The supreme leader mistakes 22 Khordad (June 12, day of uprising), with 22 Bahman (Feb 10, day of revolution). He states that “the proud people of Iran came out on June 12 and showed their immense strength and resolve that covered/darkened the world”

Iran is responding harshly to the U.S.–sponsored nuclear summit, which opened April 12 in Washington. The state-run media is filled with articles about an impending threat from the West – an attempt to alert Iranian society that, at least according to Iran’s leaders, the country is again a victim of Western aggression. Go to Inside Iran.

Following the victory of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini controlled the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) by assigning personal representatives and commissars to IRGC units and offices. Initially, the system was dysfunctional because of multiple commissars and parallel control structures with overlapping responsibilities, but at the beginning of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s rule, the commissars consolidated their positions and exerted enough power to help stymie political reforms. Today, the system is again weak, and, increasingly, the commissars act more as spokesmen for the guards than as agents overseeing the IRGC and ensuring that the supreme leader holds power over the IRGC. This change undermines Khamenei’s authority over the IRGC and has allowed the IRGC greater autonomy to the detriment of outsiders who would engage the regime.

Click here to view this Outlook as an Adobe Acrobat PDF.

Key points in this Outlook:

• The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) is slowly taking over Iran.
• While commissars should represent the supreme leader to the IRGC, today it seems they are speaking for the IRGC instead of overseeing the guards and ensuring the supreme leader’s power.
• This has given the IRGC more autonomy within the country, a change that may hinder outsiders’ efforts to engage the regime. Go to AEI.

TEHRAN — Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei slammed US President Barack Obama on Sunday for threatening a “nuclear attack” even as Defence Secretary Robert Gates said he did not believe Iran had an atomic bomb. Go to AFP.

Free Iran:  It’s a mistake to ridicule Khamenei as a backward Islamist who wants to  turn the time back to the 7th century, as too many analysts in the West do.  He values the role technology can play in helping to ensure the survival of his regime.  He is shrewd, methodical, calculating, well- read, extremely cynical and ruthless.  One must know ones’ opponent – and above all not underestimate him.

See more pics of Khamenei visiting a car plant.

Free Iran:  This is a must read…

Reza Kahlili is a pseudonym for an ex-CIA spy who requires anonymity for safety reasons. “A Time to Betray,” his book about his double life as a CIA agent in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, will be published by Simon & Schuster on April 6.

…Khamenei ignores the fact that, in the mid-1980s, Mohsen Rezaei, then chief commander of the Revolutionary Guards, got Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s permission to develop nuclear bombs. As a CIA agent in the Revolutionary Guards then, I learned of this nascent effort and reported it to my handlers. The Iranians approached several sources, including Abdul Qadeer Khan, father of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb. His account of Iran’s bid to buy atomic bombs from Pakistan was reported very recently.

…That Khamenei has chosen to conceal Iran’s nuclear program shouldn’t be surprising. He also claims that the Iranian government doesn’t condone torture, that the recent Iranian election was just and proof that his nation is a real democracy, and that Iran is not involved in terrorism.

Islamic teaching considers the spilling of blood during the Islamic month of Muharram to be haram. Yet that didn’t stop the regime’s troops from slaughtering unarmed protesters last year on Ashura, one of Shiite Islam’s holiest days.

…Within Iran, radical Islamists have grown in power since Grand Ayatollah Khomeini’s death in 1989. Even Khomeini – an extremist by any reasonable definition – saw them as too fanatic and tried to keep them in check.

These radicals belong to a secret society called the Hojjatieh. It’s essentially a cult devoted to the reappearance of the 12th imam, Mahdi, and Islam’s conquest of the world. To achieve that end, the radicals believe they must foment chaos, famine, and lawlessness, that they must destroy Israel, and that world order must come to an abrupt halt. Free Iran:  Sounds familiar?  It seems awfully like the evangelical Christians that support the most right wing Israeli factions because they believe a major conflict in the Middle East would pave the way for the coming of Jessus Christ. They couldn’t care less about the Jews.  They just want the conflict.  These evangelicals and the Hojjatiehs are two sides of the same coin.  It’s incomprehensible that at the dawn of the 21st century – after the Age of Enlightenment – we still have to deal with this kind of nonsense…

Long ago, my best friend and commander in the Revolutionary Guards reminded me of a hadith, a saying from the prophet Muhammad, about Imam Mahdi: “During the last times, my people will be afflicted with terrible and unprecedented calamities and misfortunes from their rulers, so much so that this vast earth will appear small to them. Persecution and injustice will engulf the earth. The believers will find no shelter to seek refuge from these tortures and injustices. At such a time, Allah will raise from my progeny a man who will establish peace and justice on this earth in the same way as it had been filled with injustice and distress.”

The Hojjatieh see any movement toward peace and democracy as delaying Mahdi’s reappearance.

Although he strenuously denies it, Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi reportedly sits at the top of this secret society. He is an influential member of the Assembly of Experts (the body that chooses the supreme leader), an adviser to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and the founder of the Haghani School that teaches the most radical Shiite beliefs.

The teachers and students of this school run some of the most important political and security institutions in the Iranian government, including the Ministry of Intelligence, which is involved in organizing death squads against the opposition and coordinating terrorist activities against the West.

Ayatollah Janati, the powerful chairman of the Guardian Council, is also associated with the school. Yazdi, Janati, and Mojtaba Khamenei (Ayatollah Khamenei’s son) were central to President Ahmadinejad’s fraudulent reelection last June and the suppression of the opposition, and they are directing the supreme leader regarding the nuclear program.

…The choices are clear: We can either rise up to our principles and defend the aspirations of the Iranian people for a free and democratic government, or we can continue with our vacillation and indecision, allowing Iran to become a nuclear-armed state.

Instead of counting on watered-down United Nations sanctions, the West should cut off all diplomatic ties with Iran, close down all airspace and seaports going to or from Iran, sanction all companies doing business with Iran, and cut off its gasoline supply. We should then demand an immediate halt to all Iranian nuclear and missile delivery activities and the right to peaceful demonstration and freedom of speech for all Iranians. And if that fails, a military action should be in the cards.  Free Iran:  Not sure about the conclusion of military action?

Go to CS Monitor.

Free Iran:  His reply shouldn’t come as a surprise.  Khamenei knows opening up to the US means the end of his regime.  As such, engaging him is both a waste of time and fraught with potentially disastrous unintended consequences.  The US’ only objective should be to empower the Iranian people -  EMPOWER THE IRANIAN PEOPLE.

TEHRAN (AFP) – Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in his new year address to the nation on Sunday accused the US president of plotting against Iran as crowds of worshippers shouted “Death to Obama!”

In his defiant outburst, the all-powerful Khamenei dismissed President Barack Obama’s frequent offers of dialogue with Iran which began with last year’s historic Nowrouz greeting marking the Persian new year.

Khamenei’s personal tirade comes as Tehran is locked in a stalemate over its nuclear programme, with Washington pushing for a fourth round of sanctions against the Islamic republic.

He lashed out at the Obama administration in his speech, broadcast live on state television, saying after last June’s presidential election, the United States had taken a “worst stand” against Tehran.

He said Obama’s offer last year of a “new beginning” with Tehran turned out to be “deceptive,” as he had thought at the time that it would be.

“The US government and new administration claimed they wanted to have fair and correct relations, wrote letters and sent messages and even shouted through loudspeakers ‘we want to normalise relations with the Islamic republic,’ but unfortunately in practice they did the opposite,” Khamenei said.

“The US president called the (post-election) rioters human rights activists.

“You take the side of rioters and call it a civil movement. Are you not ashamed? You are in no position to speak of human rights. Did you reduce the killings in Iraq and Afghanistan?” Khamenei asked as worshippers, their fists raised, chanted “Death to Obama! Death to America!”

Khamenei, who is also Iran’s military commander-in-chief, said that Iran “condemns” such “arrogant” powers.

“You cannot talk about peace and friendship and at the same time plot and plan sedition and think that you can hurt the regime of the Islamic republic of Iran,” he said.

A significant part of his speech focused on the controversial re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, saying the nation’s “enemies had plans” to derail the poll but that this was prevented by a massive voter turn-out.

“By resorting to violence, they wanted to change the result of the election. they wanted to trigger violence by bringing people to the arena and by burning buses… but the Iranian nation triumphed,” the cleric said.

“They wanted to divide the people between majority and minority… and to spark a civil war, but the nation was alert. If they had been able to do so, the US and Zionist regime would have sent troops to Tehran’s streets, but they knew it would hurt them. So they spread propaganda and supported the rioters.”

See also:

WP:  Iran’s supreme leader cold to Obama overture

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s supreme leader sharply denounced the United States on Sunday, accusing it of plotting to overthrow its clerical leadership, in a chilly response to an overture by President Barack Obama for better cultural ties with Iran.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei did not outright reject Obama’s offer, saying Iran would keep an eye on Washington’s intentions. But the supreme leader said that so far, Washington’s offers of engagement with Tehran have been a deception.

The exchange was a sign of how Obama’s hopes for dialogue with Iran have broken down amid Tehran’s rejection of Western demands over its nuclear program and its heavy crackdown on the opposition following disputed presidential elections last June.

In his message, released Friday night to coincide with the Iranian new year, Nowruz, Obama told the Iranian people that the Americans want better cultural exchanges with Iran – but he also criticized the Iranian leadership for “turning its back” on U.S. overtures.

NYT:  Iran’s Leaders Respond to Obama [Video]

BBC:  Iranian leader accuses US of plotting against Iran

Go to AFP.

Free Iran:  The Green leaders need to be much tougher on the economic issues.  This is not enough.  They need to say something like this: “Unemployment, inflation, poverty, and class differences are the direct result of this government’s corruption, incompetence and foreign policy adventurism.”  Keep it simple and brief.  It worked for Reagan, Clinton, Putin, Chinese leaders, etc. and it’ll work for the Green movement too.  Unless immediate national securities are at stake, almost always it’s the economy, stupid. Green leaders need to focus all their energies on creating economic boycotts, culminating into strikes by the oil workers.  That’s the only way this regime will be brought down – by cutting off their main source of funding.  To begin this road, the Green leaders need to constantly ask the Iranian people and especially the oil workers:

Are you better off today than you were before Ahmadinejad first took office?

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WSJ:  Iran Opposition Leader Lashes Out at Regime

Iran’s top opposition leader said his protest movement would persevere despite a blistering crackdown, and he leveled fresh criticism at the regime’s handling of the economy and foreign policy.

The message, broadcast in a video release on the Internet to supporters marking the Iranian new year, appeared aimed at continuing Mir Hossein Mousavi’s strategy of broadening the appeal of his movement. He and other opposition leaders have recently moved beyond domestic political complaints to focus on, among other things, economic hardship it blames on the policies of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Mr. Mousavi repeated that grievance and other political complaints he’s made against the regime: “We do not have a free media or the freedoms outlined in the constitution,” he said. “We lack free elections, where candidates are not cherry-picked, and fair competition.”

But he also broadened his criticism to what he suggested was economic-policy and foreign-policy incompetence by the government.

“Economic prospects for the future are not good,” he said. “I am not pleased with this situation. I wish that despite all our issues, we would have seen an outlook to solve these nonpolitical issues.”

Iran’s economy has been buoyed by recently high oil prices. But the country has long been plagued by high unemployment and high inflation, though price increases have moderated recently. Before the June election, Mr. Ahmadinejad suffered criticism, even from some of his allies, for his handling of the economy.

Carnegie:  Iran’s Economy in Turmoil

The Iranian economy is facing its bleakest prospects in nearly two decades, with an almost unanimous forecast of low growth, high inflation, and continued double-digit unemployment. These worsening economic conditions, in turn, are likely to place considerable stress on internal politics, leading to strikes, protests, and business bankruptcies, and encouraging further emigration and capital flight. Persistent structural weaknesses and the Ahmadinejad administration’s gross mismanagement of the economy are largely at fault for the economy’s dysfunction, but recent external developments—including Western banks and industrial companies’ reduced exposure to Iran, possible new sanctions, and increasing transaction costs—are also damaging the economic climate.

…The worsening economic conditions are likely to place considerable stress on internal politics: energizing the “greens” movement, provoking strikes by disgruntled and unpaid workers; giving rise to massive protests by university campus activists; and leading to further exodus of talent and capital, as well as a spate of business bankruptcies.

While the somber trend line and the economy’s poor prospects may still fail to fulfill the wishes of democracy advocates at home (and their supporters abroad), hoping for a “regime change,” such factors as reduced foreign exchange reserves, uncertain oil prices, an overvalued exchange rate, looming external pressures, and internal political exigencies are bound to drastically affect President Ahmadinejad’s major economic policies, if not his bombastic rhetoric, in the coming year.

FT:  Ahmadi-Nejad meets clergy to mend relations

Iran’s president tried to repair his relations with the religious establishment on Thursday by paying a rare visit to the holy city of Qom and meeting senior members of the clergy.

Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad held talks with about six senior clerics, who had previously been deeply reluctant even to meet him. “A massive lobby by the most influential authorities happened to convince the clergy to see the president,” said one analyst in Qom.

Mr Ahmadi-Nejad has probably had worse relations with Iran’s religious institutions than any other president since the Islamic revolution in 1979. Partly this is because he has publicly disagreed with the clerics on some social issues: he defied their wishes by trying to allow women to enter stadiums to watch football matches.

Another important cause of the breach is the clergy’s concern over Mr Ahmadi-Nejad’s beliefs about the “hidden Imam” of the Shias, who is believed to have disappeared in 941. Shias believe that he will one day return to bring justice to the world. But Mr Ahmadi-Nejad has publicly predicted that the “hidden Imam’s” reappearance is imminent, causing suspicions that he feels personally connected.

Many in the senior clergy believe that Mr Ahmadi-Nejad and his loyalists have unorthodox beliefs about the “hidden Imam”, comparable to those of a “sect”.

The Qom seminary, with about 50,000 scholars and a dozen grand ayatollahs, is not as powerful as it was in the early years of the revolution. But it still holds a significant position in Iran’s Islamic establishment, able to give religious legitimacy to political factions. Consequently, Mr Ahmadi-Nejad wants to win its backing.

CS Monitor:  Iran protests: Is Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei winning?

“[Khamenei] thinks, ‘If I can have even 20-30 percent of the people with me, and have systematic pressure on the other 70 percent, I can lead for a long time and there wouldn’t be a serious threat against me,’” says Mr. Khalaji, whose father, an ayatollah in the Iranian religious center of Qom, was arrested without charge and held in solitary confinement in Evin Prison for three weeks in January.

“[Khamenei] tries to keep as many people [as he can] inside the circle of the elite, [while] empowering the suppression machinery of the regime more than before,” adds Khalaji.

“What hurts him is that some people can reveal this division,” says Khalaji at WINEP. “The division itself is not important. He thinks, ‘I can manage it, I can deal with opposition, I can intimidate them, I can prevent them from coming to the streets.’

“What is damaging to him is media, is pictures – the image of opposition is damaging for him,” adds Khalaji. “That’s why he’s so tough on media, on intellectuals, artists, writers, professors at university – nobody should talk about it. Talking about this means questioning the legitimacy of the Islamic Republic.”

WP:  Iran jails former vice president, reform activist

Times:  Opposition couple demand ‘year of resistance’ against Iran’s rulers

Khordaad88:  Mir-Hossein Mousavi’s Norouz Message

Khordaad88:  Zahra Rahnavard’s Norouz Message

NYT:  First Couple of Iran’s Opposition Post Video Messages for Persian New Year

RFE:  Call To Release Iran’s ‘Blogfather’ For Norouz

Zamaaneh:  Families of Iranian detainees demand release of their kin

MediaLine: Iran Launches Anti-Sanctions Car Engine

Zamaaneh: Faezeh Hashemi, daughter of Iran’s Chairman of the Expediency Council, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani told Bahar newspaper that the judiciary has failed to process their lawsuit against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Rooz: While a number of journalists and political prisoners were released yesterday, speaking to a group of families of political prisoners Tehran’s prosecutor general warned that he would not release individuals whose families had spoken about the matter to media networks.

Title: Fagih Khogeleh (Cute Supreme Leader)

Khamenei bid $10bn for ready-made nuclear bomb

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Iran attempted to buy a nuclear bomb from Pakistan as early as 1987, a leading Middle East analyst has told Haaretz.  Documents obtained by Simon Henderson, a research fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a former journalist, offer crucial evidence that Iran’s nuclear program is not wholly for civilian purposes as it claims – but aimed at developing an atomic bomb.  Henderson told Haaretz he has acquired material written by the scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan – popularly known as the father of Pakistan’s bomb program – while under house arrest between 2005 and 2009.  But according to Henderson, Pakistan omitted to pass to its Western allies a sensitive report detailing visits to Pakistan in the late 80s by two Iranian officials, who Khan said offered $10 billion in exchange ready-made atomic bombs.

The report, obtained by Henderson, reveals that in 1987 or 1988 Admiral Ali Shamkhani, a former senior commander in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and minister of defense from 1997 until 2005, arrived in Pakistan with an entourage of officials.  Shamkhani offered to buy the nuclear devices on the spot and came prepared to take them home with him, Khan said.

As well as casting doubt on Iran’s claims about the purpose of its nuclear research, Henderson’s material could shed light on the thinking of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.   Khamenei is believed initially to have opposed plans to acquire a bomb ? only to become convinced of its necessity in the early 1980s during a bloody war with Iraq, in which Saddam Hussein unleashed chemical weapons on Iranian troops.  Shamkhani, who now heads the Center for Strategic Research in Tehran and has been touted as a candidate for the presidency, is thought to be a close confidant of the Supreme Leader. His role at the center of Iran’s attempts to gain a bomb may point to Khamenei’s personal role in an Iranian bomb program.

Source:  Haaretz:

‘Thugs’ vandalised Karroubi’s apartment

AFP:  ‘Thugs’ vandalised apartment of Iran’s Karroubi The wife of Iranian opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi claimed on Monday that a group of “thugs” paid by “corrupt” government officials had vandalised the apartment block where the family lives in Tehran.  “About 50 people, including four or five women gathered in front of our building with the support of intelligence and police forces and shouted slogans against” opposition leaders, Karroubi’s website, Sahamnews, quoted his wife Fatemeh Karroubi as saying.  “They vandalised the building. These are thugs who are on a payroll,” she added.  News reports Monday said that a group of hardliners had on Sunday besieged the Tehran home of Karroubi, shouting death slogans and calling for him to be put on trial.  The Fars news agency Monday identified the small but vocal crowd which gathered outside the apartment block as “students and families of martyrs” of the Iran-Iraq war.

Pictures carried by the pro-government Borna news agency showed the building defaced with red colouring while slogans pronouncing “Death to Karroubi” were scribbled on the walls.   The building had also been plastered with death slogans against main opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi and former president Mohammad Khatami.  “We want the judiciary to put the leaders of sedition on trial as soon as possible,” Fars quoted the protesters as saying. They also denounced Karroubi as a “hypocrite” — the term used by Iranian officials for the enemies of state.  Some brandished placards reading, “Karroubi is a Mossad agent” — linking the two-time former parliament speaker to the intelligence service of Iran’s arch foe Israel.  Fatemeh Karroubi in her statement on Sahamnews blamed the authorities for the incident.  “Exploiting and defaming the name of martyrs’ families is an unforgiveable atrocity some corrupt people in the government have resorted to in recent years,” she said.

RFE:  Hard-Liners Protest Against Karrubi, Deface His Building Bornanews has posted pictures of a Sunday protest by a small group of hard-liners in front of the home of reformist cleric and opposition leader Mehdi Karrubi.  The hard-line Fars news agency said those who gathered and shouted “Death to Karrubi” were “students and families of martyrs.” These protests are usually supported and sponsored by the goverment.  The protesters defaced the building where Karrubi lives with red paint and painted slogans denouncing and insulting him. Some of the protesters held banners. One of them accused Karrubi of being a Mossad agent.  Karrubi has come under attack by hard-liners because of his support for postelection protests and his criticism of the Iranian establishment. Karrubi’s allegations of the rape in prison of some of the postelection detainees has particularly infuriated hard-liners, who have said he should be put on trial.  The small group who protested against Karrubi on Sunday reportedly said they want the “leaders of the sedition” — meaning Karrubi and opposition leader Mir Hossein Musavi — to be put on trial as soon as possible.

AFP: Some brandished placards that read “Karroubi is a Mossad agent” — linking the two-time former parliament speaker to the intelligence service of Iran’s archfoe Israel.  A relative of Karroubi confirmed the incident to AFP and said the cleric would soon make a statement.

Watch footage of the event here.

TB:  Karroubi Aide: Ahmadinejad-Khamenei Rift Widening

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A senior aide to opposition cleric Mehdi Karroubi said today that Iran’s supreme leader has cooled his support for president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Mr. Karroubi’s aide, who worked with the former parliamentary speaker for more than 25 years, was speaking to journalists at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on Friday.

“The supreme leader’s speeches from June to December of last year strongly endorsed Ahmadinejad. But since Ashura, Ayatollah Khamenei has never once mentioned Ahmadinejad’s name in any public address,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

He added that Ahmadinejad recently appealed to the supreme leader to pressure Majlis, the Iranian parliament, to push through legislation for targeted subsidies, but was coldly rebuffed.

“Over the past nine months, we’ve seen Mr. Khamenei go from praise and support to silence to refusal to back the president,” said the former Islamic Republic official, who recently moved to Washington.

The withdrawal of the supreme leader’s backing of the president is likely to intensify in response to acts of defiance by Ahmadinejad, who considers himself to be the supreme leader’s equal — not his subordinate, Mr. Karroubi’s aide explained.

“When Mr. Khamenei demanded the removal of Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaei from the post of first vice president, Ahmadinejad allowed a full week to pass before Mashaei resigned. Ahmadinejad then wrote to the supreme leader and signed off the letter [with the following innuendo]: ‘May the days of your preeminence last’ [ayaam ezzat mostadam]. This was clearly intended as a taunt and threat,” he added.

Asked why he believed the Green Movement leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Karroubi had not yet been arrested, the opposition cleric’s representative replied that such a move would serve to empower the president. “Mr. Khamenei knows that the blame for Mousavi and Karroubi’s arrests would rest directly with him. The supreme leader does not want to crush the Green movement completely, because the only winner standing will be Ahmadinejad,” he opined.

Regarding U.S. policy on Iran, Mr. Karroubi’s representative said that the Obama administration’s focus on the nuclear issue, at the expense of ignoring Iran’s human rights violations, is “exactly what Ahmadinejad wants.”

“If the U.S. reverses this approach and focuses on pressuring Iran for its human rights abuses … this is what the Iranian government fears most,” he said.

Iran’s hardline rulers will not back down from the nuclear confrontation with the West, he added. “The nuclear issue will be resolved when Iranian people hold free and fair elections,” he said.

Emphasizing the supreme leader’s areas of concern, Rahim Safavi, who was speaking at a conference organized for the so-called cultural experts of the IRGC, said, “The supreme leader have identified soft war, and because the IRGC must combat both soft war as well as semi-hard was and hard war, it must have the tools for each kind of war.

The former IRGC chief noted that the “goal of soft war is to change the culture, values and beliefs of the youth,” adding, “Our weakness is in this very issue of culture, which our enemies have identified before we did.  Therefore we must battle against and overcome the attacking culture with our soft and cultural power.”

Noting that “Our population was 36 million during the revolution and72 million now, therefore 50 percent of our country’s population are youth under the age of 30,” ayatollah Khamenei’s advisor noted his concerns with the “huge cultural war against Islam and the Islamic Revolution.”

Rahim-Safavi’s statements contradict last week’s remarks by Kamran Daneshjoo, Ahmadinejad’s science minister, who said, “The majority of the country’s university community are aligned with the revolution, and whoever cannot move in that direction must leave the community without pleasantries.”

Kamran Daneshjoo also made an implicit reference to the university professors who have been fired or dismissed, noting, “We have enough caring individuals in the science ministry to afford removing misaligned individuals from the community and aren’t ashamed of doing that.

Following the June 12 presidential election, a large number of professors from various universities across the nation have been arrested, dismissed or forced into retirement.  At least 5 students from various universities have been killed by police or paramilitary forces during popular protests and many others are under arrest or have been barred from continuing their education.

Following criticisms by ayatollah Khamenei in recent months that the “non-Islamic character of universities” and his insistence on “undertaking fundamental reform of the country’s educational system,” the supreme leader’s deputy in educational affairs has set up “supreme leader’s demands” post in universities, launching the overhaul of the country’s educational system towards a more Islamic approach.

Go to Rooz Online.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said today that Western powers were trying to widen differences between Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims to divert attention from the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

“The enemies of Islam and Muslims want to create discord among Muslims in the world…so having unity is the most important need of the Islamic world,” he said in a meeting with state officials on the occasion of the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday.

Iran is at odds with the West over its nuclear program which Washington and its allies fear could allow it to acquire atomic weapons, something Tehran says it does not intend to do. Go to Radio Free Europe.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, dismissed the possibility of compromise with opposition leaders on Thursday, saying in harsh language that they had no right to participate in politics, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Ayatollah Khamenei’s remarks at a meeting in Tehran with members of the Assembly of Experts, a clerical body, followed a challenge to the government on Monday by Mehdi Karroubi, one of the opposition candidates who ran in the disputed presidential election in June.

Mr. Karroubi called for a national referendum to gauge the popularity of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government.

Without naming Mr. Karroubi or another opposition leader, Mir Hussein Moussavi, Ayatollah Khamenei said “they have lost their credibility by denying the results of the elections.”

“They did not surrender to the law and committed a great sin,” he said.

Go to NY Times.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said anyone who rejects the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad isn’t qualified for a role within the country’s establishment.

He called the Islamic system a “ship of salvation” that has no place for “those who are not prepared to accept the vote of the majority.” His remarks today to the Assembly of Experts were carried on his Web site.

Khamenei praised “the 40-million-strong election” on June 12 and said those who question the result disqualify themselves from working in the establishment. Khamenei has stood by Ahmadinejad since before the election.

The supreme leader’s stance would rule out any future candidacy for Ahmadinejad’s two main challengers in last year’s vote, former Prime Minister Mir Hossein Mousavi and former parliament Speaker Mehdi Karrubi, who allege the election was rigged. Demonstrations against the outcome of the vote have been the largest protests in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that deposed the shah and brought Shiite Muslim clerics to power.

Karrubi called on Feb. 22 for a “referendum as a way out of crisis to end the rule of the Guardian Council,” the panel of six clerics and six jurists that has the power to veto candidates. The council supervises elections in Iran and ratifies laws passed by parliament.

Over the past week, Karrubi has met twice with Mousavi to discuss a possible joint strategy. Details of the talks haven’t been announced. Go to Bloomberg.