Cleric says 'confessions' of detained men prove US plot against Iran

Tehran: A senior Iranian cleric said yesterday televised "confessions" of two detained American-Iranians proved a US-backed plot to carry out a "velvet revolution" using intellectuals to topple Iran's clerical establishment.

Haleh Esfandiari, an academic at the US-based Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars, and Kian Tajbakhsh, a consultant with George Soros' Open Society institute, have been detained separately since May for endangering Iran's security.

Illegitimate

Iran's state television aired a programme called "In the Name of Democracy", featuring interviews with Esfandiari and Tajbakhsh on Wednesday and Thursday. Washington has called the programme illegitimate and coerced.

But Ahmad Khatami, a member of the Experts Assembly with the power to appoint or dismiss Iran's supreme leader, disagreed.

"Confessions of the executors of America's policies proved that America wanted to bring about a velvet revolution in Iran," Khatami told worshippers at Tehran University. His remarks were broadcast live on state radio.

Esfandiari, detained when visiting Iran from the United States, said on Thursday she had helped create a network "to lead to very fundamental changes in Iran's system."

The TV programme also drew criticism from the Soros Foundation's Open Society Institute. The US-based group said it was "deeply concerned over Iran's use of deliberately contrived television footage" of the pair.

Iran's judiciary said on Tuesday the statements made by Esfandiari and Tajbakhsh on TV carried no legal weight.

Khatami said the programme had achieved its aim to "neutralise America's plot to carry out a velvet revolution in Iran". The country's top authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has warned of a US-backed "velvet revolution."

Tajbakhsh, a consultant with the Soros institute, founded by billionaire investor George Soros, told the same programme: "The aim of the Soros centre was to bring a model of the Western democracy" to Iran after an eventual conflict.

State television has in the past broadcast what it said were confessions by dissidents serving jail sentences for alleged attempts to undermine the Islamic Republic. Some have remained in jail even after the "confessions" were aired.