IRAN RISES

According to ILNA, Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said yesterday morning, in the course of the ceremonies for the Assembly of Experts’ members’ renewing their allegiance to the aspirations of Imam Khomeini (God’s mercy upon him!), while emphasizing the defense of the Islamic Revolution as a divine gift, “Every year, when we peregrinate to the Imam’s grave, recall the long years of effective jihad by the Imam and his disciples and our good people with peace of mind and grasp their essence. There are still those who witnessed that age. They know whence we’ve come and where we have arrived and what great achievements the nation of Iran and the world of Islam have made through the Imam’s leadership.”

Declaring that we are today witnessing new circumstances, he stated, “It appears that there were people who were not reconciled with this revolution from the start and did not approve of the Imam’s way and opposed it. Similarly, the imperialist powers, who had understood what a great agent had entered history, have found an opportunity to ruin the Iranian nation’s accomplishments.”

The president of the Assembly of Experts, explaining that we all understand what is happening in the world and in our vicinity, said, “The Imam’s character and his way and school is from its essence the protection of this success, on the condition that we behave properly and value this divine acquisition according to its actual worth and pass it on to the next generation. Let us not allow doubts and disturbances which they are creating completely deprive the next generation of these great acquisitions.”

He added, “Let us make the Imam’s soul and that of his ancestors be our intercessors so that, just as he defended Islam and the system while he was alive, so too today might protect the Islamic Republic.”

The president of the Assembly of Experts added, “We must continue this road and defend this system which is under severe attack from all the arrogant and counter-revolutionary groups and pass it on to future generations.”

He said, “The generation of the revolution are sufficiently aware of the existing problems that it will not lose perspective, but we see that the attack has become so great that the sound principle of the velayat[-e faqih], which is the revolution’s basic accomplishment, is under cowardly attack.”

The president of the Expediency Council, pointing out the repeated insults and abuse of the Imam’s household, said, “Today, the Imam’s household and the Imam himself, which are inseparable from the revolution, are under attack. If one day they were to be allowed to separate this household and these works of the Imam, this memorial to the Imam, from the revolution and drive a wedge between the revolution and them, they would be guilty of the greatest treason.”

Stating that the Imam’s collected works, his thoughts, and his household were the principle bases of winning the revolution, he said, “God willing, this collection will blossom even more in the future. We truly must protect these values and know that whatever window is open and whatever memorial to the Imam is ruined, the damage will spread everywhere.”

The president of the Assembly of Experts declared, “Today they are sometimes even bringing the decisions about the Imam’s behavior under question and want to hide them. We hope that the alertness of our brothers in the [Assembly of] Experts, who are mostly direct disciples of the Imam, and the younger people who are his indirect disciples will be caused to not forget this great duty and be guardians for the Imam’s aspirations and accomplishments.”

In conclusion, he recalled, “We are pledging our allegiance to the Imam’s soul, so that as long as we live, we will be with his works, his ideas, and his accomplishments.”

The president and members of the Assembly of Experts were greeted by the Imam’s monument, Proof of Islam and the Muslims Sayyed Hasan Khomeini, at the beginning of the ceremonies and then pledged allegiance to the Imam’s aspirations by offering flowers to the great leader of the Islamic Revolution and reading the Fatiha.

The members of the Assembly of Experts also expressed their love of the Imam’s memory, his monument, and his wife and dear friends, with Ayatollah Mohammad Reza Tavassoli (a former member of this Assembly),¹ Ayatollah Soltani Tabatabai, and Imam Khomeini’s wife and the revolution’s First Lady being present, and recited the Fatiha.

The president of the Assembly of Experts peregrinated to the mausoleum of the Islamic Revolution’s martyrs after renewing their pledge.

Iranian Labour News Agency
http://www.ilna.ir/newsText.aspx?ID=79025

Notes:
1 This is odd; he had died half a year before.

Comment: Rafsanjani here is continuing his balancing act. Here, he is continuing his conciliatory policy towards the government, retreating from the position he had staked out during the Friday prayers he had delivered in the middle of last July. He picks up on the government’s favorite theme of foreign conspiracies against the revolution and drops any reference to any possible responsibility the government might have had in this crisis. He is calling for an end not only to the demonstrations, but even doubts about the course Iran is taking, calling these a threat to the future of the revolution.