though they might not be conscious of it."
"All state officials are moving in the same direction," he said, and called upon them to "carry out their duty against" dissidents who practice such "treason against the people.... You should get to know who the real enemy is. World arrogance is the enemy, America is the enemy, the Zionists are the enemy."...
The divisions push to the heart of Iran's Islamic regime, and indicate how much conservative forces have emerged since the death of Khomeini...
Officially, the current tension is blamed on "hands from outside," though top clerics admit that "factions inside" may be active. "The best way to undermine the position of Velayat-e-faqih is to have someone revolutionary ... do it," says Grand Ayatollah Shirazi, stroking his white beard.