Consequences Of Attacking Iran And Why Tehran Is Not Worried

[Lucin]

Re: Consequences Of Attacking Iran And Why Tehran Is Not Worried

Ahmadinejad may have not gained a 63% of the votes but I believe he has definitely swept the votes in rural, impoverished areas where the population is rather huge.

[meline]

Re: Consequences Of Attacking Iran And Why Tehran Is Not Worried

No doubt, Iran will come out of last Friday's election a different country. But it would serve us well to put aside our prism that has led us to misunderstand Iran for so many years, an anticipation that there would be a liberal counter-revolution in the country. Mousavi is far from the liberal democrat that many in the West would like to believe he is. The truth is, Ahmadinejad may be the President the Iranians want, and we may have to live with an Iran to Iranians' liking and not to ours.

An excellent point!

[KanadaHye]

Re: Consequences Of Attacking Iran And Why Tehran Is Not Worried

"The absolute worst things we could do at this point would be to declare Iran's election fraudulent, refuse to talk to the regime and pile on more sanctions. Hostility will only strengthen Ahmadinejad and encourage the hard-liners and secret police. We should never forget that Iran's spiritual leader, Ayatullah Khameinei, along with Ahmadinejad, have the full, if undeclared, backing of both the Revolutionary Guards and the army, and they are not afraid to use those resources to back up their mandate."

Is the home of the brave afraid of big bad Iran? awwwwwwweeee

[Lucin]

Re: Consequences Of Attacking Iran And Why Tehran Is Not Worried

Don't Assume Ahmadinejad Really Lost

By ROBERT BAER Robert Baer – Tue Jun 16, 1:10 pm ET

There is no denying that the news clips from Tehran are dramatic, unprecedented in violence and size since the mullahs came to power in 1979. They're possibly even augurs of real change. But can we trust them? Most of the demonstrations and rioting I've seen in the news are taking place in north Tehran, around Tehran University and in public places like Azadi Square. These are, for the most part, areas where the educated and well-off live - Iran's liberal middle class. These are also the same neighborhoods that little doubt voted for Mir-Hossein Mousavi, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's rival, who now claims that the election was stolen. But I have yet to see any pictures from south Tehran, where the poor live. Or from other Iranian slums.


Some facts about Iran's election will hopefully emerge in the coming weeks, with perhaps even credible evidence that the election was rigged. But until then, we need to add a caveat to everything we hear and see coming out of Tehran. For too many years now, the Western media have looked at Iran through the narrow prism of Iran's liberal middle class - an intelligentsia that is addicted to the Internet and American music and is more ready to talk to the Western press, including people with money to buy tickets to Paris or Los Angeles. Reading Lolita in Tehran is a terrific book, but does it represent the real Iran?


Before we settle on the narrative that there has been a hard-line takeover in Iran, an illegitimate coup d'État, we need to seriously consider the possibility that there has been a popular hard-line takeover, an electoral mandate for Ahmadinejad and his policies. One of the only reliable, Western polls conducted in the run-up to the vote gave the election to Ahmadinejad - by higher percentages than the 63% he actually received. The poll even predicted that Mousavi would lose in his hometown of Tabriz, a result that many skeptics have viewed as clear evidence of fraud. The poll was taken all across Iran, not just the well-heeled parts of Tehran. Still, the poll should be read with a caveat as well, since some 50% of the respondents were either undecided or wouldn't answer.


No doubt, Iran will come out of last Friday's election a different country. But it would serve us well to put aside our prism that has led us to misunderstand Iran for so many years, an anticipation that there would be a liberal counter-revolution in the country. Mousavi is far from the liberal democrat that many in the West would like to believe he is. The truth is, Ahmadinejad may be the President the Iranians want, and we may have to live with an Iran to Iranians' liking and not to ours.

The absolute worst things we could do at this point would be to declare Iran's election fraudulent, refuse to talk to the regime and pile on more sanctions. Hostility will only strengthen Ahmadinejad and encourage the hard-liners and secret police. We should never forget that Iran's spiritual leader, Ayatullah Khameinei, along with Ahmadinejad, have the full, if undeclared, backing of both the Revolutionary Guards and the army, and they are not afraid to use those resources to back up their mandate.


Baer, a former CIA field officer assigned to the Middle East, is TIME.com's intelligence columnist and the author of See No Evil and, most recently, The Devil We Know: Dealing with the New Iranian Superpower.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/08599190495300

[KarotheGreat]

Re: Consequences Of Attacking Iran And Why Tehran Is Not Worried

Iranian president blasts U.S. at SCO summit in Russia

15:3316/06/2009

YEKATERINBURG, June 16 (RIA Novosti) - Iran's controversial president said on Tuesday that ongoing regional conflicts and the global economic crisis proved that the current unipolar world dominated by the United States is not viable.

Despite mass protests at home against his landslide reelection last Friday, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg for a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), in which Iran has observer status.

"Iraq continues to be occupied, chaos is growing in Afghanistan, the Palestinian problem remains unresolved, the world is swept by political and economic crises, and there is no hope for their resolution," he said.

Ahmadinejad said the U.S. and its allies were unable to cope with the crises, showing that "the end has come" for the current unipolar world order.

He urged the SCO to take a leading role in efforts to tackle the global economic recession, and reiterated Iran's ambition for closer cooperation with the regional group, which includes Russia, China and four ex-Soviet Central Asian republics.

The Islamic Republic, the world's fifth largest oil exporter, has lobbied for full membership in the organization, seen as a counterbalance to U.S. interests in energy-rich Central Asia. The security grouping has recently expanded its remit to encompass economic and energy projects.

Ahmadinejad briefly met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on the sidelines of the summit on Tuesday. "The parties agreed to continue economic and humanitarian cooperation, and other contacts," a Kremlin spokesperson said after the meeting.

Media reports said earlier on Tuesday that Medvedev had canceled his bilateral meeting with Ahmadinejad, citing a busy schedule, as the Iranian leader arrived a day late.

Tehran and other Iranian cities were swept by mass protests at the weekend over alleged vote fraud in the reelection of the hardline, anti-Western president.

The protests, the worst since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, continued in defiance of a government ban on Monday, with sporadic shooting reported in the capital. Seven people were killed when shots were fired into a group of protesters, Iran's Press TV reported on Tuesday, citing state radio.

U.S. President Barack Obama said on Monday he was "deeply troubled" by the violence in Iran.

Russia's deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, said on Tuesday that the "election in Iran is an internal affair of the Iranian people." He also welcomed Ahmadinejad as "the reelected president" on his first foreign visit.

Iran has been in the center of a long-running international dispute over its nuclear program. Western powers have been trying to persuade Tehran to halt nuclear activity suspecting it of plans to build a nuclear bomb. Iran says it needs nuclear technology for electricity generation.

Russia is completing the construction of Iran's first nuclear power plant, and has supplied nuclear fuel for it. Russia and China, permanent UN Security Council members, have prevented strict sanctions against the Islamic Republic over its controversial nuclear activity.

source: http://en.rian.ru/world/20090616/155266305.html

[hipeter924]

Re: Consequences Of Attacking Iran And Why Tehran Is Not Worried

Western Democracy: Only we can democratically choose who to put into power in your country.

Happy meal included, freedom does not apply.

[retro]

Re: Consequences Of Attacking Iran And Why Tehran Is Not Worried

Western Democracy: Only we can democratically choose who to put into power in your country.

The media apparatchiks are unsurprisingly spinning like top over Ahmadinejad's “vote rigging” and Iran's “civil unrest”.

Western Democracies are experts at rigging elections and such intricate matters should not be in the hands of lesser qualified regimes. We are after "the great Satan" and need to keep up appearances!

Nevertheless during your countries next staged elections. Be sure to vote for mainstream, western puppet party X and not western puppet party Y.

Party Y are subversive, corrupt, decadent traitors and they are not to be trusted (at least during this election). Vote X and remember "Your vote 'cough' counts!"

[UrMistake]

Re: Consequences Of Attacking Iran And Why Tehran Is Not Worried

I can see some similaritys of Levon with the Irans opposition they both don't accept democratically elections thirst of power...

[KanadaHye]

Re: Consequences Of Attacking Iran And Why Tehran Is Not Worried

Western Democracy: Only we can democratically choose who to put into power in your country.

[retro]

Re: Consequences Of Attacking Iran And Why Tehran Is Not Worried

Looks like things are turning nasty in Tehran.

One dead as hardline militiamen open fire on protesters in Tehran

Hardline militiamen allied to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad shot one protester dead this afternoon and wounded many more in what appeared to be the beginning of a toughened crackdown against demonstrators protesting against the Iranian President's disputed election victory.

The Basij militiamen used live bullets after their building was attacked by furious supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi, an Iranian photographer at the scene who witnessed the shooting said.

Members of Iran’s security forces have at times fired into the air during two days of the Iranian capital’s most violent unrest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and used batons to beat protesters who have pelted police with stones. But witnesses said that the Basij resorted to live fire this afternoon, and people fled the area as police fired tear gas. As well as one death, several were said to be wounded in the incident. ...

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle6505842.ece