"Unprecedented" Power Grab By Iranian Ultra-Hardliners Casts Doubt On "Pragmatists Are Winning" Liberal Sophistication
Remember how yesterday Iranian reform was around the corner because Khamenei was publicly slapping Ahmadinejad around? Yeah, no:
When voters go to the polls on March 14 to select members of Parliament, they may be able to choose only between conservative candidates and other conservative candidates, leaders of Iran’s main reform party said Wednesday. With more than 7,200 candidates registered to run for 290 seats in Parliament, officials with the party, the Islamic Participation Front, said it appeared that 70 percent of reformist candidates had been disqualified. The decisions are not final and will not be completed until early March, but the early indications are that the religiously conservative forces in control of every branch of government will try to block a comeback by the reformists close to Mohammad Khatami, the former president. “Such a large number of disqualifications is unprecedented,” said a statement by the reformist party posted on the Emruz Web site.
The truth of this debate is that there is kind of a political battle in Iran. But it's a battle between clerics who want to destroy America by bringing about the end of the world and clerics who want to destroy America by seeing if proxy terrorism and demographic suffocation can do the job (although both sides are most definitely agreed that Israel needs to get nuked ASAP). Sometimes Ahmadinejad and his apocalyptic friends win and sometimes - like yesterday - the so-called conservative pragmatists win.
So the condescending Democratic sophisticates who insist that Iran should be engaged because moderates are winning - they're either idiots or dwell in a sunny and magical fantasy world. But even the foreign policy intellectuals - who have moved the goalposts from their 1990s faith in moderates to their 2000s gamble on conservative pragmatists - are wrong:
But the president and his allies control the system of vetting candidates for access to the ballot. The first step is for local boards in each province, known as the Executive Councils, to approve a candidate for access to the ballot. The boards are appointed by regional governors who have been appointed by the president. The next step is for the Guardian Council, a hard-line body of clerics close to the supreme leader, to approve or disqualify candidates. In past elections, the Guardian Council was where reform-minded candidates found themselves disqualified. This time, however, candidates and party officials said that the mass disqualifications began at the regional boards.
Ahmadinejad is deepening his control across Iranian society. He and his allies are slowly building their base. This would seem to bode poorly for the prospects of, well, everything.
References:
* Iran's leader taking heat in cold snap Ayatollah's overruling of Ahmadinejad bodes ill for president ahead of election [AP]
* Most Reformists Appear Purged From Iran Ballot [NYT]
* Idiots [MR]
* Super! Iran's New Nuclear Negotiator Dedicated To Bringing About The End Of The World. Yes, Really. [MR]
* Bill Richardson: Ahmadinejad Is Nothing To Worry About, We Should Engage Iran [MR]
* Smug Liberal Sophistication Untroubled By Undeniable Evidence That Hardliners Are Winning In Iran [MR]
Previously:
* Russia And China Agree To Help Stop Iran (Except They Don't (And Except They've Been Rewarding Iran With More Trade))
* Britain Clearing Dozens Iranians To Study Nuclear Engineering At British Universities. Yes, Really. (Plus: Europe Won't Go Along With US Sanctions?)
* Wherein We Almost Entirely Decline To Comment On Iran's Major Trading Partner
Cross-posted to:
* Israpundit
