Iran: US funded sedition leaders

Iran has confirmed that certain countries had provided “leaders of sedition” with one billion dollars during last year’s post-election unrest.

“This issue is true. A fund of over even one billion dollars can be imagined,” Fars news agency quoted Iran’s Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi as telling reporters on Wednesday.

“We have found clear clues about foreign support for the leaders of sedition. For example, a man who collected news for the leaders of sedition was arrested and confessed to receiving aid from the CIA intelligence services,” he further explained.

The Iranian minister added that another person who has fled the country used to write statements for the sedition leaders.

“The individual has acknowledged receiving support from intelligence services,” he added.

According to Moslehi, anti-revolutionary moves within the country, as well as countries which backed “the sedition leaders,” made efforts to topple the Islamic establishment.

But wise and timely measures adopted by Iran’s security forces thwarted all the plots, he went on to say.

Moslehi’s remarks came after the Head of the Guardian Council, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, said in late July that the US had given “the leaders of sedition” one billion dollars in order to topple the Islamic establishment during the unrest following the 2009 presidential election.

“I have acquired documents showing that the Americans paid one billion dollars to the leaders of sedition through Saudi individuals who are currently US agents in regional countries,” Jannati said.

“These Saudis, who spoke on behalf of the US, told the opposition figures that if you can overthrow the Islamic establishment, we would pay another 50 billion dollars,” he added.

The 12-member Guardian Council, which among other things is tasked with overseeing elections and ensuring that they are held in a free and fair manner, endorsed the result of the June 2009 presidential election that saw Mahmoud Ahmadinejad moving into his second term in office.