Iran Revolutionary Guards target opposition leaders

ISNA-Mohammad Ali Jafari

The Iranian Revolutionary Guards attacked the opposition leaders in force today to justify the violence perpetrated by the Guards to put down post-election protests. Mohammad Ali Jafari, Commander of the Revolutionary Guards claimed the post-election unrest was “the biggest event in the history of the Islamic Revolution” that threatened the essence of the Revolution and was pre-arranged to shift the main direction of the system.

Jafari claimed the former president, Mohammad Khatami, in a speech last February had said “If Ahmadinejad falls in this election, the supreme leadership will be omitted.”

He also charges that MohamadAli Abtai, Khatami’s vice president, who has been arrested in the post-election protests and presented in a controversial mass trial of protesters, has confessed that Khatami, Fateh and Hashemi Rafsanjani had stressed on the importance of this election as a means of removing the Velayat-e Faghih, which is represented by Ayatollah Khamenei.

Yadollah Javani, chief political analyst of the Revolutionary Guards directly accused MirHosein Mousavi, the chief challenger of Ahamdinejad’s presidential victory, of 30 years of “adversarial” actions and masterminding the post-election unrest in order to topple the leadership of Ayatollah Khamenei. In an article in Sobh-e Sadegh weekly, Javani also accused the main reformist organizations, the Participation Front, the Combatant Clerics, the Executives of Construction and the Mujahedeen of the Islamic Revolution, of seeking foreign backing to achieve their “ominous” aims.

ILNA-Mohammad Reza Tabesh

In reaction to these comments from the Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad Reza Tabesh, member of Iran’s parliament warned Commander Jafari that he should not force the hand of the opposition to reveal the truth about the post-election events.

In a report on Parleman News website Tabesh claims that they have kept silent in order to preserve the system and the Revolution and to deter the enemy from taking advantage of the situation.

Mr. Tabesh adds that “people who issued permits for the Guards to enter the elections and extract confessions should be taken to court.”

In the government crackdown on post-election protests that were triggered by allegations of vote-rigging, thousands of people were arrested and many were killed and tortured. Prominent reformist leaders have been paraded in a mass trial incriminating themselves and their colleagues in a foreign-backed plot to topple the government. The opposition claims the confessions have been coerced.

In order to appease the outrage at the rape and torture of recent detainees in prisons, the Supreme Leader and the new Head of Judiciary has assured people that the perpetrators of these violations in the prisons will be tried and punished.