Castro’s message to Mahdavi Kani on committees [in early revolution days]

Text of report by Iranian newspaper Qods website. BBC Monitoring Middle East – Political
Supplied by BBC Worldwide Monitoring

Text of four reports from political desk in “Special News” column published by Iranian newspaper Qods on 27 January

Castro’s message to Mahdavi Kani on committees [in early revolution days]

At the outset of the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Fidel Castro sent a message to Ayatollah Mahdavi Kani, the head of the Revolution Committees at the time, warning him not to allow the committees to be abolished. The person who conveyed the message to Mahdavi Kani was none other than Ebrahim Yazdi, the minister of foreign affairs at the time, who had paid a visit to Havana along with an Iranian delegation.

According to a report by our correspondent, on Sunday afternoon [25 January], in the programme “Three Decades of Strength” that was broadcast on the Third Network of the [Voice and] Vision [Iranian state broadcaster] and dealt with the events at the beginning of the revolution, Ayatollah Mahdavi Kani, the first official in charge of the revolution committees, commented on the process of the formation of the committees and continued those remarks by dealing with the opposition by the government of the late Bazargan and then Bani Sadr with the principle of the existence of the committees and their activities.

At one point in his comments he said: Mr Ebrahim Yazdi who had paid a visit to Cuba with an Iranian delegation met me on his return and told me that Fidel Castrol had sent me a message and stressed that the revolution committees should not be allowed to be abolished. According to Ayatollah Mahdavi Kani the Cubans also had formed popular committees after their revolution and made use of their resources for many years after that.

During the interview Mahdavi Kani also confirmed that certain infiltrators and unfaithful individuals had entered the committees in the atmosphere of the country at the start of the victory of the revolution.

During the programme a speech by His Eminence the Imam (may God Almighty be satisfied with him) [Ayatollah Khomeini] was broadcast that indicated that he had reacted categorically with respect to the outlooks at the time that called for the elimination of the revolution committees. At the same time he had stressed the need for the purging of that popular institution of certain unsound people and the healing of the atmosphere of that institution.