Iran hardliriers take gloves off against oppomnts Special Coverage Reuters http://www.retters.coiWarficle/GCA-Iran/idUSTRE578OR82009OSO9?sp...
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Iran hardliners
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Sun Aug 9, 2009 6:29pm EDT
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By Alistair Lyon, Special Correspondent
-Analysis
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Iran's latest mass trial
is meant to deter dissent but may also reflect insecurity among
hardliners jolted by street protests and political splits after a disputed
June election.
The crackdown shows no willingness to compromise on the part of
re-elected President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He must now pick a
cabinet and get it approved by a parliament with a conservative
majority containing many who mistrust the firebrand leader.
Many conservatives were angered by the death in custody of the son of
an aide to presidential candidate and former Revolutionary Guard
commander Mohsen Rezaie, which may help explain why Iran's police
chief announced on Sunday that the head of one notorious detention
center had been jailed.
But in other signals that the gloves have come off, a senior Guard
commander demanded that Ahmadinejad's election rivals Mirhossein
Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi face trial, and a military commander urged
greater control over foreign media.
“The sham trials are actually to shore up support among (Ahmadinejad)
supporters who have begun having doubts,” said Muhammad Sahimi, a
professor at the University of Southern California.
An Iranian court charged a Frenchwoman, two Iranian staffers at the
British and French embassies and dozens of others on Saturday with
spying and plotting to overthrow clerical rule, in the second mass trial
to open within a week.
Mousavi and Karoubi say the election was stolen to keep Ahmadinejad
in power and have denounced the trials. They and influential backers
like former presidents Mohammad Khatami and Akbar Hashemi
Rafsanjani have solid revolutionary credentials.
“If Mousavi, Karoubi and Khatami are main suspects behind the ‘soft
revolution' in Iran, which they are, we expect the judiciary ... to go
after them, arrest them, put them on trial and punish them,” said
Yadollah Javani, head of the Revolution Guard's political unit, the
official IRNA news agency reported.
It is not clear whether Supreme Leader Ayatollah All Khamenei will
yield to such demands to lock up mainstream opposition leaders in the
world's fifth biggest oil exporter.
The influence of the Revolutionary Guard, a military force with
extensive business interests, appears to have grown since Ahmadinejad,
a former officer in the corps, took power in 2005.
But Khamenei, whose status as lofty arbiter has been eroded by his
pro-Ahmadinejad partisanship, knows many senior clerics and politicians
are alarmed at where the Islamic Republic is heading and are ready to
protect their own interests.
Such divisions within the elite mean Mousavi may still be able to
challenge the legitimacy of Ahmadinejad's government, said Mehrzad
Boroujerdi, at New York's Syracuse University.
“The fact that the government has not arrested Mousavi and Karoubi
suggests that they are worried about the repercussions.”
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Iran hardliriers take gloves off against oppomnts Special Coverage Reuters http://www.retters.coin'arficle/GCA-Iran/idUSTRE578OR82009OSO9?sp...
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