The last debate among the eight approved candidates for
the upcoming presidential elections due on 14 June 2013 held last week was,
according to almost all independent Iranian political analysts and observers was
“the most pitiful, regrettable, tragic, comic and a farce were participants, symbolized
by Mr. Haddad Adel, disputed their flatter the leader, their total obedience and
subservience to him and wishes”.
“Whoever is the
next president, he should not have any worry when facing difficult situation,
for, thanks God, we have our Leader, the most intelligent, wise, knowledgeable man
in the world, who would help him”, said Mr. Haddad Adel, the father of the wife
of Mr. Khameneh’i controversial son Mojtaba.
It
was also an occasion for the participants to attack and denounce each other, even
between Dr. Ali Akbar Velayati, Qolamali Haddad Adel, both senior advisors to
Ali Khameneh’i, the leader of the Islamic republic, and Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf,
the present Mayor of the Capital Tehran, whom their “2+1 Coalition” became a “2+1
confrontation”.
It
was at the same time an occasion to judge the level and degree of the
education, general knowledge about the world, economy and international
relations of those who pretends to govern the nation.
“It
was a race between eight sick, limping, invalid, mentally retarded people whose
level of general education was much less that elementary school students.
Velayati, for instance, could not even read properly what he was reading”, said
Dr. Kazem Alamdari, a respected researcher, historian and writer.
The
strongest confrontation was between Mr. Sa’id Jalili, the present secretary of
the Supreme Council on National Security and Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator
with the 5+1 and Dr. Velayati, a former Foreign Affairs minister under the
presidency of Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, in the one hand, and Mr.
Hassan Rphani with General Qalibaf on the other.
When
Mr. Jalili reiterated that his policy is “no to reconciliation and yes to de-sanctionazition”,
Dr. Velayati jumped up and shouted that “this is exactly why we are so
isolated, because you ignore elementary principles of diplomacy, which is an
art of turning impossible to possible, enemies to friends. It is not with
slogans and hard talks that one conducts the diplomacy of the Islamic Republic”.
Jalili,
visibly shocked, replied that in his talks with the 5+1, his position and
logics were “so strong that at each meeting, they (5+1) back stepped from their
position, softened their attitude and offering proposals that were not
acceptable for us”.
The
example of proposals for save the Iranian collapsing economy can be the one given
by Mr. Rohani, the only religious figure among the candidates, who suggested using
tourism for creating jobs and bringing money to the empty box of the State. His
devise is simple: “If we can attract 10 million tourists, this will bring us
more than 10 billion dollars and create 4 million jobs”, he said.
“Bring tourists for
forcing women to wear chador, to be insulted by the basijis, young boys to be
beaten up by the pasdars. To be spied and eventually arrested for not un-Islamic
behavior? Do we have any infrastructures for tourists, like cheap, clean hotels
with swimming pool and bar and discotheques? Free internet services?”, asked
one Europe-based watcher of the debate.
It
is interesting that in their interventions, not only they totally ignored the appalling
situation of human rights, the absence of free press and political parties, the
discrimination against women and all other religions except the ruling Shi’ism,
the hundreds of political prisoners, among them former officials, ministers, experts
of this regime and many journalists buy they, including Mr. Rohani and Mr.
Aref, two so-called reformist candidates, kept silence on the fate of Sheikh
Mehdi Karroubi, a former Majles Speaker under the presidency of reformist
president Mohammad Khatami and Mr. Mir Hosseyne Moussavi, a former Prime
Minister under the presidency of …. Ali Khameneh’i who was the winner of last
presidential elections but on order of Mr. Khameneh’i, Ahmadi Nezhad was
proclaimed winner, both of them under house arrest with their wives, since more
than three years.
Safa Haeri
PS: Latest information
PS: Latest information
1)
Mr. Haddad Adel announced
on Monday 10 June 2013 his decision to give up, but although he did not said in
favor of which one of the remaining candidates, many observers think he would
help Mr. Jalili, the favorite candidate of Mr. Khameneh’i.
2)
The spokesman of
the Guardian Council of the Constitution denied news carried by the Fars
news agency, which is controlled by the Revolutionary Guards that the
Council had removed Mr. Hassan Rohani from the list of presidential candidates
because of revealing some regime’s secret information.
At the same time,
it was reported that unidentified men attacked Saturday the electoral HQ of Mr.
Rohani and beat and wounded some of the young people attending the candidate’s
speech..
3)
A reformist meeting
headed by Mr. Mohammad Khatami had decided to ask Mr. Mohammad Reza Aref
to step aside in favor of Mr. Rohani, although an opinion poll carried by a
news agency say the majority of people questioned said they would vote for Mr.
Aref, who, so far, has not confirmed this information.
4) Other
polls carried by independent polling bureaux give Mr. Qalibaf
as front runner, followed by Mr. Reza'i and Mr. Jalili. Still, other polls shows at least half the people questioned
said they would not vote.
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