A senior Iranian pro-reform cleric has urged voters in next week’s election to oust hardline Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, saying his government has failed to improve the economy for the people.
“I will vote in the election and I urge all eligible voters to do the same, to see whether we can change the situation,” Grand Ayatollah Yusef Saanei said at his office in Iran’s clerical nerve-center of Qom.
The interview was conducted in the presence of a Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance official because of the sensitive nature of Saanei’s pro-reformist views.
A disciple of Iran’s revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Saanei held two prominent posts in the early years of the Islamic republic formed by the toppling of the US-backed shah in 1979.
He was one of the six clerics on the powerful Guardians Council, the 12-member body that vets legislation and election candidates. Khomeini also appointed him Iran’s public prosecutor from 1983 until 1986.
“The revolutionary principles of the Imam [Khomeini] still continue, but many features have changed during the ninth government” headed by Ahmadinejad, the Shiite cleric said, toying with a silver-topped walking stick.
“Several skilled managers were sidelined, inflation and unemployment is making the people poorer ... we sold a barrel of oil at US$130, but now we are empty-handed,” he said. “Well, the Imam did not want these issues. He wanted the people’s livelihood to improve. I do not approve of the current situation.”
He also took issue with Ahmadinejad’s foreign policy.
“When we hear President Ahmadinejad criticizing the Saadabad accord, I believe he is wrong, since that accord was impossible without the leader’s consent,” Saanei said referring to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The 2003 Saadabad accord, which Iran under reformist president Mohammad Khatami signed with Britain, France and Germany, resulted in Tehran suspending its sensitive nuclear activities.
During a provincial trip on May 20 to Semnan, his home town, Ahmadinejad called the accord “shameful” and boasted of resuming the suspended nuclear work when he became president in 2005.
“Nuclear policy has nothing to do with the president. It is up to the supreme leader,” Saanei said, shaking his head in disapproval.
Khamenei has the final say on all strategic matters, including nuclear issues.
Saanei is also a critic of Ahmadinejad’s stand on the Holocaust.
The president triggered global outrage soon after taking office in 2005 when he said Israel was “doomed to be wiped off the map,” and in a later diatribe called the Holocaust a “myth.”
On Wednesday, Ahmadinejad fired his latest salvo against the Jewish state, saying the Holocaust was a “big deception.”
“I am against it [Ahmadinejad’s stance]. Our job is not to talk about history. We are not teachers of history. We could have said things differently. We could have said it in a better way,” the visibly upset cleric said.
Saanei refused to reveal who he will vote for on Friday, but ahead of the 2005 election he said he preferred Mir Hossein Mousavi, the ex-prime minister who was not even contesting the presidency then.
Mousavi is standing for the presidency this time, however, and he has emerged as the main challenger to Ahmadinejad.
“I do not support a particular candidate. I only support plans and programs” outlined by them, he said.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS