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Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has flooded the Majlis
(parliament) with former Revolutionary Guards while Ayatollah
Khamenei has made key changes in security structures and strategies
to entrench the Revolutionary Guards’ hegemony over all law
enforcement agencies. (Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps was
established by Ayatollah Khomeini in May 1979 as a force, under the
direct command of the clerics, to consolidate the Islamic
Revolution.) (Link 1)
The following posting shows clearly how Iran has begun to enact a
policy of zero-tolerance towards breaches of the ideals of the
Islamic revolution. It does not require much imagination to see how
much pain and trauma Christians, other non-Muslims and
freedom-loving Persians are destined to experience as Ayatollah
Khamenei and President Ahmadinejad forcefully advance their Shi’ite
vision of a pure Islamic State.
A NEW ERA OF “ISLAMIC GOVERNMENT”
On Wednesday 3 August, former Revolutionary Guard Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad was sworn in as the sixth President of the Islamic
Republic of Iran by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Ahmadinejad pledged to restore an “Islamic government” in Iran,
implying, as Iran Focus notes, “…that the previous administrations
of Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami had distanced
themselves from the policies of the founder of the Islamic state,
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.” (Link 2: includes a biography of
Ahmadinejad.)
On 14 August, President Ahmadinejad presented his list of cabinet
nominees to the Majlis Speaker, Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel. According to
Iran Focus, only two of the 21 persons nominated by Ahmadinejad for
ministerial appointments had previously held ministerial posts,
while at least 13 were former commanders of the Revolutionary Guards
and its affiliated agencies, and five were former officials in
Iran’s notorious Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) and
revolutionary prosecutor’s office.
Hardliners gained control of the parliament in 2004, so it was not
anticipated that there would be any difficulty having the
nominations passed. However, the inexperience and obscurity of some
of the nominees (clearly chosen only for their Revolutionary
credentials) did cause concern and four were rejected with calls for
stronger candidates. The 17 others were passed.
REVOLUTIONARY GUARDS’ HEGEMONY:
OVER THE PEOPLE
On Saturday 20 August, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei, ordered a key change in the high command of the elite
Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). Brigadier General
Mohammad-Ali (Aziz) Jaafari has been appointed to establish “the
IRGC centre for strategy” which will “draw up the new strategy and
implement the necessary changes to ensure rapid and efficient
transformation of the country’s civilian infrastructure and
resources to military footing under the control of the IRGC”.
Khameni instructed Jaafari to “identify and propose key individuals
and scientists in the Revolutionary Guards for membership in this
important centre”. Jaafari is to work closely with President
Ahmadinejad, with whom he shares a close friendship. (Iran Focus 20 Aug)
OVER THE MILITARY
Iran Focus also reports that Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi, the
commander of the IRGC, has been asked to “devise a new command
structure and military strategy for the IRGC that would give the
elite military force unlimited access to national resources and
absolute priority over the regular army in case of a foreign
military confrontation”. (Iran Focus 20 Aug)
OVER THE POLICE
On 10 July, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appointed
Brigadier General Ismail Ahmadi Moghaddam to the position of police
chief. Moghaddam, who was deputy commander the paramilitary Bassij
and commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) in
Greater Tehran, is a long-time ally of President Ahmadinejad. Iran
Focus reports that in a decree read out on the state radio Ayatollah
Khamenei said the police force’s top priority was “to create
security all over the country at a level worthy of the Islamic
Republic”.
Iran Focus comments that the appointment of Ahmadi Moghaddam brings
the country’s police force under the complete domination of the
Revolutionary Guards and signals a readiness to crack down harder on
what the ultra-conservatives see as “deviation” from the country’s
rigid religious laws. Farhad Nasseri, an Iranian analyst based in
Dubai told Iran Focus, “This is part of an overall trend to extend
IRGC hegemony over all military, intelligence and even civilian
institutions. Ayatollah Khamenei is taking no chances. He wants his
own men in control everywhere.” (Link 3)
On Sunday 28 August, Ayatollah Khamenei appointed Revolutionary
Guard, Brigadier General Mohammad-Kazem Moazzenian as the new chief
of the Intelligence Protection Organisation of the State Security
Forces.
POLICE TO ENFORCE “ISLAMIC VALUES”
Under orders from their new police chief, Iran’s police have
commenced a crackdown on “models of corruption”, or in other words
poorly-veiled women. (Iran Focus 27 Aug) Jamal Karimi-Rad, Iran’s
new Minister of Justice vowed on Saturday 20 August, that
“improperly-veiled women” will be treated as if they had no Islamic
veil at all. “Being improperly veiled and not wearing a veil are no
different,” declared Jamal Karimi-Rad. “When it is clear from the
appearance of a woman that she has violated the law, then the crime
is obvious and law enforcement agents can take legal measures
against her.”
PARAMILITARIES AS LAW ENFORCERS
Iran’s State Prosecutor, Ghorban-Ali Dorri Najafabadi (a Shiite
cleric and former head of the Iran’s dreaded secret police, the
Ministry of Intelligence and Security), told journalists in Tehran
on 25 August, “There are about 18 different law enforcement
agencies, and may be even more, in the country.” He listed the
State Security Forces, certain branches of the Intelligence
Ministry, the Revolutionary Guards, and the Bassij militia as
amongst Iran’s “law enforcement forces”. (Iran Focus 25 Aug)
According to Brigadier-General Hossein Zolfaqari: “In circumstances
when the police are not present or when they require assistance or
when they for whatever reason do not wish to carry out their tasks,
uniformed members of the Bassij can in accordance with the law act
against apparent crimes.”
Iran’s new Justice Minister, Karimi-Rad, has also made it clear that
members of the para-military Bassij and the notorious Ansar-e
Hizbollah, government-organised gangs of hooligans, are regarded as
law enforcement agents in clergy-ruled Iran. (Iran Focus 25 Aug)
Since Thursday 18 August, plain-clothes agents of Iran’s State
Security Forces (SSF) have been conducting stop-and-search
operations in Isfahan, central Iran. Iran Focus reports that drivers
are stopped and ordered to show their identity cards before their
vehicles are thoroughly searched by plain-clothed SSF agents. (Iran
Focus 19 Aug)
The State Security Forces have also launched a crackdown against
“young people harbouring anti-government sentiments”. (Iran Focus 20
Aug) And in a move that will further entrench the isolation of
Iranians, police have been ordered, “…to use all means, including
helicopters, to locate and confiscate privately-owned satellite
dishes, which are illegal in Iran.” (Iran Focus 20 Aug)
FOREIGN POLICY
Iran Focus also reports that Mohammad-Reza Jaafari, the commander of
Iran’s new Lovers of Martyrdom Garrison, which has recruited more
than 50,000 potential suicide bombers for “martyrdom operations”
recently hinted to the Persian weekly “Parto-Sokhan” that if the US
ever attempted to strike Iran’ s nuclear installations, then the
theocratic state could make use of long-term “sleeper cells” in the
West to destroy United States’ interests all over the world.
Jaafari also said, “The Imam [Khomeini] said years ago that Israel
must be wiped off the face of the Earth, but so far practical steps
have not been taken to achieve this. Our garrison must spot,
recruit, organise and train martyrdom-seeking persons to be able to
materialise this objective. Any delay in fulfilling the strategy of
the Imam and the Supreme Leader in this regard will not be to the
advantage of Islam or the revolution.” (Link 4)
FROM THE MACRO TO THE MICRO
Lest anyone monitoring the big picture be tempted to forget the
flesh and blood human beings within it, here is an Iranian story
that could doubtless be told by more than one family. It is a
situation that will probably become even more common in the new Iran.
The Sabian Mandaean Association of Australia reports that in 2000,
Muslim vigilantes kidnapped Miss Layla Zahrooni (then aged 10 yrs)
from her school. The Muslims then informed the Zahrooni family that
Layla had converted to Islam and could not therefore be returned to
an infidel family. (As Mandaeans, the Zahroonis follow the teachings
of John the Baptist.) The Muslims placed Layla in an Islamic
institution.
In 2004, Layla (aged 15 yrs) succeeded in escaping and finding her
way back to her family. But on 4 April 2005, Iranian authorities
discovered Layla (16 yrs) in the city of Sosangerd. They seized her
from her distraught family and forcibly married her to a Muslim man.
Elizabeth Kendal
– [email protected]
Links
1) Defending The Islamic Revolution — The Corps Of The Matter
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/08/dfead359-312f-4497-8686-559b29a226a6.html
2) Hardliner takes over as Iran’s new president. 3 Aug 2005
http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=3147
3) Iran puts police under Revolutionary Guards control. 10 Jul 2005
http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=2796
4) Iran’s “suicide operations” chief vows to hit U.S. Interests.
23 Aug 2005
http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=3429
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