TEHRAN - A senior conservative cleric warned on Friday that Western countries better not expect a change in Iran’s revolutionary behavior, telling them to either accept the country "as it is" or forget about relations.

Ayatollah Ahmad Janati, a powerful figure with outspoken views against Western liberalism, also warned that Western government "should not seek to support the current" led by President Mohammad Khatami.

"Who are you to support one or the other. You don’t have a right to interfere in our affairs if you want to have relations," he said in a sermon before the weekly Moslem prayers at Tehran University.

"If you want to support a certain political current and finance it with your money, our people will not tolerate that," the ayatollah added.

Janati warned Western countries "not to hold a stick over our head with the issues of terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, human rights," all of which are topics of concern about Iran to the West, notably the United States.

He also warned the Europeans to stop pressuring Iran to revoke a fatwa, or religious decree, issued by Iran’s late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989 condemning the British author Salaman to death for alleged blasphemy in his novel "The Satanic Verses."

"Before everything, they raise the issue of Rushdie. No one dares to violate the fatwa. Don’t argue. You have to accept it. There’s nothing to talk about," he said.

Khatami's Missile Initiatives, "Self-Defense" or Global Threat?, Reuter, July 27

TEHRAN - Iranian President Mohammad Khatami said Tehran's recent successful test of a medium-range missile demonstrated its right to self-defense, but he stood by his policy of improving ties with his neighbors.

On Saturday, Defense Minister Rear Admiral Ali Shamkhani confirmed that Iran had produced and successfully test-fired the new Shehab-3 missile, capable of striking a target some 800 miles away.

Washington said the missile, of North Korean design, had sufficient range to strike Israel, Saudi Arabia, much of Turkey and portions of Russia. Initial word of the test drew sharp reactions from Israel, which vowed to defend itself.

Seeking "Long-Range Missile" Might to Make Mullahs Right, Agence France Presse, July 27

TEHRAN - Iran on Sunday defended its testing of a "long-range" missile, saying it was indispensable for a country facing real or potential threats.

Earlier, Iranian newspapers defended the missile test as necessary in a world where the strong have their way.

"The test should be viewed and judged in the perspective that the world we live in sees might as right," said the Tehran Times, a conservative English-language daily.

"As the strong always dictates to the weak and as our principles call for us not to yield to the others' hegemonism, it is natural that we should have a stronger defense."

Iranian Hard-Liners Call for Mayor to Be Hanged, Agence France Presse, July 24

TEHRAN - Several hundred Islamic hard-liners took to the streets in the Iranian capital on Friday demanding that Tehran’s beleaguered mayor Gholam-Hossein Karbaschi be executed.

The demonstrators, calling themselves "Hezbollah" shouted slogans against Karbaschi, 45, and praised the judge, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, who on Thursday sentenced him to five years in jail, a hefty fine and 20 years’ suspension from government service for alleged embezzlement.

"Karbaschi, shame on you ... shame on you," cried the demonstrators, who filed behind a pickup truck mounted with a loudspeaker. "Hang him ... hang him."

Publisher Probed Over Anti-Khomeini Letter, Reuters, July 26

TEHRAN - A Tehran court has summoned the publisher of a journalists newspaper for printing a letter attacking Iran’s late spiritual leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

The anonymous letter in Khaneh criticized Khomeini for, among other things, issuing a death edict against the British-born author Salman Rushdie.

"Shall I follow someone who has turned Iran into an international terrorist by issuing a death sentence for Salman Rushdie?" it said.

It also said Khomeini's name evoked the "horrors of the eight-year (1980-88) war with Iraq and the thousands of innocent youngsters killed in that war."
 

 
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