Iranian student protests against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dominated the press this week.
Much media coverage was also given to comments by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in which he said people had the freedom to criticise all officials, including himself.
Many newspapers and websites also covered President George Bush’s recent demand for a complete suspension of uranium enrichment as a condition for talks, as well as the opening of a new round of negotiations between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency on October 9.
- Rowdy Scenes as Ahmadinejad Addresses Tehran University
- Khamenei Welcomes Criticism
- “Harsh” US Conditions for Nuclear Talks
- New Round of Talks With Atomic Agency
- More Sniping Ahead of 2008 Elections
Rowdy Scenes as Ahmadinejad Addresses Tehran University
On October 8, some 100 students staged a protest as the president gave a speech marking the beginning of the academic year at Tehran University.
Ahmadinejad had been scheduled to address the students two weeks earlier, but the event was postponed after an open letter from the Office for Fostering Unity - the largest grouping of dissident students – was published in the reformist newspaper Etemad on October 2.
The letter noted that when he was at Columbia University, the president spoke of “the almost incomparable freedoms in Iran, and the positive response given to critics and those who hold differing views”. It requested that he grant permission for one member of its organisation to attend the speech, and went on to point out that during his two years in office, “43 critical student groupings have been suspended or disbanded, over 550 students have been sent to the Disciplinary Committee, and 70 have been arrested”.
Little advance notice was given of the rescheduled speech, at which Ahmadinejad ignored protesters’ chants of “Death to the dictator".
The reformist media suggested that the protests - which erupted in spite of tight security measures - exposed the president’s claims at Columbia University as a sham.
In a blog entry on October 9, Mohammad Ali Abtahi, who served as a deputy of former president Mohammad Khatami and is now the best known Iranian blogger, said that “the affair of Ahmadinejad’s speech at Tehran University shattered all the government’s propaganda and aggrandisement about his speech at Columbia University.”
Abtahi suggested that the event underlined the irony of Ahmadinejad’s claims of freedom in Iran.
“Those around Mr Ahmadinejad well understood how much the Iranian nation was dishonoured at Columbia… A professor holding a US passport has the right to insult the Iranian president before the world, but in the country which according to Mr Ahmadinejad is the freest in the world, an Iranian student does not have the right to see and ask questions of the president,” he said.
On October 10, Norooz news website - which is connected with the reformist Mosharekat party - strongly criticised “the presence of the Special Guards and security forces in the auditorium where Ahmadinejad delivered his speech, turning it into a strict security zone and an intimidating place”.
The principalist media – which backs those who hold conservative views shaped by the principles of Islam and the Iranian revolution - reacted quite differently to the protest, with newspapers dismissing the students as traitors, and some even calling for action to be taken against them.
In a piece on October 8, the Fars news agency, called the protesting students “traitors”, “hooligans” and “agents of the United States and Israel”.
It said that the students’ slogans – particularly “death to the dictator” – echoed the words of Columbia University president Lee Bollinger, who said Ahmadinejad behaved like “a petty and cruel dictator” in his introductory remarks to the president’s speech last month.
Some principalist media outlets characterised the demonstrators as a small group of dissidents intent on disturbing the president.
On October 8, the state news agency IRNA said “a group of the government’s opponents, with the support of American and British media, made the top item on their propaganda agenda creating a disturbance in an academic environment”. “Because of vigilance and a lack of support from students, this plan was foiled,” it added.
That same day, a piece on the Raja News website, which is run by Ahmadinejad supporters, said, “After the Columbia University affair, the western and Zionist media became very defensive, so the Office for Fostering Unity kicked up a row among a number of pretend students and provided fodder for those media.”
In another article the following day, Raja News labelled the hostile students as “militias” – using the English word - and called for security measures and legal action be taken against them.
“The new generation of principalist and revolutionary students will confront these militias and nip this sedition in the bud,” it said.
Also on October 9, Resalat newspaper claimed that “the premeditated programme to create a disturbance at Tehran University during the president’s visit came to nothing.”
The Kayhan newspaper, on October 10, called on students to stop “being of one voice with the bullying, hegemonic, bloodletting and plundering powers such as the US, Europe and Israel”.
The paper suggested the protesters were either “deceived” or were “direct or indirect devotees of the Zionists” and “enemy foot-soldiers” who had “set up tent in the US and Israeli camp”.
Comments made by the Supreme Leader during a meeting with students on the afternoon of October 9 created a media storm. The following morning’s headlines were dominated by Ayatollah Khamenei’s unprecedented remarks, in which he said it was permissible to voice “criticism of and demands from the various responsible authorities, including the Supreme Leadership”.
While Khamenei reiterated his support for Ahmadinejad’s administration, “calling it 100 per cent trustworthy”, he also seemed to distance himself from the current government. His support, he said, did “not mean that the Supreme Leader is aware of all the details, or approves of all the activities of the government. Supporting the government does not mean opposing all criticism of it.”
The reformist media welcomed these remarks, including the Etemad-e Melli paper, which said in its editorial on October 11 that they marked “a turning-point”.
This newspaper homed in on the part of Khamanei’s speech where he said it was permissible to criticise the Supreme Leader, and called for a “reasonable and sound” response to his words. It also called for “the creation of a better and easier environment for criticism and questioning” in light of the remarks.
By contrast, the principalist Resalat attacked the reformist media for picking out Khamenei’s comments on criticising the government.
The paper said that Khamenei “emphasised his repeated support for the government, and called for an internal critical dialogue in government.”
“Harsh” US Conditions for Nuclear Talks
Media reports this week also focused on President Bush’s repeated refusal to negotiate with Iran unless it suspends uranium enrichment.
In a speech on October 4 to the Chamber of Commerce in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, President Bush reiterated an offer to open negotiations if Tehran suspends uranium enrichment, and said there was a need for sustained international pressure on Iran to make it abandon its nuclear activities.
Referring to Ahmadinejad, Bush said in a Reuters report, "This is a leader who has made very provocative statements. And we have made it clear, however, in spite of that, that we're willing to sit down with him, so long as he suspends his programme - his nuclear weapons programme."
Both reformist and principalist media attacked Bush for insisting on suspension as a precondition for negotiations.
Etemad-e Melli said Bush’s remarks were unhelpful and asked the US to understand the present situation and to give a “suitable response”.
On October 11, the principalist newspaper Jomhouri Eslami said Bush’s statements were a “harsh reply to the Iranian president’s expression of readiness to negotiate with the US”.
The paper suggested that Ahmadinejad’s conduct in New York, when the president addressed the United Nations General Assembly and also listened to a speech given by the US leader - had “resulted in Bush’s impudence and his blackmailing stipulations in Pennsylvania”.
Jomhouri Eslami said the fact that Ahmadinejad was present at the UN during Bush’s speech, and his declaration that he was ready to establish better relations with Washington, represented a “major change of attitude towards the US authorities by the highest executive official of the Islamic Republic”, and could be seen as “a kind of backtracking from former positions”.
New Round of Talks With Atomic Agency
On October 9, talks opened between the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, and officials in Tehran in an attempt to clear up unresolved questions about Iran’s nuclear activities.
Two days beforehand, Raja News denounced “parallel diplomacy” and “expressions of opinions that run counter to the government’s on the matter of the nuclear issue”. This was clearly a dig at reformers or others who might want to enter into the nuclear debate with the West. In September, the same website suggested that such “parallel diplomacy” was being pursued by Iran’s former top nuclear negotiator, Hassan Rohani, who reportedly had to pull out of a planned meeting with European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
Sepehr News - another website which backs the government, said on October 10 that “any parallel movement in foreign policy matters, and particularly on the nuclear question, will ultimately be taken advantage of by enemies”.
Meanwhile, on October 8, the reformist Norooz stressed that the country should continue to cooperate with the IAEA “even if certain western governments try to prevent [this] by creating obstacles”.
In August, Iran and the IAEA agreed on a timetable under which Tehran would answer outstanding questions about its nuclear programme by December.
More Sniping Ahead of 2008 Elections
With the March 2008 parliamentary election looming ever closer, both factions continued to pore over the government’s record to date.
On October 8, Kayhan warned principalists against complacency ahead of the elections, saying “it would be a mistake to imagine that just because the people have repeatedly voted for the principalists over the past five years, there is no need for analysis and evaluation”.
In the last week, many reformist outlets focused on comments made by former nuclear negotiator and ex-secretary of the Supreme National Security Council Hassan Rohani, in which he slammed the current administration.
On October 11, the reformist paper Hambastegi devoted its main analytical piece to Rohani’s remarks.
Rohani, an ally of former Iranian president Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, said “the country is facing greater threats and danger now than at any other time” and “the country’s situation is getting more difficult every day”. He admonished government officials for not accepting criticism, and warned of the consequences of denying the existence of an economic and political crisis.