The Eclipsing of the Arab-Israeli Conflict
Michael J. Totten
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/totten/200382According to a new study of public opinion by the folks who host the Doha Debates in Qatar, a clear majority in 18 Arab countries now thinks Iran poses a greater threat to security in the Middle East than Israel. The leadership in most of these countries has thought so for years. That average citizens now do so should be encouraging news for everyone in the region — aside from the Iranian government, Hamas, and Hezbollah.
Some may find it hard to believe that so many Arabs think Iran is more threatening than Israel, but I don’t. Leave aside the fact that Iran really is more threatening. Arabs and Persians have detested each other for more than a thousand years, ever since Arabs conquered premodern Iran and converted its people to Islam. The lasting ethnic enmity between the two is compounded by religious sectarianism. Most Arabs are Sunnis, most Persians are Shias, and Sunnis and Shias have been slugging it out with each other since the 8th century.
After the Iranian revolution against the Shah Reza Pahlavi in 1979, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s Islamic Republic exploded into the Arab Middle East with a campaign of imperialism and terrorism. Khomeini never concealed his ambition to lead the whole Muslim world, and the government he founded has been hammering the established Sunni Arab order with a battering ram ever since.
Iran had excellent relations with Israel before Khomeini scrapped the alliance and switched to the Arab side. Like his successor Ali Khamenei, he used violent anti-Zionism to win the hearts and minds of the Arabs. It worked to an extent for a while. Most Arab governments didn’t buy it, but the people often did.
As recently as 2006, Iran, despite the fact that it has a Persian and Shia majority, picked up considerable cache among Sunni Arabs for attacking Israel from Lebanon with its Hezbollah proxy. (Lebanese Sunnis weren’t very happy about it, but Sunnis in Egypt and Syria certainly were.) The Egyptian and Saudi governments were alarmed, and they condemned Hezbollah for sparking the conflict.
This was unprecedented. While it barely registered in the West, it was huge in the Middle East, so huge that some of the more paranoid Lebanese Shias started thinking that the Sunnis and the Israelis were conspiring against them.
“Gulf Arabs give bombs to Israel to kill my people!” one excitable individual said to me at a Hezbollah rally in downtown Beirut. The guy was bonkers, of course. Israel doesn’t need bombs from the Gulf, and no one in the Gulf would donate or sell them even if Israel asked. Still, the man correctly sensed that Sunnis in the region aren’t as willing to team up with Shias against Israelis as they used to be.
The Arab-Israeli conflict is a minor historical hiccup compared with the ancient feuds between Arabs and Persians, and Sunnis and Shias. It has barely lasted a fraction as long and has hardly killed anyone by comparison. Arabs and Persians killed hundreds of thousands of each other in the Iran-Iraq war alone in the 1980s. The civil war between Sunni and Shia militias in Baghdad a few years ago was much nastier than any of the Israeli-Palestinian wars.
It took time for all this to sink in with everyday Arab citizens. For a while there was a disconnect between the region’s Sunni Arab rulers and people. It looked like Iran, by supporting Hezbollah and Hamas against Israel, might actually pull off the most unlikely of coups in rallying the mass of Sunni Arabs in support of Persian Shia hegemony. That disconnect now seems to be over.
Thanks to the Iranian government’s stubborn insistence on developing nuclear weapons, the age-old strife between Persians and Arabs, and Shias and Sunnis, may finally be eclipsing the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Most in the Western media and foreign-policy establishment still haven’t caught on. The policy implications for both the U.S. and Israel are profound, and the sooner Washington and Jerusalem figure this out, the better.
Iran Woos Arab States as Sanctions Loom
By Digby Lidstone
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/56f4f554-e8d3-11de-a756-00144feab49a.html?catid=76&SID=google&nclick_check=1At the official level, relations between Iran and the leaders of neighbouring Arab states tend to be polite without being warm. But beneath the surface, it seems, suspicion of Iran on the western side of the Gulf has deepened markedly.
A survey by YouGov, commissioned by Qatar’s Doha Debates and published last week, found that on the Arab side 80 per cent of those surveyed do not believe Iran’s assurances that it is not trying to develop nuclear weapons.
The poll, which surveyed more than 1,000 people in 18 Arab countries last month, found that most see Iran as a bigger threat to security than Israel, with a third believing Iran is just as likely as Israel to target Arab countries.
So Manouchehr Mottaki, the Iranian foreign minister, faced an uphill task when he arrived in Bahrain at the weekend to attend a security summit organised by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Iranian officials tried to use the event, a rare occasion on which senior politicians from both sides of the Gulf meet openly, to enlist the support of Arab states as the west considers tougher sanctions.
Iran was ready to settle any “misunderstandings” about a 1971 statement in which the pre-revolutionary government in Tehran recognised Bahraini independence on certain conditions, Mr Mottaki said. He also opened the door to renewed talks with the United Arab Emirates over ownership of the islands of Abu Moussa and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs, which both sides claim. “There is no issue on which two countries cannot talk and settle through negotiations,” he said.
Relations between Iran and its immediate Arab neighbours have ebbed and flowed. The Arab Gulf states were strong backers of the Baathist regime in Iraq during its 1980-88 war with Iran. Since then some, notably Dubai and Oman, have forged stronger links on the back of trade and investment while Qatar has built strong diplomatic links with the Islamic regime. This is in spite of other states’ concerns about Shia Iran’s meddling in Arab affairs.
Khalid bin Ahmed al-Khalifa, Bahrain’s foreign minister, said western nations had only cursorily consulted Arab states in the nuclear dialogue with Iran. Many felt the US and European nations were “talking behind our back”, Sheikh Khalid said. In addition, Arab Gulf states opposed any sanctions that hurt the Iranian people, he said.
Mustafa Alani, a security analyst at the Gulf Research Centre in Dubai, says the six Arab countries of the Gulf Co-operation Council do not have a unified strategy towards Iran.
“Countries such as Oman have better relations than those such as Saudi Arabia and the Iranians play on these differences,” Mr Alani said. “The Iranian objective is to negotiate a package deal with the US – its relations with the GCC and even Europe are secondary . . . They want recognition as a regional power, and they think this deal can be secured from the Obama administration.”
Iran has said it will pursue its nuclear programme with or without foreign help, opening the door to tougher sanctions.
The US, Russia and France had proposed a deal by which Tehran would export most of its stock of low-enriched uranium, which would be further enriched in Europe and returned to Iran under a closely monitored programme. Tehran declined to endorse the plan, but protests that a counter-proposal has been ignored.
“What do they mean Iran has not responded?” said Mr Mottaki. “Iran has proposed a middle way, a compromise solution.”
Western officials at the IISS summit said the Iranian counter-proposal – Mr Mottaki reiterated that his country needs 10 to 15 nuclear plants to generate electricity – would get short shrift in Washington, where plans for tougher sanctions are being drawn up.
William Cohen, former US defence secretary, described Mr Mottaki’s comments as “a thumb in the eye” of the international community. “It is very clear what needs to be done,” he said. “If they were so determined to pursue a peaceful nuclear programme, why reject the Russian proposal?”
Mr Cohen said the appeal for greater Arab involvement in nuclear talks fell on sympathetic ears, but was unlikely to alter western policy. “The issue right now is timing, the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] and the UN have been involved in negotiations for an excessive period of time, and people think time is running out for a diplomatic solution.”
How to Stop Iran
The West has reached a defining moment in its bid to prevent the rogue state from going nuclear
By Olivier Debouzy
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704541004574599610512260066.htmlThe lack of progress in negotiations with Iran, together with the latest report from the International Atomic Energy Agency and Iran's announcement that it would develop new enrichment facilities, all point toward an inconvenient truth: Iran is not only not serious about negotiating in good faith. It is also very likely that it has, for more than a decade now, concealed a significant part of what appears to be a major nuclear military effort. This week's revelations about Iran's recent work on warhead design underscore the point. No country has ever gone so far along the road toward the acquisition of a nuclear military capability without actually developing one.
Iran could well stop at the threshold of such capability, letting it be known to all specialists that it has a military capability without openly deploying it. This would still leave it uncertain, in the eyes of the public, whether it really has an effective nuclear arsenal. But this would not change much in practical terms. Western decision makers are now at a defining moment.
Politically, no Israeli prime minister could survive the fact that Iran became a nuclear-armed state, officially or unofficially, on his watch. The pressure on the Israeli government to do something to counter Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons would be so strong that it could well be tempted to play a desperate gamble, regardless of any security guaranties that the U.S. might offer.
Similarly, no U.S. president (especially one endowed with a Nobel Prize) could escape blame for having let Iran become a nuclear-weapon state by consistently underestimating its ability to conceal its preparations. The intelligence community's credibility would be devastated, and the indecision by successive administrations (Clinton, Bush and now Obama) to quash a program that has been suspected for 15 years and openly known for seven would be seen as a failure of major proportions.
What's more, the message sent to all U.S. and Western allies in the Gulf region would be dire. For all the promises made to these allies, the West has been unable to prevent a rogue state—one intent on destabilizing their societies, the strategic balance in the Middle East and beyond, and the oil market—from acquiring nuclear weapons that will make it much more difficult to compel it to behave prudently.
Last but not least, the nuclear non-proliferation regime, which has been significantly weakened by the North Korean antics and the Iranian finessing, would be close to collapse: If Iran has nukes, the temptation for countries such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Turkey, among others, to equip themselves with such weapons would be almost irresistible. The 2010 review conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty would be rendered a feckless pantomime, with almost as little effect as those aimed, between the two world wars, at preventing armed conflict.
It is now necessary, therefore, to plan for the worst—some form of military constraint upon Iran. It is urgent that the U.S., Great Britain and France, together with Israel if possible (in a discreet and deniable way, of course), gather and try to reach agreement on how to terminate the Iranian nuclear program militarily. Those three permanent members of the U.N. Security Council should not be cowed by the argument—which has already been deployed repeatedly by Iranian advocates and idiots utiles—that such an endeavour would be akin to pitching "the West against the rest." They would actually be exercising an implicit mandate on behalf of all the states that have renounced nuclear weapons and do not accept being threatened and bullied by rogues.
How could this be done? The experience of the 1962 Cuban crisis provides an interesting precedent. Applying pressure on the Iranians by interdicting any imports or exports to and from Iran by sea and by air would send a message that would undoubtedly be perceived as demonstrative by Tehran. Additionally, reinforcing the Western naval presence inside or immediately outside the Gulf would make it clear to the Iranians, without infringing on their territorial waters, that they (and all states dealing with them) are entering a danger zone. In parallel to this slow strangulation, measures should be taken to deter Gulf states (such as Dubai) from engaging in any trade or financial transactions with Iran and to encourage them to freeze Iranian assets in their banks. This should not be too difficult, as the threat of disconnecting any renegade from the Swift system would be sufficiently persuasive in the current circumstances, in which Dubai sorely needs international financial assistance.
It might be necessary to go beyond that and actually resort to force to prevent the Iranians from achieving nuclear military capabilities. Planning for a massive air and missile attack on Iran's nuclear facilities (known and suspected) should be considered seriously, and this planning made public (at least partially) to convince Iran that the West can not only talk the talk, but also walk the walk. Such planning should also, to the extent possible, involve NATO, against the territory of which there is little doubt that the majority of Iranian missiles and nuclear weapons would be targeted (if only because they cannot yet reach the U.S.). The U.S., U.K., French and Israeli intelligence services should better co-ordinate what they know, and contributions from others should also be welcome, as well as any information that could be provided by internal opposition movements in Iran.
The idea here is simple, and has been expressed many times by theoreticians of deterrence: When one plans for war, when one deploys forces and rehearses military options, one actually conveys a message. Deterrence is about dialogue. Whether the Iranian government would listen to it is uncertain. But at least it would have been properly warned.
The time for diplomacy has passed. Iran must cave in, and quickly. If the West is not prepared to force it to comply with its commitments under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, this in effect means that the treaty is dead and that the Gulf countries are being abandoned—stealthily, but nonetheless very definitely. It also means that the non-proliferation regime is, for all practical purposes, dead. Is this really what we want?
Mr. Debouzy is a lawyer and a former specialist in nuclear military affairs and intelligence for the French government.
The Doctor Who Defied Tehran
By Farnaz Fassihi
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126118381849697953.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_readAt the height of Iran's bloody civil unrest this year, a young doctor named Ramin Pourandarjani defied his superiors. He refused to sign death certificates at a Tehran prison that he said were falsified to cover up murder.
He testified to a parliamentary committee that jailers were torturing and raping protesters, his family says. He told friends and family he feared for his life.
And on Nov. 10, the 26-year-old doctor was found dead in the military clinic where he lived and worked.
The family of Dr. Pourandarjani, who occasionally treated prisoners in fulfillment of Iran's obligatory military service, says he was killed for his refusal to participate in a coverup at the notorious Kahrizak detention center, widely criticized for its unsanitary conditions.
In a series of interviews over three weeks, Dr. Pourandarjani's family spoke in detail for the first time about their son's mysterious death.
Iranian officials first blamed the doctor's death on a car accident, then a heart attack, then suicide and then poisoning, according to family members and government statements.
The controversy over his fate is transforming the doctor into a martyr for the opposition movement challenging the legitimacy of Iran's rulers. In a sign of his mounting symbolic importance, on Dec. 8 Iran's national prosecutor, Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, was pressed by local reporters at a news conference for answers. He said the case remains under investigation.
Mr. Mohseni-Ejei couldn't be reached for comment. A spokesman for the Iranian Mission to the United Nations said the case is being probed and declined to answer questions.
"I sent off my young, healthy and beautiful son to military service, and I got his dead body back," says his mother, Ruhangiz Pourandarjani, who lives in the northwest city of Tabriz. "Anyone who says he committed suicide is lying and should be afraid of God."
In Iran, protestors now carry the doctor's picture in street marches and chant his name along with that of Neda Agha Soltan, the young woman whose shooting death in June was captured on video and broadcast world-wide. A popular new slogan at some marches: "Our Neda is not dead, Our Ramin is not dead, it's the Supreme Leader who is dead," a reference to Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Mothers of individuals killed in Iran's antigovernment protests this year have formed a support group, Grieving Mothers, who march silently Sunday afternoons at Laleh Park in Tehran holding pictures of their dead children. This month, security officials arrested 15 members. They were freed a few days later when crowds gathered near the jail, demanding their release.
The opposition says more than 70 Iranians have been killed since June in a crackdown on the protests that erupted after the nation's disputed presidential election. The government says 17 people have died, including a dozen of its own security forces.
Iran denies allegations that jailed protesters were tortured or raped and blames the deaths in Kahrizak on a meningitis outbreak. The prison has been closed in the wake of torture allegations there.
An influential Iranian parliamentarian and former health minister, Masoud Pezeshkian, is pressing for a full investigation of Dr. Pourandarjani's death. The claim of a suicide by "someone who was a witness in Kahrizak, and has no background for mental illness, is suspicious," he told local news agencies. Mr. Pezeshkian couldn't be reached for comment.
This past Wednesday, the head of a parliamentary committee investigating the broader allegations of torture at Kahrizak prison said Dr. Pourandarjani's death didn't warrant examination. "As far as we are concerned, the death of the Kahrizak doctor is clear and doesn't need investigation," said the lawmaker, Farhad Tajari, according to the main parliamentary news service. Mr. Tajari couldn't be reached for comment.
Dr. Pourandarjani was born into a middle-class family in the ancient city of Tabriz, near a place that some researchers claim is a possible geographical location of the Garden of Eden. His mother is a retired elementary school teacher. His father, Ali-Qoli Pourandarjani, works in the city's traditional bazaar.
Ramin, the future doctor, was their first child.
They took his name from an epic poem, "Vis and Ramin," one of many legends of heroic battles against unjust rulers that help define Iranian culture and provide popular names for boys. "Vis and Ramin," the story of a prince who fights the king to free his lover, may also have inspired the story of Tristan and Isolde, some scholars say.
Dr. Pourandarjani's mother recalls that her son showed his intellect early. By the age of 1, she says, he was speaking full sentences in Farsi and Turkish. He could read and write by 3. Before entering first grade, Ramin was reading aloud from a children's newspaper aimed at 10-year-olds.
When he was 11, Ramin entered a school for gifted and talented children. At an age when most teenage boys were interested in playing videogames, his father says, Ramin read and wrote poetry. At 13 he won a national contest for young poets.
Relatives and friends described Dr. Pourandarjani as the family star. "I always told my son he should strive to be like Ramin. What can I say?" says his cousin, Sima, 44, reached by phone in Tabriz. "He was exceptional."
In Iran, students are placed in universities based on their performance on a national entrance exam. In 2001, Ramin Pourandarjani ranked 1,069 out of more than a half-million applicants. He won entrance to Tabriz Medical University, one of the top schools in the nation.
Ramin's younger brother, Amin, described his brother as a bookworm when it came to medical studies, but said he also loved watching French movies to practice his own French.
Last year, Dr. Pourandarjani graduated from medical school at the top of his class. A YouTube video shows him delivering the graduation speech in a new navy blue suit and a pink shirt and necktie. Although wearing neckties at public events and at universities is frowned upon by Iranian authorities as being too Western, Dr. Pourandarjani wanted to mark the occasion with special attire, his family recalls. Behind him, an Iranian flag fluttered in the breeze.
"Thank you to all our beloved families and distinguished professors for attending the celebration of the day we take flight and open our wings," Dr. Pourandarjani said. "If I could go back in time, I wouldn't change a thing."
Then he quoted some poetry. "The person whose heart is filled with love will never die," he said, citing a well-known Persian verse. "Our perseverance is recorded in the book of time."
Like all Iranian males, Dr. Pourandarjani was required to complete a 19-month military service. Doctors serve at government hospitals and clinics as part of their military obligation.
Luck of the draw placed Dr. Pourandarjani at a clinic in Tehran, a 75-minute flight from home in Tabriz. The clinic is in the district that oversees Kahrizak, a rundown detention center for drug addicts and dealers.
The job mostly amounted to routine medical work, until July 9. That day, some 140 young men and women were arrested at a particularly large protest in Tehran. Some detainees were brought to Kahrizak.
It marked the beginning of a prison scandal that shook Iran. Members of the opposition have made allegations of widespread violence and rape in the prison during this time.
Over a period of nearly three weeks, Dr. Pourandarjani was called to the prison four times to treat the wounds of the detainees, according to his parents and Iranian media reports.
At least three prisoners died during this time.
One of them was Mohsen Ruholamini, the 19-year-old son of a conservative politician, who died in late July.
The government publicly blamed Mr. Ruholamini's death on meningitis. Mr. Ruholamini's family immediately disputed that. In public statements at the time, his father, Abdol-Hossein Ruholamini, said his son suffered a broken jaw and died from torture in prison.
In the medical report, Dr. Pourandarjani described Mr. Ruholamini's cause of death as physical stress, multiple blows to the head and chest, and severe injuries, according to the doctor's family and local press reports.
The news of deaths at the prison sparked an unusual public fury, even among government allies. Particularly shocking to Iranians was the death of Mr. Ruholamini, the son of a conservative politician who openly supported the republic's leadership.
In a televised meeting with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Mr. Ruholamini's father told Mr. Khamenei: "The fact that I support the Islamic regime does not mean that I will give up my rights. I demand justice."
Mr. Ruholamini couldn't be reached for comment.
Two influential conservative lawmakers called for prosecution of individuals responsible for Kahrizak. Parliament named a special committee to investigate. Some of the highest Shiite clergymen in the holy city of Qom issued statements condemning the government for its handling of Kahrizak.
In the face of the allegations, Mr. Khamenei ordered the prison shut in late July.
The chief commander of the Iranian police, Esmail Ahmadi Moghaddam, told state television in August that the detention center was closed "because the conditions inside were not very desirable. If some guards were a little rough with detainees, it was their bad judgment."
Over the next few months, security authorities called in Dr. Pourandarjani for interrogation, according to family members and reports in the Iranian media. They ordered him to revise the cause of death on medical reports from physical wounds to meningitis, his family members say. He refused.
When the parliamentary committee called him to testify, he told them what he had witnessed, his family says. Dr. Pourandarjani's statements to the committee aren't public record, and the committee has said it won't make its findings public.
In the fall, Dr. Pourandarjani was arrested.
According to his family and official Iranian media reports, he was detained in Tehran for a few days and interrogated by the police and medical officials. Family members say he was warned that if he continued to challenge the authorities, he could face medical malpractice charges and jail, as well as the loss of his medical license.
Iranian officials say in public statements that the doctor was questioned about whether he had given detainees appropriate medical care.
He was released on bail and continued working at the military health clinic, where he also lived in order to save money. He downloaded applications for medical schools in France and Germany and told friends he wanted to study abroad. His military service would end in April 2010. He asked his mother to look out for a nice young woman in Tabriz for him to marry.
In October, a few weeks before he died, both parents say Dr. Pourandarjani confided in them that he feared for his life because he refused to cover up what he had seen at the prison. He described threatening phone calls and said he was being followed.
His mother immediately phoned Abdol-Hossein Ruholamini, the conservative politician whose son had died in Kahrizak. She pleaded with him for help.
"My wife called the Ruholamini family and said, 'My son's life is in danger because he told the truth about the circumstances of your son's death. You must help him,'" Dr. Pourandarjani's father said in a telephone interview.
In early November -- the day before he died -- Dr. Pourandarjani took the unusual step of visiting the offices of Iran's parliament, his mother says, to ask for help because he felt his life was at risk.
That night, Dr. Pourandarjani phoned his parents to say he planned to come home to Tabriz for a family visit. He also emailed several friends that evening, according to an opposition Web site, Norooz, that obtained the email from the friends.
In the email, the doctor described the heavy pressure of the prison scandal but said he was looking forward to his trip home. He signed off by asking if his friends needed him to bring anything back from Tabriz, the friends said.
The next morning, Dr. Pourandarjani's father received a call from Tehran. His son had been in a car accident, he says he was told, and was unconscious with a broken leg. The caller asked him to travel to Tehran immediately.
When Mr. Pourandarjani arrived in Tehran, he was taken to a morgue. He says he was told his son had died from a heart attack.
He flew back to Tabriz with the body. Security authorities prohibited the family from viewing the body or opening the kafan, the traditional funeral shroud. The funeral took place under the supervision of several security agents, the family says.
Initially, authorities refused the family's request for an autopsy. This month, because of the public outcry, the government conducted an autopsy, indicating that his last meal, prepared and delivered by the clinic where Dr. Pourandarjani had lived, contained propranolol, a blood-pressure medication that can cause cardiac arrest at high dosages. The government cites the report as evidence of possible suicide, which the family dismisses.
Dr. Pourandarjani's parents are still in mourning. Mrs. Pourandarjani said she sometimes goes into Ramin's bedroom. "I want to turn on his computer to read his poetry and look at his pictures, but I can't bring myself," she said.
This Thursday, in keeping with Islamic tradition, the family held a memorial service at a local mosque on the 40th day after Dr. Pourandarjani's death. These are usually private affairs. But this ceremony attracted hundreds of strangers who came to pay their respects.
In an unexpected gesture, one of the strangers, a university student from Tabriz, stood up and read from a statement, the doctor's relatives said.
"We are all children of Iran," the student said. "And today we mourn our dear Ramin."
The crowd spilled into the streets. It included a heavy presence of plainclothes government security agents, according to several people in attendance.
Iranian Prosecutors Allege Murder, Torture at Prison
By Farnaz Fassihi
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126123760201698695.htmlIn a surprise shift on Saturday, Iranian military prosecutors alleged at least three people died in custody as a result of torture at Kahrizak detention center, directly challenging the account of prison deaths provided so far by the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Prosecutors said three prison officials, all from Iran's armed forces, had been charged with first-degree murder, and another nine military officials at the detention center face other criminal charges, though it wasn't clear specifically what the other charges were.
Kahrizak had been a main depository for prisoners rounded up by security officials during the unrest that followed June elections in Iran. At the height of that unrest, about 140 protesters had been taken to Kahrizak, located in the outskirts of Southern Tehran. Three young men died while in custody, one of them was the son of a conservative politician.
Mr. Ahmadinejad's government vehemently denied allegations of abuse. Senior security and police officials made multiple public statements saying the cause of death for the three was a meningitis outbreak in prison. The victims' parents contested the official accounts and said their sons' bodies had visible signs of torture and beating.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ordered Kahrizak shut down in late July, and a special parliament committee began investigating allegations of abuse shortly after.
In a statement on Saturday, military prosecutors confirmed evidence suggesting death by torture.
"The coroner's office has rejected that meningitis was the cause of the deaths and has confirmed the existence of signs of repeated beatings on the bodies and has declared that the wounds inflicted were the cause of the deaths," according to the statement posted on the website of official Iranian news agencies.
A 26-year-old doctor, Ramin Pourandarjani, who had examined the dead Kahrizak detainees and written their medial reports, mysteriously died in early November from poisoning. His family says he was murdered because he refused his superiors' orders to cover up crimes at Kahrizak and falsify medical reports. An investigation into his death is being undertaken by the government.
Dr. Pourandarjani testified before the special parliamentarian committee investigating the crimes in the Fall and told lawmakers that prisoners had died of severe blows to their heads and bodies.
The military prosecutors' statement doesn't mention Dr. Pourandarjani. But it does say that prosecutors based their final conclusion on medical reports of detainees and witness testimonies made to the parliament committee. Dr. Pourandarjani is believed to have been the only person in a position to provide these.
Cleric's Death, Torture Case Jolt Iran
By Farnaz Fassihi
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126129141238099009.htmlIran's opposition on Sunday seized upon the death of one of the Islamic republic's founding fathers -- a revered ayatollah who was also a fierce critic of the nation's leadership -- to take to the streets in mourning.
Fearing that mourners could quickly turn into antigovernment protesters, Iranian authorities tightened security across the country. In Tehran, crowds held up pictures of the dead cleric and chanted, "This is the month of blood, the regime is coming down," according to eyewitnesses and videos posted on YouTube.
But the death of Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, who passed away in his sleep, was only one of two surprises to shake Iran over the weekend.
Hours earlier, on Saturday, military prosecutors alleged that prison guards tortured to death at least three student protesters in July, contradicting months of denials by top leaders. The reversal is one of the biggest blows to Tehran's credibility since government protests first erupted six months ago.
Either development, by itself, would provide a rallying point for the opposition, which claims last summer's presidential election was a fraud and is demanding a political overhaul. Together, they represent the widening array of challenges facing the Iranian regime.
The murder allegations center on Tehran's notorious Kahrizak prison, where three protesters died in July. A young doctor who claimed to have evidence of torture at the prison, Ramin Pourandarjani, later himself died under mysterious circumstances. In recent weeks Dr. Pourandarjani, who was the subject of a page-one article in The Wall Street Journal on Saturday, has emerged as a martyr figure for the opposition.
Complicating matters, the weekend's events coincide with the 10-day Muharram religious holiday, during which Shiite Muslims traditionally hold emotionally charged street processions to honor a revered Shiite saint. The opposition already had vowed to mark this year's ceremonies with massive daily protests against the government.
Iran's leadership maintains a firm grip on power and quickly moved to assert its control, using tools that have proved effective in the past to tamp down unrest. Prominent opposition figures and activists reported receiving threatening phone calls from security agents on Sunday, warning them against attending Monday's funeral, according to the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. Five prominent opposition figures were reportedly arrested on the road to the holy city of Qom, where the ayatollah's funeral service was planned.
On Sunday, as news spread of the death of Ayatollah Montazeri, 87 years old, spontaneous protests erupted in several Iranian cities and at university campuses, according to video circulating on the Internet Sunday afternoon. In one clip from Najafabad, Mr. Montazeri's home town, crowds chanted, "Our green Montazeri, congratulations on your freedom." Green is the adopted color of the Iranian opposition movement.
At several Tehran universities, professors canceled classes. Students staged sit-ins and marches, reciting verses from the Quran and chanting, "It's a day of mourning in Iran, the Green people of Iran are in mourning." Iran's main student-activist group called on students across the nation to take to the streets Monday in a sign of respect for Ayatollah Montazeri.
The family of Ayatollah Montazeri said it would hold the funeral Monday in Qom. By midday Sunday, opposition Web sites were calling on supporters to join them for Ayatollah Montazeri's funeral.
His death provides an opportunity for Iran's dissident clergy members, who have mostly remained on the sidelines, to publicly show support for the opposition. This is significant because, in Iran, political movements have little chance to succeed without backing from the clergy.
On Sunday, Iranian security forces took positions around Ayatollah Montazeri's house, monitoring the parade of visitors, according to his family. "Our house has been packed, people are coming and going, including many of Qom's senior clerics," said grandson Nasser Montazeri, reached by phone in Qom.
For the government, the risk is that mourning processions become political marches.
"The emotional and political impact of Ayatollah Montazeri's death could morph into a widespread flame that the government cannot contain," said Mohamad Javad Akbarein, a religious scholar and former student of the ayatollah's.
This year's antigovernment protests, the biggest since the Islamic revolution more than 30 years ago, are at a crucial point. In recent months, demonstrations have evolved from protests against the handling of the election to denunciations of the Islamic regime and its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Government-controlled media played down the news of Ayatollah Montazeri's death. Supreme Leader Khamenei offered his condolences, calling him "a well-versed jurist and a prominent master."
Ayatollah Montazeri, frail in recent years, was once in line to succeed Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, as Supreme Leader. But he and Mr. Khomeini fell out in the late 1980s.
Ayatollah Montazeri accused Ayatollah Khamenei of creating a dictatorship in the name of Islam. Ayatollah Montazeri was placed under house arrest from 1997 to 2003. In time, he gained a large spiritual following because of his advocacy of reform inside the Islamic Republic and his calls for more democracy.
His lofty standing in the clerical establishment -- he outranked even Ayatollah Khamenei as an Islamic scholar -- helped to protect him over the years as he criticized the government. In the past six months, Ayatollah Montazeri's role grew more prominent, dovetailing with demands by protesters who rallied against what they saw as a stolen election in June by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The ayatollah aligned with the so-called Green Movement, led by opposition candidates who lost to Mr. Ahmadinejad. He harshly criticized Iran's rulers, at one point calling the Ahmadinejad government "illegitimate."
In one of his many broadsides, Ayatollah Montazeri warned Ayatollah Khamenei that merely closing the Kahrizak prison -- site of the alleged torture deaths in July -- was an attempt to "fool people. You can't blame all these sins on a building."
"The people of Iran are not stupid, and if those responsible are not persecuted, people will not remain silent," Ayatollah Montazeri said in a July 29 statement, the day after the prison was shut.
On Saturday, Iranian military prosecutors issued charges against 12 officials at the prison. That action directly challenges the account of prison deaths provided so far by the government of Mr. Ahmadinejad.
The charges underscore what appeared to be a widening rift in the government about how to deal with the protest movement.
Hard-line elements aligned with Mr. Ahmadinejad, including the Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Basij militia, have spearheaded a broad and sometimes violent crackdown on protesters. More moderate elements, including many members of parliament, have insisted on probing alleged abuses in that crackdown.
Ayatollah Khamenei, who has the final say in all matters of state, appears to waver between the two. While he has backed Mr. Ahmadinejad and demanded protesters abandon the streets, he also shut down Kahrizak prison. He would also have approved Saturday's announcement of the charges against the prison staff.
Prosecutors said three prison officials, all from Iran's armed forces, had been charged with first-degree murder. Another nine military officials at the detention center face other, unspecified criminal charges. Authorities didn't name the suspects.
Kahrizak prison was a main depository for prisoners rounded up in the unrest that followed the June elections. At the height of the unrest, some 140 protesters were held there. Three young men died in custody, one of them the son of a top conservative politician.
Allegations of torture there crystallized public outrage, as opposition Web sites published horrifying claims by prisoners of filthy conditions, blood-stained walls and routine beatings in underground holding cells.
Mr. Ahmadinejad's government vehemently denied any abuse took place. Senior security and police officials made multiple statements blaming the deaths in Kahrizak on meningitis. The victims' parents said their sons' bodies had visible signs of torture and beating.
In a statement Saturday posted by official Iranian news agencies, military prosecutors said: "The coroner's office has rejected that meningitis was the cause of the deaths and has confirmed the existence of signs of repeated beatings on the bodies and has declared that the wounds inflicted were the cause of the deaths."
Dr. Pourandarjani, the young doctor who died recently under mysterious circumstances, had seen the bodies of the three victims and signed their death certificates. According to his family, he testified to a parliamentary committee that the prisoners had died of severe blows to their heads and bodies.
Saturday's statement by prosecutors doesn't mention Dr. Pourandarjani. But it does say that they based their conclusions on medical reports of detainees and witness testimonies made to the parliamentary committee. Dr. Pourandarjani is believed to have been the only person in a position to provide these.
U.S. Condolences Mark Support for Iran Dissidents
By Jay Solomon
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126135904319299557.html?mod=article-outset-box
The Obama administration publicly mourned the passing of Iran's Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, in an unusual move U.S. officials said was designed to align the White House with Iran's democratic movement.
But U.S. officials also stressed Sunday that Mr. Montazeri's death and the continuing political protests inside Iran are unlikely to significantly alter President Barack Obama's overall strategy of seeking to engage Tehran in the near term.
Few inside the U.S. administration see any imminent threat to the Iranian regime's hold on power, forcing Washington to remain open to negotiations with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government over Tehran's nuclear program.
Many U.S. diplomats and strategists also continue to believe that any aggressive and overt American support for Iran's democrats at this stage could hasten a broader political crackdown by Tehran's security forces.
"It's unlikely that anything in the short term of any significance is going to change toward Iran," a senior U.S. official briefed on Iran policy said Sunday. "With Montazeri's voice gone, what happens to the movement? That remains to be seen."
The more moderate Mr. Montazeri emerged in recent months as an unlikely channel of messages from Iran's opposition parties, known as the Green Movement, to the White House, U.S. officials and Iranian opposition leaders said.
Mr. Montazeri, one of the leading clerical voices behind the 1979 overthrow of the U.S.-backed Shah, was a strident critic of American foreign policy in the Middle East. However, in the late 1980s, he broke with the Islamic republic's founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and in recent years has struck a much more conciliatory posture toward the U.S. and the West.
In November, Mr. Montazeri gave an address from his home in the holy city of Qom and publicly condemned the hostage-taking of U.S. diplomats in Tehran after the Shah's fall. Members of the opposition movement said that Mr. Montazeri's comments were designed as a signal to Mr. Obama and the U.S. that the Green Movement sought better ties with Washington. A number of opposition leaders subsequently voiced frustration that the White House didn't more publicly respond to Mr. Montazeri's comments.
On Sunday, the White House appeared to try to rectify this perception that the U.S. snubbed Mr. Montazeri. "Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and those who seek to exercise the universal rights and freedoms that he so consistently advocated," National Security Council spokesman Michael Hammer said.
U.S. officials indicated Sunday that the Obama administration will remain very much focused on international efforts to contain Tehran's nuclear program.
Mr. Obama has given Iran until year-end to respond to Washington's ultimatum of direct talks over the nuclear question or expansive new United Nations-backed sanctions. Tehran has given few indications of a willingness to negotiate an end to its nuclear ambitions. U.S. officials said Sunday that they are accelerating discussions among the five permanent members of the Security Council to map out a new sanctions regime while "remaining open to talks" with Tehran.
Many Iran watchers, however, believe the Obama administration will ultimately have to more closely align itself with the Iranian opposition movement. Few expect Tehran's theocrats to respond in any meaningful way to Mr. Obama's diplomatic overtures. And they also believe Iran's opposition movement will strengthen as Iran's flagging economy fuels domestic opposition to Mr. Ahmadinejad.
Iran Regime On Alert Following Death of Dissident Cleric Montazeri
Robert Tait
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/20/iran-ayatollah-montazeri-death-protestThousands of mourners are gathering in the Iranian city of Qom following the death of leading reformist cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, offering protesters a fresh rallying point for confrontation with the government.
Montazeri, who died early this morning aged 87, is due to be buried at the Ma'asoumeh shrine, one of the holiest in Shia Islam, tomorrow.
The event threatened to turn into a security nightmare for the authorities amid reports that thousands were travelling from as far away as Isfahan and Najafabad, Montazeri's birthplace. Reformist websites reported that the road between Tehran and Qom was clogged with motorists heading to the funeral. Riot police were deployed throughout Qom in preparation for a mass turnout of anti-government demonstrators, while security forces surrounded Montazeri's house. The reformist website Rah-e Sabz reported that some political activists had been contacted by intelligence agents and warned that they would face arrest if they tried to attend the funeral.
Montazeri, who had long been banished from Iran's theocratic hierarchy, had emerged as a spiritual leader for the opposition Green Movement after denouncing last June's re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as fraudulent and the subsequent crackdown as un-Islamic.
Since the poll, he had been in regular contact with the two defeated reformist candidates, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi.
Once seen as heir apparent to the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, spiritual leader of the 1979 Islamic revolution, Montazeri was sidelined and defrocked in 1988 after criticising the mass execution of political prisoners.
News of his death, attributed by his doctor to a combination of old age and chronic heart and prostate conditions, triggered fresh dissent on Iran's university campuses, the focal point of repeated post-election clashes between students and security forces.
Noisy demonstrations were reported today at Tehran's Sharif University and at the Science and Industry University, where students held up Montazeri's picture and chanted: "Today is mourning day, the green nation is the chief mourner."
Montazeri's death could hardly have come at a worse time for Iran's Islamic regime, which has sought to isolate Mousavi and Karroubi as the puppets of foreign "enemies".
It came just three days into the Shia mourning month of Muharram, during which the opposition had already pledged to stage a series of demonstrations. Worse still, the seventh day of his death – a special mourning occasion in Shia Islam – will coincide with next Sunday's Ashura ceremony, marking the martyrdom at Karbala of Hossein, Shia Islam's third imam, who is regarded as a symbol of struggle against oppressive rule. Both the government and the opposition had identified this year's Ashura event as a potential flashpoint even before Montazeri's death. The ceremony has a central place in Iran's revolutionary folklore. Ashura demonstrations against the shah in 1978 are widely thought to have played a pivotal role in toppling the former monarch's regime.
"This is the something the Iranian government is quite worried about," said Hossein Bastani, an Iranian analyst based in France. "On the seventh day of Ayatollah Montazeri's death, people will be gathering to commemorate him on the same day as Ashura. Iranian internet forums, websites and social networking sites are all talking about it. This will become a nightmare for the Islamic regime. Muharram for the Shias is the month of martyrdom and protest against cruel government, and at the moment inside Iran, many consider the Islamic republic to be the most cruel enemy of Islam and of the people."
The regime's nervousness was evident from official pronouncements. The state news agency, Irna, announced Montazeri's death while omitting his official title of grand ayatollah, while the culture and Islamic guidance ministry told newspapers to stress his disagreements with Khomeini and ignore his political views.
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – who has become the target of recent demonstrations – also stressed Montazeri's differences with Khomeini. "At the final phase of the imam's [Khomeini's] gracious life, there had been a difficult and challenging test [for Montazeri] which I hope will be covered by God's lenience," he said.
Montazeri spent six years under house arrest after 1997 when he criticised Khamenei as over-powerful and questioned his qualifications as a source of religious guidance.
Even after the end of his sentence, he rarely left his modest house in a quiet lane in Qom. But his views remained sharply critical. Interviewed by the Guardian in 2006, he accused the regime of encouraging people to hate religion by "misusing Islam". "From the beginning of the revolution, we have been chanting slogans of independence, liberty, Islamic republic," he said. "The complaint I have is why the slogans we have been chanting since then and are still chanting haven't been fulfilled."
Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/politics-obituaries/6852503/Grand-Ayatollah-Hossein-Ali-Montazeri.htmlGrand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri , who died on December 19 aged 87, was one of Iran’s most senior clerics and had for many years been a trenchant critic of the Islamic Republic’s hardline leadership.
Montazeri became a critic of successive regimes after having been one of the architects of the revolution which saw the deposition of the Shah in 1979, and might well have become Supreme Leader himself. Formerly a close ally of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, he fell out with his former teacher over general policy and human rights and found himself marginalised.
Later he was placed under house arrest for criticising Khomeini’s successor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei; and more recently he fell foul of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, insisting that the elections that returned the president to power last June were fraudulent; he also issued a fatwa condemning the government.
Born into a farming family in 1922 in the province of Isfahan, Hossein Ali Montazeri studied as a young man under Khomeini at the holy city of Qom before becoming a teacher at the Faiziyeh Theological School.
He was an early recruit to Khomeini’s campaign against the Shah, and after Khomeini had been forced into exile in 1964 Montazeri was his designated representative in Iran. He spent four years in jail in the 1970s.
Following the Shah’s overthrow in 1979, he helped to draft Iran’s new constitution. Khomeini had once written to him: “All of the people know that you are the harvest of what I have sown during my life. The people must follow you” — and in 1985 Montazeri was chosen as Khomeini’s successor as Supreme Leader.
This close relationship would not last, however. Montazeri — who was a member of the Revolutionary Council — believed that the role of the Islamic jurists supervising the administration should be primarily advisory, not executive, and he was becoming increasingly uneasy about the direction being taken by the Republic. He openly criticised the leadership, and in November 1987 called for the legalisation of political parties. He also condemned the mass execution of political prisoners in 1988 and the fatwa issued against the novelist Salman Rushdie.
In 1989 Khomeini announced that Montazeri had “resigned”. State radio ceased to refer to him, his portraits were removed from mosques and offices, and his security guards were withdrawn.
Khomeini died in 1989, to be succeeded by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In 1997 Montazeri gave a speech in which he declared that the people had the right to choose their Supreme Leader and that Iran’s rulers should be subject to the law. His reward was to be placed under house arrest at his home in Qom until January 2003.
His theological school was closed down by the authorities; the state-run media stopped referring to him by his religious title, describing him instead as a “simple-minded” cleric; and all references to him in schoolbooks were removed, while streets named after him were renamed.
Montazeri remained a strong voice of the opposition until his death, repeatedly accusing his nation’s rulers of imposing dictatorship in the name of Islam. After the demonstrations which greeted last summer’s disputed election result, he led calls for three days of national mourning for the student Neda Agha-Soltan and others shot dead by government security forces. Although Montazeri believed that Iran had a right to develop nuclear energy, he denounced President Ahmadinejad’s provocative stance on the matter.
As a critic of the regime, Montazeri retained the respect of many Iranians, who continued to observe his religious rulings or supported his calls for democratic change. In 2004 he remarked: “The people were not happy with the Shah’s regime and nor are they happy now.”
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