PHOTO: President Rouhani speaks at a Tehran conference on Monday
- Head of New Reformist Party Arrested Just After 1st Press Conference
- Rouhani: We Have No Power to Free Detained Opposition Leaders
Showing that he can be tough in foreign policy, Iran’s President Rouhani said on Monday that Israel was founded and continues to survive through “terrorism”.
Rouhani is in the midst of a political battle with hardliners within the Iranian regime, including over his foreign policy of “engagement” with other States. He has been challenged both over his hope for better relations with Saudi Arabia and over his interaction with Western countries.
See Iran Daily, August 30: Rouhani Carefully Responds to Supreme Leader on Economy & Nuclear Deal
The President countered accusations of weakness over the July 14 nuclear deal and his general approach with keynote remarks at a conference in Tehran remembering Iranian victims of terrorism: “This [Israeli] regime began its work on the basis of intimidation, terror, and occupation, and is continuing the same anti-human path today.”
Rouhani also denounced “Takfiris”, the Iranian label for deviant Muslims, as he referred to the Islamic State, Taliban, and Nigeria’s Boko Haram as sources of terrorism.
He called for a “global will” to eliminate terror, warning that terrorists would one day strike back at those countries who supported them:
We have assisted all those who are fighting against terrorists in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and any other places; we will fight terrorism anywhere in region to support oppressed people.
The Supreme Leader’s office added its own message via Twitter:
Today, US officials claim fighting #terrorism, while they themselves are creators of most dangerous terrorist groups. 5/16/2015
— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) August 30, 2015
And the Supreme Leader’s top aide, Ali Akbar Velayati, specifically mentioned the 4 1/2-year Syrian conflict as a “world war on a small-scale”: “The satanic move of meddling in Syria is unprecedented in the contemporary history.”
Head of New Reformist Party Arrested Just After 1st Press Conference
[UPDATE: Fars News says that Shakouri Rad has been released on bail.]
Ali Shakouri-Rad, the Secretary General of the newly-formed reformist Islamic Iran People’s Party, has been arrested soon after the party’s first press conference.
The IIPP was announced almost two weeks ago with a video message by former President Mohammad Khatami, who is banned from appearing in Iranian media. Most of the party’s members are from the Islamic Iran Participation Front, which was banned after the disputed 2009 Presidential election with many of its leaders — including Shakouri Rad — detained.
Shakouri Rad had already made public calls for more women MPs and the lifting of restrictions on Khatami, whom he called the “leader of reformism” in Iran. He said just before his arrest, “We are here to stay. Not to leave anytime soon.”
The party leader may have crossed a “red line” with his forthright declaration that the reformists’ first priority is to prevent “extremists” from getting into Parliament in elections next February.
Shakouri Rad was arrested in October 2010. He was released on bail two months later but given a four-year prison sentence in March 2012.
Rouhani: We Have No Power to Free Detained Opposition Leaders
President Rouhani has said that the Government has no power to free opposition leaders who have been held under strict house arrest since February 2011.
Rouhani spoke at a Saturday press conference about Mir Hossein Mousavi, who “lost” to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the disputed 2009 Presidential election; fellow 2009 candidate Mehdi Karroubi; and Mousavi’s wife Zahra Rahnavard, a prominent activist, artist, and academic.
He said, “Some issues are not under the jurisdiction of the administration; the Government can only try to facilitate the matter by providing the preliminaries and the right conditions.”
The President pleaded for others to refrain from raising the cases, “To turn this issue into a permanent issue for the country does not benefit anyone. We must simply try to make sure everything is run by rule of law.”
Prominent MP Ali Motahari has pressed for the three opposition leaders to be put on trial to determine their fate. He raised the situation again last week in a letter to the head of the Assembly of Experts.
Rouhani promised in his 2013 campaign to free political prisoners, but many of those detained after the mass protests in 2009 continued to be held.
Mousavi, Karroubi, and Rahnavard were seized in February 2011 amid regime fears of renewed demonstrations.
