Iranian VP summoned by parliament after saying Iran a friend of Israel, U.S.

Source: Ha'aretz

Iranian Vice President Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaei has been summoned by parliament for having made pro-Israeli comments, Iran's ISNA news agency reported Tuesday.

The cultural commission of the parliament has called for a special session on Wednesday with Rahim-Mashaei for him to reply to "questions, ambiguities and criticism" by the deputies over the comments.

The vice-president, who is in charge of cultural heritage and tourism, had said "Iran wants no war with any country, and today Iran is friend of the United States and even Israel.... Our achievements belong to the whole world and should be used for expanding love and peace."

He reiterated this position again on Monday.

Reacting to Rahim-Mashaei's comments, parliament speaker Ali Larijani on Monday reiterated that Iran was no friend of the Israelis.

Read more: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1010890.html

Never to be seen or heard from again.

old job of "promoting" what's GREAT about Iran

LOL

:smoke:

Tehran, 12 August (AKI) - An economist who wanted to establish a political party in Iran has been jailed for eight years at the notorious Evin prison in northwestern Tehran.

Abbas Khorsandi was seeking to set up his Democratic Party with six or seven friends.

The 51-year-old wanted to create a party committed to non-violent protest and civil disobedience against the government modelled on the famous Indian political and spiritual leader, Mahatma Gandhi.

Khorsandi discovered Gandhi and his ideas when he attended university in India, where he graduated in economics.

"Speaking about a party, since it involves so few people, seems to be an exaggeration to me," lawyer Khalil Bahramian told Adnkronos International (AKI), in Khorsandi's defence.

"If it was about a party, seeing that this party had no intention to overthrow the government or resort to violence, this sentence seems to be exaggerated and contrary to every interpretation of the law," he said.


http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=1.0.2410950092

party of one in a country of one party rule

Shoot, I'd rather live under a Bush administration than an Iranian government.

Or used to be, anyway.

I guess the idea being that if Iran was anti-Bush, as the individual posters were, then that was good enough. The enemy of my enemy being my friend, and all that.

I don't care how anti-Bush Iran is, I still don't like its government or its policies and will not defend either.

It would be better if someone like this man had real power in Iran. As it is, the Far-Righties there will either force him to retract his statements, or kick him out of office - or worse.