Mousavi and Karoubi Must Be Tried

Abbas Salimi-Namin is the current director of the research center on Iran and a hardline principlist journalist. He is also the former managing editor of a Kayhan newspaper and the editor of English language Tehran Times. Even though he belongs to the ruling hardline principlists – a group that proclaims allegiance to what it calls are the original calls of the 1979 Islamic revolution – he does view Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi to be the leaders of a sedition and says charges that they had contacts with foreigners or that they had implicated in murder had to be tried in court.

Rooz spoke with Salimi-Namin about many issues facing the country to get the perspective of a hardliner. In his conversation Salimi-Namin said that Mousavi and Karoubi’s house arrests could not be lifted and since they had accused the regime of committing electoral fraud, they had to apologize to the public first.

Salimi-Namin criticized Ahmadinejad for his behavior towards Khatami and said he lacked the stature of a person to remain at the international or even national stage. Talking about the last presidential election, he said principlists had erroneously thought that the reform movement was dead and had no supporters among people.

Salimi-Namin rejected claims that Ahmadinejad had created a special office at the presidency for former presidents because such an office would require a law by the parliament, even though he said he liked the idea where former presidents would continue to play a role in the country and use their experience.

When asked about why Ahmadinejad lost the support of many principlists, Salimi-Namin said that Ahmadinejad had himself left the group when he openly said he did not belong to them. He said that at some point in time Ahmadinejad had decided to exclude principlists from his activities and make his own determinations. Ahmadinejad in fact worked to weaken principlists. “The result of this is that his record is a mixture of good and bad actions. Towards the end of his term, the West tried to push him to commit political suicide so that he would pursue irrational goals to ensure that his presidential choice would be rejected by the Guardians Council. But fortunately he realized this, did not play their game and accepted the ruling of the GC,” Salimi-Namin said.

Speaking about Ahmadinejad’s future, this hardline journalist said since Ahmadinejad still had some close allies around him, his future depended on how he used them and what direction his activities took. “He is a national asset because of his experience and people have invested in him. His experience belongs to all,” Namin said.

Asked about the reasons for the defeat of the principlists, Salimi-Namin said people did not reject principlists and he pointed to their 70 percent victory in the provincial council elections. He attributed the failure of the principlists to win the last presidential race to a number of reasons that included multiple principle candidates, which also conveyed the message that the candidates were not willing to compromise on a single candidate for the good of the country. He said that from the public’s perspective, these were not individuals who would sacrifice for the public. Another reason, he said, was Ahmadinejad’s efforts to weaken and destroy the principlists and he named Ghalibaf to be one of his victims. He also said that some of the principlist candidates presented superficial issues during their campaigns. “For example they equated resistance against foreign sanctions with more hardships for people. This scared people who interpreted this association to mean that hardships would increase if principlists came to power,” he said. His last point on this was that principlists wrongly believed that people were done with the moderates and reformers, whereas the regime never wanted to announce the end of reformism because it recognizes that it is an existing reality, even though some of its elements had made mistakes and strayed off the original course.

When asked to describe why Rowhani won the votes, Namin said the president elect made it clear that he did not want to follow the hardline and extremism of Mr. Khatami or Mr. Rafsanjani while at the same time not accepting the extremism of the principlists. “He won through the slogan of moderation,” he said. Reformists were only one among various groups that supported Rowhani and voted for him, he said adding that that was the reason why the new chief executive announced that he did not belong to any faction. “He even disassociated himself from the reformers and said he would not follow their extremism,” Salimi-Namin said adding that his main theme was to avoid any form of extremism.

When asked about the threats that have been made against Rowhani’s possible reform agenda by individuals such as Allah-Karam or the principlist Steadfast Front, Salimi-Namin said none of them were strong enough to gather much public support.

Regarding Mousavi and Karoubi, Salimi-Namin said that Rowhani was against their extremism as well and wanted to remain within law rather than step outside it. “Rowhani will not support unreasonable and extreme activities of these two, unless they come and apologize to the nation for the divisions they created and for their selfishness. Mr. Rowhani will never defend their extreme actions,” he continued. “I believe that Britain, Israel and the US are the true leaders of the sedition and not Mousavi and Karoubi. But these gentlemen made huge mistakes for the country. I do not believe they qualify for a pardon unless they apologize and accept their responsibility for the many problems that were created following their decisions and actions which pitted people against each other. In other words their solution is to return to the people and apologize for the big lie and for breaking the law.”

When Rooz expressed pessimism about the lifting of the house arrest of Mousavi and Karoubi under these circumstances, Salimi-Namin said, “The problem can be solved but not through a pardon and without a reprimand. If an extremist is left to himself, he may come up with another lie and again divide the nation. Unless he apologizes and accepts that he did not go through the legal process to pursue his claims and demands.” When asked about why Mousavi and Karoubi had not been tried in a court of law, he said it was probably to avoid misuse by foreigners.