Fracture in the idea of the Islamic Republic of Iran

a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8113077.stm"Jeremy Bowen:/abr /br /blockquote...br /br /pA priority for the authorities is stopping any more demonstrations. /ppThey seem to have recognised that the presence of so many people defying the regime fuels the political campaign being waged inside Iran's elite by the man who thinks he won the election, Mir Hossein Mousavi.br //pp.../ppThe challenge for the opposition is finding a way to keep the demonstrations going despite the threats./ppThe most significant thing about the demonstrations on Saturday was that they happened at all after such an explicit warning from the Supreme Leader. /ppMr Mousavi's response was just as blunt. He has challenged the Supreme Leader's authority, like the demonstrators who support him. He said that the Islamic Republic needed comprehensive reform and the people needed freedom of expression. /ppMr Mousavi and his supporters, who want the elections annulled, are unlikely to be satisfied from the latest announcement from the Guardian Council which supervises the poll. It said that there were irregularities, but crucially they wouldn't have affected the final result. /ppSo the split between the two sides is widening.br //pp.../ppBut what makes this crisis unprecedented is the scale of the dissent on the streets and the fact that it is in parallel with a fracture in the ruling elite. /ppFor the last 30 years years Iran's top leaders have disagreed with each other many times, but they have never taken their quarrels to the people like this.br //pp...br //pbr //blockquoteWhat Khamenei has the apparatus of state at his disposal, that apparatus and his authority have never been so directly challenged before. It is like the protestants of the Middle Ages questioning the a ruling from the Pope. So while Khamenei can still order the troops and thugs out onto the street, he looks much smaller for having to do so. The fact that he is keeping Ahmadinejad semi under wraps suggest they know they overplayed their hand when they so blatantly rigged the election.br /br /The government has lost its legitimacy. The best thing for the Iranian people is to keep that legitimacy in question by continuing to challenge "authority." In fact that is better than a capitulation to Mousavi.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5051247-6620013568809657168?l=prairiepundit.blogspot.com'//div

technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley