Iran’s unfinished crisis

Islam and Politics

28 Sep 2009, NewAgeIslam.Com

Iran's unfinished crisis

A prominent London-based commentator, Alireza Nourizadeh, claims that a meeting of Iran's supreme national-security council (SNSC) discussed the possibility of arresting Moussavi and Karroubi themselves; but that it was decided to delay such action - perhaps until after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's scheduled address to the United Nations general assembly in New York on 23 September. The members of the SNSC include Iran's president; the speaker of the majlis (parliament); the head of the judiciary; the heads of the most powerful ministries (interior, intelligence and security); and two representatives of the supreme leader. A notable absentee from the meeting (according to Alireza Nourizadeh) was Hassan Rowhani, Iran's former chief nuclear negotiator and the council's secretary as well as one of Ayatollah Khamenei's representatives there. -- Nazenin Ansari URL of this page: http://newageislam.net/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1813 ----   Iran's unfinished crisis Nazenin Ansari 16-09-2009   The inventive tactics of Iran's opposition continue to deny the Tehran regime the uncontested power it seeks. The result is that the post-election political contest over the future of Iran is reaching a pivotal stage, says Nazenin Ansari.   The political crisis in Iran is far from over. The regime has used brutal power to curb the great popular demonstrations sparked by the stolen presidential election of 12 June 2009, but it faces a far greater task in restoring its lost legitimacy and propitiating the fury of a cheated people. Its strenuous efforts to regain balance and control are already hampered by persistent internal divisions; now it faces the danger of a new wave of mobilisation by the bravest of its opponents.   "The rights of Iran's women" (18 May 200The leadership's immediate concern is the state-sponsored "Qods [Jerusalem] day" demonstrations on 18 September 2009, an annual event held since 1981 when Ayatollah Khomeini designated the last Friday of the month of Ramadan as an occasion to express solidarity with the Palestinians. This time, members of the opposition "green movement" - named after the colour adopted by supporters of the reformist presidential candidate, Mir-Hossein Moussavi - are planning to use the march as an opportunity to fill the streets and voice their protests. The regime is desperate to ensure that there is no repeat of the great mobilisations in Tehran in the tumultuous post-election weeks.   The regime's strategy The regime is well aware of what is at stake. The supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a cold warning on 11 September 2009 that "resisting the system and taking out the sword against it will meet a harsh response. If somebody stands against the basis of the [Islamic] system and violates people's security, the system is forced to stand against it." Such intransigent rhetoric at the highest level is a justification of ferocious and consistent repression by the regime's militias, organised thugs, and judiciary. Khamenei's declaration came a day after security forces raided, pillaged and sealed the offices of Mir-Hossein Moussavi and his fellow opposition leader and presidential candidate Ayatollah Mehdi Karroubi. The office of the Association for the Defence of Prisoners' Rights was also ransacked, and evidence of the torture, rape and killing of detainees confiscated. An Amnesty International statement points out that "the seized records contain information which would enable the judicial authorities to identify the former detainees who were prepared to speak out on a confidential basis due to their fear of reprisals and the shocking nature of their ordeal." A number of top advisers to the opposition are among the thousands of people arrested in the post-election crackdown. The highest-profile of the later detainees is Alireza Beheshti, a senior adviser to Moussavi and the son of Iran's first head of the judiciary after the 1979 revolution - who was subsequently released on bail. The circumstances of these raids and arrests offer a hint that divisions within Iran's elite continue. Mohsen Makhmalbaf, the acclaimed filmmaker and Moussavi's official spokesman outside Iran, has suggested that "certain quarters of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps" are especially concerned on destroying the most damning evidence of abuse - in light of concerns "that Ayatollah Khamenei or even [Iran's president] Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are willing to sacrifice them for the sake of drawing a line under this election fiasco." A prominent London-based commentator, Alireza Nourizadeh, claims that a meeting of Iran's supreme national-security council (SNSC) discussed the possibility of arresting Moussavi and Karroubi themselves; but that it was decided to delay such action - perhaps until after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's scheduled address to the United Nations general assembly in New York on 23 September. The members of the SNSC include Iran's president; the speaker of the majlis (parliament); the head of the judiciary; the heads of the most powerful ministries (interior, intelligence and security); and two representatives of the supreme leader. A notable absentee from the meeting (according to Alireza Nourizadeh) was Hassan Rowhani, Iran's former chief nuclear negotiator and the council's secretary as well as one of Ayatollah Khamenei's representatives there. Mahmoud Tehrani, a nephew of Khamenei, reads the elite tensions this way: the supreme leader "is either a toy in the hands of Ahmadinejad, Ayatollah Mesbah-Yazdi [the president's spiritual adviser], and the Revolutionary Guards - or he shares their crimes. There is nothing he can do. If he backs off from his comments even one step, he will lose his leadership and the whole [conservative] camp will disintegrate. Ahmadinejad and the Revolutionary Guards are running the show in Iran, not Khamenei." Mohsen Sazegara, a one-time regime loyalist (he co-founded the IRGC in 1979) turned leading dissident, used one of his daily YouTube postings to argue that the battle is now between the people and the leaders of the election coup d'état - the latter headed by Ayatollah Khamenei's son, Mojtaba. This group is said to include Mohammad Ali Jafari (commander of the Revolutionary Guards); Hojatoleslam Hossein Taeb (commander of the basiji militias); Esmail Ahmadi-Moghaddam (commander-in-chief of law-enforcement forces); and Haj Davood Ahmadinejad (the president's elder brother).   The opposition's plans These ruthless machinations - even alongside evidence of internal tensions - lead some observers to doubt whether the green movement can succeed in altering Iran's political course. An Iranian analyst who wishes to remain anonymous suggests that three elements conspire against the opposition: the robustness of the security-intelligence apparatus; the lack of a single distinctive, attractive and courageous leader; and the constant nourishment given to a sick economy by an oil price of $70 a barrel. Yet the main representatives of the opposition remain firm in their stance. A statement released on 8 September 2009 - signed by Alireza Nourizadeh, Mohsen Sazegara, and Mohsen Makhmalbaf - anticipated the raids of the following day. This "warning to the people of Iran" declared that the "regime of coup d'état" plans to arrest Mir-Hossein Moussavi and Mehdi Karroubi; predicted that Iranians would in that event pour into the streets until all political prisoners were released; and announced that in the absence of the two reformist leaders, the green-movement's leadership would be transferred abroad. If the movement's command-body is relocated outside Iran, its main role (according to Makhmalbaf) will be to support and coordinate the activities of the opposition inside. Sazegara, always a strategist, says that the opposition will move ahead on three fronts: undermining the regime's legitimacy, cultivating more fissures within the top leadership, and paralysing the governing system. An arena now dominated by protests against human-rights abuses would be expanded to include strikes and other forms of non-cooperation to bring the state's operation to a halt.   The people's business The test of this ambitious programme will come soon, in the events of 18 September and the period after 23 September when (in addition to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's United Nations address) students return to schools and universities for the start of the new academic year.  The regime's brute force has been enough to prevent it being overwhelmed by the wave of popular anger since the fraudulent election of 12 June. But resistance to it is finding other channels, including the targeting of companies deemed to be collaborating with Iran's rulers. A consumer boycott of Nokia Siemens followed revelations that the company had sold communications-monitoring systems to the regime. The effects of such protest have also been felt by the Irancell mobile-phone network operator, the "Mohsen" brand of rice (whose earnings support the Revolutionary Guards), and Iran's state radio and television (whose head Ezatollah Zarghami is reported as saying that the number of TV viewers had shrunk by 40% since the election). An engineer in Tehran describes the current mood. "Even people who voted for Ahmadinejad have now turned against him due to his choice of highly incompetent and inexperienced cabinet ministers, and the huge 30% increase in meat and fruit prices in this month of Ramadan. His government is so unpopular that for the past month Iran premier-league football matches have had to be held without any spectators in the stadiums in order to prevent people from being seen and heard vilifying the president - and even Ayatollah Khamenei - in public.....gatherings of any sort are routinely broken up by riot-police wearing masks and shields, who continue to be (discreetly) present in Tehran's main squares and metro stations." The message continues: "Ahmadinejad has to go to appointments in a helicopter as people will tear him apart if he shows his face on Tehran streets....his residence in Pasteur Road is guarded by a large group of machine-gun wielding basiji ruffians. The unusual thing is that these basijis are now wearing black-cloth masks to hide their identity from passers-by.....previously it was the demonstrators who wore masks but now it is the basijis who are forced to do so - as citizens will beat them up and burn their motorcycles if they catch them alone somewhere." Iran's people have already written a new chapter in their history this year. There is more to come.   Nazenin Ansari is diplomatic correspondent ofKayhan (London) Also by Nazenin Ansari inopenDemocracy: "Iranians on the freedom path" (14 February 2006) "An ayatollah under siege - in Tehran" (4 October 2006) The rights of Iran's women" (18 May 200 his article is published by Nazenin Ansari, and openDemocracy.net under a Creative Commons licence. You may republish it without needing further permission, with attribution for non-commercial purposes following these guidelines. These rules apply to one-off or infrequent use. For all re-print, syndication and educational use please see read our republishing guidelines or contact us. Some articles on this site are published under different terms. No images on the site or in articles may be re-used without permission unless specifically licensed under Creative Commons.   Nazenin Ansari is diplomatic correspondent of Kayhan (London) Also by Nazenin Ansari inopenDemocracy: "Iranians on the freedom path" (14 February 2006) "An ayatollah under siege - in Tehran" (4 October 2006) "Tehran's new political dynamic" (16 April 2007) URL of this page: http://newageislam.net/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1813