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Mullahs' President Mohammad Khatami reaffirmed his loyalty to religious despotism. He said today: "In our constitution, the principle of velayat-e faqih (absolute clerical supremacy) is the pillar of the state. It is not simply a theory of jurisprudence alongside other such theories."
Stating his support for remarks by mullahs' Leader Ali Khamenei two weeks ago, he emphasized: "We advocate the kind of freedom which would stabilize society and not cause anarchy." Some time ago, he had emphasized that "anarchy is much more damaging than dictatorship."
At the same time, appearing before a closed session of the mullahs' Majlis today, Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance and government spokesman Ata'ollah Mohajerani told the deputies that a monitoring task force to censor the press must be set up to "close the environment on those who want to exploit [the current situation." This task force, he added, should "through its monitoring... restrict those who violate religious and revolutionary foundations [of society]."
A statement by the National Council of Resistance of Iran noted: "Today's remarks by Khatami and his Guidance Minister demonstrate the extent to which Khatami's rhetoric about 'civil society' and 'rule of law' is baseless and that as far as the fundamental rights of the Iranian people are concerned, leaders of the theocratic regime ruling Iran do not in any way differ in their commitment to suppression and export of terrorism."
Mullahs' Judiciary: Fatwa Against Rushdie Remains in Force, Iran Zamin News Agency, September 29
Three days after the meeting between mullahs' Foreign Minister and British Foreign Secretary, the clerical regime's Judiciary noted "the ballyhoo by news organization of the World Arrogance about the apostate Salman Rushdie," and declared that "the decree by the late Imam has not changed and is addressed to the Islamic ummah (nation)."
In another development, last night, the clerical regime's news media quoted Foreign Office Spokesman Mark Kent as saying: "No reference was made to rescinding the fatwa against Salman Rushdie in the agreement last week between the Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran and Britain's Foreign Secretary... The British government has clearly understood that the Iranian Foreign Ministry or government cannot revoke the fatwa.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran in a statement, citing the above remarks said: "These remarks demonstrate that the Cook-Kharrazi agreement last week was but a dirty deal which sacrificed recognized human rights principles before economic interests. In order to make up for its retard in striking deals with this illegitimate regime, the British government has hastily retreated from its previous positions."
Bahais Say Iranian Death Sentences Confirmed, Reuter, September 29
PARIS - French members of the Bahai faith said on Tuesday they feared two more of their co-religionists might be about to be executed in Iran. "Even as the free world rejoices at Iran's initiative towards Salman Rushdie, the Bahais of France are shattered to learn tonight of the confirmation of the death sentence of two Bahais imprisoned for a year in Mashad prison," they said in a statement said.
The two were identified as Sirus Zabihi-Muqaddam and Hedayat Kashefi Najafabadi and were reported to have been arrested in October 1997.
There was strong international reaction when the French Bahais revealed in July the hanging in Iran of Ruhu'llah Rawhani, a 52-year-old father of four, charged with converting a Moslem to the Bahai religion.
His was said to have been was the first execution of a Bahai by Iran since 1992.
Press Digest, Reuter, September
29
TEHRAN - These are some of the leading stories in Iranian newspapers on Tuesday:
JOMHURI ESLAMI - Intelligence Minister Qorban-Ali Dorri Najafabadi said a number of journalists arrested recently had admitted they aimed at transforming the Islamic Republic to a secular state.
KAR VA KARGAR - A member of the parliamentary commission for foreign affairs said that Iran's government had not changed its position regarding the death fatwa against British author Salman Rushdie.
HAMSHAHRI - The Guardian Council, which screens candidates for all elections in Iran, rejected 224 out of the 396 people who had signed up to run in the Assembly of Experts' elections.
KAYHAN INTERNATIONAL - Secretary of the supreme security council said foreign companies investing in the Caspian oil fields should know that their investments "lacked security" until a legal regime for the Caspian Sea was finalized.