Iran's Other Leader

Campus Report ^ | July 14, 2008 | Rachel Paulk

[bs9021]

Iran’s Other Leader

by: Rachel Paulk, July 14, 2008

As Iran continues to develop its nuclear facilities and to demonstrate its missile capabilities, foreign policy analysts are scrambling to determine the best American response to the rogue nation’s militaristic threats. None seem to agree on how to best approach the hostile Islamic state because its leaders prove difficult to predict on the escalating nuclear crisis.

Karim Sadjadpour, author of the report “Reading Khamenei: The World View of Iran’s Most Powerful Leader,” stated in a lecture at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s approach to foreign policy was “neither confrontation nor accommodation with the West.”

He stated that “[Khamenei’s] basic worldview has always been that when the West, particularly the United States, or the Israelis are trying to pressure you, you should never show that pressure is going to moderate your behavior. You should never compromise as a result of pressure, because if you compromise, it projects weakness and is going to invite even more pressure.”

Khamenei’s staunchly anti-Western viewpoint dictates the policies he endorses towards the U.S., yet Sadjadpour asserts that “U.S. military strikes on Iran are perhaps less of a concern for him than what he calls some type of a soft revolution,” referring to the Ayatollah’s concern of America’s secular society invading and perverting Iranian religious culture...

[Perdogg]

The Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali is Head of State while Stinky is Head of the Government, hence an Islamic Republic.

[jwparkerjr]

They understand only one thing and that's superior power and ability. They view anything less as a sign of weakness and any attempt to placate them only encourages another round of trouble.

They need a really big ass-whup experience to give them the message. Anything short of that will just serve to embolden them.

We seem to have absolutely nothing in the 30 years or so since they seized out embassy.

[kabar]

Stinky is a figurehead with the real power being held by the Supreme leader and the Assembly of Experts.