Back to Brief on Iran
BAGHDAD - The leader of the main exiled Iranian opposition group on Tuesday called on Iranians to boycott the election of the country's assembly of experts, set for October 23.
"The Assembly of Experts election sham, most definitely boycotted by the Iranian people, is doubly illegitimate," Masoud Rajavi said in a statement in Baghdad.
"For the Assembly of Experts is the essence of the ruling theocratic regime, a brazen breach of the right of the Iranian people to sovereignty," he added.
"To take part in it as candidate or as a voter is to cast a ballot against the right of the Iranian people to sovereignty and a dagger to, and betrayal of, their aspirations," Rajavi added.
The Assembly of Experts appoints the country's supreme leader.
Rajavi leads an army of more than 30,000 fighters deployed in Iraq since the eight-year-war between Iran and Iraq that ended in 1988.
The group has several camps in Iraq, equipped with tanks, heavy guns and helicopter gunships, close to the borders with Iran.
Mullahs' Leader Sets the Stage for More Pressure on Media, Reuter, September 15
TEHRAN - Iran's supreme leader told government officials on Tuesday to deal with those newspapers which he accused of abusing freedom of speech to weaken people's Islamic beliefs.
"I am giving final notice to officials to act and see which newspapers violate the limits of freedom," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in remarks carried by Tehran radio. "I am just waiting to see what the officials will do, otherwise it is not so difficult to stop such moves."
"There are limits to freedom...which are set by Islam. If these limits did not exist some people would try to push the nation towards not believing in religion," he said.
Khamenei, who is widely believed to be closer to the conservatives, said the critical moderate newspapers should be stopped regardless of international reactions.
"We have never taken into consideration what the world would say, nor what international newspapers and organizations would say. And we should not start now either," Khamenei said in a speech to senior commanders of the Revolutionary Guards.
U.S. Backs Hands-off Policy in Afghanistan, Reuter, September 15
WASHINGTON - The United States has asked all of Afghanistan's neighbors not to intervene in the fighting there, the State Department said on Tuesday.
It believes that Iran, at least, has enough military forces on the border to intervene, department spokesman James Rubin told reporters in his daily briefing.
Rubin said the United States had made its position on intervention clear through the informal "two-plus-six" group, which includes Russia, the United States and Afghanistan's six neighbors: Iran, Pakistan, China, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.
Washington could try to take the opportunity to improve relations with Iran, but the Iranians have shown no inclination to take up U.S. offers of a government-to-government dialogue.
Khamenei Orders Military to Prepare For Invasion, Reuter, September 15
TEHRAN - Iran's supreme leader on Tuesday put the military on the alert for orders in a further escalation of the crisis with Afghanistan.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, commander-in-chief of Iran's half-million-strong armed forces, told senior commanders of the Revolutionary Guards "The situation of Afghanistan is a highly crucial issue."
The Revolutionary Guards said in a statement that both it and the volunteer Basij militia were ready "to help the oppressed and meek people of Afghanistan," IRNA reported.
The Iranian army said on Monday it was ready to implement the supreme leader's orders and "to conduct any missions anywhere and under any circumstances."
The Taleban accuses Shi'ite Iran of interference in Afghanistan.