What's Next for Iran?


What seemed like either a close race, or even a win by the challenger, Mir Hussein Mousavi, to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has ended up with what seems to be a rigged election. The vote, which has no international monitors, has declared the President the winner in a landslide. From all reports leading up to this, there is simply no way this can be true.

The reports are that there are violent clashes going on in Iran, with the police violently responding to protests and all communication from opposition forces being jammed, blocked, etc. Will this stand? It's impossible to say. But, from everything we've been hearing the people of Iran are fed up with an unresponsive, repressive government.

Ahmadinejad has become increasingly unpopular, especially because of his failure to deliver on economic revitalization, and because he has made Iran a laughingstock or pariah in many parts of the world. What is true here though is that the clerics, in whom ultimate power rests, are most concerned about stability and control. They think that Ahmadinejad can provide this -- that assessment is likely, at least in the long term, incorrect.

The question now is will the people submit or resist? Only time will tell. Long term I think you will see major changes and probably a casting off of the theocracy. Maybe not yet, but over time it will happen. Of course it's been 20 years since Tienanmen Square and while much has changed, government control has not.

We pray for the region.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Allah be praised.
Anonymous said…
Moving images on BBC. "We want freedom". 85% turnout in this election? That's amazing.

David Mc

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