As rumors spread about ayatollah Khamenei issuing a directive to arrest Mehdi Karoubi, the website affiliated to E’temad Melli (National Trust) Party reported that Hashemi Rafsanjani has threatened to resign from all his posts in the government if Mehdi Karoubi was arrested.
Saham News website claims that, in a meeting with members of the Expediency Council’s Strategic Research Center, former 2-time president and veteran politician Hashemi Rafsanjani reacted to the issuance of Mehdi Karoubi’s arrest directive by ayatollah Khamenei by declaring, “I will resign from everything.”
He also noted that in his meeting with the supreme leader he had said, “You should not have authorized Mehdi Karoubi’s arrest.”
Meanwhile, one day after Iran’s National Security Council ordered the Iranian media not to publish any reports about the presidential election, detainee conditions, Mir-Hossein Mousavi or Mehdi Karoubi, newspapers supportive of the administration were filled with reports attacking Mousavi and Karoubi. Hardline Kayhan daily’s front-page story referred to “Karoubi’s lies” and Iran daily, the administration’s official newspaper, printed statements by Friday prayer leaders and the three-member judiciary committee before calling for Mousavi and Karoubi’s arrests.
Farhad Tajari, head of the Majlis Judiciary Committee also called for Karoubi’s arrest, noting, “The issue of spreading lies and misleading public opinion, especially on such a scale, is not a light issue, and the involved agents must be prosecuted regardless of their posts, responsibilities, backgrounds and titles.”
Another member of the Majlis Judiciary Committee, Mohammad Taghi Rahbar, announced, “Majlis lawmakers will present their complaint against Mousavi and Karoubi to the judiciary very soon.”
Preparations for Arrest
Many observers believe that such statements set the stage for the imminent arrest of these two opposition presidential candidates.
On the other hand, the reactions of some prominent reformist figures to these rumors also reveal that the possibility of their arrest is a serious concern.
The spokesperson for the National Trust Party, Esmaeil Gerami-Moghaddam, reacted to the reports and rumors by saying, “This is not the solution to the problem. Confronting Mr. Karoubi will definitely not satisfy the public opinion, and I hope that the authorities would refrain from imposing further damage to the regime.”
The National Trust Party spokesperson also noted that Mehdi Karoubi had previously announced his readiness “to pay any price.”
Secretary-general of the Association of Qom Seminary Researchers and Teachers, Seyyed Hassan Mousavi, also said, “I believe that a certain ideology is seeking to destroy the reformists by undermining their credibility. If they succeed in accomplishing this, what are they going to do with the views of the public, universities and seminaries?”
