seven other members of the outlawed party.
Yazdi was foreign minister in 1979 when the US embassy was seized. Yazdi and all other members of the cabinet of Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan resigned when Ayatollah Khomeini endorsed the seizure.
When Bazargan, who founded the Freedom Movement in the 1960s, died, Yazdi took over leadership of the party. He has been arrested repeatedly over the years.
In fact, when Yazdi was arrested Friday, he was only on temporary release from prison for treatment of heart and prostate ailments, the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) said.
The news agency reported that Yazdi was arrested for three reasons—for traveling from Tehran to Esfahan, where he was arrested, without permission; for attending an “illegal” Friday prayer service led by Ali-Asghar Gharavi, a Freedom Movement activist who was also arrested; and for planning to attend an illegal gathering of Freedom Movement members after the prayer service.
The Kaleme opposition website said no arrest warrant or other documents were presented at the time the prayer meeting was broken up by the authorities.
Among those arrested with Yazdi was Hashem Sabbaghian who is a senior member of the Central Council of the Freedom Movement and also served in Bazargan’s cabinet.
The state news agency described Gharavi, the cleric leading the prayers, as “a notorious Wahhabi agent.” The Wahhabi form of Islam is Sunni and is the dominant form in Saudi Arabia. It is strongly anti-Shia.
The state news agency quoted an “informed source” as saying that Yazdi had pledged not to engage in any political activities but was actually trying to expand his party by visiting several provinces.
The Freedom Movement was a major actor in the revolution and was trusted with the government immediately after the revolution. But Bazargan had constant frictions with Khomeini and the Freedom Movement was soon outlawed. Over the next few decades, Yazdi was often trotted out for foreign reporters as proof of political freedoms in Iran. At the same time, Freedom Movement offices were often attacked and ransacked.
Since about 2000, however, the regime has landed hard on Yazdi and his party with the clear intent of putting him and the party out of business.
Yazdi has often commented on Iranian politics for Western news agencies. He lived in Texas before the revolution and is a naturalized American citizen. His children stayed in the United States when he returned to Iran after the revolution.
In 2005, Yazdi said the government of President Ahmadi-nejad was comprised of three separate groups that ranged from skilled professionals to dedicated thugs.
In an interview with Asia Times Online, Yazdi described the first group as being “those in charge of economic matters, qualified, with a proven record. They know what they want: a market economy, support for the private sector, reducing the size of the government.” And they know that capital only flows to places with political stability.
The second group, said Yazdi, is comprised of those in the ministries of intelligence, interior, and culture and Islamic guidance. This group “represents extreme, repressive forces, displays a disbelief in human rights, and advocates harsh treatment” of dissidents.
The third group, according to Yazdi, includes the technocrats in such ministries as health and communications. These are “individuals with good academic records but not a management record. A good professor is not necessarily a good minister.”
These three distinct groups, said Yazdi, meant that Ahmadi-nejad’s cabinet was one of serious internal contradictions. For example, the first group knows “they cannot help the privatization drive while confronting the suppressive group. If the hardliners … want to continue in their harsh ways, capital will flow elsewhere.” Yazdi estimated the flight of capital was as much as $600 billion.
Yazdi also said the bragging of some “rightists” in Iran that their country is set to become a Muslim version of China was wishful thinking. To become successful like China, claimed Yazdi, three components are necessary: “economic development, social freedom and political expression.”
But, he said, “The Iranian authorities are only equipped for suppression. Social freedoms in China—like freedom for boys and girls to get together—are no problem in China, as long as they don’t involve anything political. The dress code was never an issue [in China]. The Iranian government, on the other hand, keeps hammering on Islamization of social behavior. Even novels are censored—there is no kissing in novels published in this country.”
China has been so successful, said Yazdi, because “the Chinese divorced themselves from the Cultural Revolution.… The Communist Party decided to remove any ideology. Only nationalism remained. Can Iranian authorities divorce themselves from Islam? No. They do have a problem.”