Iranian Official provides stance at post-2009 elections events

The member of the Expediency Discernment Council has met with a number of political activists from University of Tehran, Allameh Tabatabaii University, and Sharif University of Technology.
Mohammad Reza Aref pointed to political activism in universities and said that the most important thing he could recall the university students was that students’ circles should be active inside the university and should not accept impact from outside it.

“ A damage unfortunately all of us are subject to is that circles outside the universities attempt to give the guidelines to students, with the result being that instead of robust student movement, sensitive to all subjects, now there is a weak collection with no motivation to activity in the body of students’ movement,” added Aref, believing it ‘very dangerous.’

Aref admitted that protest was students’ true right, and in answer to a question that why he had not been nominated in 2005 and 2009 presidential election. “The situation in 2005 saw many Reformist politicians coming into the fore, and so, I did not felt obliged to be nominated. I strongly believed that being a Vice-president was more effective than being a loser candidate,” he added, saying that “in 2009, when I decided to be nominated, Khatami, and then, Mousavi and Karroubi came to the fore, and because I did not like face them as my opponents, I drew back from the elections.”

In answer to another question on national unity, Aref asserted that he believed in ‘national understanding cabinet,’ and “ I think that in its worst, we have more than 50 to 60 per cent of understanding with the opponents, and if cooperation is the government’s main approach, many issues and challenges would be solved.”

The former First Vice-president of Reformist cabinet stated his wish that “Reformist camp reaches a consensus.”

He also pointed to country’s situation on the brink of the elections. “The atmosphere in the country is not conducive for a good election; any event is probable, but I think that the solution is not 2009 elections solution,” he asserted.

“Both responsible officials and politicians could have act better. Unconventional approaches to situations are not for the benefit of the country, and instead, friendship and tolerance should be the basis for action,” he added.