Insincerity

Roozonline - Review of the Week - The supreme leader of the Islamic regime in Tehran calls the millions of Iranians who poured into the streets under the banner of the Green Movement “insincere” and calls their leaders to “apologize.” Khamenei who last week was elevated to a status higher than “God’s representative on earth” by his cohorts and assumed, in the words of Guards commander Firuzabadi, to be “god,” also cut up Rowhani’s proposed cabinet list to the point that the new president had to succumb.

Just last week, Khamenei set the direction for the foreign policy of the new atmosphere and president, but this week he repeated his cliché talk about the Green Movement and its leaders to clarify the big picture, should anyone have raised any doubts since the June 14 votes.

He again said that the massive people’s demonstrations and protests against the elections and the regime “was the work of the enemy;” whose aim was to “pit people against the regime; why did those who thought the elections were rigged invite people into the streets? Why did they take the country to a precipice?”

These words clarify the roots of Khamenei’s calls for an apology from the leaders of the Green Movement.

Hashemi Rafsanjani, whose boys occupy the economic positions in the cabinet, takes out his key to two core issues when he says, “Everybody must help the elected president so their daily plight can be improved. There is no concern over the nuclear issue because we have the technical nuclear knowledge with our youth and also the fatwa of the supreme leader that nuclear weapons are haram (religiously unacceptable). The important issue is to explain this through diplomacy to the world so that the consensus that has been reached by global enemies can be turned into a race for friendship with Iran, similar to what was done by ending the Iran-Iraq war.”

In Rowhani’s proposed cabinet whose composition is being secretly finalized, the mission of “explaining” the above issues to the world is assigned to Mohammad Javad Zarif. But the commander of the Basij para-military force has a different goal and says: “To free ourselves from this mess and end the war that has been launched among Muslims, this Israeli cancer tumor should be eliminated. Zionists should be clear that what they have launched today in Egypt will give birth to a resistance movement that will be undefeatable and anti Zionist which will destroy Israel.”

What is clear till now is that the leaders of Iran’s Green Movement must apologize, artists should get ready for a “breathe better” and the “global consensus of the enemy” be provided with a better explanation.

But Khamenei, who has apparently solved the key issue facing Iran, is also now issuing solutions and decrees for professorial beards, urination, artificial male organs and other issues while at the same time banning socializing with the Bahais.

Iran’s meteorologists issue new warnings about the Orumieh Lake which has been drying up and warn of an imminent draught known as hydrologic draught that is approaching which will erode the underground water reserves of the Iranian plateau.

And as the week approaches its end, plans are announced for the inauguration ceremonies of the new administration. Nobody knows who is invited to the ceremony and who is banned from attending it, even as the media speculate about the list.

And suddenly, parts of an earlier warning issued by demised ayatollah Montazeri to former president Mohammad Khatami unexpectedly appear on Facebook, which reads as follows:

“One of my problems with president Khatami is this: If I were him, I would go to the supreme leader and tell him that his position is secure as is his respect but 22 million people voted for me while knowing that you, the supreme leader, have a different person in mind. The meaning of that is that these 22 million are expressing their rejection of your office (the supreme leader). If you interfere in my selection of cabinet ministers, in governors, and others that I need to do my job, and impose your own men, then I will not be able to do my job. I will then resign while thanking the public for their support and vote, and then I will explain this to the public that they want to interfere in my work.”

Alas, something that Rowhani has till this moment not done.

by Houshang Asadi