TEHRAN, 25 October 2006 — Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei yesterday urged Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinians to remain united in the face of what he said were US plots to destabilize the region.
“Everybody should be alert in the region. All the Arab nations in the region — Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine and other Muslim nations should be alert,” he told thousands of worshippers gathered in Tehran for Eid Al-Fitr prayers.
“They should be careful not to make any move that allows a new betrayal from the plans of the Zionists and the United States to be realized.” He warned Palestinians in particular to keep their unity amid deadly factional bickering between the mainstream Fatah faction and the Islamists of Hamas.
“The Palestinian brothers from the different groups and wings must know that their unity today is the most important factor in their victory,” he said. “They should not be ignorant about the enemies’ desires to divide them and the conspiracies the enemies have thrown for them.”
Khamenei said that following Hezbollah’s “victory” in its latest conflict with Israel, the people of Lebanon should “keep their unity with strong calls for resistance.”
“The Iraqi people should do everything to avoid sectarian conflict,” he added, in reference to the deadly bloodletting between Sunnis and Shiites that is claiming dozens of lives daily. “This (alertness) is the solution and the cure for the problems in our region,” he added.
Iran celebrated Eid Al-Fitr yesterday to mark the end of the holy month of Ramadan and the next two days have also been declared holidays.
Khamenei yesterday urged politicians to wage a clean campaign free of “bad mouthing and insults” for crucial elections in December. The elections for the Assembly of Experts, which chooses the supreme leader, are seen as a tight race between factions close to pragmatic former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and hard-line leader Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi.
Iran’s religious leadership is hoping the vote will be spared the highly personal campaigning and allegations of smear tactics that marred the presidential elections in 2005, where Rafsanjani lost to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
“Let’s keep the elections flawless and healthy, without rumors. Let’s keep the political atmosphere of the country free of bad-mouthing and insulting one another,” Khamenei told worshippers in Tehran after prayers.
“How can you blame the people if their minds become confused because of the motivations of political groups?” he asked. “Insults and talking behind someone’s back is an ugly tradition of some Western countries,” he added. The elections for the Assembly of Experts, which supervises the work of the supreme leader and can even oust him, are being held on Dec. 15 on the same day as elections for municipal councils.
Rafsanjani will be hoping for a political comeback with a strong showing by his camp after the pragmatic leader’s humiliating landslide defeat to Ahmadinejad in the run-off presidential vote in 2005.
Khamenei also urged voters to turn out in force. “The stronger, more reliable and stable the Assembly is the better it guarantees the future of the country. Everybody should take part in the election enthusiastically with a feeling of responsibility,” he said.
Meanwhile, Maryam Rajavi, president of the opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran made an unofficial visit to the Belgian Senate yesterday, which has already angered Tehran. “We are not receiving you officially, but nonetheless with great interest in what you represent,” said Senate President Anne-Marie Lizin upon greeting Rajavi, who lives in France.
“I really respect the fight that you are waging, which is very hard. We hope that you will become someone of importance in your country,” she added. Rajavi’s group is an umbrella coalition of which the armed opposition People’s Mujahedeen is a member. The People’s Mujahedeen, banned in Iran, is considered a terrorist group by the European Union and the United States.
