TEHRAN - The final results of February's parliamentary elections in Tehran will be announced Saturday at the latest, the Iranian election watchdog body said Thursday.

The Council of Guardians said it was responding to an "express request" by the country's supreme leader, Khamenei.

Earlier Thursday the council said it was not in a position to validate the results, because of "numerous irregularities" it had found in the voting, state radio announced.

However, Khamenei responded by asking them "to announce the definitive Tehran results taking the present state of affairs into account."

He called on the judicial system "to put those responsible for the electoral irregularities on trial," the radio said, without elaborating.
 

Iran's Help for Terrorists, Milliyet (Turkish daily), May 17

It was uncovered that the Organization of Jerusalem Warriors, which is ruled by the religious leader Hamanei and based in Iran, is directing seven radical Islamic groups in Turkey.

In addition, it was revealed that the C-4 explosives, which were found in Sincan as part of the operations for uncovering the murder of Kislali, were of US origin and that these explosives were delivered to Turkey through Iran.
 

Another Military Exercise, State-run Radio, May 18

On the eve of May 23^rd, a large-scale armored exercise, code-named Heydar Karrar, is currently underway in the Ramesheh area in Esfahan Province with the participation of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps' Najaf-e Ashraf 8th Division.

The exercise is being held in order to… implement instructions issued by his eminence the leader regarding national unity and national security and in order to maintain and enhance the combat readiness of forces.
 

Commentary

A Deadly Impasse, Iran Liberation, May 15

Crises and uncertainty have paralyzed the clerical regime in every respect. The undetermined status of Tehran's election results and the state of the Majlis election as a whole have taken three months to develop.

They represent the most acute dimension of this crises and, at the same time, reflect a bitter and all-embracing crises that has engulfed the regime. A crisis, which despite the ruling mullahs' wishes, can no longer be concealed.

Today, officials and the state controlled press acknowledged this reality in different ways. Some describe the situation as a "stalemate" adding that both factions have lost the capacity to exert control over the situation. Other liken society to a powder keg, awaiting to spark. For this part, Supreme Leader Khamenei insists on the strategy of "fighting to the bitter end," rather than relinquishing power peacefully.

In reality, however, there is no way out of this "deadly impasse" within the regime or by either of its two main factions. The crisis has steadily grown more complex, leading to violence and physical elimination of rivals.

Now Khamenei has gone a step further and underscored the need for ruling factions to draw the lines between the "insiders" and "outsiders" and has spoken of the need to eliminate the "outsiders". The recent closure of newspapers and the arrests and prosecution of their editors and publishers were steps in this direction.

These "outsiders", or "the new hypocrites" as they are some times called, are mostly former Revolutionary Guards and henchmen who share responsibility in al of the regime's atrocities in the past twenty years. Realizing that the end is near, they are now trying in vain to find a way out of this crises.

The deep crises, however, has no solution either through resorting to Khomeini-like means by the Supreme leaders, or through the rhetoric put forth by Khatami, whose faction emphasized that their version of reform is within the framework of the ruling theocratic state. This ironic paradox, boasting of reform and insisting on a religious state all at once, will only aggravate the crises.

Now, many of Khatami's foreign interlocutors speak openly of the "deadly impasse," plaguing the regime. They also acknowledge that "few think he [Khatami] can long contain the present political turmoil…[because] his top priority at the moment is survival, not enforcing the mandate for sweeping change."

But in circumstances where the road to any change within the regime is blocked, and while any change, albeit minor and cosmetic, will act as a final poison for the regime, the internal crisis inevitably paves the way for change from outside the regime, a change which 70 million people desire.

The pro-Khamenei Ressalat wrote on May 9:" The setting in of the current state of crisis has only one clear result: Creating suitable environment for the social and political emergence of a third current which considers itself as the alternative to the state."

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