Grand Ayatullah Muhammad Taqi Behjat has died


Ayatullah BehjatWith deep sorrow and grief, J.A.P announce the sad demise of Ayatullah aali qadar Agha Taqi Muhammad behjat who passed away in Qum today at the age of 96 at Vali e Asr hospital. May his soul rest in peace. We extend our heartfelt grief to all momineens and to Imam Zamana a.f.

Grandeur lies in aspirations of Islamic Revolution


rahbari2-hzOn the fifth day of his visit to Kurdistan province, the Islamic Revolution Leader Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei regarded national dignity as a very effective factor in the brilliant future of the Iranian people.

Addressing a very enthusiastic gathering of the faithful, affectionate and brave people of Marivan, the IR Leader stressed: “The glorious future belongs to the youths and it has to be be fulfilled by relying on Islamic, national and indigenous recipes and avoiding alien recipes.”

In this gathering that was organized in Marivan’s Zagros stadium, Ayatollah Khamenei regarded fighting the aliens that seek the nation’s humiliation and abjection as a prerequisite for national dignity and said: “The enemies of this great land see no benefit for themselves in the progress and glory of Islamic Iran; therefore, any dependence to alien-written recipes is against national interests and would destroy the country’s independence, dignity and prosperity.”

The IR Leader regarded the inability of the Western capitalism in confronting economic crises as a clear reason for the weakness of management methods in Western countries, adding: “The officials, the people and especially the youth and thinkers should contemplate on this reality.”

He considered the pure Islam, namely the Islam of Qoran, Sunna and Ahl-ul-Bait as the base and original recipe for the movement and progress of the nation and system, stressing: “We do not call anyone to the petrified and narrow-minded Islam, but the Islam that we regard as treatment for pains and guarantee for the country’s progress and glory is an Islam that calls the human being to thinking and contemplation and is able to create a historical and magnificent movement like the Islamic Revolution.”

Ayatollah Khamenei criticized those who in different times including in election periods, repeat the Westerners’ remarks to attract people’s attention, adding: “Such remarks are not considered as privilege. They are opposition to the Islamic-Iranian thought and identity.”

In another part of his speech, he termed Kordestan and Marivan as a land full of  glory, braveness and natural beauty, and full of the feeling of affection and loyalty, saying: “I regard this area as one of the gifts and blessings that God has granted to the country and the system.”

Referring to his visit to Marivan and surrounding area in 1980 at the peak of Baathist Saddam’s attack on Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei said: “The enemies of this nation’s progress relying on hireling and dependent agents wanted to create a deep valley of suspicion between the people of this very important and sensitive area and the people of other parts of the country, but the faithful, zealous and loyal Kords foiled this conspiracy very well. The young generation of the country and the area should become very well familiar with these instructive realities.”

Reminding Saddam’s war crimes including his chemical attacks, the IR Leader regarded the bitter incidents of eight years of sacred defense in western areas including Kordestan as a big laboratory for proving the deception and insincerity of Saddam’s supporters and the claimants of human rights.

“The ups and downs of thirty years of the Iranian people’s perseverance and victory should be explained as instructive lessons for the youths, so that the weight and real nature of today’s propaganda of the arrogance become clearer for them,” he added.

Ayatollah Khamenei considered the admittance by the world’s politicians and policy-makers to the regional and global position of the Islamic Republic of Iran as a sign for the stability and power of the country.

“The Islamic system, by God’s help, is in a position that it can focus on long-period projects of progress and prosperity,” he stressed.

The IR Leader termed the 20-year prospect document as the guide, director and real agenda for the officials of different forces and organizations and said: “In order to achieve the goals of this very credible and important document, both the officials and people bear great responsibilities, and we should be cautious that the enemies of the country’s progress do not distract the minds to marginal issues.”

Ayatollah Khamenei then noted that the province was in need of industrial and agricultural investment, especially in light of the hazards of joblessness in the area which among others include a tendency among the youths for smuggling induced by poor job opportunities.

Ayatollah Khamenei then noted that security was a prerequisite for investment and wealth production, adding that enemies would try to hinder any investment in the area through creation of insecurity however the powerful force of Islamic Republic with the help of valiant and loyal youths of the province will take a tough line on any spawners of insecurity.

The IR Leader then noted that the Kordestan visit was a bid to attract public attention to the talented, green and scenic area and expand affective ties among different Iranian ethnicities. He noted that Kord, Fars, Tork, Lor, and Baluch form a unified body called the great Iranian nation.

Ayatollah Khamenei concluded his remarks by noting that the nation and system would be viable once the nation and authorities attend to Islamic Revolution’s aspirations non-stop.

Civilians victims of Pak army-militants clashes


pak-armyResidents of the violence-hit Swat Valley have said that civilians are the main victims of the Pakistani army’s operations against militants.

The Internally Displaced People (IDP) told Press TV on Sunday that most of those who have been killed in the army’s attacks are the civilians who had been trying to flee the conflict zone.

Army spokesman Athar Abbas, however, rejected the claims, saying the strikes have only killed militants.

Military officials claim that nearly 900 militants have been killed in the offensive against the insurgents on the outskirts of the troubled Swat valley.

Obama says Iran war not off the table


obamaPresident Barack Obama says the US has not taken military action against Iran over its nuclear program off the table ahead of the Israeli premier’s trip to Washington.

In an interview with Newsweek on Saturday, Obama made it clear that he did not take any options off the table when asked about war with Iran.

“I’ve been very clear that I don’t take any options off the table with respect to Iran. I don’t take options off the table when it comes to US security, period,” said Obama.

Iran would be a main topic of talks during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting with President Obama in Washington this week.

The new government of Barack Obama says it wants to engage diplomatically with Iran to resolve the country’s nuclear issue but has simultaneously followed in the Bush adminestration’s footsteps by pursuing double-edged policy of carrots and sticks with Iran.

“What I have said is that we want to offer Iran an opportunity to align itself with international norms and international rules,” the US president noted in his Saturday interview.

President Obama once again accused Tehran of being a threat to the region.

The Islamic Republic of Iran could be “a member in good standing of the international community and not a threat to its neighbors,” according to the first black leader in the US.

Obama also justified later US government decisions if nuclear talks do not stop Iran’s pursuit of the nuclear know-how which Tehran — a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty — refuses to relinquish as its inalienable rights according to NPT regulations.

“If it doesn’t work, the fact that we have tried will strengthen our position in mobilizing the international community, and Iran will have isolated itself, as opposed to a perception that it seeks to advance that somehow it’s being victimized by a US government that doesn’t respect Iran’s sovereignty,” Obama said.

In April, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told US lawmakers that Washington was ‘willing’ to engage diplomatically with Iran but at the same time threatened Tehran with ‘very tough, crippling sanctions‘ if the desired results were not achieved.

The US president also ruled out making decision for Tel Aviv to prevent the regime from launching a unilateral war against Tehran.

“I don’t think it’s my place to determine for the Israelis what their security needs are,” he said.

“I can make an argument to Israel as an ally that the approach we are taking is one that has to be given a chance and offers the prospect of security, not just for the United States but also for Israel that is superior to some of the other alternatives.”

However, Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon earlier on Saturday said that he could not imagine any attack against Iran without Washington’s approval.

Washington and Tel Aviv — the sole possessor of a nuclear warhead in the Middle East — have stepped up accusations that Iran is amassing weapons-grade uranium.

According to the latest International Atomic Energy Agency figures, however, Iran has produced some 1,010 kilograms of low enriched uranium (LEU) — a level “less than 5 percent.”

Only enriched to high levels of above 90 percent, can uranium be used for production of nuclear weapons.

Sri Lanka 'kills 70 Tigers' fleeing war zone


srilankaThe Sri Lankan army says it has killed more than 70 Tamil Tigers trying to escape a tiny strip of land in the northeast encircled by government troops.

Military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said the rebels were killed Sunday while trying to cross Nanthi Kadal lagoon in boats.

“Troops observed the six boats in the lagoon and destroyed them. We recovered 70 bodies and an identification process is underway,” Nanayakkara said, adding that the top Tamil leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, was not among the dead.

On Saturday Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa declared a victory over the separatist Tamil Tigers, saying government forces had taken control of the island’s entire coastline for the first time in decades.

But there are reports that fighting continues in the area where the rebel leaders are believed to be cornered and that the rebels are preparing to recapture some areas lost to the army.

Currently only one and a half square kilometers are under the rebels’ control.

Leader Calls Muslims to Unity and Vigilance


imam-khameneiLeader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei urges Iranians and Muslims in general to resist enemy efforts to fuel sectarianism.

“Those who are targeting our national unity using faith as an excuse… they are the elements of the enemy,” the Leader said in the western Iranian city of Sanandaj on Tuesday.

“Those who try to sow discord among Shia and Sunni are mercenaries of the enemy, whether they realize it or not,” Ayatollah Khamenei told the large crowd gathered for the speech.

“The miserable Salafi and Wahhabi groups who are fed petro-dollars to carry out terrorist acts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere, many of them are not aware that they are mercenaries of the enemy.”

Speaking in the Kurd and Sunni majority province of Kurdestan, Ayatollah Khamenei went on to say that Shias who insult Sunni beliefs, and vice versa, are also working for the interests of world powers and adversaries of Islam.

Moderate Sunni and Shia Muslims are of the belief that the Wahhabi ideology, which leaders of groups such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda seek to promote, bears no resemblance with Islam.

Comments made by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at a congressional hearing confirm that Washington supports such groups as part of its pursuit of its regional interests.

“And great, let them come from Saudi Arabia and other countries, importing their Wahhabi brand of Islam so that we can go beat the Soviet Union,” she said on the Taliban’s creation in the 1980s.

During the Tuesday speech, Iran’s most senior official said that the Iranian nation would defend its territorial integrity against powers that do not want a united Iran.

Kurdestan is the Iranian province where PJAK separatists, offshoots of the internationally-recognized terrorist group the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), seek to gain ground by carrying out violent attacks.

According to a November 2006 article published by The New Yorker, the US military and Israel provide PJAK with equipment, training and vital intelligence to destabilize the Iranian government.

Saudi Wahhabi Government's another anti-Ahlul Bayt (a.s.) Act


baqi1Shock and disbelief was the initial response last Wednesday as pilgrims to the Jannat al-Baqi cemetery were faced with a barrier cordoning off the graves of the four Shia Imams buried there. According to a report by the Ahlul Bayt News Agency (ABNA), the graves of Imam Hasan al-Mujtaba, Imam Zainul Abideen, Imam Muhammad al-Baqir, and Imam Ja’far as-Sadiq (peace be upon them) in the al-Baqi cemetery have been barricaded, preventing individual from even casting their glance on the holy sites. Security personnel present at the site informed the pilgrims that the barriers will be permanent.

This is the latest act of oppression in the cruel reign of terror initiated against the holy sites of Islam by the al-Saud dynasty. In 1925, the shrines for the four Imams and countless other companions and members of the Prophet’s household in the Jannat al-Baqi and Jannat al-Mualla cemeteries were demolished by the government. Since then, the Saudi government has continued to destroy numerous other relics of Islamic history in the name of preventing “polytheism”.

Pilgrims who attempt to pay their respects to the Prophet (peace be upon him and his progeny), his family members, or his companions are often met with unrestrained and unchecked physical violence at the hands of the infamous religious police. Only a few weeks ago, several dozen Shia pilgrims from the eastern provinces of Saudi Arabia were physically attacked by the religious police. The very country that Muslims look towards to face the House of Allah five times a day has become breeding grounds for hatred towards the Prophet of Allah and his Household.

As the oppression continues with barriers and religious police being stationed at every corner of the al-Baqi graveyard to prevent pilgrims from going near the holy graves, the Shia pilgrims were not suppressed. Through simply the visual visitation, the pilgrims still gathered in the hundreds to pay their respects.

Grand Ayatollah Safi Gulpaygani has issued a statement calling the Saudi government’s construction of the barrier a betrayal to the history of Islam.

“Such moves would lead to full annihilation of the historic monuments of the Islamic history, and the future generations would thus be left with no heritage as reference,” he said, according to a report by the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA). “Committing such moves is anti-cultural, since how can we claim ten thousand years from now that we had once had registered records of our Islamic civilization? Unfortunately, the Saudi government at our time resorts to annihilation of any sign that is left from the Prophethood era.”

IRNA reports that following a meeting with Ayatollah Gulpaygani, Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani has said that the Islamic Republic will pursue the matter with the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).