OROUMIYEH, West Azarbaijan Prov. Iranian Interior Minister Seyed Abdolvahed Moussavi-Lari said here on Tursday that despite the two decades that have passed since the institution of the Islamic Republic, the country's enemies are still lying in ambush to ruin the Islamic statehood in Iran. He said the people and the powers that antagonized the Islamic Republic at its birthday more than 20 years ago still cherish the same hostile wishes.

Moussavi-Lari referred to the suicide in the bathroom of a prison cell in Tehran a few days ago of a principal element behind suspicious, and prima facie political, recent killings in the country as another evidence of the desperation of the enemies of the Islamic Republic. The interior minister who was addressing a group of local government officials during ceremonies for his installation in office of Seyed Mahmoud Mirlowhi as new Governor General of West Azarbaijan Province of Iran said the Iranian society has firmly chosen the course to the future, and observed that in a country in which law and order rules there is no need for resorting to force.

He said that the laws of the state could be exploited as a means for ensuring a confident March on the path to national progress. Explaining the anti-government campaign of the enemies of the Islamic Republic, he said in the third decade of the life of the Islamic Revolution, neither the enemy has stopped hatching conspiracy, nor those after destroying the Islamic Republic have abandoned their pipe dream.

He said people's presence on the scene has served the strength and stability of the Islamic Republic. Nonetheless, the enemy is still hostile and takes advantage of every opportunity to deal a blow to the Islamic Republic, the interior minister said. "The Iranian people have recognized their way. We should work hard not to fall behind the people. We don't need to resort to violence or take illegal action.

We should honor law to promote political development," he said. (IRNA)