Iran elects reformist parliamentary speaker
Special to World Tribune.com
MIDDLE EAST NEWSLINE
Wednesday, May 31, 2000
NICOSIA [MENL] -- Iran's parliament has elected a reformist, allied to
Iranian president Mohammad Khatami, as parliamentary speaker.
Mehdi Karrubi, 44, a former speaker and former hard-liner, was the sole
candidate for the post.
Karrubi won 186 votes from the 252 members of parliament present.
On Monday, the Teheran-based reformist daily Bayan reported that a plot
by a presidential bodyguard to assassinate Iran's reformist President
Mohammad Khatami had been foiled by Iran's Revolutionary Guards.
The plot was discovered several weeks ago, the paper said.
A hard-line politician, Ahmad Tavakoli, told the paper that the elite
Revolutionary Guards recently arrested the bodyguard.
No further details about the plot or the bodyguard were available.
The assassination plot follows the shooting in March of Saeed Hajjarian,
a close ally of Khatami. Hajjarian was seriously injured in the attack. No
arrests were made but hard-liners are suspected of having ordered the
shooting.
On Monday night, the Iraq-based opposition Mujahedeen Khalq said an
unspecified number of Iranian soldiers and commanders were killed when
insurgents rained mortars on the headquarters of the Revolutionary Guards'
Joint Chiefs of Staff in eastern Tehran. The insurgents said the explosions
were followed by street clashes between Mujahedeen Khalq members and
Iranian security forces.
But Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency said there were no
casualties. IRNA reported that several explosions were heard and that
police later discovered a mortar launcher in the area.
Wednesday, May 31, 2000
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