Iran: An Ayatollah's "Larijani is a Jew" Declaration

Here's a story you're unlikely to have heard this week....

A few days ago we learned of an audio recording, reportedly of Ayataollah Mohammad Baqer Kharrazi, the head of the Ansar-e Hezbollah (Party of God), a semi-official, paramilitary group formed in 1995. We were not sure of the story, which finally appeared on a Green website, but we put the recording before trusted correspondents, who said it sounded authentic.

Kharrazi's speech was concerned with the attempts by Zionists to take over Iran, as he asserted that Israelis control food and clothing industries within all Islamic states. Getting specific, he claimed infiltration of Zionists into the higher ranks of Iranian politics. Some of the suspects might seem surprising: for example, Kharrazi identified the "British wife" of an official close to the Supreme Leader. (This is appraently Mohammadi Golpayegani, the chief of Ayatollah Khamenei's office.)

And then this: Kharrazi asked why Iranians should trust "a citizen of the village Larijan".

Now, on first glance, that criticism seems a bit petty. Larijan, a district in Mazandaran in northern Iran, does not strike one as a likely centre for Zionist activity. In fact, it would probably go unnoticed except for this little fact that it is the home of the Larijani clan.

Ah, yes. That would include Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani, the head of Iran's judiciary, Sadegh Larijani, and high-ranking judiciary official Mohammad Javad Larijani.

Now it's not unknown for someone to seize headlines by claiming that a prominent politician is a secret member of a disliked/distrusted religion (hmm, what about this current example from the US?). So Kharrazi's outburst could be treated as our weekend diversion.

Except it does not that he or Ansar-e Hezbollah are insignificant. The organisation is suspected of involvement in some unsavoury episodes in Iran's recent past, including the "Chain Murders" of the late 1990s, and it is a presence on Iranian streets. Kharrazi is also far from unconnected: his daughter is married to Massoud Khamenei, the son of the Supreme Leader.

And the words beyond the identification of the Larijanis and other Zionist infiltrators indicate that Kharrazi is looking for a political fight. He says that no one "takes care" of this Israeli insurgents and that he is gathering "documents" for publication: "We will take our Hizbollah forces to the streets against them....[Our[ problems will be solved, when we 'have solved' the problem of Bani Israelis in Muslim countries."