We are getting so many excellent stories coming in about the protests in Iran that it is time to create a live thread.
Please post all news stories in this thread and ping your lists to this thread so we can increase the overall awareness of what exactly is going on.
Thanks... but we really do need to create a stir... I just wish the FreeRepublic would post our thread in their breaking news or news section. But it is apparently against their policy. I would like to expose our thread to a larger audience.
Uneasy Iran: New Strains
By NEIL MacFARQUHAR
NYTimes
TEHRAN, June 15 — The jokes crop up all over town.
Since the Americans could arrive any day, muses the corner grocer, he had better start improving his English. A demonstrator running from truncheon-wielding riot police officers yells, "We need the Americans to come here to give us freedom!"
A taxi driver, no friend of the government, frets that North Korea is too belligerent about acquiring nuclear weapons and may prompt American forces to skip Tehran and head for Pyongyang, North Korea's capital.
Ever since the 1979 Islamic revolution, tensions have fluctuated between the United States and Iran. These days, the tension level is rising, not least because some Bush administration officials and members of Congress have suggested that American actions in Iraq could serve as a blueprint for Iran.
Over the last month, the two governments have skirmished verbally almost daily over everything from Iran's nuclear program to American allegations that Tehran is meddling in Iraq and supporting Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations to Iran's opposition to a Middle East peace settlement. [On Wednesday, President Bush said the United States "will not tolerate construction of a nuclear weapon" in Iran.]
Strains are increasing at a time when events have pushed the sides closer together — at least geographically — than ever before. American forces are just 300 miles from Tehran on the Iraqi border and flank Iran to the east in Afghanistan.
Proximity is fraught with danger and opportunity. Washington and Tehran will have to find a way to work together to achieve some stability in the region or they will have to come to blows, analysts believe.
"Over the past 24 years, Iran has viewed the United States as a hostile power that is only pursuing the Islamic regime," said Sadeq Zibakalam, a Tehran University political science professor. "Likewise, the U.S. perceives Iran as nothing but a troublemaker, a state that ultimately must be dealt with, primarily by talking to it, but ultimately by toppling it, getting rid of it."
"The only point left as far as the Bush administration is concerned is whether to attack it from outside or undermine it from inside," he added. "But neither of the perceptions are true for either country."
The founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, made hostility toward the United States a building block of his revolution. Iran's actions, starting with the seizure of the American Embassy in November 1979, ensured that it became a pariah nation for years. The United States still maintains economic sanctions against the country.
The reformists around President Mohammed Khatami recognized the need for Iran to move out of isolation. Under his tutelage, the "Down with U.S.A." signs came down.
But the reformists have always had to contend with the conservatives concentrated around the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who have jailed those who even suggest reconciliation.
Yet political analysts find a subtle shift in Iranian views for reasons of both domestic politics and international relations. Domestically, the popularity of renewed relations with the United States could make whoever achieves it a national hero. Some analysts believe that is why former President Hashemi Rafsanjani has recently broached the topic. Internationally, the American successes at toppling governments in Iraq and Afghanistan have made Iran's ruling clerics take notice.
"The conservatives see the destiny of Saddam, they see the destiny of Mullah Omar in Afghanistan," said Hamidreza Jalaipour, a reformist publisher and political scientist. "They realize they can't fight the U.S. The Imam Khomeini could fight the U.S. because when he spoke, two million people came out onto the streets. But these days there is no mass movement like that."
On the other hand, many believe that voices of support for an American intervention would reverse in the face of an actual attack. One veteran of the Iran-Iraq war who expressed hatred for the clerics said he would volunteer to fight again if American forces tried to cross into Iran.
Political analysts here divide conservative opponents of any relations with the United States into three groups: the pragmatists, who would accept renewed ties if it won the country enough advantages; the die-hards who would never accept it as it would probably spell their doom; and those somewhere in between.
What the conservatives want, and what some reformists and other opponents fear, is for the United States to accept Iran as a stabilizing force in the region and ease the pressure for domestic liberalization. Opponents of the clerics dread the idea that Washington will begin dealing with the people they would like to see pictured on a deck of cards, like the former Iraqi leaders.
The United States and Iran had entered into talks focused on mutual interests in Iraq and Afghanistan but broke them off after Washington accused Tehran of harboring the Qaeda operative who planned three bombings in Saudi Arabia on May 12.
Iran has dug in its heels, waiting for the day when its support in the fight against terrorism, the ambiguities in its nuclear program or its influence with Shiites in Iraq could become bargaining chips in talks with Washington.
Privately, officials here say important issues in Iraq and Afghanistan make the resumption of talks inevitable, probably within weeks.
Many reformists and conservatives in Iran dread the idea that the United States may be tempted to inspire a violent change in government. They expect that their new proximity to American forces will prove more of an opportunity than a danger.
"We believe we need to have relations with America for the sake of progress in the country," said Abdollah Ramezanzadeh, President Khatami's spokesman, arguing that Iran cannot just be shoved aside given its Persian Gulf location and its 65 million people. "They know they need us. Our geographic position and our high population ensures a role for us in the future of the region. The whole world knows that."
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/20/international/middleeast/20IRAN.html