TEHRAN - Iran summoned the British charge d'affaires to the foreign ministry in Tehran on Tuesday to make an official protest against an "insulting" article in a London newspaper, the official IRNA news agency said.

It said Neil Crompton had been called to the ministry to receive the "strong" protest from Morteza Darzi Ramandi, the foreign ministry official in charge of mass media.

The Times on Saturday published a short summary of the obituary of Ruhollah Khomeini, which appeared in the paper at the time of his death.

"For Iran it was comparable to the Mongolian invasion of the 13th century. For neighboring Islamic nations his effect was to frighten moderate leadership and paralyse reform," it said. "For the rest of the world he bears, in addition, a disastrous responsibility for inspiring and sanctioning state terrorism. All three legacies will be hard to erase."
 

Iran Condemns Syria, Arafat And Calls to Erase Israel From "Map of World", Agence France Presse, December 31

TEHRAN - Iran on Friday bitterly condemned its Middle East allies as traitors for holding peace talks with Israel and insisted the Jewish state should be "wiped off the map of the world."

As hundreds of thousands of anti-Israel protesters thronged downtown Tehran to mark "World Jerusalem Day," Iranian officials lambasted Syrian and Palestinian leaders and vowed no compromise with the Jewish state.

"I don't want to cite the one-time revolutionary nations by name ... but any negotiation with the Zionist regime amounts to treason," [mullahs' leader Ali] Khamenei said in direct reference to Syria, Iran's oldest and closest regional ally.

Khamenei also used his fiery sermon to blast Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for betraying the Palestinian cause.

"He is not only a traitor but an idiot as well because what the Israelis are offering him amounts only to four percent of Palestine," said Khamenei, who as supreme leader has final say on almost all matters of state.

Khamenei hailed the Palestinian resistance guerrillas as "the true representatives of the Palestinian people."
 

Kidneys for Death, Not Life, The Los Angeles Times (Editorial), December 30

It has been a decade since… Ruhollah Khomeini, pronounced a death sentence on the novelist Salman Rushdie. Khomeini's fatwa, a religious edict, accused Rushdie of blaspheming Islam in his book "The Satanic Verses."…

The always-bizarre Rushdie affair has now taken another weird, even grotesque turn. An Iranian newspaper reports that Islamic militias in the city of Mashad have organized a campaign that has induced more than 500 Iranians to promise to sell one of their kidneys to increase the bounty on Rushdie. The sale of human organs is legal in Iran and is overseen by the government. It's not known yet whether any kidneys have been sold.

Rushdie has managed for a decade to escape the vengeance ordered against him, though a number of people associated with the worldwide publication of "The Satanic Verses"--publishers, translators, booksellers--have been less fortunate…

In recent years Rushdie has led a less reclusive existence. The latest chilling reminder from Iran that his alleged crime has not been forgotten or forgiven may change that.
 

Khatami Allies Divided before Crucial "Election", Reuters, December 27

TEHRAN - Backers of Khatami are feuding ahead of Iran's crucial parliament elections in February, a division which could hurt their chances against rivals, analysts said on Monday.

A broad coalition which helped Khatami against a rival in 1997 is showing signs of strain due to disagreements.

A group led by a brother of Khatami have been engaged in a war of words with the Executives of Construction (EOC)- a group affiliated with Hashemi Rafsanjani.

"The rift is not in favor of the reformist camp. If it continues, the EOC stands to lose the most," said Qodratollah Nazarinia, a pro-Khatami member of parliament.

"The right faction is trying to take advantage by voicing tactical and nominal support for Rafsanjani," he told Reuters.

Tensions surfaced after Rafsanjani said he would run in the February 18 polls, to try to use his bipartisan image to contain increasing bitter factional quarrels in Iran.
 

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