Why have the Iranian Government and its senior officials (including President Ahmadinejad) been announcing all sorts of advances in enrichment of uranium, and taunting the West about it’s potential nuclear prowess recently? The answer may have far less to do with Iran’s so-called desire to destroy Israel and far more with the domestic political scene in Iran, one in which the political opposition is still staging mass protests against Ahmadinejad’s right to govern.
The anniversary of the 1979 revolution has become a test of strength between Mr. Ahmadinejad and an opposition movement that took root after the elections, creating the biggest political challenge since the fall of the shah.
Apart from the crackdown on the streets, the authorities on Wednesday drastically slowed Internet service in Iran and shut down text messaging services. One official said that Gmail, the Google e-mail service, would be blocked.
But news reports indicated that the measures had not kept protesters off the streets.
An Iranian opposition Web site said security forces fired shots and tear gas at supporters of an opposition leader, Mir Hussein Moussavi, as they mounted a counter-rally in central Tehran.
“Security forces opened fired at protesters and fired tear gas in central Tehran,” Reuters quoted the Green Voice Web site as saying, citing witnesses. Another opposition Web site, Jaras, said that security forces attacked another opposition leader, Mehdi Karoubi, when he attended a rally marking the anniversary.
Jaras also said security forces attacked former President Mohammad Khatami and briefly arrested his brother and his brother’s wife, who is a granddaughter of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Revolution.
The authorities had warned that they intended to confront protesters harshly. Witnesses quoted by The A.P. said the police deployed hundreds of officers in central Tehran to block protests.
The confluence of the protests and Mr. Ahmadinejad’s nuclear claims offered a graphic illustration of how much Iran’s foreign policy is being driven by domestic concerns, analysts said.
Much like any government without a popular mandate, Iran’s rulers have seized upon the one issue that distracts any nation’s populace from internal debate and dissent regarding their legitimacy: by ginning up the bogeyman of external threats from foreign “enemies.”
We in America saw the way the Bush administration, in reaction to far less turbulent protests of its policies, played the fear of “Terrorism” and “Islamofascism” again and again to diminish and weaken its domestic political opponents. Thus, we should not be surprised when Ahmadinejad stirs the nuclear pot presumably with the support of Iran’s Supreme Ruler, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
They are a regime under siege from within after committing massive election fraud to prevent a less conservative leader, Mir Hussein Moussavi, from being elected last summer. It would be well for all who see Iran’s recent announcements regarding its space and nuclear programs as evidence of an impending nuclear threat to realize that what is driving the regime’s actions and rhetoric at this point is its decision to play the “patriot” card to wean its people away from the internal political opposition movement that threatens its right to rule.
When our leaders ratchet up their rhetorical response to Ahmadinejad, they are playing his game, one that has far less to do with us and far more to do with tarring internal dissenters as traitors to the Islamic Revolution. Because, as we know all too well here in the US, illegitimate leaders love to claim that any opposition to their abuses of power constitutes treason, and the easiest way to do advance that political strategy is to claim that since one’s nation is “at war” all true “patriots” should support their President.