| Submit your comments on this article |
| Iran |
| Iranian Crisis Deepens As Elections Near |
| 2004-01-19 |
| Iran’s hard-line Guardian Council on Sunday defended its disqualification of prospective candidates for next month’s parliamentary elections, further deepening a political crisis. They can’t back down, they’re dead if they do. The Guardian Council, an Brilliant, Holmes, brilliant! ``The Guardian Council won’t back down at all,’’ Guardian Council spokesman Ebrahim Azizi told a press conference. ``Lawmakers whose speech or behavior suggest that they have had no loyalty Interesting line of attack. Cancelling the elections might make the whole country go poof. About 80 reformist lawmakers have been holding sit-in demonstrations for a week. They took their protest a step further Saturday by starting dawn-to-dusk fasts. Cheez, not another Ramadan! President Mohammad Khatami condemned the disqualifications and warned he might resign if they were not reversed. And the European Union and the United States said the elections would lose credibility unless the Guardian Council’s decision was overturned. Iran’s 27 provincial governors have vowed to resign by Monday unless the disqualifications are reversed. That won’t be enough to start the revolution but it would be useful. Let’s see how many of the 27 have stones. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #11 Arise, ye prisoners of Fundamentalism! A classic hard-line attitude by the big Ayatollahs, which will inevitably get lots of people killed and maimed. Not that they care. But traditionally, they should be the first ones up against the wall on der tag. |
| Posted by: mojo 2004-1-19 3:53:18 PM |
| #10 Make no mistake, I think we have a policy of making our own luck in Iran by rhetorically supporting reformers and occupying 2 neighboring countries. However, if the Iranians rise up against the mullah's because the Guardians botched up the candidate vetting process, then we will be lucky for how quickly and cleanly our policies led to success. By 'well organized' I mean that the mullahs have constructed a system in which a reasonably broad spectrum of the populace sees some benefit from the status quo and a reliable core of these people are willing to keep the rest in line by force. The mullahs' grip on power is less brittle than that of other police states. A velvet type revolution is our only hope in the short term as there is no credible armed resistance. This scenario would require miscalculation by the mullahs -- an element of luck from our perspective. |
| Posted by: JAB 2004-1-19 3:35:33 PM |
#9 They can’t back down, they’re dead if they do. All that's left is to make it so that they're dead if they don't. This could be shaping up to be the opportunity to toss the mullahs without having to employ U.S. armament. Are you paying attention, GWB? |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2004-1-19 11:22:30 AM |
| #8 Sorry forgot the 'Inshallah' which translates to 'if its a f**k up, its not my fault cos I'm a muslim.' |
| Posted by: phil_b 2004-1-19 2:56:13 AM |
| #7 JAB - to use well-organized and moslem in the same sentence or context is defintely an oxymoron. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2004-1-19 2:24:01 AM |
| #6 Khatami does not have the stones for what's needed. Smuggled in boom materiel to a meeting w/either Khamenei or the GC or both. He should regret that he has but one life to lose for his country. No suitcases under heavy tables. |
| Posted by: Anonymous2U 2004-1-19 2:03:21 AM |
| #5 Iran: Democracy in action. |
| Posted by: Gasse Katze 2004-1-19 1:25:39 AM |
| #4 The rabble arrises; "then we really are lucky" Way to go JAB. Cadres of Luckies! Our Moto? "Steal from the infidel" |
| Posted by: Lucky 2004-1-19 12:49:23 AM |
| #3 The Army of Steve™ strikes again! :-) |
| Posted by: Steve White 2004-1-19 12:28:32 AM |
| #2 I remain unconvinced that these 'reformers' have the sack to take on a well organized, reslilient police state. If they, or some 'chief of elections' functionary they appointed does, then we really are lucky and 2004 will be yet another bad year for this jihad thing. |
| Posted by: JAB 2004-1-19 12:23:23 AM |
| #1 Blast you, Steve :P You beat me by only 2 minutes! |
| Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-1-19 12:21:17 AM |