Iran

Dissidents break taboo with rebuke of ayatollah

In a daring protest, more than 100 reformist lawmakers accused Iran’s supreme leader of allowing freedoms to be “trampled” and rigging upcoming parliament elections in favor of hard-line backers.The attack, in a letter sent to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, raised political dissent to levels unimaginable just a few weeks ago and shattered taboos about public criticism of Iran’s unchallenged political and spiritual authority.

The letter struck right at a core complaint: that Khamenei’s regime has corrupted the spirit of the 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled a Western-backed monarchy.

“The popular (1979) revolution brought freedom and independence for the country in the name of Islam. But now you lead a system in which legitimate freedoms and the rights of the people are being trampled in the name of Islam,” the legislators said in the letter, made public Tuesday — a day after being sent.

Jerusalem

Arafat, Qureia dispute path of financial reform

A disagreement about financial reform erupted into a major dispute between Yasser Arafat and his prime minister, Ahmed Qureia, and threatens to delay vital foreign aid to the Palestinian Authority, officials said Tuesday.

The confrontation, which centered on salary payments to Palestinian security forces, is seen as a key test of Qureia’s ability to clean up his government’s finances. International donor countries are becoming increasingly impatient with what they see as Palestinian foot-dragging on reform, and are scaling back aid.

Financial reform is one of the Palestinian obligations under the U.S.-backed “road map” peace plan.

The road map has been stalled for months, with both Israel and the Palestinians failing to carry out the first steps.

The Arafat-Qureia dispute is perhaps their most serious since the prime minister took office late last year. In general, Qureia has been trying to accommodate Arafat, rather than challenge him.