Iranian hardliner says democracy used as seditious tool

Hojjatoleslam Ali Saidi

Hojjatoleslam Ali Saidi, Iranian Supreme Leader’s representative in the Revolutionary Guards said today: “Democracy is the enemy’s tool for toppling the Islamic Republic and they try to recruit help with it from inside the system.”

In a meeting on “Confronting the Soft War”, Saidi maintained: “There has always been two kinds of view in the Islamic Revolution: one, the pure Islam of Mohammad, the other, the liberal Islam of compromise.”

He maintained that Mehdi Bazargan, Iran’s first Prime Minister after the 1979 Revolution, subscribed to the “liberal Islam”, adding that: “Bazargan drew his legitimacy from the people while Imam (Khomeini) drew it from God.”

Saidi went on to say that the “enemy” picks its forces form within the country. “We see that at every election, the enemy uses this secular and liberal movement to reach its aims,” he stressed.

Iranian establishment insists that the post election protests to alleged irregularities in the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were organized by enemies of the system whilst the opposition insists that their protest is a legitimate movement in the framework of the Islamic Republic.

He concluded: “In order to identify what is right, we must only appeal to the Supreme Leader and not any other prominent figures.”