A group of reformist Iranians has sent a message to Iran’s spiritual leader ‘Ali Khamanai warning against the damage that President Mahmoud Ahmadi Nejad’s policies are causing the country.
The group includes former lawmakers and ministers in the government of the reform-minded president Muhammad Khatami, who was succeeded by Ahmadi Nejad in August 2005.
One of the signatories of the message told the London-based A-Sharq Al-Awsat that hardliner Ahmadi Nejad’s statements and policies are dragging the country to a destructive confrontation. He added that this confrontation will not be with the United States alone, but also with NATO, since America will not hit Iran single-handedly.
The former law maker said a senior European official who has good connections with the reform movement in Iran, sent a letter to former Iranian president and head of Iran’s Expediency Council ‘Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, warning of the negative implications the president’s policies will have in Washington and other European capitals.
He said that the Iranian leadership should take quick and decisive steps to silence Ahmadi Nejad and change the current course of foreign policies.
According to A-Sharq Al-Awsat, the signatories requested a meeting with decision makers and experts to discuss the crisis situation in Iran. They also asked Khamanai to release political prisoners and to allow freedom of media.
“Iran is going through one of the most severe periods in its history,” the message concluded. “And you, as the country’s supreme leader…the life or death of Iran is in your hands.”