Friday Prayers across Iran: Government, MKO and defense capabilities

(Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan who served as pre-sermon speaker of Tehran's Friday prayers this week. Source: Arash Mirsepasi/YJC)

Ten days before the official "Government Week", commemoration of Mohammad-Ali Rajaei and Mohammad-Javad Bahonar, president and prime minister of Iran who lost their lives in an explosion masterminded by Mojahedin-e Khalgh Organization (MKO), Friday prayers leaders focused on the government's conduct.

In Tehran, Ahmad Khatami warned about the 'fourth-year syndrome', i.e. government's preoccupation with the imminent presidential elections. "The result could be disregarding citizens' demands" warned Khatami. In Shiraz, southern Iran, Friday prayers' sermonizer Ayatollah Asadollah Imani hailed the government's efforts to tame inflation, while expressing concern that ordinary citizens do not feel an improvement in the quality of their life.

The recently leaked conversation between the late Ayatollah Montazeri, designated successor to Ayatollah Khomeini up until 1988, and judiciary officials in late 1980s on collective execution of MKO members, was addressed by most Friday prayers' leaders across the country. In Tehran, Ahmad Khatami defended the decision made in summer of 1988, calling MKO "the Iranian Da'esh", and referring to their history of assassinating ordinary citizens, mutilating victims, and cooperating with Saddam Hussein in mass murder of Shias and Kurds in Iraq. In Boroujerd, Lorestan Province, Hassan Torabi also touched on the issue. Remembering the sixteen-thousand citizens murdered by the terrorist group, Torabi called release of the audio file "a plot by the enemy to revive the MKO in Iran at a time when the Islamic Resistance front is close to victory in Yemen, Bahrain, Lebanon and Iraq." In Ahwaz, center of Khuzestan Province, Abolhassan Hassanzadeh slammed the West for its hypocritical approach towards terrorism, questioning MKO members' residence in the US and European countries.

Sermonizers across the country also praised Iran's defense capabilities. While in Tehran Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan had laid out Tehran's advances in military industry before the main speech by Ahmad Khatami, in Abadan, Khuzestan Province, Ali Ebrahimipour highlighted the role of defense industry in reinforcing the country's security. "It is the right of the Iranian nation to possess advanced military equipment" he said. "It is in that case that the enemy's threats will become useless." In Zanjan, northwestern Iran, Sheikh Ali Khatami praised Iran's improving defense capabilities, including development of long-range missiles. "The enemy strives to stop Iran from having deterrent power" he added. "But Iran has made its decision."