Mehdi Hashemi, the son of Iran’s former president
Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, was arrested on Monday after returning from
self-exile. Hashemi is accused of “inciting” post-election unrest in 2009.
Hashemi was taken to the notorious Evin prison, where her sister, former member
of Majlis Faezeh Hashemi, was taken after her arrest on Sunday on charges of
“spreading anti-state propaganda.”
Photo credit: Mehdi Hashemi being read his charges before
taken to Evin prison in Tehran. 24 September 2012. (Fars News Agency)
16 comments:
Mehdi is going to stay in the 5 star luxury hotel wing of Evin prison.
He will be groomed and then sold on to the Iranian nation as a new political maverick in waiting.
Hashemi his father will make sure of that.
If this doesn't convince ayatollah Rafsanjani that mixing religion and politics has grave negative consequences, then I wonder what will.
The regime is rehabilitating the image of the rafsanjani family and inadvertedly reviving their political fortunes.
Thanks to these arrests they went from IR collaborators and corruption profiteers, to victims of the Islamic Republic regime.
Jabber Fazeli MD
Interesting that you are of the same opinion.
Do you think the Iranian people will buy this Rafsanjani scam?
@anon 8:05.
I don't know if I would go as far as saying we are if the same opinion.
I don't think these events are of their own making (the Rafsanjani family) but I think they benefit from them, provided they don't hang of course.
As far as them leading the reform movement, I really don't object to that if in the end the Iranian people will get an opportunity to chose their leaders in a consistently free elections, were candidates don't get vetted out for their believes.
Are we still of the same opinion?!
Jabbar Fazeli MD
I don't think the culture of the regime can offer those freedoms that the nation so badly desires.
Who ever is chosen as president under the system of this regime,velayat-e-faqih is still the power of the land.No reform can change that.
I know it can be hard to comprehend. But we must realize there could be an Iran without the survival of this regime.
Nothing lasts forever,especially a regime like we have in Iran.
What do you think?
@anon 2:07
We are agreed that there need to be a fundamental regime change eventually, the question is wether or not it can be achieved in one step.
Unless the Iranians bite the bullet and risk death again and hit the street in an all out revolution, one can imagine a scenario where someone like Rafsanjani runs for office next june and somehow is allowed to win, then demonstrations and civil disobedience against the regime would have the support of one branch of the government and the crackdown might not be as sever, allowing for some room for people to gather momentum towards true regime change.
I know it's a stretch, but if certain elements come together in the right time we could have a Gorbachev moment. Remember Gorbachev never intended for the Soviet Union to dissolve but nontheless the actions of the particular communist resulted in the dissolution of the communist system.
(To be continued...)
Jabbar Fazeli MD
Interesting,those were my thoughts exactly,regarding the Gorbachev moment. Maybe there are some elements in the intelligence service and the military that are waiting for that particular moment in time.
Will stay posted my friend!
I would dare to say that your Gorbachev's assumptions (in conjunction to Iran) are incorrect because Gorbachev was a weak leader, who had to obey the Politburo's decisions and where at the end a power struggle emerged, because Yeltsin had his own ambitions.
Before dissolution of the Soviet Union, the biggest ethnic regions voted to strenghten their separate identities.
And it were the leaders of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus who together informed Gorbachev, about their will to separate their republics from the Soviet Union.
In today's Iran you have strong leader who is supported by several autonomus centers such as the IRGC, Basij, Lawmakers, Clergy, Army's staff and the government's staff as well as most scientists and some intellectuals.
Their commitment is much stronger than those in Syria, for instance...
I believe that there are already plans to continue current policies and make replacements in a case where part of the leadership would perish during a war or an assasination attempt.
Mr. Rafsanjani has good perequisities for a possibility to make a deal with the West and in exercising critical situations in pragmatic way..
Dissident
Anon 10:39 AM
Iran under the Islamic theocracy is in the same position as the USSR was in 1989.
The economy is in ruins.The currency is not worth the paper it is written on.Top of that there are millions of unemployed and underpaid with factories closing down weekly.With price of food skyrocketing daily.
The Soviet military was light years stronger than in present Iran.
This regime is not to be believed in its peaceful endeavors.No matter who it may be,including that charlatan Rafsanjani.
Anon 5:46PM
The difference between 1989 in the USSR and present Iran situation is not the same like you suggest.
The USSR had weak leadership and a mafia related to the certain entity.
That mafia had pulled strings of Yeltsin's policies and acquired many national assets by the "insider trading's ways".
Some of that "mafia" members transfered their assets to the GB, Israel and bought seaside properties in Abkhazia and vicinities of Mediterranean Sea including Montenegro.
At the same time many ordinary people struggled for years to survive...
In the 90's many western "serious" politicians and journalists predicted that Russia will never recover from a second class country's status.
But it showed that a strong leader like Putin can reverse that trends in short period of time.
It is common, that countries after crises and wars use to fluorish under stron leaderships. And the Iran has a continuous and the strong leadership that the West is hoping to undermine.
Assuming a case, where Iran would be damaged by hypotetical aggression, the future belongs to Iran, because Russia has been already signaling an end of the "reset" with the West.
There also is a posibility, that after three years or earlier, there will be no sanctions between Russia and Iran and instead of that they will supplement their various needs mutually.
Dissident
DissyDent,
Russia wants to keep the current Iran/USA/West sanctions/situation for as long as possible, they benifit greatly $$$$, they sell more oil & gas + weapons + other junk that Iran needs.
Anon 4:46 AM
Don't you get sore from straining out your BS everyday of the week?
Russia loves Iran
Without Iran Brent would be below $85USD!!!
All anons who are against me
If oil price would go down, because Iran's restored supply, (like you anticipate), Russia will have to sell more their oil or other goods.
Russia would prefer to sell other goods including military ones and Iran could get bargains as well as to be "compensated" for breach of previous deals such as the S-300 and other ones.
Dissident
More dysentery from "Dissident".
Anon 10:05AM and 10:37PM
Russia has its own bisiness and long term policies. In a case where Russia would confront openly the West (in regard to Iran or Syria's issues), the West would cancel contracts to build two large assault ships; for Russia, in France and related transfer of shipbuilding technologies as well to hasten a deployment of the missile shield's stages in the neighbouring countries.
In that situation, both countries, Iran and Russia would be less able to face threats and an accelerated arms race.
In a case where oil price would go below $80 per barrel, Russia will have no choice as to make money on increased availablility of its military technologies to trustworthy customers.
Because India becomes less reliable military customer to Russia, then Iran is the next in line (after sanctions) as a Russia's top prospective military customer.
Iran can restore its military might with a technologies that Russia has been providing and offering presently to India.
As of today, I believe that Mr. Rafsanjani is waiting for a better clarification of the situation....
Dissident
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