Victory of President Ahmadinejad: Unnecessary Alarm in West -II

-Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal

(Part-2)  

Upon the fall of Iraq and murder of Saddam, anti-Islamic world seems to be scared of Iran. Ahmadinejad is the shrewd and ruthless front man for clerical, military and political elite that is more unified and emboldened than at any time since the 1979 revolution and the worried West is ken to disrupt that alliance. The US strategists would like to twist Obama’s mindset, focused on world peace, to issue ‘solid” warnings to Tehran. Neocon type strategists suggest to Presdeint Obama to rethink his pursuit of a grand nuclear bargain with Iran and revert back to Bushdom rules. Khamenei and his protégé Ahmadinejad appear to have neutralized for now the reform forces that they saw as a threat to their power. This will change the face of the Islamic Republic forever for better. Iranian spiritual leader Khamenei has repudiated the US President's diplomacy of friendly overture if not corroborated with actions.

The election result has disconcerted Western powers trying to induce the world's fifth biggest oil exporter either to curb its nuclear program or face destabilization. But Ahmadinejad was congratulated by the presidents of Iraq, Afghanistan and Venezuela, among others quickly. The president has assured that nothing was wrong in the polls as far as he is concerned and also offered to talk to the oppsoition to reslove the domesitc standoff before embarking upon performing the same with UNSC. Election officials had even planed for a record turnout at home and among the Iranian Diaspora, placing ballot boxes in 130 countries, including Iraq and the USA , where two dozen polling stations will be set up.

The raucous campaign has unleashed new forces into the Islamic Republic's political culture, being muyilsyf by western thoughts. Ahmadinejad’s decisive victory is the final challenge to the anti- Islamic forces but also the latest show of strength in a battle for power and influence that has lasted decades between Khamenei and Rafsanjani, the former president who, while loyal to the Islamic form of government, wanted a more pragmatic approach to the economy, international relations and social conditions at home. The Supreme Leader Khamenei, who traditionally sought consensus within the regime, had already signaled the outcome by tipping his hat in Ahmadinejad's favor. 

In the US, President Barack Obama sought to stay neutral in the debate over Iran's election results, insisting he did not want to "meddle" in the affairs of the Islamic Republic, although he expressed "concern" at scenes of violence. However, in a TV interview he also cautioned that basically there might not be much difference between the policies of President Ahmadinejad and rival Mir Hossein Mousavi. Obama has also stressed the importance of democracy, rule of law and transparency, most recently in the June 4 Cairo speech in which he addressed himself directly to the world's Muslims, Iranian-Muslims included. These shameless media lords seeking to make fortunes in war situations are at work now. They want a war live on TV. President Obama should instruct the intelligence agencies of USA, both state and non-state, not to meddle with internal affairs of Iran or any other Islamic nation..

 UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was following the Iran situation closely, "The position of me and the United Nations is that the genuine will of the Iranian people should be fully respected", even though western media and Iranian opposition refuse to accept the democratic poll. West have gone all out supporting pro-West Mousavi, who was the Ayatollah Khomeini's prime minister during the Iran-Iraq War. Western reporters had heralded a potential upset as they followed Mousavi's campaign.. Disappointed with a poll verdict that went against USA and its supporters inside Iran and frustrated over Ahmadinejad’s visit to Russia as his first ever foreign visit after being reelected as President, the UK/US-controlled Iranian opposition led by Mir Hossein Mousavi has decided to conduct some more demonstrations in Tehran and create problems for those who voted for him in the first place. Now the stand-off in Tehran will test whether Presdient Obama was serious when he said "we will welcome all elected, peaceful governments -- provided they govern with respect for all their people."

  1.

Western media speiclaists had predicted, the more people who vote, the better Mousavi's chances in Iran aand end of Ahmadinajad. Mousavi is seen as an easier candidate to deal with by certain segments of the US foreign policy establishment. Believing the western media forecasts and US support, Mousavi's supporters said their polls showed Ahmadinejad lose by a double-digit margin. But more votes polled only enhanced the incumbent president’s margin. For voters in this Islamic country of 70 million, the election has emerged as a referendum on Ahmadinejad, pitting those who support his populist economic policies and fiery international posture against those angered by his conservative social policies and his perceived damaging of Iran 's relations with the West. The poor and pious and rural voters who favor Ahmadinejad for his populist giveaways and low-interest loan policies tend to dutifully wait in long lines at the polls. And he won a massive mandate..

And, obviously, the US-led western nations and their anti-Islamic media are inciting violence in Islamic Iran, probably as a prelude to some hidden agenda against Iran. Upset over the unexpected reversals for their secret agenda in Iran, foreign powers have expressed concern about the election. EU foreign ministers expressed "serious concern" and called for an inquiry into the conduct of the election. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in a tone of Bushdom arrogance, said he had summoned the Iranian ambassador to explain the election. "There are a lot of reports about electoral fraud," he said. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said: "I am sorry that instead of openness there has been a somewhat brutal reaction." Ahmadinejad dismissed the unrest as "passions after a soccer match".

Now, Ahmadinejad is being attacked by all sides. Under Ahmadinejad, Iran was hit with sanctions by the UNSC, inflation and unemployment soared and unrest was rising at home as social restrictions were increased. Mahmoud raised tensions with the West when he told a UN General Assembly that he rejected the post-World War II order. The supreme leader approved, seeing confrontation with the West as helpful in keeping alive his revolutionary ideology, and his base of power. President Obama’s conciliatory tone toward Iran, some Iranians believe, threatened to relax Iranian vigilance and the powerful forces to defend it. More important, he has consolidated the various arms of power that answer ultimately to the supreme leader.

Those who traditionally oppose the “conservative mullahs” for “democratic” reasons should now know anti-Islamic campaigns also have its limitations. Those who offer reasons to suspect the Iranian poll should consider the outcomes of all countries for the last 10 years at least before commenting on Iran’s vote. There cannot be double standards in international demands and actions. But these specialists have never questioned the role of emperors controlling the state affairs with legislatures. Their criticism of Islamic states are brazen and entirely without pretext. The "axis of evil" really is evil -- and not, as liberal sages would have it, merely misunderstood. Swines require no moral gestures. They want wars in Islamic world and steady death toll of Muslims. The vote should prompt.

Ahmadinejad flaunted his achievement by mounting a celebration rally in the heart of an opposition neighborhood of Tehran, and holding a victory news conference where he correctly scorned the West and world media for mischief. Commenting on the Obama administration’s conciliatory overtures, he also suggested that his willingness to reconcile with foreign governments would depend on their willingness to swallow his disputed election. Asked about speculation that in his second term he would take a more moderate line, he smirked he would be more and more solid and oppose unilateralism and sanctions if situation so warrants.  

2.

Pragmatism would fail when nothing tangible is achieved from any mode of diplomacy experimented by the Arab world on Palestine issue. So far most Arab leaders have reacted to the Iranian electoral crisis in typical Middle Eastern fashion: hope that the next term will witness progress on the relations between Iran and the Arab world and co-operation in establishing peace in the Middle East. But there has been an awkward silence from most Arab nations who are more or less now Islamic capitalists.  One cannot call this pragmatic approach just because they pursue empty formalities on US suggestions.

Arab pragmatism is linked to inflow of petrodollars. For strange reasons, the tensions between Iran and much of the Arab world are already bad enough. Ever since the American invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, America’s Arab allies -- especially Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia -- have been ringing the alarm bell about the rise of Iranian power in the Middle East. Besides the age-old animosity between these mostly Sunni Muslim countries and their ethnic and sectarian rivals in Shia’ Muslim Persia, they worry that Iran’s support for radical anti-Israeli and anti-American groups in the region is destabilizing their hold on their own countries, who populations are less moderate than their governments. So, on the surface at least; the victory of “hardline” Islamic President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would seem to be a blow to the Arab countries circling the wagons against Iran. But it may actually make their job much easier with a strong Muslim power Iran around.

And in fact, an Ahmadinejad victory tainted by allegations of fraud by Iran’s defeated reformers may be the best of all outcomes. One of the reasons that Saudi Arabia and other Arab governments are afraid of Iran is that for all the flaws of the Islamic Republic's democracy, Iran's citizens have much more of a voice and effect on their country's power structure than do the citizens of Arab dictatorships, according to Mohammad Al-Qahtani, a “reform” advocate and economics professor at the Saudi foreign ministry's diplomatic training institute, “Iran’s power comes from its democracy". Watching Iran’s democracy self-combust is enough to make Arab oligarch smile. But the current turmoil in Tehran should make the Arab nations wake up.  

(To Continue...)

Victory of President Ahmadinejad: Unnecessary Alarm in West –III

 – Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal

(Part-3)

Looking to the West and their media reports, there seemed to be a misperception among the encouraged opposition parties in Tehran that the Supreme Leader Khamenei might be supporting the opposition, but that has been cleared by the top most leader of Iran. Iran's supreme leader said on Friday the 19 June that there was "definitive victory" and no rigging in disputed presidential elections, offering no concession to protesters demanding the vote be canceled and held again. He remained staunch in his defense of Ahmadinejad. In his first public address since demonstrators flooded the streets, Khamenei said protests should cease and the opposition must pursue its complaints within the confines of the ruling system. He reiterated that he had ordered the country's highest electoral authority to pursue election complaints.

Even as the Ahmadinejad is trying to find solution to the opposition anger, the Supreme Leader, after careful examination of the 646 complaints from the three candidates by the competent authorities, said protesters would be "held responsible for chaos if they didn't end" days of massive demonstrations. The unrest has posed the greatest challenge to the system since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that brought it to power. Khamenei said official results showing a landslide for hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were beyond question. "There is 11 million votes difference, Khamenei said, “How one can rig 11 million votes?".

While Khamenei has clearly favored those pro-religious leaders, like Ahmadinejad, who most closely reflect his own views, he has tried to protect the cohesion of the Islamic Republic's system by seeking to balance the influence of competing factions within its political establishment. The Iranian system also actually allows the Supreme Leader to present different faces to the world. While he has strongly backed Ahmadinejad, for example, Khamenei also for a time designated one of the president's key pragmatist critics, Ali Larijani, as the point man in negotiations with the West over Iran’s nuclear program. The democratic element of Iran’s system has functioned as an important safety valve for clerical rule by creating a managed channel for the release of popular frustrations. But now the Supreme Leader appears to have thrown his weight solidly behind Ahmadinejad.

2.

Any one, Muslims inclusive, watching the emerging post-poll scenario in Iran where Ahmadinejad won a landslide mandate upsetting the nasty calculations of the West clearly sees that efforts are being made to destabilize Islamic Iran after Iraq, Afghanistan and now Pakistan. The hidden agenda of anti-Islamic nations and nasty media are in full public view now.

After Bushdom era, the Arab world must be feeling a sigh of relief. President Bush known as “Evil Madman” and winkled money in the West and elsewhere for his insane terror activities, has left behind a strange legacy for Obama to deal with. However, funnily American tabloids rarely miss a chance to refer to Iranian president similarly and in the days before his re-election he was taunted by the western media as a “monkey” and as a “midget.” The Sunni-Shia’ divide has harmed the genuine interests of Muslims around the world, worse in non-Islamic world where they are treated as criminals, and it is not too late to realize the folly of the Islamic world, above all the Arab nations, to revise the true Prophetic traditions of unity among the  divided Muslims nations.

Nuclear project of Iran is their legitimate right and they shall have nukes too, so long as other “powerful” states also possess them for whatever reasons. After crippling the rising Iraqi power under Saddam Hussein, US-led west and UNSC are keen to stop Iran from going nuclear on their own terms, ignoring the legitimate claims and genuine concerns of Iranian masses. With the backing of the supreme leader and the military establishment, Ahmadinejad has helped Iranian state to marginalize all of the major forces that represent a challenge to the vision of Iran as a permanently revolutionary Islamic state. Iranian people as well as the elite and good part of the intelligence services feel very much threatened by the ant-Islamic reformist movement working against Sharia’ and Islam. Having defeated all opponents in one go, in including foreign ones, Ahmadinejad can now claim an absolute mandate, meaning he has no need to compromise.” Poll outcome has demonstrated a fact beyond doubt that Iranian people are with their president and they are firmly united.

3.

Iran is aiming at a true Islamic democracy in a developing state. West must be told in plain language that they can’t scare the Islamic world by hurling uncultured slangs like “mullah rule”, “fundamentalism”, “Islamic terrorism”, etc. The fact is mullah rule is far more superior to any rule by state terrorists, fascists, colonialists, corrupt elements and similar outfits under the guise of democracy. The sponsored “reformists” say they are educated and moderates and liberals, but in reality they all are core rogues and evil forces ruining the nations that don’t play second fiddle. They shamelessly tell lies and hide a crucial fact that Iran ’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who effectively controls the Iran ’s affairs, is a former a president.

Iran is fortunate to have an ordinary, a simple man as its president. Ahmadinejad is the first Iranian president not to be a cleric. He is the son of an iron worker, a traffic engineer by education, but political analysts said that he might have been molded most by his experience in the Revolutionary Guards. When he first caught the West’s attention, Ahmadinejad had been plucked from an obscure provincial governorship and made mayor of Tehran. There he established himself as a promising populist politician. He refused to use the mayor’s big car or occupy the mayor’s grand office.. He didn’t accept his salary. Four years ago, the supreme leader anointed him as the fundamentalist presidential alternative to two candidates the leader thought less reliable. He roused crowds with vague attacks on the corruption of the elite, with promises of a vast redistribution of wealth, and with appeals to Iranian pride. By speaking for the Muslim world’s feelings of victimization by the West and against Israel, he won adulation on the Arab street even as Arab leaders often disdained him, and that in turn earned him credibility at home.

As Ahmadinejad is back blowling whistle, as it had been indeed expected the Muslims aorund the world, the West looks hard to see whether his government would be prepared to tone down his rhetoric and enter talks over Iran 's nuclear program. Some of his supporters and enemies say he has tried to readjust his policies and rhetoric, above all domestic ones, but he will not budge on the nuclear issue and that negotiations will fail. Any moves from UNSC to further islolate iran could even be coutner productive. Unless Israel behaves and the Palestine state input in place, Arabs would not trust Obama, for that matter, any US leader. Having disastrously failed in their attempts to dislodge Ahmadinejad, the West and Israel now will have to revise their anti-Islamic strategies to attack Tehran. President Obama has been under fire from left and right “Neocons” for his listless response to the Iranian regime's political crisis.

Global, especially Western, media have terrorized the Muslims and spread false news about Iran. Like the Israeli right and neo-conservatives in America, the leaders of moderate Arab states have been unnecessarily concerned that the Obama Administration's plans to engage Iran would leave them out in the cold. With Ahmadinejad returning to power, it's going to be much easier for them to keep their fingers pointed at the Islamic Republic. Nejad’s Holocaust denials and his outspoken support for Iran's nuclear program have been used by the western media to project him as danger to regional peace. But, since the policies of the defeated reform candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi would not have been much different from Ahmadinejad's and Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei controls foreign policy, Ahmadinejad would not decide to embark upon a world war. Khamenei has sought to calm tensions and called for an end to rioting. Rallies have left Tehran a city in tense and on alert. 

Now, Ahmadinejad is being looked upon as the leader of global Muslim community today. Islam is one and the best way to solve the west-sponsored crisis in Tehran is to invite the oppositon to nominate persons to join the government for the sake of unity, safely, security and prosperity of Islamic Iran. Anti-Islamc forces and thier meida should not be allowed to destalbilize the Islamic nation. An unnecessary, rather false, alarm has been sounded in West, dutifully relayed by the global media, about a possible world war from Iran’s side because of Nejad’s return with a thumping mandate. West is trying all tricks to dislodge the democratically elected president for his anti-Americanism him, but they will realize the futility of their misadventures as time passes by. 

Apart from advancing the common interests of all global Muslims, Islamic world, including the Arab House, must also stay together and support Iran against any military misadventure from anti-Islamic forces under any pretext. A badly divided Islamic world could be the prime target of the enemy of Islam.

(Concluded)

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Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal

Independent Researcher in World Affairs, The only Indian to have gone through entire India, a fraud and terror nation,
South Asia.