Tehran, 2009, now has the feel of Madrid, 1936. A large segment of Iranian society feels under siege. This mood forged a coalition of disparate forces to resist what many see as an attempt by incumbent president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to establish an authoritarian-repressive regime.
The recent surge in popular enthusiasm for Ahmadinejad's main rival, Mir Hussein Mousavi, has increased the likelihood that the president's neo-conservative backers will resort to rigging the election results. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].
What we may be witnessing in Iran these days is a revolution within the Islamic Revolution. If successfully carried out, the net effect would be more like a coup, in which the incumbent president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, tramples on Iran's existing, tangled pluralistic system, and establishes what amounts to a neo-conservative dictatorship with the blessing of the country's spiritual leader.
What we may be witnessing in Iran these days is a revolution within the Islamic Revolution. If successfully carried out, the net effect would be more like a coup, in which the incumbent president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, tramples on Iran's existing, tangled pluralistic system, and establishes what amounts to a neo-conservative dictatorship with the blessing of the country's spiritual leader.
Mohsen Rezai, an Iranian presidential hopeful, reportedly claimed that Iran is better equipped than the United States to help resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh situation and other regional conflicts.
At the end of April, before the current Iranian presidential election campaign gathered momentum, two leading reformist presidential candidates, Mehdi Karrubi and Mir Hossein Musavi, announced plans to form a joint committee to guarantee the transparency of the presidential election and protect against possible vote-rigging, ballot-box stuffing, voter intimidation, or other forms of electoral f
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's penchant for loopy one-liners and unsubstantiated allegations may finally be getting the best of him. A raucous presidential debate -- featuring comments so outrageous that Ahmadinejad provoked rebukes from all across the political spectrum -- has energized the Iranian electorate, and riveted attention on the June 12 presidential vote.
The leading presidential challenger, Mir Hussein Mousavi, appears to be gaining a head of steam leading up to Iran's election on June 12. Even though some polls now show Mousavi to be leading the incumbent, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, some experts in Tehran maintain that political change in Tehran is unlikely. Some powerful forces in Iranian politics are unwilling to see Ahmadinejad lose.
In response to a recent Los Angeles Times article that named Azerbaijan as a "new front" in Iran's struggle against Israel, an Iranian official on June 1 denied that Tehran had any role in a failed 2008 attempt to bomb the Israeli Embassy in Baku.
