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Ahmadinezhad's aide explains cancellation of Armenia trip

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  • Ahmadinezhad's aide explains cancellation of Armenia trip

    Mardom-Salari , Iran
    June 9 2011


    Commentary:
    Ahmadinezhad's aide explains cancellation of Armenia trip: travel ban
    for Ahmadinezhad's entourage denied

    [translated from Persian]


    Ahmadinezhad's aide Mojtaba Samareh-Hashemi talks less than his other
    aides and his few words are usually given to denials of rumours and
    reports. On Tuesday [7 June], he gave a brief explanation of the
    cancellation of Ahmadinezhad's trip to Armenia and adamantly denied
    that this cancellation was because a few members of his entourage were
    banned from travelling abroad.

    ISNA [Iranian Students News Agency] reports this senior aide to the
    president told correspondents after the cabinet meeting that the
    reason for the president's cancelled trip to Armenia was because the
    documents for bilateral cooperation were not ready. In answer to a
    question from a correspondent on whether this trip was cancelled
    because a few of the people accompanying the president were banned
    from travelling abroad, he denied this completely and said: "This trip
    was postponed because the documents for bilateral negotiations were
    not ready. Since this trip was supposed to be a fruitful trip, it was
    postponed until the documents are ready."

    Mahmud Ahmadinezhad's trip to Yerevan was supposed to take place on
    the morning of Monday 16 Khordad [6 June]. It was announced that this
    trip was being made to strengthen and deepen relations between the two
    countries. In this one-day trip that was being made in response to the
    trip of his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sargsyan's and was supposed to
    include visits and talks with the president and other officials of
    Armenia. Therefore it is unclear what Samareh-Hashemi meant by
    cooperation documents! This trip was suddenly cancelled on the same
    day (16 Khordad) and the president's office announced that it with the
    agreement of both sides the trip will be postponed to a future date.

    On the same day, Ramin Mehmanparast said in answer to a question on
    the reasons for the postponement of Ahmadinezhad's trip to Armenia:
    "As two neighbours, the Islamic Republic of Iran and Armenia have good
    relations. In addition to neighbourly relations, there are continuous
    interactions between officials of both countries, which is why
    Ahmadinezhad's trip to Armenia was planned in response to the recent
    trip to Tehran by this country's president to hold bilateral talks and
    sign cooperation accords. With the agreement of both sides, this trip
    was postponed to a later date because more time was needed to organize
    and finalize the documents and the date will be announced soon."

    However, the Fararu website reported that, even though the Foreign
    Ministry has said the reason for the cancellation of this trip is
    organizing documents, an informed source who did not want to be
    identified told this site that Ahmadinezhad's trip was cancelled
    because two members of his delegation were banned from leaving the
    country. This news came out at a time when previously there were
    reports on the need to arrest, or the imminent arrest of, the leaders
    of the deviated trend in the government. After the arrest of 25 people
    in this deviated group, including those who claimed sorcery, the
    deputy commander of the Guard Corps [Islamic Revolution Guards Corps;
    IRGC] political office referred to the events in relation to Masha'i
    and the arrest of people connected to him. He said: "Masha'i has not
    been arrested; only some people who had connections to an
    insignificant trend at the Office of the President were arrested."

    After these developments, the representative of Vali-e Faqih [guardian
    of the jurisconsult] and Kashan Friday prayer imam made statements
    which were denied by the Guards Corps and the office of the leader.
    Also, following the warnings by Mesbah Yazdi about the leader of the
    deviated trend and the threat of this group to Islam, Qasem
    Ravanbakhsh, one of Mesbah's students, said in an interview with Ya
    Lesarat [newspaper] that Masha'i is a very dangerous person like
    Mohammad Ali Bab. Ya Lesarat wrote that Qasem Ravanbakhsh referred to
    the warning by Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi and said: "The threat of Masha'i
    is at the level of Mohammad Ali Bab, because he believes in direct
    contact with Imam Zaman [12th Shiite Imam, who is believed to be
    hidden]. However, there is one worry and that is in the future the
    president may appoint Masha'i to hold government responsibilities."
    Stating that Masha'i is a freemason and must be arrested, he said:
    "One of the principles of freemasonry is humanism. This can be seen in
    Masha'i's speeches and unfortunately also has affected the contents of
    the president's speech. I am referring to Mr Ahmadinezhad's speech at
    the opening ceremony of the Book Exhibition, where in a short speech
    he referred many times to the term humanism and his previous
    references to Islamic rule are being repeated."

    In Ahmadinezhad's speech on 13 Khordad [3 June] people many times
    changed slogans in opposition to Ahmadinezhad's chief of staff and
    chants of "death to... " were heard. It is obvious that under these
    circumstances when Ahmadinezhad's trip to Armenia is suddenly
    cancelled, the explanations of the Foreign Ministry's spokesman will
    not be accepted by the public and what the Fararu website has written
    is more believable. Along with these reports, it is also strange that,
    after the 10 days when Ahmadinezhad did not attend cabinet meetings
    and the revelations about the deviated trend inside the government
    emerged, Ahmadinezhad's domestic and foreign trips have been reduced
    so much in the past one and a half months. Why was preparing documents
    not so hard in the past and did not cause delays?

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