Archive for the ‘Ahmadinejad’ Category
July 2nd, 2010 | 
Author: Weasel Zippers » Blog Archive » Iran: Ahmadinejad Wants …
weaselzippers.us12/27/11
Now, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is stepping into the dispute. He wants to settle it by promoting government-approved apparel for women, garments intended to introduce an array of clothes that are “Islamic and …
The Latest from Iran (29 December): Ahmadinejad … – EA WorldView
www.enduringamerica.com12/29/11
0730 GMT: The registration period for candidates for March's Parliamentary election does not end until Sunday, but President Ahmadinejad is already on the campaign trial. Yesterday in Ilam in western Iran, he addressed a …
Shocked
Iran was apparently shocked by the imposition of the latest round of sanctions, and particularly those that were imposed by the Europeans.
The Soft Underbelly Has Been Targeted
Iran could most likely deal with almost every kind of sanction except the one the one that has just been imposed on it, and that is it’s need for refined fuel and outside investment to finance the rebuilding of its crumbling oil wells.
No More Playing Games
At the end of June, the U.S. Congress and Senate approved by a large majority a law banning global companies there are engaged in ties with Iran’s oil and gas industry from operating in the U.S. The law is a very comprehensive and very strict law, which alone and without EU sanctions would hopefully cause Iranians to rise up and oust their almost universally hated regime. Iran is a huge producer of crude, but perhaps surprisingly, it has to export much of its crude to be refined because it doesn’t have anywhere near sufficient refining capabilities for the crude that it uses and exports.
It’s been spending it’s huge profits from oil on exporting terror and not on its refineries or oil field maintenance.
The Sanctions Are Already Being Felt
Some major energy giants that sell fuel for Iranian cars and planes have already announced that they’ll be terminating their ties with the rogue, crumbling state and the French company Total has already put an end to its Iran business.
But It Gets Much Worse For Iran
The European Union also imposed sanctions in June and the decision was taken by all EU heads of state, and as of early July new investments by European companies and states in Iran’s energy, oil, and gas industry will be banned.
This is an absolute, comprehensive, and far-reaching boycott and technical assistance and the transfer of goods and services to Iran’s oil and gas industry will also be disallowed.
Anger And Fear In Iran
The EU is Iran’s number one economic partner and around 80% of Iran’s revenues come from oil and gas. Iran’s wells are growing old and although there’s and ongoing need to renovate them, there is no money to do so unless it comes as a foreign investment, which is now banned. “The US and EU will be gravely punished” Tehran says, and it’s now calling the Germans “Israel’s slaves”.
Iran is now saying that the Russians and the Chinese abandoned them, which isn’t true, but they didn’t support them either.
The End Of The Regime?
The Iranian regime bases its legitimacy on two fundamental pillars.
1) Spiritual leadership.
2) The will of the people.
The Iranian masses no longer believe that the regime is giving spiritual leadership and they and the young both feel that they were cheated in the elections.
The Iranian people are easily capable of overthrowing the regime and they were the ones that brought the regime to power.
Now Is The Time To Stand Firm
The U.S. and the EU must now stand firm and not be tricked by slick offers from Iran.
Actions and not empty words are what the world now needs to see from Iran!
Far better for the Iranians to topple the regime than for the U.S. or Israel to have to bomb it.
Posted in administration, Ahmadinejad, democracy, energy, Europe, fanatics, foreign policy, Iran, islam, jihad, Middle East, muslims, Nuclear, oil, Oil, politics, rogue states, terrorists, USA, War | 
No Comments »
NewsDaily: Insight: Catch me if you can – oil sanctions against Iran
www.newsdaily.com3/6/12
For example, if China doesn't join sanctions, they won't work," he said. Keeping Iran's vast supplies off the market would cause supply problems, which would be difficult in a U.S. presidential election year when energy prices …
Ahmadinejad rivals win seats in Iran runoff | AAJ News
www.aaj.tv5/5/12
It also represents another blow against the populist president who, while usually in agreement with the conservatives on foreign policy and many other issues, had tried to change the rules of the political game in the Islamic …
Iran marked its one year anniversary of what most consider to be totally rigged elections that led to demonstrations, torture and death just three days after the U.N. leveled its fourth round of sanctions against Iran’s nuclear program.
The anniversary passed quietly due mainly to the fact that opposition leaders called of protests to avoid more brutality and possible deaths.
So Has The Opposition Been Quelled?
In spite of many commentators saying that Friday’s quiet streets show that the Green Movement has died, I’d say that it’s simply been muted and that more rage is fomenting just below the surface.
Whatever happens to the Green Party in the future, what it achieved in the past is incredibly important, because it brought about the de-legitimization of the Iranian regime.
The protests by young people, merchants, intellectuals, and religious leaders that took to the streets to protest the reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and the way in which the regime responded to them convinced nearly all Iranians that the Islamic Republic is neither Islamic nor a republic.
The Iranian regime bases its legitimacy on two fundamental pillars.
1) Spiritual leadership.
2) The will of the people
The First Pillar
When the regime cracked down on the protesters, its brutality and savagery were seen by Iranians and the rest of the world in real time. People witnessed beatings and murders live on their TV screens and read about the rape and torture on Twitter.
Death and torture is nothing new in Iran, but it was previously always carried out quietly and discreetly, and for the most part without the public’s knowledge.
Huge numbers of the deeply religious masses who looked to the State for spiritual guidance either saw the barbarity first hand or later heard about it by word of mouth and they were deeply shocked, and they feel betrayed and are unforgiving.
The Second Pillar
The second pillar upon which the Islamic Republic bases its legitimacy is the will of the people and despite its autocratic tendencies, the Iranian regime goes to great extremes to maintain popular sovereignty, and it is a sign of how seriously Iranians take their elections that more than 70% of the country voted in the last one.
So to hear that the elections were rigged does not sit nicely.
The Straw That’s Breaking The Camel’s Back
Iranian analysts have been warning for many years now about the country’s slow drift toward military dictatorship, and in the eyes of many the Revolutionary Guard’s usurpation of the nation’s police force during the protests confirmed their worst fears.
The transfer of power to the Republican Guard which Iranian law expressly forbids has now been formalized and the Revolutionary Guard currently controls almost all the levers of Iran’s government, and through its subsidiaries in the oil, natural gas, and telecommunications industry, it now controls nearly one third of Iran’s annual budget.
Ahmadinejad And The Mullahs
Ahmadinejad, who was a member of the Revolutionary Guard has been steadily distancing himself from the mullahs who used to run the country, and his cabinet has ceased attending meetings of the Expediency Council, whose members represent the interests of the clerical elite.
Ahmadinejad has stated publicly that, “administering the country should not be left to the Supreme leader, the religious scholars, and other clerics”, and the regime’s religious credentials are now being seriously questioned by some of the most senior religious figures and institutions in Iran.
Before his death, the Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri issued a fatwa calling the government illegitimate, and the hard-line conservative Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, who was until recently one of Ahmadinejad’s most vocal supporters is now voicing criticism of the government.
Ahmadinejad’s relationship with the religious establishment has in fact become so strained that some of the most prominent members of the powerful Assembly of Experts, which is a conservative religious body that chooses the supreme leader, boycotted his swearing-in ceremony, as did every single family member of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who was the Islamic Republic’s founder.
The Regime Is Rightly Fearful
The regime is deathly afraid of its population since its leaders know full well that the Republic itself came into being on the heels of a popular uprising.
Explicit comparisons of the current regime to the reviled dictatorship of the shah have become commonplace in post-election Iran and not just by the opposition, but by some of Iran’s most reliably conservative politicians including the speaker of parliament and the current adviser to the supreme leader.
In Conclusion
It’s too early to predict exactly what is going to unfold in Iran but it can be said with certainty that Iran is on the verge of the most significant social explosion it has experienced in three decades.
