Friday, June 19, 2009

Iran

Iran is a modern sophisticated country with a well educated and (relatively) wealthy population. A population that in living memory (in my living memory!) overthrew a tyrannical government.

For the Supreme Leader to blame foreign enemies is transparent nonsense (indeed, Obama has been very very careful not to even appear to intervene). The claim smacks of desperation (next we'll see attack ads against Mousavi?).

That said, I do not foresee a revolution here. And the changes that would come from having Mousavi elected are not that great -- he is a reformer yes, but far from a radical (although as reform in the Soviet Union showed, a little change can morph into a big change).

Those hesitations aside, something remarkable is happening in Iran and if massive repression is avoided it may might could be possibly conceivably be the start of a new free Iran.


Tehran - Reuters and Associated Press, Friday, Jun. 19, 2009

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appealed for calm on Friday and attacked "enemies" questioning the result of a presidential vote that has sparked the biggest street protests in the Islamic Republic's history.

"Today the Iranian nation needs calm," Ayatollah Khamenei said in his first address to the nation since the upheaval began.

He said Iran's enemies were targeting the legitimacy of the Islamic establishment by disputing the outcome of the election.

Ayatollah Khamenei said there was "definitive victory" and no rigging in the disputed election. He offered no concession to opposition supporters who are demanding the elections be cancelled and held again.

He blamed Britain and Iran's external enemies for the unrest, vigorously defending the ruling system.

Ayatollah Khamenei called for street protests to end, telling the defeated candidates: "I am urging them to end street protests, otherwise they will be responsible for its consequences, and consequences of any chaos."

"The result of the election comes out of the ballot boxes, not on the street," he added, saying political leaders who engaged in extremist behaviour were responsible for any post-election bloodshed.

Ayatollah Khamenei said the election showed off the country's religious democracy for the world to see. He said that if the Iranian people did not feel free they would not have gone to the polls in such huge numbers as they did during the June 12th election.

Ayatollah Khamenei has already approved the election results that gave President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a landslide victory, but he has not been able to ignore the powerful defiance of the opposition, which has called the vote rigged, of his authority.

Ayatollah Khamenei made his address as part of Friday prayers at Tehran University. Among the throngs of people crowded into the hall to see him speak was Mr. Ahmadinejad.

It was not known whether Mr. Ahmadinejad's main challenger, Mir Hossein Mousavi attended as well. At least one other candidate who ran against Mr. Ahmadinejad, reformist Mahdi Karroubi, had said he will attend the service.

Press TV, an English-language version of Iranian state television, showed television pictures of the crowded hall where Ayatollah Khamenei was speaking as the crowd and thousands of people assembled outside cheered.

The address comes one day after hundreds of thousands of protesters in black and green flooded the streets of Tehran in a sombre, candlelit show of mourning for those killed in clashes after Iran's disputed presidential election.

The massive march - the fourth this week - sent a strong message that opposition leader Mr. Mousavi has the popular backing to sustain his challenge.

After the June 12 elections, Ayatollah Khamenei approved the balloting results as a "divine assessment" and urged the Iranian people to pursue their allegations of election fraud within the limits of the cleric-led system.

But this week's rallies, which recall the scale of protests during the 1979 Islamic Revolution that ended the Iran's U.S.-backed monarchy, openly defied those orders.

It may be hard for Ayatollah Khamenei - a man endowed with virtually limitless powers under Iran's constitution - to back down from his support of Mr. Ahmadinejad. But Mr. Mousavi and his supporters have also shown that they can't be brushed aside.

James Morton
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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

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