Influential promoter of Islamic revolution
Thursday, 4 October 2007
Roula Khalaf and Najmeh Bozorgmehr
HOSSEIN Shariatmadari comes across as courteous and mild-mannered, smiles frequently, and sprinkles his speech with anecdotes and metaphors. But when it comes to his views, he can make Mahmoud AhmadiNejad, Iran's president, sound moderate.
The 58-year-old editor of the conservative daily Kayhan is the representative of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, and is one of the most influential voices in Iran. His stinging editorials are a must read for a glimpse into the fundamentalist heart of a powerful regime that is determined to defend the spirit of the Islamic revolution.
Mr Shariatmadari has argued that Iran should drop out of the nuclear nonproliferation treaty. He accused Iranian-American scholars of spying and anticipated their arrests long before they were detained this year. And he caused a diplomatic storm in the summer when he wrote that Bahrain, with its majority Shia population, was in fact part of Iran.
He is feared by many intellectuals and advocates positions that, while they do not necessarily translate into policy, exert pressure on decision-makers.
Sitting in his nondescript newspaper office, the bearded Mr Shariatmadari calmly argues that Kayhan concluded four years ago that some scholars were connected to "Zionists". The intelligence services - which his critics say he is close to, though he denies it - eventually reached the same conclusion, he says.
He laments that Mr Ahmadi-Nejad, of whom he is an ardent supporter, visited Bahrain and recognised it as a state. The president should have characterised the visit as one of his "provincial" tours. And he insists he was right to call for Iran to leave the NPT because its nuclear file had been treated unfairly and illegally.
The president's latest trip to New York, when he was introduced at Columbia University as a "petty and cruel dictator", was "extremely" successful. As evidence, Mr Shariatmadari repeats what Kayhan cited on its front page recently, alongside a picture of massive crowds at Columbia.
"Five hundred million people listened to his speech. John Bolton [the hawkish former US official] said that Mr Ahmadi-Nejad had achieved what he wanted, and Ha'aretz [the Israeli news-paper] said Israel was the loser."
Unusually, much of the Iranian media agreed with Mr Shariatmadari in decrying the treatment accorded to the president at Columbia. (The official media sanitised the controversy.) One of the few dissenting voices was that of Mohammad-Ali Abtahi. The reformist former vice-president remarked on his weblog that Mr Ahmadi-Nejad should not have subjected himself - or the Iranian nation - to insult.
For Mr Shariatmadari, the fact that Tehran's policies have deepened its isolation is hardly a disaster. "People feel they have dignity and the era of being bullied is over."
He predicts that the nuclear dispute with world powers will not be resolved, although the US and its allies will be unable to push through another UN resolution tightening sanctions before next March. Iran, he maintains, is not seeking nuclear weapons. The US is using the nuclear file as a pretext to force Tehran to help it out of the Iraq debacle.
"The US is truly stuck in a quagmire and only Iran can save it . . . Americans need Iran's authority and influence," he says.
That is partly why the probability of US military strikes on Iran is "very low", in his view. "The noise in the west is more a psychological war. By scaring us they think they can blackmail us and achieve their demands."
But he adds: "They [the Americans] are not the ones who finish it [a war] - we take revenge against anyone who attacks us."
What form would the revenge take? He smiles and says some of the preparations are under way and cannot be revealed. But there will "undoubtedly" be a war between Iran and Israel, he says. Iran's missiles can reach 2,500km beyond its borders, he warns. The US is "accessible" because it is in both Iraq and Afghanistan. And Tehran has announced that American interests anywhere in the world could be targeted.
But there are also disastrous consequences in store for the US's Arab allies, regimes he lambastes as stuck in the "pre-Middle Ages". Iran has the support of Arab and Muslim masses, he says, and they can rise in support, putting governments "on the verge of collapse".
States such as Egypt and Jordan, he claims, are "like wooden pillars that ants have eaten from the inside - anything stronger than a breeze will destroy them". As for Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and others, they are not even states but simply "trading centres", he scoffs.
Given such arguments, can Mr Shariatmadari blame those who see Iran as an expansionist power that is determined to dominate the region? "We've shown that we are not for domination," he says.
If Tehran interferes in Arab issues (Palestine and Lebanon are the two examples he gives) it is because people there are defending the Islamic world and identity, and that leaves Iran no choice but to support them.
.......................................
Ft Syndication Service
HOSSEIN Shariatmadari comes across as courteous and mild-mannered, smiles frequently, and sprinkles his speech with anecdotes and metaphors. But when it comes to his views, he can make Mahmoud AhmadiNejad, Iran's president, sound moderate.
The 58-year-old editor of the conservative daily Kayhan is the representative of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, and is one of the most influential voices in Iran. His stinging editorials are a must read for a glimpse into the fundamentalist heart of a powerful regime that is determined to defend the spirit of the Islamic revolution.
Mr Shariatmadari has argued that Iran should drop out of the nuclear nonproliferation treaty. He accused Iranian-American scholars of spying and anticipated their arrests long before they were detained this year. And he caused a diplomatic storm in the summer when he wrote that Bahrain, with its majority Shia population, was in fact part of Iran.
He is feared by many intellectuals and advocates positions that, while they do not necessarily translate into policy, exert pressure on decision-makers.
Sitting in his nondescript newspaper office, the bearded Mr Shariatmadari calmly argues that Kayhan concluded four years ago that some scholars were connected to "Zionists". The intelligence services - which his critics say he is close to, though he denies it - eventually reached the same conclusion, he says.
He laments that Mr Ahmadi-Nejad, of whom he is an ardent supporter, visited Bahrain and recognised it as a state. The president should have characterised the visit as one of his "provincial" tours. And he insists he was right to call for Iran to leave the NPT because its nuclear file had been treated unfairly and illegally.
The president's latest trip to New York, when he was introduced at Columbia University as a "petty and cruel dictator", was "extremely" successful. As evidence, Mr Shariatmadari repeats what Kayhan cited on its front page recently, alongside a picture of massive crowds at Columbia.
"Five hundred million people listened to his speech. John Bolton [the hawkish former US official] said that Mr Ahmadi-Nejad had achieved what he wanted, and Ha'aretz [the Israeli news-paper] said Israel was the loser."
Unusually, much of the Iranian media agreed with Mr Shariatmadari in decrying the treatment accorded to the president at Columbia. (The official media sanitised the controversy.) One of the few dissenting voices was that of Mohammad-Ali Abtahi. The reformist former vice-president remarked on his weblog that Mr Ahmadi-Nejad should not have subjected himself - or the Iranian nation - to insult.
For Mr Shariatmadari, the fact that Tehran's policies have deepened its isolation is hardly a disaster. "People feel they have dignity and the era of being bullied is over."
He predicts that the nuclear dispute with world powers will not be resolved, although the US and its allies will be unable to push through another UN resolution tightening sanctions before next March. Iran, he maintains, is not seeking nuclear weapons. The US is using the nuclear file as a pretext to force Tehran to help it out of the Iraq debacle.
"The US is truly stuck in a quagmire and only Iran can save it . . . Americans need Iran's authority and influence," he says.
That is partly why the probability of US military strikes on Iran is "very low", in his view. "The noise in the west is more a psychological war. By scaring us they think they can blackmail us and achieve their demands."
But he adds: "They [the Americans] are not the ones who finish it [a war] - we take revenge against anyone who attacks us."
What form would the revenge take? He smiles and says some of the preparations are under way and cannot be revealed. But there will "undoubtedly" be a war between Iran and Israel, he says. Iran's missiles can reach 2,500km beyond its borders, he warns. The US is "accessible" because it is in both Iraq and Afghanistan. And Tehran has announced that American interests anywhere in the world could be targeted.
But there are also disastrous consequences in store for the US's Arab allies, regimes he lambastes as stuck in the "pre-Middle Ages". Iran has the support of Arab and Muslim masses, he says, and they can rise in support, putting governments "on the verge of collapse".
States such as Egypt and Jordan, he claims, are "like wooden pillars that ants have eaten from the inside - anything stronger than a breeze will destroy them". As for Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and others, they are not even states but simply "trading centres", he scoffs.
Given such arguments, can Mr Shariatmadari blame those who see Iran as an expansionist power that is determined to dominate the region? "We've shown that we are not for domination," he says.
If Tehran interferes in Arab issues (Palestine and Lebanon are the two examples he gives) it is because people there are defending the Islamic world and identity, and that leaves Iran no choice but to support them.
.......................................
Ft Syndication Service