POLITICAL UPHEAVAL
The resignation of Ali Larijani,
Secretary General of the National Security Supreme Council
and the chief nuclear negotiator, and his replacement by
Said Jalili stirred Iran. Based on information obtained from
an affiliate of Larijani on condition of unanimity, the
Arabic newspaper Sharq Al Awsat of London says Larijani who
was irritated by recurrent interventions by President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on nuclear issues seriously considered
quitting before but he learnt about his own “resignation”
from the press.
In an explanation made by Mohammad Reza
Bahoner, Iran’s Parliament Speaker, on October 22nd 2007 on
the issue, Bahoner said chief negotiator Ali Larijani did
not adequately cooperate with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
and the disagreement between the parties got irreversibly
entangled. As known, Ahmadinejad who participated in the
Jerusalem Day Rally organized on the last Friday of Ramadan
harshly criticized those who conducted the nuclear
negotiations, referring indeed to Larijani.
The political circles of Iran say that
the Russian President Vladimir Putin conveyed key messages
at the meeting with Supreme Leader Ali Khamanei during his
visit to Iran remarking that “Iran had to stop its nuclear
program and the war was imminent unless Iran stopped the
program by the end of the year.” Also talked among these
circles was that these warnings could be considered by the
supreme leader; Khamanei and Ahmadinejad were very sensitive
on the discretion of these issues, however, Ahmadinejad
denied chief nuclear negotiator A.Larijani’s statements
after Larijani exposed to public these highly confidential
issues. The political circles also mention that Larijani’s
dismissal was indispensable with the ongoing severe
conflicts between Ahmadinejad and Larijani, worsened by the
recent incident. The comments remarking that Larijani,
different from the President Ahmadinejad, seeks to find a
pragmatic solution to the matter and therefore, contradicts
with the President’s approach which refuses to take even a
step back on Iran’s nuclear stance, reflects the obvious
reality.
The circles criticizing Iran’s regime
claim that Larijani did not resign but was deposed by the
Supreme Leader impelled by the rage resulted from Larijani’s
feeding out information. The article written on the first
week of October by Hoseyn Shariatmadari, advisory to the
Supreme Leader and daily Kayhan’s Editor, indicating that
“IAEA was not aware of all of Iran’s nuclear activities” is
presented as the proof of this fact.
Meanwhile, the tough political stance of
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the fact that RF President
V. Putin’s Iran visit bore no positive outcome and lastly US
President George Bush’s warning against the start of a Third
World War apparently have pressurized the Iranian
Administration. The senior administrators, as a
“precaution”, replaced Leader A. Larijani, the nuclear
negotiator, with a name that could get on with better terms
with the government and the religious leader.
It is also not by chance that chief
negotiator A. Larijani’s resignation has coincided with the
changes within Iran Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
Similarly, names close to M. Ahmadinejad were appointed to
important and strategic posts in time, following the
dismissal of IRGC Commander Yahya Rahim Safavi after he
expressed his concern for the extremism in Iran and the
possibility of war and his heavy criticisms of M.
Ahmadinejad in private meetings. All of these developments
could be interpreted as Ahmadinejad’s persuasion of
religious leader A. Khamanei on the “inevitability of war”.
