IRGC Commander Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari announced that the Revolutionary Guards have taken over the country’s security.
“Because the Revolutionary Guards was assigned the task of controlling the situation, it took the initiative to quell a spiraling unrest. This event pushed us into a new phase of the revolution and political struggles and we have to understand all its dimensions,” Gen. Jafari said in Tehran on Sunday in his first news conference since the protests.
IRGC, Gen. Jaffari continued, has led “a revival of the revolution and clarification of the value positions of the establishment at home and abroad."
Jafari's comments reinforce the opposition’s claim that a palace coup instigated by military elites loyal to the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has taken place in Tehran. The loyal opposition, and former premier Mir Hossein Mousavi, have been branded as traitors and US agents (Kayhan).
Mousavi and the opposition, however, have not accepted the results of the election. The all-influential Majma-eyeh Modaressin (Assembly of Scholars and Researchers of Qom Seminary) has called Ahmadinejad’s government illegitimate. And the grass-root organizations are planning for a huge rally on Thursday.
3 comments:
you have a bad habit of not siting your news with a link!
There are a number of Qom organizations. Why do you think Majma-eyeh Modaressin (Assembly of Scholars and Researchers of Qom Seminary) is particularly influential? Isn't it a long-standing place for what I supposed we could call "reformists" who really don't quite have the political power of some more pro-Ahmadinejad clerical groups?
Majma-eyeh Modarassin is as influential cleric body in Qum as any of them. The Majma members had leading roles in bringing Khomeini to power, in establishing the Islamic Republic and actually in selecting Khamanie as the supreme leader right after Khomeini's death.
It is true they do not hold influence in the executive branch under Ahmadinejad, but they are the leading Shia group of senior Ayatollahs, for whatever it's worth.
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