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TEHRAN - Tehran's mayor will stand trial for corruption in three weeks, a government newspaper reported today. His arrest has ignited a long-simmering power struggle between rival factions.
The Cabinet has condemned Karbaschi's arrest. Supporters of President Mohammad Khatami said it was politically motivated, noting the mayor played a major role in Khatami's election last year.
But the judiciary, which is led by a hard-liner appointed by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, defended the arrest and said proper legal procedures would be followed.
The main exiled opposition group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, said the case against Karbaschi meant that the hard-liners led by Khamenei are "intent on delivering a major blow to the rival faction."
[The NCR statement added that: With the arrest of Karbaschi and the strong objection of Khatami's cabinet, a new round has begun in the clerical regime's internal crises. For the first time, the confrontation between rival factions has become public at the highest level.
[Which ever way these developments turn, the escalation of the power struggle within the regime will seriously weaken the regime and expedite its inevitable overthrow.]
Iran Mayor Arrest Signals Harder Factional Clash,
Reuter, April 6
DUBAI - The detention of Tehran mayor Gholamhossein Karbaschi on graft charges has brought into the open a struggle between rival factions brewing in Iran since the election of President Mohammad Khatami.
Iranian analysts as well as some of the media said on Monday Karbaschi's detention on Saturday went beyond the legal issues and highlighted a national row among the contentious factions.
Karbaschi, a close ally of Khatami, was detained following a court appearance on graft and mismanagement charges. The court ordered the mayor to be held without bail for up to one month pending further investigation.
The Karbaschi affair sparked vigorous debate in Iranian evening newspapers on Sunday and among Iran's active political factions.
"Khatami's government is now definitely facing a shock," the pro-Khatami newspaper Jameah said.
Supporters of the mayor say that he was targeted by the conservative-led judiciary because of his open backing of Khatami in last May's elections in which the moderate Shi'ite cleric soundly defeated conservative opponents.
"The right-wing forces have expended a lot of energy on bringing Karbaschi down since the election," said Amid Naeini, editor of Payam-e-Emrouz, a monthly magazine.
"If this situation is not resolved, we could see a full-blown political crisis," Naeini told Reuters.
"This is a serious issue because it exposes the political rifts in Iran now. This was a political decision taken by a judiciary that is supposed to be independent," said Nasser Hadian, a Tehran University professor of political science.
[In a report from Tehran, Agence France Presse said: The controversial arrest of Tehran's mayor has triggered a crisis among the leadership of the Islamic republic. The arrest has intensified a factional dispute in the Islamic republic and is seen as a major blow to the Khatami's camp.]
Protests Continue over Treatment of Cleric,
Agence France Presse, April 6
TEHRAN - Shopkeepers in a central town extended their strike for another day to protest the treatment of a cleric under house arrest for criticizing Iran's supreme leader, a newspaper said Monday.
The bazaar in Najafabad, hometown of Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri, was closed Sunday for a second straight day, and policemen were deployed in the town, Farda newspaper said.
Early last month, shopkeepers in Najafabad held a one-day strike to protest at his treatment.
Cleric Says Moslems Must Confront U.S.,
Reuter, April 4
DUBAI - A senior Iranian cleric said in the holy Saudi city of Mecca on Saturday that all Moslems were duty-bound to confront Israel and the United States, Iranian radio reported.
Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, a Shi'ite cleric, also told a conference of scholars in Mecca that Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution had revived the "forgotten duty of jihad among Moslem nations."
"Struggle against the Zionist regime (Israel) and confronting the principal supporter of that regime -- that is America -- was the duty of all Moslems," Iran radio quoted him as saying.
He said Lebanese guerrillas fighting against Israeli occupation of south Lebanon and the Palestinian uprising against Israeli rule in the West Bank and Gaza Strip were "among the blessed consequences of the victory of the Islamic revolution in Iran."