Ten weeks after the clerical regime's "election", the Guardian Council issued a statement yesterday about the reasons for the delay in the announcement of election results in Tehran. It pointed to "an assortment of complexities and difficulties such as major gaps between the announced results and the vote recount that were unprecedented and distort the votes in its entirety."

In its statement, the Guardian Council also mentioned fraud. The statement further referred to "considerable discrepancy between the recount of boxes about which there were complaints and those recounted at random."

National Council of Resistance President Massoud Rajavi said in this regard: "The Guardian Council's admissions clearly disappoint those who seek to reform this regime within its current framework."

The overnight crackdown on pro-Khatami press, the partial unveiling of the rigging and vote-fixing in the Majlis elections and the serious doubts cast on the validity of Tehran elections and the sixth Majlis are in the words of Mr. Rajavi, "a reflection of the deep and pervasive crisis engulfing the entire regime and leading to its overthrow."
 

Students across Iran Protest Press Bans, Reuters, April 26

TEHRAN - Students in five cities across Iran held protests against the closure of 13 publications, the official IRNA news agency said on Wednesday.

Besides protests in Hamedan, Bandar Abbas, Kashan and Tehran, thousands of students rallied for press freedom in the central city of Yazd and in Shiraz, in the south.
 

Mullahs' Leader Endorses Media Crackdown, Associated Press, April 26

TEHRAN- Khamenei on Wednesday endorsed the recent crackdown on newspapers, describing the publications as "deviant" and urging his supporters not to remain silent.

"All persons, groups, and factions loyal to Islam must come out and take strong positions against those ... who are attacking the revolution, the path of the imam, the constitution and the role of the supreme leader," Khamenei told a meeting of religious authorities.

"Revolutionaries must not remain silent against these truths," he added in what appeared to be a green light for further measures.
 

Conservatives Use Full Powers To Weaken Khatami, Agence France Presse, April 26

TEHRAN - Iran's conservatives are using the huge power they enjoy through their control of the courts and other bodies in a bid to weaken Khatami.

The past few days have seen the press court close down 13 publications close to Khatami, including nine dailies, and send three leading journalists to jail, two of them after appeals were quashed and one pending investigation.

Meanwhile the Council of Guardians, which supervises elections, delayed setting a date for a second run-off round for the parliamentary polls.

In both cases Khatami has been virtually powerless to intervene, his authority dwarfed by the conservatives and by Iran's supreme leader, Khamenei.

"The conservatives are doing all they can to weaken Khatami… not doubting his loyalty to the Islamic republic…," political expert Iraj Rashti told AFP.

The only response for the reformists by Khatami has been to call for calm.

Iran News analyst Mehrdad Serjooie Wednesday also noted that the reformists had been weakened by dissension within their coalition, the 2nd of Khordad Front, named for the date in the Iranian calendar when Khatami was elected in 1997.
 

Press Court Warns Khatami's Brother, Reuters, April 26

TEHRAN - State radio said on Wednesday Judge Saeed Mortazavi had issued a formal warning to Mohammad Reza Khatami, publisher of the daily Mosharekat and a close confidant of the president, over the content and format of his newspaper.

"In his letter to Reza Khatami, Mortazavi said that if his legal warning were not heeded, the court would take necessary actions," radio said.

Mosharekat and Sobh-e Emrouz are the last of the pro-Khatami dailies still publishing.
 

Iranian Jews Trial to Reopen May 1, Agence France Presse, April 26

TEHRAN - The trial of 13 Iranian Jews accused of spying for Israel will re-open May 1 at the revolutionary court in Shiraz, an official from the southern Iranian city said Wednesday.

"The hearing will go ahead behind closed doors and on the date declared, in other words May 1," said Hossein-Ali Amiri, the director-general of the Shiraz department of justice.

Three of the 13 arrested have been free on bail since February, along with eight Iranian Muslims also charged on the same count.

The eight Muslims will be tried separately.

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