I.R. Iran Replaces Reformist Cleric for Annual Sermon

The Associated Press

Iran has replaced a reformist, pro-opposition cleric with a hard-liner to lead the prayer service on a key anti-Israel day this week, according to a state radio report Wednesday. The announcement is a blow to Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the powerful former president who sided with the opposition in Iran's post-election turmoil. It is also an apparent move to sideline Rafsanjani ahead of anti-government rallies on Quds Day, called for by opposition activists. Authorities have warned they would crack down heavily on any anti-government protests on the occasion, which usually falls on the last Friday of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan.

Rafsanjani traditionally holds the sermon on Quds Day -- an annual event that showcases Iran's anti-Israeli stance and is marked by government-organized rallies in support of the Palestinians and against Israel. Quds is Arabic for Jerusalem. State radio said Ahmad Khatami -- a hardline cleric and supporter of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -- will lead the Friday prayers on Sept. 18. Ahmadinejad is also to deliver a speech before the ceremony at Tehran University campus, the radio reported. In the crisis that gripped Iran following the June 12 vote that re-elected Ahmadinejad for a second term, Rafsanjani sided with Ahmadinejad's main reformist challenger, opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi.

The pro-reform camp claims Mousavi was the rightful winner of the presidential election and that the government faked the balloting in Ahmadinejad's favor. Since the vote, thousands of oppositions poured onto the streets to rally against the alleged vote fraud but were met with a heavy government crackdown. The opposition says at least 72 protesters were killed in the violence that followed the election, while government officials maintain that only 36 died in the unrest -- the worst in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that brought the current regime to power. Thousands were arrested, and the regime's opponents have charged some detainees were tortured to death in prison. (Read more...)