Iran cleric Montazeri dies

Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, Iran's most senior dissident cleric, has died, official media has reported. Montazeri, 87, was an architect of the 1979 Islamic revolution who fell out with the present leadership. He had been held under house arrest for several years. "Hossein Ali Montazeri passed away in his home last night," the official IRNA news agency said on Sunday. He lived in the city of Qom, which lies south of Tehran, and was referred to as the spiritual leader of the opposition after the country's recent disputed election. Ghanbar Naderi, an Iran Daily journalist, told Al Jazeera: "This is huge blow to the reformist camp, because he is unreplaceable and nobody is happy to hear about his sad demise. "He used to say that religion should be separated from politics, because in this way, we can keep the integrity of religion intact." In August, Montazeri described the clerical establishment as a "dictatorship", saying that the authorities' handling of street unrest after the disputed election in June "could lead to the fall of the regime". "I hope the responsible authorities give up the deviant path they are pursuing and restore the trampled rights of the people," he wrote. "I hope authorities ... have the courage to announce that this ruling system is neither a republic nor Islamic and that nobody has the right to express opinion or criticism," Montazeri said in August this year. Alireza Ronaghi, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Tehran, said that Montazeri's statements were significant because he was once in line to succeed the late Ayatollah Khomeini as Iran's supreme leader. But Seyed Mohammad Marandi, a political analyst at the University of Tehran, told Al Jazeera in August that Montazeri has been "saying the same thing for around 25 years". "After his inner circle was discovered to be linked to Mujahedin terrorists based in Iraq, he was isolated by the reformists," he said. "He is not a major player and has always been very critical," Marandi said. Al Jazeera

Rafsanjani stripped of titles by state media

TEHRAN: Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, once widely known as Iran’s number two man, has had his religious and political titles reduced by the Islamic republic’s official news agency after stinging attacks from several high–ranking hardline clerics.

Mr Rafsanjani, a former president, powerful cleric and opposition member, has been targeted after he gave a speech in the holy city of Mashhad earlier this month in which he accused Iran’s rulers of being intolerant and had “closed the door on constructive criticism”.

The speech came on the eve of the annual Students Day protests in Tehran and several other cities against the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who won June’s disputed election.

The state-run IRNA news agency issued the directive telling the agency’s editors to refer to Mr Rafsanjani only as chairman of the Expediency Council rather than his more important role of chairman of the Assembly of Experts. The directive also said he must be referred to with the title of hojjatoleslam instead of ayatollah – the title he has commonly been referred to for nearly two decades and one which signifies a much higher religious status.

Fararu, a moderate conservative news portal, published on Sunday the undated text of the directive signed by the IRNA’s news editor Abdolreza Davar. The directive said the change was “to maintain consistency in referring to Mr Rafsanjani in news articles”.

The IRNA directive has already been put into action in news articles about Mr Rafsanjani that the agency releases.

Neither Mr Rafsanjani nor his office have yet reacted to the directive.

But the order appears to be the latest in a series of moves by hardliners to sideline the former president who backed the moderate Mir Hossein Mousavi in June’s presidential election over his rival Mr Ahmadinejad.

More at the National

Iran warns Switzerland over minaret ban

Iran warned Switzerland on Saturday of “consequences” over a referendum banning the building of new mosque minarets and urged Bern not to enforce the ban, the official IRNA news agency reported.

The vote went “against the prestige of a country which claims to be an advocate of democracy and human rights,” Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told Swiss counterpart Micheline Calmy-Rey in a telephone call, quoted by IRNA.

Mottaki said last week’s referendum would “damage Switzerland’s image as a pioneer of respecting human rights among Muslims’ public opinion.”

“Values such as tolerance, dialogue and respecting others’ religions should never be put to referendum,” he argued, warning Switzerland of the “consequences” of anti-Islamic acts, IRNA reported.

The foreign minister hoped the Bern government would soon “take necessary steps and find a constitutional way to prevent imposition of the ban.”

IRNA said Switzerland’s ambassador in Tehran was summoned on Saturday before the foreign ministry, which protested against the minaret ban which was backed by more than 57% of voters who cast their ballot on November 29.

Calmy-Rey said the referendum was carried out against the will of the Swiss government, which would “use all its means to support Muslims rights,” the IRNA report added.

The referendum on a constitutional ban on minarets was proposed by a rightwing Swiss party and had not been expected to succeed.

Besides the government, the ban was opposed by the bulk of Switzerland’s political parties as well as the economic establishment.

It drew widespread criticism from the United Nations, Muslim states, fellow European countries and the Vatican.

YNet

'Meddling' embassy staff released

From correspondents in Tehran, Iran | June 29

IRAN says it has freed five of the local British embassy staff it arrested on accusations of stoking post-election unrest, a move that further threatened tense ties with London.

"Eight people were arrested. Five were freed and three are still being interrogated,'' ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi said at a press conference in Tehran today.

Earlier, English-language state television Press TV had spoken of a total of nine arrests.

Mr Ghashghavi also said that Iran, which has accused Western nations, particularly Britain and the US of "meddling,'' has no current plans to close embassies or downgrade diplomatic ties with foreign nations.

"There is no plan at the moment to close any embassy or downgrade ties with them,'' Mr Ghashghavi said when asked if Tehran planned to close the British embassy.

The Fars news agency, announcing the arrests yesterday, said the British embassy staffers were accused of playing a "considerable role'' in the unrest that swept Iran after the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Intelligence Minister Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie accused the British embassy of sending local staff "undercover among rioters in order to push its own agenda,'' the official IRNA news agency reported.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said yesterday that London had protested strongly over the arrests, which he described as "harassment and intimidation'' and dismissed claims the embassy was behind the demonstrations.

EU nations also vowed to respond to any harassment of diplomats in Iran with a "strong and collective response'', Mr Miliband said at an EU foreign ministers' meeting in Corfu.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki - who has previously said Tehran was considering downgrading its ties with London - urged Britain and the EU not to take rash action over the arrests.

"Don't continue with this losing game because this is neither in the interests of the British people nor the two countries' relations that have (already) been damaged because of the British Government's behaviour,'' he said.

He also called for European countries and officials to "revise their stand'' towards Iran, after supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused European and American officials of making "idiotic comments'' about the country.

Britain and Iran have already expelled diplomats in tit-for-tat moves last week.

Source: The Australian

Iran says US-Iranian reporter appeals jail term

Jailed Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi has appealed against her eight-year sentence for spying against Iran, the official IRNA news agency said on Tuesday.

Saberi, 31, was sentenced on Saturday on charges of spying for the United States, in a verdict that could complicate Washington's efforts towards reconciliation with the Islamic Republic after three decades of mutual mistrust."Saberi has appealed and I hope that the appeal court will change the verdict," IRNA quoted judiciary spokesman Alireza Jamshidi as saying.

Source: Ynet