April 19, 2006: Iran: Ansar-e Hezbollah Official Analyzes Iran-US Talks:
Neither the Elixir of Life, Nor a cup of Poison -- Only Iran's Authority"
Ya Lesarat ol-Hoseyn

Let us honor the martyrdom anniversary of Amir Sepahbod Sayyad-Shirazi, as well as Martyr Seyyed Morteza Avini, and salute their graceful spirit.

Sadeq Ashk-talkh, a member of the Ansar-e Hezbollah's central council and the Ansar-e Hezbollah's manager in Kermanshah, who was speaking at this organization's weekly session said: "By taking a brief look at the present world, we can see that today's world is in a bipolar situation. On one pole, we see the capitalist system, riches and power and hypocrisy, and in other words the domination system. Then, at the other end of the pole, we see the system of resistance, perseverance and no compromise. One pole is led by America and Israel with the cooperation of European countries and their allies, and the other pole is led by Islamic Iran.

"However, to discover how the confrontation between these two poles will end, one should refer to the Holy Koran. In the holy Koran, God Almighty says (a few Arabic words). And the late imam (Khomeyni) (God's benedictions be upon him) also says that guardianship of the supreme jurisconsult is the continuation of the movement stated by prophets. Victory will be achieved by the system that is governed based on the theory of guardianship of the supreme jurisconsult. This is our belief, and the fate of this confrontation will be the collapse of the domination system."

Ashk-talkh continued: "We believe that this year, which has been adorned with name of the great prophet (God's peace and benedictions be upon him), will be a year of great achievements for the Muslim world and victory over the domination system. And this is not just an imagined wish or an illusion, but something that is actually going to take place, the signs of which we can clearly see in the nuclear issue. As the eminent imam (God's benedictions be upon him) said, Islam will bring the world-devouring powers to their knees. This is exactly what is happening now in the nuclear debate. Islamic Iran's authority in its direct confrontation with the domination system has baffled them to a point where they are practically faced with a quagmire in the world's political arena.

"In this regard, I would like to mention something that recently came up in a discussion about having talks with America about Iraq.

"There are four important points that we should bear in mind about this issue. First of all, this is not the first time that a representative from Iran would be participating in such talks about Iraq. At the time of Mr Khatami's administration, there was also the 6+2 group's meeting where Iran and other neighboring countries talked about Iraq. There were also representatives from Russia and America in talks. Of course, at that time the issue didn't cause so much uproar. The second point is the timing of this issue, which has coincided with a critical point in our country's nuclear case and the Western countries took advantage of this matter. The third point is that the Americans themselves know without a shadow of doubt that they have to leave Iraq, because the situation in Iraq has also created a crisis in America. Their issues, however, is that Iran has been telling the whole world that America will eventually leave Iraq with disgrace an d humiliation, which is a problem because they want to avoid another situation like Vietnam. And since Iran is the only country that openly speaks about this matter, they want to lay down some conditions for us that when their troops pull out of Iraq, they don't want Iran saying that the Vietnam experience repeated again. This is the first goal that the Americans are after. The Americans are also very concerned about Iran's powerful influence on the Iraqi nation, and their intention is to somehow reduce Iran's influence among the people of Iraq. So they are trying to turn the Iraqi people against Iran by creating an atmosphere of pessimism among them and suggesting that Iran is disregarding the request of the Iraqi nation's leaders, hoping to cause a rift in the relations of Iraqi l eaders with the Islamic Republic authorities. The Americans, as their secretary of state, Rice, said, claim that they gave blood to topple the Saddam regime and liberate Iraq. The next point is that in this confrontation that we had with the Americans over the nuclear issue, Iran stood firm and strong while America was gasping for breath. They wanted to find a way to enter into talks with Iran and bring up the Iraq issue, so that they could prevent more damage to their authority, which was shattered in the debate over Iran's nuclear case. In other words, they wanted to stop the passiveness they had shown from themselves in the confrontation with Iran.

"Of course, Iran gained a few things by accepting to have talks with America about Iraq. First, it put America in a defensive position, and America admitted the extent of Iran's influence among the Iraqi people. The announcement by Iran that America's withdrawal from Iraq was going to be one of the fundamental subjects in the talks completely upset their plans. So they adopted a policy of destruction, but the eminent leader slapped them in the face. The Americans claimed that Iran would not even cooperate with those whom they supported as leaders of the Iraqi nation for years (the Abd-al-Aziz al-Hakim camp). However, Iran disarmed them by accepting this matter, because the Abd-al-Aziz al-Hakim camp is one of our strategic allies that now leads the Islamic movement in Iraq. The Americans wanted to pretend that Iran had been saying no to any request that came from them, but once they turned to Abd-al-Aziz al-Hakim for help and he made the request, it was accepted."

"Another important point here is that Iran's role in the Muslim world is so significant that the heads of Muslim states are seeking help from the most effective country in the Muslim world. Iran's positive response to the request of the head of Iraq's coalition disarmed the Americans, so they used this issue as a kind of excuse to postpone the talks until after the establishment of the Iraqi administration.

"Of course, another point here is that the news coverage of this issue in our country was not complete and sufficient, which was because of its concurrence with the New Year holidays.

"Concerning the talks, there were a number of different views that need to be analyzed. When the issue of holding talks was first announced, there was a view that described it as the elixir of life and overstated its benefits, which was a biased view. Those who support this view want to give up Iran to the Americans without a fight or any bloodshed.

"Another view of the issue was well intentioned and its supporters were worried about one thing. They described such talks as a cup of poison and believed that this work must not be done at all.

"The third view, which is also the Ansar-e Hezbollah's position, is that these talks are neither the elixir of life, nor a cup of poison. However, as the eminent leader said, Iran is in a position of power and dignity and has the ability to play an effective role in the region and the pole that leads the Muslim world. So it is going to participate in the talks to make a clear statement for the occupiers and demand their unconditional withdrawal from the country of Iraq, especially in response to the Iraqi authorities' request and to make the Americans understand that they themselves are the cause of the crisis, insecurity and all the miseries that are happening to the Iraqi people. This will be our position. But in view of the developments that are currently taking place Iraq and our position on this issue, it is unlikely that any talks would be held at all, because we believe that the Americans have failed in this matter, as they did in previous cases."

"What is our duty in this year that has been adorned with the auspicious name of the prophet of Islam (God's peace and benedictions be upon him)? If we take a look at the prophet's ways and manners, some of these duties and responsibilities will become clear to us. First of all, our dear prophet was the best of all preachers of monotheism. He invited people to his faith not just verbally, but by action. In the words of the folks from the war, he would not just say go ahead, but he would go before the others and ask them to follow him. In this year, we must shift the atmosphere towards a godly society, a godly nation, a godly structure and a godly Majles and government. This year, which is the year of the great prophet (God's peace and benedictions be upon him), our expectation from the seventh-term Majles is to fully implement and institutionalize the neglected Article 8 of the Constitution, because the great prophet of Islam himself was source of Enjoining Good and Prohibiting Vice (a religious order). We hope that the Majles would work on this issue, because other paths lead to annihilation.

"The first condition for preaching divinity is sincerity in action. In the holy pilgrimage to the eminent prophet (God's peace and benedictions be upon him), we testify that he served God with sincerity. So if we want to build a faithful society, we must first instill sincerity and piety in our own group and personal life. The eminent imam (Khomeyni) (God's benedictions be upon him) who created such a great phenomenon, which means the Islamic revolution, first passed this level. The blow that the eminent imam (God's benedictions be upon him) and the Islamic revolution dealt to America was something no one else had done.

The next point in building a divine and godly society is having firm faith in our path. The great prophet of Islam taught us this lesson when he said if they put the sun in one of his hands and the moon in the other, he wouldn't give up the path he had chosen. So we must have such a strong faith in our path that no threats or temptations would be able to make us change course.

"The next point is to have insight and awareness. If we want to build a godly society and move towards that horizon, we will need to have insight and awareness.

"The last point is that the great prophet of Islam was the role model of fighting against four things: infidelity (in religion), blasphemy, discord and ignorance. Today, there are traces of all four of these issues both inside the country and throughout the region, and all of them lead to one point, which means the domination system. Today, in the domination system, we see that they openly insult the great prophet. And even inside our own country, we saw in the past years how they implicitly insulted the prophet's holy household and the infallible imams (peace be upon them). Perhaps, if that disgraceful position had not been taken in the previous administration with regard to the Salman Rushdi issue, the Westerners wouldn't have become so brazenly insolent today.

"When we view the topic of blasphemy, we see that the domination system regards itself as an endless power and what they call chieftain of the world. Of course, there were also some people inside our own count ry who believed they knew everything and said they were to be the ultimate decision-maker in all different areas, and that they were the only ones who could save the country. What a blasphemous thing is that to say. What about God's power? When we look at the domination system on the matter of discord, we see that they wear the mask of human rights, defending freedom and fighting terrorism. And inside the country, the traces of discord appear sometimes with the mask of advocating the Constitution, sometime with the cover of advocating the imam's line and other times with the excuse of democracy.

"Concerning ignorance, today the disregard for the proper dressing code (for women according to Islam) is a clear manifestation of ignorance. Before the advent of Islam, people buried their daughters alive and today's ignorance is burying the wome n's identity alive. This ignorance must be fought forcefully. Here, I would like to mention how much injustice was done to the late imam (God's benedictions be upon him) and to the people in the name of democracy, and how much plunder and destruction was done in the cover of construction and reform. All of these cases were the traces of discord.

"In the near future, we are going to have a book fair. Now that the minister of guidance and his deputies are trustworthy, it wouldn't be acceptable for them to endorse the same wrong cultural atmosphere of the past, due to expediency. We mustn't allow the same kind of ignorance that was prevalent during the past 16 years to keep continuing and spreading under the principle-ist (Osulgara) and justice-oriented administration. Of course, we do see determination in the authorities, especially at the latest meeting of the Supreme Cultural Revolution Council where they made a number of decisions that provide for the first step towards our goals. Implementing those decisions could be a source of blessing, and this is our expectation.

"The next point to bear in mind is unity. The dear prophet of Islam was, and still is, the role model of unity and we believe that guardianship of the supreme jurisconsult, which is the continuation of the movement started by prophets, is the pivot of unity. Those groups and factions that do not believe in the concept of guardianship of the supreme jurisconsult will have no place in the camp of unity.

"Our duty is to resist and persevere, because that is the message of the Ashura (the day of Imam Hoseyn's martyrdom) doctrine, which is the prophet's legacy.

"At any rate, the situations that we have been through, whether during the time of war or after that, were generally a source of pride for the system. And today we are facing a promising future with Mr Ahmadinezhad's justice-oriented administration, God willing. Right here, I would like to add that one of the invariable principles of the Hezbollah groups is their full support for the Ahmadinezhad administration, although we also feel free to convey any criticisms that we might have along the way, because this administration is completely open to suggestions."

(Description of Source: Tehran Ya Lesarat ol-Hoseyn in Persian -- extremely conservative Tehran weekly. Organ of Ansar-e Hezbollah)