Iran Election // Current

The last Supreme Leader of Iran

Newsweek reports that Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei will be the last... more

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A Death in Tehran

Very beautiful and accurate description of what hapenned in the Iranian election,... more

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Neda's boyfriend speaks after escaping Iran

Caspian Makan, a 38 year old Iranian photographer, has had a terrible few months. Amid... more

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BGTV Daily Update 25 - Show Trials, Oil Windfall...and a bomb?

Boomgen TV is a new news service that reports the news from inside Iran in English on... more

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Iran sentences three to death over vote unrest

A court has sentenced three people to death over street unrest that erupted after... more

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Iran: It’s just the fact of the talking that’s important

FROM THE BLOG: What is happening in Geneva?? I just can’t stand the waiting! Are... more

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Iran student protests and the return of nuke inspectors

When demonstrators took to the streets after Iran’s disputed Presidential election,... more

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Tehran NYC - Iran election protestors to descend on UN

New York may see a taste of Tehran this week as Iranians from around the world descend... more

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Clashes as Iranians Hold Demonstrations

LONDON — Courting renewed international criticism, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of... more

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Iran appoints first-ever female cabinet minister, clerics chagrined

The first Iranian female cabinet minister to be appointed since the foundation of the... more

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Iranian Inspiration from Afsaneh Noori

Know how to thrive through the changes? Special Import to the Gulf Coast, Afsaneh... more

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New Group

News on the conflicts in the middle east. (Israel, Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan,... more

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Peace Junkie TV: IRAN

07.08.09 Peace Junkie TV: IRAN "So 4 More Years Of Ahmedinejad then...yikes.... more

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Video roundup of yesterday's Iran protests

Courtesy Andrew Sullivan at the Atlantic. Produced by Al Jazeera.

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Mousavi Barred From Neda Graveside Memorial By Iranian Police

Iranian police blocked opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi from attending a... more

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Iran's first trials of protesters to begin

TEHRAN, Iran – Around 20 protesters will be put on trial starting Saturday in the... more

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Shohreh Aghdashloo's Family Member Injured in Iran

A young relative of Oscar-nominated Iranian-born actress Shohreh Aghdashloo was... more

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By MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles | 24 July 2009

[TEHRAN BUREAU] comment Iran’s rigged presidential election of June 12, 2009, has given rise to a very odd phenomenon. Some supposedly leftists and progressives in America have adopted the view that the Iranian election was not rigged. They believe that the Iranian reformists have not been honest about the election (they say the reformists knew they would lose). They allege that the demonstrations in Iran against the rigged election are mostly the work of Western intelligence agencies stirring up trouble. In taking such a position, these so-called leftists and progressives have firmly sided with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

As someone on the left side of the political spectrum, who believes in a progressive and enlightened interpretation of Islamic and Shia teachings, the author feels deeply embarrassed by such proclamations from so-called leftists, some of whom do not know the first thing about Iran and Iranians, yet speak about developments there with such absolute certainty. There are those who believe that with Ahmadinejad, Iranians have gotten exactly what they deserve. And there are others still who subscribe to odd and far-fetched conspiracy theories. They see a plot hatched by Western intelligence agencies (and now even the reformists), behind everything that happens. While such intrigues do exist in some cases, the present situation in Iran does not appear to be one of them. At the very least, there is no concrete evidence for it.

Let us also get another fact straight: the massive demonstrations that broke out in Tehran and other Iranian cities after the results of the rigged election were announced did not represent a pro-West reform movement, but a genuinely Iranian one. They did not, and still do not, represent a so-called colored revolution, akin to what happened in the Ukraine or Georgia, even though the movement has adopted the color green as its symbol.

In fact, what is happening in Iran is not even a revolution, but a democratic movement. Since long before the 1979 Revolution, green has been one of the three colors in Iran’s flag. Also, as Mir Hossein Mousavi, the main reformist candidate, has pointed out, green has a deep association with Islam and its teachings. So the color green and shouts of Allah-o Akbar (God is Great) are tactics are reminiscent of the 1979 Revolution — certainly not a pro-West revolution.

Let us then look at up some of the reasons invoked by some “leftist-progressives” to argue that Ahmadinejad actually won the election without any significant and game-changing fraud:

Ahmadinejad won because he represents the proud tradition of Iranians’ deeply-rooted nationalism, standing up for the country’s political independence from Western powers.

Ahmadinejad is an Islamic fundamentalist. The fundamentalists do not even believe in nationalism, but only in an Islamic nation, composed of all the present Islamic countries.

Moreover, a true nationalist does not sacrifice his country’s national interests for the sake of others. By his senseless barrage of belligerent rhetoric against Israel, and denying the Holocaust, Ahmadinejad offered the United States and other powers the perfect excuse to convince the world of the (non-existent) dangers posed by Iran’s nuclear program. This has enabled these powers to send Iran’s nuclear dossier to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), through a totally illegal process, and to force the UNSC to impose sanctions against Iran. Anyone with even the slightest familiarity with how the UNSC works knows that once the case of a certain country, which the West perceives as a danger, goes before the UNSC, it will never leave the UNSC unless it satisfies the conditions that the Western powers want to impose on that country. Ahmadinejad has put Iran in such a situation.

ContinuedBy MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles | 24 July 2009 [TEHRAN BUREAU] comment Iran’s... more