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Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Iranian pilgrims must stage a political rally denouncing the United States and Israel at this year's haj in Saudi Arabia….
"The Iranian pilgrims should display the depth of the Islamic faith in the spirit and life of the Iranian nation, said the leader," the official Iranian news agency IRNA reported.
"However, he stressed, observance of ethics and leniency by no means translate to foregoing the duties such as disavowal of pagans," IRNA added.
Iran's President Mohammad Khatami said this week that holding the rally was a religious duty for Moslems.
Shi'ite Iran says Moslems should air political grievances during haj, mainly through the rally to denounce Israel and the United States as enemies of Islam.
Showdown Between Regime's Factions,
Reuter, March 5
…"Khatami has no direct control over the police, the military, the judiciary and in major domestic and foreign policy has to acknowledge the power of (Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali) Khamenei," said one Western diplomat….
Conservative factions continue to wield great power over the judiciary and other important levers of state control.
Their loyalty to Khamenei, the successor to Khomeini who ousted the U.S.-backed shah in 1979, and to revolutionary principles remains undiluted 19 years on.
Powerful bazaar merchants and the landowners who bank-rolled the revolutionaries of 1979 show little willingness to cede privileges and monopolies which economists see as vital to shake up a staggering, state-dominated economy.
The force of the conservatives has been seen in the judicial investigation into Tehran mayor Gholamhossein Karbaschi and his aides, which has provoked at least one Khatami cabinet member, Interior Minister Abdollah Nouri, to lash out at the head of the judiciary, Mohammad Yazdi.
Conservatives have already succeeded in getting some of the mayor's aides sentenced to jail and flogging.
[The National Council of Resistance of Iran issued a statement and stated that Wednesday's remarks by mullah Abdollah Noori affirm that the escalation of feuding among the mullahs has reached the point of no return. There are also reports of deepening crisis among various factions of the regime in Isfahan. The city is tense and clashes take place sporadically. A group of bazaar merchants in Isfahan have announced that they will stage a sit-in on Saturday.]
Journalist Given Three Months in Jail for Criticism,
Agence France Presse, March 5
An Iranian journalist has been sentenced to three months in prison and placed on probation for "disturbing" public opinion, the official IRNA news agency said.
Ganji, the director of the literary monthly Rah-e-No (New Way) and former journalist for Kian cultural review, has been held since December 6 with no explanation from the authorities.
He was reportedly picked up after a speech he made in the southern city of Shiraz.
His trial was held in secret and the sentencing was based on the Islamic law of Sharia .
Iranian Soccer Rejects Exhibition Matches in US,
Agence France Presse, March 5
The Iranian soccer team has turned down an invitation to play exhibition matches in the United States before the World Cup…
The US and Iranian teams were drawn
into the same group along with Germany and Yugoslavia for the World Cup
finals in France and they will face each other in Lyon on June 21.
Smuggling of Jet Parts to Iran Discovered, The Associated Press, March 5
Two men were charged with scheming to illegally export engine parts for F-14 Tomcat fighter jets to Iran.
The two New York men were charged Tuesday with conspiring to violate the Arms Export Control Act. If convicted, each could face at least five years in prison.
Earlier this week, a New Jersey aviation
vendor was arrested on suspicion of plotting to export batteries illegally
to Iran for long-range missiles used on Tomcat fighter jets.