IRAN – Which way is up? PA this way, Hezbo that, internal?

Editor’s Note- Terror central…Tehran…calling for an ‘Islamic Awakening’, calling for the PA to “demolish the Zionist Regime”, they must unite, yet they are challenged in their own “Sunni” backyard. Then in a completely different direction, there are reports that they are having issues with their puppets in Lebanon, Hezbollah, cautioning them not to push Israel, or hit them pre-emptively.

Chess Master - Major General Qassem Suleimani

Botia News, close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), reported that Major General Qassem Suleimani, commander of the Quds Force of the IRGC, during a conversation with Hezbollah General Secretary Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, warned Hezbollah against engaging in “any preemptive strike against the Zionist regime.” According to Botia News, Suleimani demanded: “The authority of those who believe in preemptive strikes against the Zionist regime must be restricted…” Suleimani also warned Hezbollah against overestimating their own capabilities: “[Your] arms and preparedness to destroy Tel Aviv, and even your capacity to engage in continuous strikes against Eilat in Southern Occupied Palestine should not make you proud…” (Read the rest here.)

Which is it? They are all over the place, or some of these reports are just part of the chess match, the masters are mis-directing? Meanwhile, Wurmser thinks the following rift is happening in Iran, maybe its this confusion causing all the conflicting reports:

In a new LIGNET interview, senior analyst David Wurmser says the drubbing that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his allies took in the May 4 parliamentary election from allies of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei reflected irreconcilable religious differences. These differences, he says, pose a threat to the mullahs’ rule and could ultimately “rip apart the regime.” Read more here.

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But unite first…the attack…

Iranian Calls for ‘Islamic Awakening’ to Destroy Israel

Iranian official calls for an ‘Islamic Awakening’ movement to help PA Arabs “demolish the Zionist regime”.

By Elad Benari – Arutz Sheva

An Iranian official called this week for an ‘Islamic Awakening’ movement to help Palestinian Authority Arabs “demolish the Zionist regime”, the IRNA news agency reported.

The comments were made at a conference in Tehran in honor of Nakba Day – the day of catastrophe – which is what the Arabs call the English date of May 15, when the State of Israel was re-established with a declaration of independence in 1948.

In a brief address at the end of the conference, the official, Hossein Shiekholeslam said, “In success of a revolution three major factors need to play effective roles, and they are the people, the leadership, and the school of thought, or ideology.”

He added, “If we wish success for the Palestinians, the existence of these three factors is necessary, as they did exist in the case of the victory of the Islamic Revolution of Iran.”

Sheikholeslam said that “In near future the Islamic Awakening movement would also swallow the Zionist regime.”

The first speaker at the conference, according to IRNA, was the PA Ambassador in Tehran, Salah Zawawi, who said that the one and only way to soothe the Arabs’ pains and agony is the annihilation of the Zionist regime.

“Turning the Palestinians into homeless people is a Zionist-western plot to enable the illegal Zionist immigrants to settle down at our ancestors’ motherlands, over the ruins of our homes,” he said.

Read the rest here at Arutz Sheva.

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…and then the other side of the coin, internal issues:

Protests In Sunni-Majority Iranian Province Turn Deadly

by Spero Forum

Tensions are running high in a southeastern Iranian province with a majority Sunni population after a protest against the recent arrest of local religious figures ended in bloodshed.

At least one person was killed and two injured after police forces opened fire on the protesters, who had gathered in the city of Rask in Iran’s Sistan-Baluchistan province on May 14. According to reports, they were demonstrating against the recent arrests of the son of the city’s Friday Prayers leader and other Sunni clerics.

Sunni Muslims make the majority of the population in Sistan-Baluchistan but make up only about 10 percent of the population in Shi’a-dominated Iran overall.

Iran’s officials and state media have not reported on the unrest. But SunniOnline, a website that covers news about Iran’s Sunni minority, wrote that police opened fire on protesters, resulting in the death of a man identified as Jan Mohammad Dehghani. His funeral was reportedly held on May 15.

Quoting unidentified citizens of Rask, the daily “Etemad” reported that at least two people were killed in the shooting, without providing further details.

Deutsche Welle’s Farsi Service quoted a source in Rask as saying that a number of protesters were rounded up and suggesting that more arrests could follow after authorities traveled from the provincial capital to investigate.

“Protesters were filmed, today security forces came from Zahedan to identify [those who took part in the protest] and arrest them,” the unidentified source reportedly told the German news agency.

The recent arrest of Abdolghafar Naghshbandi, the son of Rask Friday Prayers leader Molavi Fathi Naghshbandi, was apparently the most immediate cause of the protests. He was reportedly arrested upon returning from nearby Zahedan, where he had traveled to learn about the fate of his father, who was imprisoned along with a number of other Sunni scholars in mid-April.

SunniOnline wrote that women initiated the protest in Rask and were later joined by other citizens angry over the arrests of Sunni figures.

Some reports say Friday Prayers leader Fathi Naghshbandi and a dozen others were arrested in connection with the January assassination of pro-government Sunni cleric Molavi Mostafa Jang Zehi. Jang Zehi was killed by unknown assailants on a road in Sistan-Baluchistan.

Iran’s Intelligence Ministry said in April that it had arrested “15 terrorists” involved in the assassination of Jang Zehi, who has been described as a Basij commander and cleric loyal to the establishment. Iranian hard-line websites reported that Jang Zehi had received death threats from the Sunni militant group Jundullah, which is believed to be behind a number of attacks in the region in the past few years. The group, whose leader was executed in Iran in 2010, has been labeled as a terrorist organization by Iran and the United States.

The ministry claimed that the opposition Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) was involved in planning the attack, while “elements affiliated with Wahhabi groups” carried out the assassination. The ministry didn’t provide the names of those arrested. SunniOnline later reported that Fathi Naghshbandi and Molavi Abdollah Molazadeh, the Friday Prayers leader of the city of Paroud, are among those arrested on terrorism charges.

Members of Iran’s Sunni minority often complain of discrimination and neglect by the government.

Although Iran’s constitution guarantees the rights of the country’s minorities, Sunnis are in practice not allowed to build their own mosques in major cities. Sunni clerics critical of the Iranian establishment face pressure and they are sometimes denounced as “Wahhabis.”

SunniOnline reports that there have also been protests over the arrest of Sunni scholars in Jagikour, located in Sistan-Baluchistan’s Sarbaz district, of which Rask is the capital.

– Golnaz Esfandiari

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