TEHRAN - Over 160 Majlis deputies signed a statement stressing that the maintenance of the Islamic Republic system was the duty of all the domestic political factions and groups. The individuals and groups should not prefer their personal gains over the interests of the system ....

They also appreciated the role of the Leader of the revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei and the devotion of the Basij and Islamic Revolution Guard Corps who thwarted the plots. The statement added, "Once more it was proved to the dear nation of Iran and the authorities realize that the determining role of the Leadership is very crucial at the time of a political or social violence.
 
 

Khatami's "Civil Society" is Based on Teachings of Khomeini!, State-Controlled Tehran Times, August 3

TEHRAN - ... Khatami completes his second year in office today. Talking to the Tehran Times the MP said that the civil society which the president has depicted is inspired by religious principles and based on the teachings of the late Imam Khomeini...

A journalist of Kar-o-Kargar Hossein Golmohammadi told the Tehran Times... that the Leader is after strengthening unity in the country and the president has also moved in this direction. There is no difference between the Leader and president, he added.
 
 

Khatami Warns against Future Protests, Agence France Presse, August 8

TEHRAN -  ... Noting the six days of riots that rocked Iran last month, Khatami also attacked those who participated in and those he said had engineered the (six-day student) unrest.

"We must conform to the rules and organize our political activities with respect to our fundamental principles," Khatami said.

Some conservatives have countered that the unrest was a sign the Khatami administration was unfit to govern.
 

Commentary

[Excerpts from an article by Dr. Manouchehr Hezarkhani, Chairman of the NCR's Committee for Culture and Arts]

The six days of student demonstrations which started in Tehran and rapidly spread to many other cities, engaging other social groups in confrontations with non-official suppressive gangs and the official suppressive system of the religious dictatorship, deserve a closer look. The unrest effectively betrayed the faltering state of the regime, which hereafter can rely only on hoodlums wielding clubs and the apparatus of intelligence, torture and repression. The mullahs were left shivering in fear of overthrow.

There are a number of indicators of the depth of the fear at the fate the mullahs all know will befall them, sooner or later. One is the fact that the regime’s Supreme National Security Council met round-the-clock to curb the student protest, steadily adding to its threats. Another was the switch by Khamenei, the Vali-e- Faqih (supreme religious leader), who was calling the students his children one day, and two days later ordering their suppression.

For his part, during the six days, Khatami threw his slogans about a "civil society", "dialogue between civilizations," "political openness" and so forth out the window, although he has spent two years promoting them. Instead, he angrily declared that it was imperative to crush the student movement calling for justice, as a "deviant trend" intent on harming the regime's fundamental pillars ...

At first, not just the press affiliated with the ruling factions, but also most of the foreign mass media, featured a theory according to which the "conservative" wing was doing various things in a bid to weaken the "reformist wing ..." According to this theory, no politically significant event happens in Iran which is not somehow related to the factional power struggle.

This theory ignores the basic conflict between the people and the regime in its entirety. Its superficiality was laid bare by the six days of student unrest, which ultimately turned into an upheaval pitting the populace against the mullahs' regime. Given the alienation of the people from their rulers, any student protest movement, regardless of how and why it started, would inevitably become an anti-government political confrontation, thus exceeding the "legal" framework preached by Khatami, and end by questioning the totality of the regime....

With this danger looming, the ruling dictators were obliged to maintain unity in word and deed. Khatami, as head of the Security Council, issued the orders to suppress any "illegal demonstrations." Clearly, his interpretations of social "freedom" and "security" exist under the auspices of Velayat-e-faqih and in line with the regime's interests...

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