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Supporters of Mir-Hossein Mousavi march through Valiasr Street during riots in Tehran on June 13, 2009. |
“The main power in Iran is held by the Revolutionary Guard which supposedly is controlled by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader. He also is in command of over all state media, the Revolutionary Guard, also a group called Baciji (which are organized by Khamenei). A majority of Baciji has been brought from Lebanon, Palestine and Syria and being paid well for their work for such time. They have no sympathy for Iranians and are just mercenaries.”
Servati told ANS that he does not believe that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has “full control over the Revolutionary Guard which, he said, “took over the power from Iranian conventional army.”
Servati went on to say, “The guards are the armed forces and now are the state and are controlling over 60% of the economy.”
Central to the battle for control of Iran, he said, is Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, an immensely wealthy and deeply unpopular ex-president with a wide range of business interests.
Mr. Rafsanjani, a 75-year-old power broker who tells foreign visitors that he was the father of Iran’s ballistic missile program, is the unofficial leader of the faction opposing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader. He quietly provided much of the money and organization behind Mir-Hossein Mousavi’s campaign for the presidency.
Servati says that Rafsanjani has “some supporters” in the “guard” and this means that “his enemies cannot push him aside so easily.”
He went on to say, “Furthermore, the power is been divided between Rafsanjani, Khamenei, and the revolutionary guard. Of course, the power is shifting toward the guard leaders at this time and they are holding control over economy and political system in Iran.
“There are few other religious factors who have some influence… therefore, the situations are very much complicated, which brought the fight over obtaining more power by different factions at this time.”
He then spoke about the controversial and so-called winner of the election, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
“Ahmadinejad and his allies were surprised by the extreme support for Mousavi,” said Ata Servati. “In fact, people voted for him against Ahmadinejad because he is a pragmatic moderate conservative and people at this time see him as the only choice to gain their freedom and push Ahmadinejat out of power.
“However, the mass of support for Mousavi forced Ahmadinejad to attract Hashimi Rafsanjani, the second powerful clergy in Iran, and other opposition, to get some votes. But his tactic did not work and also he had opened a can of worms which will result in him being brought down.
“Let’s not forget that Rafsanjani and his allies are also very powerful and they would not go away easily. And his disappearance for the last few days does not mean he is out of the game.
“In fact, just few days ago Rafsanjani has organized a meeting at Ghom with several elite members of supreme guard consul of export. Rafsanjani led 86 members, and all were religious males. This is the only force that chooses or removes the supreme leader. So Rafsanjani is trying at this time to master enough supports to remove Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“And what makes the situations more complicated is that there are key people who have been arrested. They include Behzad Navaby, Khamenei’s son-in-law and for speaking openly in support of the protestors, and Rafsanjani’s daughter, for the first time.
I then asked Servati how he sees the situation playing out in Iran over the next few days and he said that he believes an “extreme plan” is in the works to remove Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
“Those in power have, I believe, a deal in the works whereby Ahmadinejad would be assassinated and then replaced by someone else other than Mousavi,” said the filmmaker. “By doing this it would cause them to save face. Then, if this occurred, power could be shared between Khamenei, members of the Revolutionary Guard, Rafsanjani and some of Mousavi’s allies.”
Servati said another scenario that could play out is that Rafsanjani “will force Khamenei out of the power and place someone else as the supreme leader. Or completely get red of supreme leader positions.”
He went on to say, “In this case, the new leader could order new elections and perhaps Mousavi would step aside and someone else will take his place and the power would then be shared between revolutionary guard and Rafsanjani and his allies.”
A third scenario, he suggested was Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would call on the revolutionary guard to use force and “go after all opposition and execute a few of their leaders and also attack some of the demonstrators to scare them to say at home.”
“In this case, Khamenei would have no choice but to give more power to the revolutionary guard leaders who already have the main power and control just about everything in Iran,” he said. “Therefore, Khamenei will practically be powerless and just a puppet and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be the leader.”
He pointed out that if Ahmadinejad stayed in power, this could result in a war with Israel.
Servati said, “The Iranian leadership has already made their biggest mistake by not killing the matter in the first day of the demonstrations. In their mind, they thought the matter would go away. But when, after few days, people kept coming on to street, the protesters got their courage and now it is out of control.: when people came to the street for the first few days and nothing happen; and more people got their courage, and more came out and now it is out of control.
When I asked what he thought about Ayatollah Ali Khamenei strong support of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s, Servati said, “In order to stop the movement, the Iranian leadership must use a strong language. Clearly is because they have no other chose left for them. Also I believe they remember what the late shah did and after he announces to the people that he was sorry that people took it as his weakness and they came into the street with more determination.
“Now he decided to play tough but I am sure it would not work and people are more determent this time than the past and they will show up into the street by masses and more will join with more determinations and I hope they do and I am sure they will. In fact now people know what they have to do to bring down the brutal dictator down and they will. And the leadership’s options are limited to take a strong stand and use violence.
“Military force and this means the killing of many people. In that case, they will lose in large because other countries have no choice but to react toward Iran and also more bloodshed will bring more people into the street and will result of them losing their power.”
Oh, by the way, if you are interested in finding out more about Ata Servati inspiring book, “In Search of Heaven,” go to www.assistnews.net/STORIES/2006/s06040077.htm
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Farsi document |
Also in the same official document are the words of the minister which
says, “Because of your concern for obtaining Mr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president in this hard time. All is set up as you wish and will be announced to the public as you wish. Also we wish to inform you everything has been set up and is under control and all oppositions are under control and security watch. Also we have everything under control for any unexpected protest after announcing the result.
Servati told ANS that “the real and correct results of the elections” are below.
Total votes; 42026078
Mousavi: 19075623
Karroubi: 13387104
Ahmadinejad: 5698417
Rezaee: 3754218
Refused valet: 28716
Signed
The Minister of Interior
