Iran: Rafsanjani Speaks

The LA Times reported Wednesday:

"Mousavi plans to forge a new reformist political front that would challenge the country's dominant conservatives and have most of the rights accorded a political party, his top aide, Ali-Reza Beheshti, said Tuesday.

Rafsanjani said he would endorse Mousavi's plan for a "united moderation front," according to Mohammad Hashemi Rafsanjani, the cleric's brother."

Perhaps we are seeing the formation of a Mousavi-led, Rafsanjani-backed political party in Iran.

this seems a clear indication that Iran remains something less than a totalitarian state, controlled by the Revolutionary Guards.

Er,

Calling for national unity, he criticized the brutal official crackdown.

Right on.

[...] Joe Klein in Swampland: So what does this mean? As an Iranian friend of mine predicted yesterday, this means that Rafsanjani intends to lead an Iranian opposition front to the Khamenei-Ahmadinejad government. Given his stature–he is the one opposition leader who is part of the regular Friday Prayer rotation–this seems a clear indication that Iran remains something less than a totalitarian state, controlled by the Revolutionary Guards. The question now is: how broad an opposition front? Will it include people like Mohsen Rezaie and Ali Larijani, conservatives who are at odds with Ahmadinejad, as well as the Green Revolutionaries? Will it include conservative newspapers like Resalat, which have been critical of Ahmadinejad? Will it be able to moderate the ruling junta in any way? [...]

While he was "allowed" to speak (and this at least is a sign he retains some power, I suppose), his address was not carried on state television, but only radio. (Do you know if this is unusual? Are the addresses at Friday prayers usually carried on state television?)

And why wouldn't he condemn the results of the election? It seems significant to me that he did not.

On the other hand, the restraint may be directed at starting with condemning the crackdown. He is wise and correct to say all parties are losers. But one side is at least temporarily winners as well.

I think if I were a Mousavi supporter I'd hear the call to "unity" the way I do here - as a call to give up opposition. So I'm wondering why it seems to your friend that this was a signaling of intent to organize the opposition

I hope the birth of an opposition is imminent, but I'm not holding my breath on it.

Iran has done more to hurt it's own causes then any outsider, and that without having the waters muddied equally strident hate-filled neocons!

It isn't pretty, but it is much clearer, not having to peer through that smoke in order to see events there!

" ... Mr. Rafsanjani said it was vital to restore voters' faith in the system, The A.P. said. "

Are we to understand that "voters' faith in the system" is restored only when the loser is violently declared by the disgruntled few ruffians as the winner?

Is this scenario representative of what Americans (and Joe Klein in particular) understand by "democracy" and "rule of law"?

JK's has (and had) an opinion about who the winner of the Iran's elections was to be. So, why was JK in Iran during and after the elections? Those were the elections of the Iranian people. And JK is none of them. So, what does JK's strategic desires have to do with it?

What would the good Americans have thought of a Rafsanjani-like clown who would tell us that because a few million rowdy Appalachian hillbillies supported Mr. McCain in USA's presidential elections of 2008, then McCain - not Obama - must be declared the winner so as to "restore faith in the system"?
I know what I would say.
[Sonia, we have the right to own (and use?) guns, don't we?]
[Would Mr Joe Klein would wax so wordy in support of the traitorous clown? His pious activism in support of anti-social elements in this case leads me to suspect that he most likely would.]

Perhaps the people of Iran need to reconsider their citizens' faith in this saboteur.

" .. Calling for national unity, he criticized the brutal official crackdown. .."

We, in the good USA, officially crack down - hard, very hard - on demonstrators and activists who fail to heed a lawful order to disperse. And we come down hard on those who would destroy property. And our law enforcement agents take an interest in the malevolent elements who, like Rafsanjani and Joel Klein, would lend comfort and succor to such anti-social evil-doers, anarchists.

"National unity" does not come about by letting criminal elements run amok, buck "law and order", destroy property, terrorize the silent majority - and run the land into the sewer by fiat.

One would expect Rafsanjani to know that - unless he is serving higher interests - which hold that the interests of the enemies is supersede the interests of the people and the state of Iran.

53_3: " .. I hope the birth of an opposition is imminent, but I'm not holding my breath on it. .. "

An "opposition" that would throw the gates open for the gathering vicious barbarians?

Would you like, and hope for, a similar opposition (of cutthroats) to be born in USA?

cfukara:
"Would you like, and hope for, a similar opposition (of cutthroats) to be born in USA?"

They have already been identified. They are the GOP.

Are you actually for Ahmahdinejad? If you are, it's your choice, it is a free country, and I don't think any the less of you for holding that view, but I wonder about your reasoning.

I see him as a prescription for for a train wreck. The very same opinion that I hold for the current Israeli government...

cfukara:

An added note:

It appears that our perspectives on the election itself are the crux. To me, it appears that there is more than adequate justification for doubting it's legitimacy. I won't attempt to prove any such, as really, no one here can. Only those that managed the election itself in Iran know. We could take them at their word, which I don't.

On the same front, I also recognize that Iran is not part of the United States, and in my opinion, Obama is handling this just right...

I see him as a prescription for for a train wreck. The very same opinion that I hold for the current Israeli government

(See if I do this right)

The Israelis just need to stop recycling PMs period. It's time to move beyond the Ben Gurion veterans and get some fresh blood in their leadership or it WILL be Israel's undoing. I was hoping Livni was representing that change but the Israelis choked and put up Netanyahu again. Sigh.

Yuts, if by "recycling" you mean "using the same old bucket to scoop up even smellier excreta than usual", I'd agree.

I didn't think even Livni was much to look at for real solutions, but she was better than that foul brood Labor hooked up with now! I liken the current crudulous critters they elected to what we would have been if we elected McCain/Palin!

In short, they stink...

Meanwhile, on the 'cutthroat' front:
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/07/17/a-third-c-street-republican-embroiled-in-sex-scandal/