During the mullahs' 18-year rule, Ibrahim Yazdi had always underscored his own and his group's loyalty to the clerical regime and justified the regime's repression. While the Ministry of Guidance usually prevented foreign reporters from contacting personalities not affiliated with the government, it recommended interviews with Yazdi.
Yazdi's arrest demonstrates that the state of Iran's theocratic regime is so fragile that it can no longer tolerate even its close allies.
The move also proves that not only did the holding of the Islamic Conference summit in Tehran fail to ease the power struggle among the mullahs, but it escalated their infighting.
In the past three days, there have been intense clashes between the different factions of the regime in Isfahan and Shiraz. The Friday prayers leader of Isfahan, mullah Jalal Taheri, has spoken out against Khamenei's faction. Taheri's supporters in Isfahan addressed Khamenei and his faction, and said in a statement: "Beware of the day when these dormant vipers come out of hibernation. On that day, only God knows what they would inflict on our people."
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
December 15, 1997
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