Last night, the Foreign Ministry spokesman also stressed that the fatwa could not be rescinded. Also, the Khomeini regime's Guards Corps issued a statement, declaring: "[Khomeini's] fatwa against the apostate Salman Rushdie is always binding" and "irrevocable." "This decree gave new life to the world of Islam," the statement read. Citing guidelines set by Khomeini, the Guards Corps reiterated that Rushdie "must be punished for his disgraceful deeds."
The Qods Force, a division of the Guards Crops whose mandate is to carry out extra-territorial missions, has been given the task of executing the death decree against Rushdie. Last year, the clerical regime spent $270 million on advancing its fundamentalist and terrorist objectives abroad.
Also yesterday, government-affiliated student organizations called for "implementing" Rushdie's murder decree "without taking heed of the diplomacy dominating the world." The same day, mullah Hassan Sane'ii, who is in charge of granting rewards to Rushdie's killer(s), said: "The decision as to how much the bounty of Rushdie's murder would be increased, depends on the date the decree is executed."
Hassan Sane'ii is a member of the board of directors of the Assembly of the Combatant Clergy, the same group Khatami is affiliated with. All of Khatami's advisors have also been selected from among the members of this group. Sane'ii had previously increased the reward for Rushdie's murder to $2.5 million.
On Friday, the mullahs' Prosecutor General had also reiterated that "Rushdie must be killed!"
In an special issue marking the anniversary of the fatwa, the state-controlled daily Jomhouri Islami wrote: "Khatami has always backed the fatwa." The paper added that all leaders of the clerical regime agreed on the need to carry out the decree against Salman Rushdie and that it was wrong to think that Khatami's election "would undermine the importance of executing Khomeini's fatwa."
When serving as Guidance Minister under Khomeini, Khatami had boasted: "Salman Rushdie must be executed according to the verdict of His Eminence the Imam Khomeini. He has no way to escape this decree..."
The placating policies pursued by European countries have emboldened the criminal rulers of Iran to export terrorism. The emphasis by the regime's judicial and religious authorities on the need to carry out the fatwa against Rushdie is a clear indication that export of terrorism and fundamentalism are indispensable to the clerical regime's foreign policy.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran calls on the European Union foreign ministers to adopt a decisive policy in their upcoming session in February and deny Iran's theocratic regime the opportunity to expand and step up its terrorist activities, especially in Europe.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
February 15, 1998
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