Summary of Iran Stories in Today's BroadcastsBehnam NateghiSaturday, January 31, 2004
<b>Reformist MPs Plan to Resign Tomorrow over Election Bans</b>
• The 20-day sit-in protest of the 83 reformist MPs banned by the Guardians Council from reelection produced the opposite of its intended result. In the revised list of candidates approved to stand in the February 20 Majles elections, the Guardians Council upheld the local election supervision boards' bans on all but five of the 83, but increased the number of MPs banned from reelection to 87. In reaction, 112 MPs announced that they will turn in their resignations tomorrow at the open session of the Majles, forcing the Majles to lose quorum and close down five months before the end of its term. In a statement, the coalition of the reformist parties and political groups pulled out of the elections, leaving the conservative faction unchallenged. Domestic opposition groups the Freedom Movement of Iran (FMI) and the nationalist-religious coalition boycotted the elections, whereas the reformists said they will not participate. Only the Khatami government's decision to defy the Guardians Council and postpone the elections would prevent the reformists from resigning. (Keyvan Hosseini)
• In its final review of the mass disqualifications of election candidacy applicants, the Guardians Council banned a total of 2,800, mostly reformists, from standing in the February 20 elections. The banned applicants have three days to file complaint with the Guardians Council, and the Council has one week to respond. (Maryam Ahmadi)
• If they cannot hold the elections, the interior ministry's local elections boards should step aside the let the people themselves organize the elections, head of the Guardians Council's Tehran election supervision board Hojat-ol-Eslam Azimizadeh said in a seminar on elections. Interior minister Abdolvahed Mousavi-Lar said in a letter to the Guardians Council that the interior ministry is not able to hold free, fair and competitive elections. In more than 100 out of 290 electoral districts, the conservatives face no challenge after the Guardians Council's mass disqualifications, reformist MPs said in a statement. The Guardians Council's revisions overturned disqualifications of nearly 1,000 of the 3,200 banned applicants, but did not change the situation in the noncompetitive districts, reformist MPs added. (Baktash Khamsehpour)
• The conservative faction had been planning for some time to takeover the executive and legislative branches of the government, former Majles MP and constitutional reform activist <b>Qasem Shoaleh-Saadi</b> tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. The people see the reformists' predicament a result of the reformists' own ineffectiveness, he adds, predicting that voters will not turnout for the elections. The conservatives will win the majority of the Majles seats, he adds, with only 5 percent of voters casting ballots. The country will go back to the period before Khatami's elections, when the conservatives were in charge, and the people voted overwhelmingly for Khatami in order to get rid of them, he says. But President Khatami brought the reform movement to a standstill, and led it to complete failure, losing opportunities for reform one after the other. (Maryam Ahmadi)
• Head of the political center of the right-wing Motalefeh party Asadollah Badamchian asked the interior minister to step aside, if he cannot hold the elections on time. (Amir Armin)
• The Guardians Council rejected the interior ministry's appeal to postpone the elections. (Baktash Khamsehpour)
• We have reached a dead-end in our negotiations with the Guardians Council, President Khatami said, according to official news reports from Tehran. (Keyvan Hosseini)
• President Khatami's office denied reports that Khatami has said he reached a dead-end in negations with the Guardians Council. (Ali Sajjadi)
• In a statement denouncing the mass disqualifications of candidacy applicants, the alliance of secular republicans (Etegad-e Jumhurikhahan-e Iran) asked the UN to defend the Iranian's right to free elections. The Guardians Council turned the elections into appointments, Berlin-based director of the coordination council of the alliance <b>Mehrdad Mashayekhi</b> tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. Instead of taking part in these elections, the Iranian people should call for free elections, he adds. (Shireen Famili)
• Khatami and the reformists have few options: delaying the elections, holding it on time, refusing to hold the elections and declare the end of the reform movement, and finally to try to make the conservatives see the end of the road, writes reformist daily <i>Shargh</i>. The elections will more be more than competitive with 5,000 candidates running for 290 Males seats, writes the Supreme Leader's newspaper <b>Jumhuri-ye Eslami</b>. (Amir Armin)
• In their struggle with the Guardians Council over the election bans, the reformists expected people to support them, but in the current conflict the people are missing, political commentator and University of California at Berkley's professor <b>Soheila Bana</b> tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. The conservatives attempt to push out the reformists and re-establish US-Iran relations and reap the credit and benefits of such a move by themselves, she adds. The US tries to reconcile with the conservatives, in order to get Iran's help in stabilizing Iraq, she adds. (Fereydoun Zarnegar)
• If the reformists resign, their resignation will not accepted by the Majles, and if the Majles loses quorum it will be up to the Supreme Leader to accept their resignations and fire the interior minister, if he refuses to hold the elections, former Iran's envoy to the UN and a conservative candidate in the upcoming elections <b>Saeed Rajai Khorasani</b> tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. Resigning is within the rights of the MPs, Tehran-based lawyer <b>Nemat Ahmadi</b> tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. The Supreme Leader, who is constitutionally charged with deciding in major national matters will intervene, he adds. (Siavash Ardalan)
<b>17 Suicides in Bam since the Earthquake</b>
• Since December 26 earthquake in Bam, that leveled the city and killed more than 40,000, at least 17 survivors have committed suicide. There is not yet any official statistics in Bam about the suicides, psychiatrist member of the medical relief team in Bam <b>Dr. Amini</b> tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. Lack of teachers and the surviving teachers' lack of psychological readiness to work, have prevented the relief teams from starting regular schools for the nearly 10,000 surviving children, he adds. Finally, what the earthquake stricken people of Bam need most is kindness and attention, so that they do not feel that the world has forgotten them, he says. (Mahmonir Rahimi)
<b>Foreign Ministry Says No Plans for US Congressmen to Travel to Iran</b>
• No visits have been planned for US Congressman, foreign ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi said on Saturday. A team of US Congressional aides, including his own aide, was scheduled to visit Iran, Senator Arlen Specter said on Friday, after a meeting in Washington between a group of US Congressmen and Iran's UN envoy Mohammad-Javad Zarif. (Kian Manavi)
<b>5,000 Run on Savings and Loans in Isfahan</b>
• Concerned about their deposits, nearly 5,000 stormed the offices of two of Isfahan's major unregulated Islamic savings and loans institutions. The windows of the Al-e Taha savings were smashed several times, and the employees ran away from the roof, head of a local bank tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. Now that the central bank has brought the creditworthiness of these institutions under question, depositors worry that they may lose their savings, he adds. They attracted people's deposits promising that depositors loans equal to twice the value of their deposits within six months at only 3 percent interest. Some of these institutions have failed due to bad loans they made, and in some cases, founders ran away with deposits, he says. (Mahmonir Rahimi)
<b>Changes in Airport Plan Limits Capacity, Advisor Says</b>
• By June 2005, all international flights and some of domestic flights will be handled by the new international airport, the first phase of which is due to be officially inaugurated by President Khatami tomorrow, on the 25th anniversary Ayatollah Khomeini's return to Iran. The changes made after the revolution in the plans for the airport has reduced the total number of potential terminals to seven instead of 21, according to Asghar Ardakanian, member of the initial advisory team, who proposed the site on Tehran-Qum highway, 20 miles south of Tehran to the Shah's government five years before the revolution. (Keyvan Hosseini)
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فرين عاصمي (راديوفردا): با پافشاري شوراي نگهبان بر رد صلاحيت اصلاح طلبان، بحران سياسي حكومت در ايران به اوج تازه اي رسيد. محمد خاتمي، رئيس جمهوري اسلامي، امروز صبح گفت رايزني ها با شوراي نگهبان به بن بست رسيد. وزير كشور دولت خاتمي گفت انتخابات مجلس هفتم از نظر ما مشروع نيست و ما آنرا برگزار نمي كنيم.
كيوان حسيني (راديوفردا): بيست روز تحصن نمايندگان مجلس در اعتراض به رد صلاحيت ها نتيجه اي معكوس داشت. تعداد نمايندگان رد صلاحيت شده افزايش يافت و به 87 نفر رسيد. اتفاقي كه مقامات عاليرتبه جمهوري اسلامي را دربن بستي بيسابقه قرار داده است. بن بستي كه محمد خاتمي رئيس جمهوري نيز به آن معترف است.
او صبح امروز گفت تشكيلات دولت جمهوري اسلامي با شوراي نگهبان به بن بست رسيده است. وزير كشور كابينه او نيز با لحني گزنده تر برگزاري چنين انتخاباتي را در اول اسفندماه نامشروع خواند و نمايندگان مجلس هم متن استعفاي خود را آماده كرده اند تا فردا در جلسه علني مجلس بخوانند.
بنا به گفته علي تاجرنيا، حتي تعدادي از نمايندگاني كه صلاحيت شان تائيد شده نيز فردا استعفا خواهند داد. منابع خبري غير رسمي در تهران تعداد نمايندگاني كه فردا رسما استعفا خواهند داد را 112 نفر ذكر كردند و در اين صورت در روز 12 بهمن ماه و با آغاز دهه جشن هاي پيروزي انقلاب سال 1357 براي نخستين بار در تاريخ شكل گيري جمهوري اسلامي، مجلس شوراي اسلامي با استعفاي دسته جمعي نمايندگان تعطيل خواهد شد.
جبهه دوم خرداد با صدور بيانيه اي از شركت در انتخابات مجلس كنار كشيد و به اين ترتيب، تنها ائتلاف سياسي رودروي محافظه كاران، عرصه انتخابات را ترك كرد.
با اين وصف، يك جناح سياسي يعني راستگرايان، براي رقابت انتخاباتي تنها خواهند بود و نامزدهاي اين گروه سياسي با همديگر رقابت خواهندد كرد.
در اوج بحران ردصلاحيت ها، محافظه كاران نه تنها قدمي از مواضع خود عقب نشيني نكردند، بلكه اصلاح طلبان را به قانون شكني متهم مي كنند.
رضا زواره اي عضو حقوقدان شوراي نگهبان اظهارات وزير كشور در باره انتخابات را غيرقانوني دانست و گفت او شعار مي هد.
حميد رضا ترقي، عضو برجسته حزب راستگراي موتلفه نيز عدم حضور گروه هاي 18 گانه اصلاح گرا در انتخابات را ادعائي قابل قبول خواند. او اين اتفاق را شكست توسعه سياسي خواند و گفت در صورتي مي توان اين موضوع را قبول كرد كه تك تك احزاب دوم خرداد بيانيه صادر كنند و بگويند كه در انتخابات شركت نمي كنند.
غلامرضا مصباحي، سخنگوي جامعه روحانيت مبارز سنتي ترين محافظه كاران ايران، گفت نظر شوراي نگهبان سياسي نبوده است و از نظرات اين شورا با شدت دفاع كرد.
در آستانه تحريم انتخابات از سوي اصلاح طلبان در ايران، گروه هائي مانند نهضت آزادي و ملي مذهبي ها نيز انتخابات را تحريم كردند. هرچند كه اين تحريم ها با صراحت اعلام شده، اما به گفته نمايندگان اصلاح طلب آنها بعد از استعفا از مشاركت در انتخابات خودداري ميكنند. آنها اين موضوع را با تحريم انتخابات متفاوت مي دانند.
در همين حال، تنها يك موضوع، استعفاي دسته جمعي نمايندگان را ملغي خواهد كرد، تعويق، يا برگذار نشدن انتخابات، راهي كه تصميمگيري در باره آن به عهده محمدخاتمي، رئيس جمهوري اسلامي و كابينه او است.
در ساعات آينده امروز ناظران منتظر واكنش دولت به بحران اخير خواهند ماند و در صورت برگزار نشدن انتخابات از سوي دولت، نمايندگان نيز براي ادامه مقاومت در برابر محافظه كاران استعفا نمي دهند. بيست روز تحصن نمايندگان اصلاح طلب در اعتراض به رد صلاحيت متقضايان نامزدي انتخابات مجلس، نتيجه اي معكوس داشت. تعداد نمايندگان رد صلاحيت شده افزايش يافت و به 87 نفر رسيد، و مقامات بلندپايه حكومت را در بن بست سياسي تازه اي قرار داد. نمايندگان مجلس متن استعفاي خود را آماده كرده اند تا فردا در جلسه علني مجلس بخوانند. با پيوستن تعدادي از نمايندگاني كه صلاحيت شان تائيد شده تعداد نمايندگاني كه فردا رسما استعفا خواهند داد 112 اعلام شد. در اين صورت، روز 12 بهمن ماه و با آغاز دهه جشن هاي پيروزي انقلاب سال 1357 مجلس شوراي اسلامي با استعفاي دسته جمعي نمايندگان، تعطيل خواهد شد. تنها تصميم رئيس جمهوري اسلامي مبني بر تعويق يا لغو انتخابات مي تواند از استعفاي نمايندگان جلوگيري كند.
