Immediately after Saturday evening's mortar barrage on the most important center of power in the clerical regime, the Khatami-led Supreme National Security Council held an extraordinary meeting with the participation of senior officials and commanders of the Revolutionary Guards, the State Security Forces, the Intelligence Ministry, the Interior Ministry, and other repressive agencies to review the attack and find "the means to stem the rise of Mojahedin's operations."
The Intelligence Ministry's "Countermeasures Committee" which has the task of "countering" the Mojahedin's activities, held several closed-door meetings on the mortar attack.
The meetings often turned into stormy sessions as faction leaders blamed each other for the failure to thwart the Mojahedin's attacks. The wrangling soon found its way to the factions' dailies. The Wednesday issue of the state-run daily, Ressalat, quoted Brig. Gen. Hedayatollah Lotfian, the commander of the State Security Forces," as saying with reference to the Tehran attack: "Tehran is afflicted with acute security problems." Lotfian said "the reason why these threatening and unsettling activities occur... is the illogical planning of other executive agencies."
The same daily wrote on Feb. 7: "Beside causing instability, this attack is designed to create discord [among the ruling factions]." Ressalat revealed that a "government agency" had contacted the news media and the press after the attack, telling them not to mention the locations where the mortars fell, namely the Expediency Council.
Pointing to the extensive coverage of this operation, Fat'h daily wrote on Feb. 7: "Those who are concerned about Iran's economy are aware of the extent to which this incident [mortar attack on the offices of Khamenei and Rafsanjani] damages Iran's international credibility. The efforts by the Minister of Mines and Metals in the past few days to convince the European Union to remove Iran from the list of high-risk countries have been rendered futile."
Gholam-Hossein Bolandian, the Deputy Interior Minister for Security, said in remarks broadcast yesterday by the state radio: "The Mojahedin's recent blasts in Tehran is an attempt to make people believe that the country is insecure, cause a row between political groups and ultimately create disillusion among the public toward the Islamic Republic." Alluding to the wrecked morale of the regime's forces, Bolandian called on all factions and officials to cooperate "to destroy the factors that are discouraging the people."
The government-owned Abrar wrote in its Feb. 8 editorial: "The Mojahedin have adopted a new line by attacking revolutionary institutions and fired mortars at buildings housing a number of important government institutions, such as the Expediency Council." It added: "The question is why have the Mojahedin's activities surged upwards relative to the past?"
People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran
February 10, 2000
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