Middle East Online – Iranian opposition official says mullahs are trying to expand their rule beyond Iran’s borders to thwart their overthrow.
PARIS – Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s remarks at the summit of the Organization of Islamic Conference and his call for the destruction of Israel and the formation of a global Islamic Empire is neither temporary nor a propaganda ploy, according to a ranking official of the Iranian opposition in exile.
Mohammad Mohadessin, chairman of the Foreign Affairs committee of the opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran said in a press conference held Friday in Paris: "Faced with the demand by some 95 percent of Iranians for regime change, the mullahs are trying to expand their rule beyond Iran’s borders to thwart their overthrow. To this end, several days after assuming office, Ahmadinejad said: "The waves of a new Islamic Revolution will soon spread to the entire world.
According to Mohadessin, contrary to what some believe in the West, there are no differences between Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. "All that Ahmadinejad said represented the views of the regime in its totality and Khamenei," he added, reading parts of what he called a confidential internal report used to brief senior government officials. It said: "Prior to the President’s trip to Saudi Arabia, the president’s advisors, acting on guidelines from the leader, prepared his speech and the references to Israel and the Jews. Ahmadinejad personally took the speech to His Eminence the Leader who corrected and approved of the speech."
The report went on: "Our stance has some adverse repercussions and some benefits. Among Islamic societies, Iran would be recognized as the standard bearer of defending Muslims. It paves our way in Iraq. Domestically, it strengthens the morale of the Bassijis (government militia formed by the revolutionary guards) and revolutionaries. It solidifies our ranks and heartens fundamentalist forces. Naturally, Western countries will not remain indifferent toward us and will condemn us in the United Nations. But experience has shown that they would ultimately retreat. The US is having a lot of problems in Iraq, which give it less opportunity to focus on the Islamic Republic in a concrete way."
Mohadessin said that Iran’s strategy to dominate Islamic world was going through dominating Iraq. "For the regime, Iraq is the gateway to the Islamic World. The most senior Revolutionary Guards commanders and thousands of members are focused on Iraq. They want to set up a puppet Islamic regime in Iraq. The regime has allocated billions of dollars to this mission. It has dispatched thousands of clerics to Iraq. It has been paying thousands of operatives on a monthly basis." he added.
The opposition figure said: "Iranian leaders are discussing among themselves about "Iraqi opportunity" as a historical opportunity. This opportunity encouraged them to call publicly for elimination of Israel and establishing a global Islamic rule."
He urged "negotiations with the clerical regime over the nuclear projects or human rights to be abandoned, and the latter’s nuclear file, export of terrorism and fundamentalism as well as human rights abuses be referred to the UN Security Council, with comprehensive sanctions imposed against it."
