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.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS