Senior Iran cleric hails “Islamic state of Iraq”

Senior Iran cleric hails “Islamic state of Iraq”    Fri. 26 Aug 2005

Tehran, Iran, Aug. 26 – A senior Iranian cleric welcomed on Friday the establishment of an Islamic republic in Iraq and hailed the country’s new constitution as one based on “Islamic precepts”. Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, who heads the powerful ultra-conservative Guardian Council, told worshippers in Tehran’s Friday prayers, “Fortunately, after years of effort and expectations in Iraq, an Islamic state has come to power and the constitution has been established on the basis of Islamic precepts”. “We must congratulate the Iraqi people and authorities for this victory”, he said. Jannati, who is a top confidant of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said that all justice-seeking counties of the world “have no model other than the Islamic revolution in Iran to turn to”. “Lebanese Hezbollah and the state of Iraq are not the only supporters of the Islamic revolution”, he said. Referring to the West as Global Arrogance, the hard-line cleric said, “No matter how many stones they throw in our path, they cannot prevent the spread of the Islamic revolution in the world”. “We are the winners in the nuclear issue, too”, Jannati said. “The way is paved for our progress and we just need to work hard”. Jannati said the rising oil prices had placed Iran on a sound financial footing. “We still have problems, but less than before”. In comments directed against other factions within the clerical regime, Jannati called on the new hard-line government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to “purge executives who have been within our system, but who have been opposing our system and abusing people’s rights”. “These executives must be purged as soon as possible”, the powerful cleric said. http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=3494 There has been contiinuing debate as to whether or not Iran has played a purposeful and cunning role in luring us into our present predicament. This ought to have some effect on that discussion. Before the Iranian "election" (in which Jannati and his colleagues chose the candidates), we were assured by the members of the Wolfowitzian school of Neo-Orientalist Jacobin political philosophy that Iran was a country "on the cusp" of a pro-Western revolution against Jannati and his associates.  We were assured by various scholars at AEI and analysts at the major media that YOUTH stood ready to cast down the Mullahs so that YOUTH could emerge into the sunny highlands of modernity. Jannati seems unaware of his recent defeat. Jannati is pleased with the progress of our de facto program of de-secularization in the ME. Pat Lang

Comments

[wtofd]

Colonel, it's interesting (although painful) to see the neocon's ignorance pave the way for Tehran's hardliners. I wonder if you have an opinion on Iran's strategy (nuclear and in support of the Iraqi insurgency) in light of the fact of US troops surrounding Iran in Afghanistan and Iraq.

I don't mean to support their nuclear program; I am curious, however, if you think the Iranians are worried about US military hegemony or intent on their own military expansion.

Is their intention defense or offense?

[Pat Lang]

wtofd

Our 20000 men in Afghanistan and 130000 in Iraq are no threat to them. They are fully occupied. Air bases in Central Asia are more serious but a bombing campaign by us would not be dependent on those, just made easier.

Listen to Jannati. There is nothing defensive about that. they have been having fun with us and are sure they are winning.

Iraq? Political action through their allies and their militias followed by Iranian forces when and if the time is ripe and they are necessary.

They don't need to anyhting right now with their own forces. We are doing it for them. pl

[Pat Lang]

WTOFD

The Iranians have been the major state sponsors of Islamic terrorism, both Sunni and Shia since 1979.

People working for them were the hostage takers in Lebanon (Higgins, etc) The Iranians were also behind the Al-Khobar bombings in SA. Was that defensive also? pl

[wtofd]

Colonel, thank you. I understand the dar-al-Islam aspirations of Tehran. I also understand what their biggest export is after oil.

I should have been more precise: do you think their nuclear program is offensive or defensive?

[Pat Lang]

wtofd

This is a question of intention not capability. It can be one thing one day and the other the next. pl

[wtofd]

Col. Lang, do you have a sense of how the ME govts and civilians understand the neocon mismanagement of this war?

In other words, do the Kuwaitis, Egyptians, Saudis understand the divide between the chicken hawks and the hawks? The faith based and the reality based? T.S.

[Pat Lang]

wtofd,

The ME govenments attribute the whole thing to a desire to "steal" their oil in the context of a dominant pro-Israeli influence in the US policy for the region. pl