Resignation by mullahs' Intelligence Minister reflects regime's impasse, disarray, aggravation of power struggle on eve of "Islamic councils' elections"
-Mortar attack on Intelligence Ministry delivered final blow
-Younessi, possible successor to Dorri Najafabadi, a notorious judiciary henchman involved in massacre of 30,000 political prisoners

In his letter of resignation read over the state radio and television yesterday, mullah Ghorban Ali Dorri Najafabadi, Khatami's Intelligence Minister, cited "ruthless and vicious attacks by the enemies and those hostile in and out of the country" as the reason for quitting his post.

Dorri Najafabadi stressed that he had originally accepted the job on Khatami's "request and insistence" and that he was offering his resignation for the second time. He also warned that the "country's senior management is in dire need of" an apparatus "to state the bitter realities instead of beguiling the decision-makers" to point out "the dangers of plans, policies, decisions, immature and hasty actions" by different organs.

Last week, subsequent to the major mortar attack by Mojahedin's military units against the Intelligence Ministry headquarters in Tehran, the state-run dailies Jomhouri Islami and Kayhan cautioned that those who attack the Ministry with their pens and in their propaganda "are attacking the very sensitive and vital part of the state which the Mojahedin have also targeted," and that the Mojahedin attack came after some findings about perpetrators of the recent murders.

During last Friday prayers congregation in Qazvin, Dorri Najafabadi said: "Mojahedin's conspiracy is continuing... Regrettably, the world pays heed to them and brings us under question. They [the Mojahedin] have a great deal of resources."

The Intelligence Minister's resignation reflects the clerical regime's impasse. It also demonstrates that the regime as a whole is in disarray and is also a sign of aggravating internal power struggle on the eve of the "Islamic councils' elections."

Previously, there was talk of Dorri Najafabadi's resignation. But, following a deal between Khatami and Khamenei to conceal the identity of the masterminds and perpetrators of the recent murders, and the release of a number of those arrested, the matter was pushed to the sidelines.

It appears that the mortar attack on the Intelligence Ministry has delivered the final blow and Dorri Najafabadi has found it opportune to duck Khatami in these turbulent times and state his grievances to the mullahs' President. He has specifically underscored in his letter of resignation as regards the recent killings that "I was and continue to be vehemently opposed to them." This is designed to prevent Khatami from making him a escape goat in the deal he has struck over the "committee investigating the killings."

Mullah Ali Younessi, reported to be Dorri Najafabadi's successor, is a notorious henchman in the Judiciary involved in the massacre of 30,000 political prisoners in 1988. As the head of the Armed Forces' Judicial Organization in the last five years, he has been engaged in the suppression of dissident military personnel and has issued thousands of execution and torture verdicts. Previously, he was Deputy "Revolutionary Prosecutor."

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
February 10, 1999

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