Iran: Rafsanjani's admission amid growing nationwide activities of Mojahedin

In an interview about the Mojahedin with the state television on the occasion of June 28, anniversary of an explosion at the headquarters of the now-defunct Islamic Republican Party, ex-President Hashemi Rafsanjani, head of the clerical regime's Council for Discernment of Exigencies of State, said: "Their (the Mojahedin's) ideas are still present in society. During this period they have not been idle, they have been doing a lot of cultural work. They have done a lot and, naturally, inside the country a number of people support them. With these roots from the past and their present assets, they have found a new momentum."

"The same ideological germs sprout up in new circumstances," Rafsanjani said with reference to the Mojahedin. He added: "From the outset, they were opposed to an Islamic state and said we want a democratic state."

Rafsanjani recalled that the Mojahedin "were so strong that they used to hold armed demonstrations with several thousand people in Tehran."

The clerical regime's ex-President added: "We have always expected, and expect now, that ideological currents that have roots in society, however weak or scant, cannot be completely routed. They survive for a long time and then grow in strength and, when they feel the situation is ripe, they make their move... They (the Mojahedin) had roots. After all, they are a current and an ideology in society. As long as they exist, they can gain currency."

In another development, in a June 27 statement on the Mojahedin's attack on the central command headquarters of the Revolutionary Guards June 2, the "Islamic Revolutionary Mujahedeen Organization," one of the factions within the clerical regime, announced: "Such an attack was unprecedented in the past 20 years... Firing seven mortars at a military center in Tehran is no ordinary matter."

Rafsanjani's admission and the fears expressed by different factions of the clerical regime come at a time when the Mojahedin have extended their political and publicity campaign to 419 cities and towns across Iran in June. The Mojahedin Command Headquarters Inside Iran announced today that Resistance units and Mojahedin supporters have conducted an extensive propaganda campaign from May 22 through June 22 in schools, universities, government offices, districts, etc. Compared with a similar period last year, these activities marked a 2.5-fold increase and indicate the progress achieved in the phase of the Resistance's preparations to overthrow the mullahs, the Command's statement said.

Commenting on these developments, National Council of Resistance President Massoud Rajavi said: "Rafsanjani's acknowledgment of the Mojahedin's 'new momentum' and their strengthened position inside Iran, and his admission to the extensive popularity enjoyed by the Mojahedin remind one of the shah's mea culpa speech in the final stages of the monarchic dictatorship in Iran, when he said that he had heard 'the voice of the people's revolution.'"

Mr. Rajavi added: "Rafsanjani's admission comes at a time when Resistance units and Mojahedin supporters have extended their protests campaign to more than 400 cities and towns across the country, when the chants of 'Down with Khamenei, Khatami, Rafsanjani' and slogans in support of the Resistance resonate in protest demonstrations and uprisings of the Iranian people, and when tens of thousands of Iranians in Lyon's Gerland Stadium have declared their support for the Iranian Resistance and its President-elect before the whole world."

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
June 29, 1998

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