حضور چهره هاي ملي مذهبي به عنوان متقاضي نامزدي در انتخابات شوراهاي محلي

Summary of Iran Stories of Today&apos;s BroadcastsBehnam NateghiSunday, January 26, 2003 <b> Nationalist Candidates Seen As Drag on Reformists&apos; Vote</b> * Conservative analysts believe that nationalist opposition&apos;s candidates would prevent the reformists from winning the majority of seats in the upcoming election of the Tehran city council. <i>Resalat</i> columnist Amir Mohebian wrote that the candidates of the religious-nationalist coalition and the Freedom Movement of Iran would take votes away from the reformists, especially the pro-reform party Jebheh-ye Mosharekat-e Iran-e Eslami (the Islamic Iran Participation Front), headed by President Khatami&apos;s brother Dr. Mohammad-Reza. Mohebian argued that the absence of these candidates in the previous election of the Tehran city council resulted in the council becoming dominated by "radical reformists." He added that the nationalists would not enter into a coalition with the reformists, and the split they cause in the reformists public vote would benefit conservative candidates in the Majles elections, because the Guardians Council would continue to block nationalists from the Majles elections. (Mehdi Khalaji) <b>Reformist Party Calls for an End to Dissident Cleric&apos;s House Arrest</b> * In a statement issued in Qom, the pro-Khatami party Mosharekat asked the people and the clergy to press for an end to the house arrest of Ayatollah Hosseinali Montazeri, the highest-ranking clerical dissident of the regime, who has been under house arrest since October 1997, after he criticized the absolute rule of the Supreme Leader and his lavish trips. (Siavash Ardalan) <b>Radio-TV and Censorship Board Members Select Films for Festivals</b> * The five men charged with selecting films for the annual film festival Fajr each hold a powerful position in the conservative radio-TV and government&apos;s film censorship boards. Critics believe that this year the festival will divide the top prizes among two movies produced by the radio-TV organization, one on Ayatollah Khomeini&apos;s childhood. Last year&apos;s winner <i>House on Water</i> by Bahman Farmanara was heavily censored before it could be released theatrically. This year, the five men, with backgrounds in censoring creativity, have replaced movie directors and film critics in the festival&apos;s selection committee and they would make sure that no such film enters the festival. (Shayan Jaberi, Tehran) <b>Iran-India Trade and Cooperation Agreements</b> * President Khatami and his delegation signed seven agreements on technological, research and trade cooperation with India. (Siavash Ardalan) * Research cooperation on water purification and distribution was among the agreements signed between officials of the two countries. London-based water expert Bijan Golshaian tells <b>Radio Farda</b> that India is not known for its advances on water research. (Shahran Tabari, London) * Answering a question put to him in Persian by an Indian journalist during a New Delhi press conference, President Khatami said Iran and India believe in the need to strengthen the central government in Afghanistan. He added that Iran allows India passage to Afghanistan for delivering aid. (Ali Sajjadi) <b>40th Anniversary of the Referendum on Shah&apos;s Social and Land Reforms</b> * On the anniversary of the Shah&apos;s 1962 referendum on land reform, women&apos;s right to vote and rural education and health programs, observers note that many of those reforms, resisted emphatically by the Shah&apos;s clerical opponents, were later incorporated, with new names, into the program of the Islamic government. Los Angeles-based veteran journalist Mahmoud Enayat tells <b>Radio Farda</b> that after the revolutionary fervor dissipates, every revolution adopts the programs and plans of the regime before it, (Ali Sajjadi) * Tehran University political professor Sadeq Zibakalam tells <b>Radio Farda</b> that the Shah&apos;s reforms were progressive in nature, but were not taken seriously by the people and his own officials. Paris-based commentator Azadeh Kian tells <b>Radio Farda</b> that the women&apos;s right to vote, which was among the Shah&apos;s reforms, was the result of the struggles of women&apos;s rights activists since the constitutional revolution. Geneva-based monarchist commentator and former information minister Dariush Homayoun tells <b>Radio Farda</b> that land reform was the third major social revolution in the Pahlavi era, which along with the ban on women&apos;s Islamic veil and the national education movement, changed the social fabric of Iranian from a rural-feudal society to a modern civil one based on the middle class. (Baktash Khamsehpour) <b>Iran Builds 10 Refugee Camps for Receiving 200,000 Iraqis</b> * The interior ministry official in charge of refugees announced that Iran plans to build 10 refugee camps on the Iraqi border to receive 200,000 possible refugees. He said Iran has no budget to help Iraqi refugees. (Kian Manavi) <b>Iran&apos;s Role in the US Campaign against the Taliban</b> * In Bob Woodward&apos;s <i>Bush At War</i>, small passages reveal details of behind-the-scene negotiations between the US and Iran over Afghanistan, including a breakfast talk between deputy foreign minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif and former US State Department official James Dobins, during which Zarif unofficially gives Dobins a positive assessment of the role of the multi-national peacekeeping forces in Kabul, opposite of the official position states by foreign minister Kamal Kharrazi. (Siavash Ardalan) . مهدي خلجي (راديوفردا): محافظه كاران مي گويند انتخابات شوراها تنها فرصت قانوني براي ورود نيروهاي ملي مذهبي به صحنه سياست فراهم مي كند. محافظه كاران مي گويند اگر ملي مذهبي ها در انتخابات شركت كنند، رقيب جدي اصلاح طلبان به ويژه جبهه مشاركت ايران اسلامي خواهد بود. از نظر آنها موفقيت سياسي اصلاح طلبان راديكال در سالهاي پيش، وامدار غيبت و محدوديت ملي مذهبي ها در عرصه سياست است. محافظه كاران مي گويند ملي مذهبي ها حاضر نخواهند شد با اصلاح طلبان ائتلاف كنند و نمي خواهند سرنوشت خود را به جبهه مشاركت ايران اسلامي كه موقعيت آن در اثر پرونده نظر سنجي تضعيف شده است، پيوند بزنند. امير محبيان، نويسنده روزنامه محافظه كار رسالت نوشت رقيب اصلي محافظه كاران در انتخابات شوراها يك رقيب تقسيم شده است و در هر حالت، حداقل باخت با محافظه كاران نخواهد بود. وي باور دارد كه راهيابي ملي - مذهبي ها به انتخابات شوراها آغاز شكست و دوري جبهه مشاركت از مناسب پارلمان و رياست جمهوري خواهد بود اما ورود ملي مذهبي ها به شوراها راه آنها را به مجلس نمي گشايد و در نتيجه خلائي پديد خواهد آمد كه فرصت مناسبي را در اختيار محافظه كاران قرار خواهد داد. دو متقاضي ملي - مذهبي نامزدي انتخابات شوراي شهر تهران، در ميان 70 متقاضي نامزدي در انتخابات شوراهاي محلي هستند كه تاكنون توسط هيات هاي اجرائي وزارت كشور رد صلاحيت شده اند. امير محبيان نويسنده روزنامه محافظه كار رسالت نوشت ورود چهره هاي ملي مذهبي به انتخابات شوراها باعث تضعيف جناح اصلاح طلب و به خصوص حزب جبهه مشاركت ايران اسلامي مي شود. وي استدلال كرد كه پيروزي اصلاح طلبان راديكال در انتخابات گذشته ناشي از عدم حضور چهره هاي ملي مذهبي بود.