Q/A:Counting the Minutes A conversation with Iranian dissident

NRO ^ | February 13, 2006, 8:07 a.m. | National Review Online

[isaiah55version11_0]

NRO: One argument we hear in the West against confronting Iran, whether through sanctions or through military action, is that doing so will make the regime more popular with the Iranian people — that it will actually strengthen the regime.

Fakhravar: Please don't ever say that the people of Iran are going to have resentment or anger in their hearts toward America or Western countries for doing this. That is 100 percent false. To see this, all you need to do is contact some Iranians inside the major cities. Just send your journalists to interview the people in the streets and ask them. It was Saturday [February 4] that the people here found out that Iran was going before the [U.N.] Security Council, and there was celebration all over Tehran. I heard from my own family, the families of my friends, that it was one of the busiest days of the year for the pastry shops — that people were buying pastries and cookies and candies in the streets of Tehran and going to each other to celebrate. They think we have nothing to lose and everything to gain with action that, no matter how long the time period, leads to the downfall of this regime. If you overthrow the regime, we will welcome you with open arms and open hearts. People are counting the minutes for this regime to be over and gone......

[isaiah55version11_0]

Good Stuff. Enjoy.

[American Quilter]

I do want to believe it.

[Reborn]

Great read, thanks!

[humint]

Amir Abbas Fakhravar: The regime is trying hard to tell to everybody that the nuclear activities are like the nationalization of oil 50 years ago. They are telling the world that this is somehow a national interest and that it's something the people want. But it's not like that at all.

GREAT POST! Don't be tired Amir! BTTT.

[GSlob]

Well, his words need to be discounted maybe 70%. The regime is, and has been, sufficiently strong to remain in place - i.e. has enough of a base to stand on. Were it not so, the war with Iraq, with its mass casualties, would have finished it off. And to gauge the degree and the character of discontent there would be an extremely serious intelligence task, much more involved and serious than "just send your journalists to interview the people in the streets and ask them."

[Coffee_drinker]

BTTT

Good Post! thanks. I forwarded it to my Iranian friend.

[Dajjal]

BTTT