- Iran's new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has placed
the military firmly in control of his nation's nuclear program, undercutting
his government's claim that the program is intended for civilian use, according
to a leading opposition group.
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- Leaders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC),
the force created specifically to defend the 1979 Islamic revolution, now
dominate Iran's Supreme National Security Council, the country's top foreign
policy-making body under the constitution.
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- Mr. Ahmadinejad, a little-known former mayor of Tehran
before his surprise election in July, is a former IRGC commander, as is
new council Secretary-General Ali Larijani, who has taken the lead in negotiations
about Iran's nuclear programs.
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- Revolutionary Guard commanders also have taken charge
of the council's internal security, strategy and political posts, according
to a report issued by the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of
Iran. A Revolutionary Guard veteran even serves as the council's press
spokesman.
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- "The military under the new president is firmly
in control of the nuclear program and the nuclear negotiations with the
United Nations and the West," said Mohammad Mohaddessin, chairman
of the NCRI's foreign affairs committee, in a telephone interview yesterday.
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- The personnel changes "make it less and less credible
that Iran is pursuing nuclear programs for peaceful uses," he said.
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- The report, which also tracks Iran's extensive nuclear
infrastructure and technical programs, charges that Iranian Supreme Leader
Ayatollah Khamanei has turned to IRGC personnel in order to "eliminate
all bureaucratic and political obstacles to obtaining nuclear weapons."
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- Iran, which claims the right to pursue a civilian nuclear
program to meet its domestic energy needs, is in intense negotiations with
European Union powers France, Britain and Germany over the fate of its
nuclear programs.
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- The Bush administration is deeply skeptical of Tehran's
ambitions. The board of the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency last month threatened
to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions if it
does not allow tight international oversight of its programs.
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- The NCRI is the political arm of the People's Mujahadeen,
a secular Iranian bloc that broke violently with the Islamic leaders of
the revolution shortly after the ouster of the U.S.-backed Shah Mohammad
Reza Pahlavi.
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- The opposition group has had a checkered and at times
contradictory role. Branded a terrorist group by U.S. and European governments,
it also has proven to be the single best intelligence source on Iran's
clandestine nuclear programs, exposing in recent years massive research
and testing sites inside Iran unknown to U.N. and Western monitors.
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- But other analysts also have reported a wave of senior
appointments for Iran's military, especially from within the more ideological
forces under the direct control of the ruling Islamic clerics.
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- Houchang Hassan-Yari, a political scientist at the Royal
Military College of Canada, noted in a recent analysis that current and
former members of the IRGC now can be found throughout Iran's political
and administrative bureaucracy, from lawmakers in parliament to mayors,
university officials and even managers of some of Iran's biggest business
concerns.
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- The corps is "on the verge of being transformed
from a junior player in the country's military defense to a key factor
in the country's military and security doctrine -- a rise that could come
at the [traditional] army's expense," he noted.
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- Bill Samii, an Iranian analyst for Radio Free Europe/Radio
Liberty, said a key factor in Mr. Ahmadinejad's surprise presidential election
was the support of the Basij Resistance Force, a paramilitary force with
extensive links to the Revolutionary Guards Corps.
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- The new president, with virtually no experience in foreign
affairs when he was elected, named a senior Basij leader as a top adviser
just after assuming office in August.
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