Middle East Intelligence Bulletin
Jointly published by the United States Committee for a Free Lebanon and the Middle East Forum
  Vol. 2   No. 4

April 2000 


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Iranian Hardliners May Be Plotting Coup against Khatami

An unprecedented crackdown against the press in Iran has dealt a serious blow to the pro-reform movement and may be paving the way for a coup by conservative hardliners against President Mohammad Khatami.

    On April 23, the Iranian Justice Department issued a decree banning twelve major pro-reform publications accused of "disparaging Islam and the religious elements of the Islamic revolution." The ban, which is in effect "until further notice" covers eight daily newspapers, including the mass circulation Fat'h and Asr-e Azadega, and four magazines. Only two reformist newspapers escaped the ban--Mosharekat, run by Khatami's brother Mohammadreza, and Bayan, managed by a former interior minister and close political ally of Khatami, Ali Akbar Mohtashemi-- escaped the ban. A third reformist newspaper, Sobh-e Emrou, was banned in a separate decree on April 24, but this decree was overturned by the chief of the Justice Department and it has been allowed to continue publishing for the time being. Several thousand students held a rally near Tehran University to protest the closures.

The last edition of the reformist daily newspaper Azad hit the newstands on April 24 (AP)
    The decree followed a speech on April 20 by Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran's Supreme Leader, in which he told an estimated 100,000 youths in Tehran's Grand Mosque that the reformist press has been "undermining Islamic and revolutionary principles, insulting constitutional bodies and creating tension and discord in society." Khamenei condemned recent accusations by several reformist publications that Iran's Revolutionary Guards had orchestrated the attempted assassination of Saeed Hajjarian, a leading reformer, on March 12. "Investigations have not produced any results, and these newspapers accuse the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps," said Khamenei. Such accusations, he suggested, are evidence of collaboration with the "American, British and Zionist media." President Khatami gave a speech two days later, insisting that "To [say] that reforms are incongruous with revolutionary principles is to drive society toward anarchy and negativism . . . and despotic rule," he said.1

    Meanwhile, several reformist journalists and intellectuals have been arrested or sent to prison in recent weeks. On April 22, investigative journalist Akbar Ganji was arrested on charges of defamation. Ganji had published numerous articles alleging that senior intelligence officials were responsible for ordering the murders of several Iranian dissidents over the last few years. On April 23, the publisher of the banned newspaper Neshat, Latif Safari, was imprisoned after the Supreme Court rejected his appeal of a 30-month jail sentence for "insulting" Islamic values. The chief editor of Nashat, Mashallah Shamsolvaizin, has been imprisoned on similar charges. On April 25, an arrest warrant was issued for Hasan Yousefi-Ashkevari, a reformist cleric, on charges of acting "against national security, propaganda against the system and behavior not befitting the clergy."

    Many see the anti-reformist crackdown as retaliation by Iranian hardliners for the sweeping victory of moderates in parliamentary elections last February. Since Iranian conservatives have control over state television, the closure of pro-reform publications threatens to block the reformists main venue for communicating their message to the public. Rumors that the crackdown may be setting the stage for a coup against Khatami are widespread. One of the only reformist newspapers not banned by the decree, Sobh-e Emrou, published an article alleging that hardline conservatives within Iran's Revolutionary Guards, police, and state media department have formed a "crisis committee" dedicated to inciting religious and political tensions in order to pave the way for a coup against the government of President Mohammad Khatami. Although the paper did not list the names of the conspirators, it published excerpts from a transcript of the meeting which outlines specific steps to be taken, including the closure of 18 reformist publications in order to disrupt the free flow of information to the people, the arrest of leading reformers on charges of espionage or treason, and creation of disturbances at religious seminaries in order to provoke senior clerics into supporting Khatami's ouster.2

  1 Mideast Mirror, 25 April 2000.
  2 Reuters, 26 April 2000.


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