Violence is often tempting. Shirin Ebadi via roozonline.com on what the Green movement does now that the Iranian government’s repression seems to be working.
Resist reacting to tanks, bullets and shells. We must not pick up rocks. The path to justice, freedom, democracy and human rights requires flowers not blood.
And NOW Lebanon feels sold out.
This Lebanese opposition commentator is right to sense that the combined interests of Sunnis and Christians in Lebanon (a fractious minority) do not rank high on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s regional agenda–at least not as high as seeking a front line ally in the campaign against nuclear Iran.
The orphan island nation–claimed but not governed by the Beijing communists–used to be a former favorite nation of the American right, a plucky capitalist redoubt resisting the tyrants of the mainland. Now that China has become a capitalist superpower, the right’s ardor for Taiwan has become dim and redundant The plucky capitalists must look elsewhere for other friends.
Now Taiwan is a channel for Tehran’s nuclear technology needs, says AP Enterprise.
Rami G. Khouri on why chuckles greeted the Secretary of State’s Gulf tour.
Plus: WOS surveys Middle East reaction to Hilary’s most forceful intervention yet on the issue of Iran.
As if in response to Frontline’s finding that nuclear scientist Massoud Ali Mohammadi, killed by a remote control bomb last month, was a victim of the Iranian governmet, The Economist, leans the other way–to the West.
“It is no secret that America, Israel and European countries are seeking to impede Iran’s nuclear plans, overtly and covertly. Yet the assassination theory was widely dismissed. The professor’s known works on particle and theoretical physics did not seem central to Iran’s nuclear programme. And his name had appeared on a list of Iranian academics favouring Iran’s protest movement. So, ran the prevailing theory, Israel or America had little reason to kill him, though Iranian hardliners may have wanted to do so.
But listen to the whispers of Western spies and diplomats, and the Iranian regime may turn out to be right. Well-placed sources in two Western countries now say the professor was “one of the most important people involved in the programme.”
This is lightly sourced but The Economist is veddy conservative and wouldn’t indict Western powers lightly. This remains a most puzzling case.
“The media will tell us much about Iran’s supposed military and nuclear capabilities in the coming weeks and months, if ultimatums and deadlines continue. But for Iran and its neighbors, and the entire region, the far more momentous question is the following: can this rigid authoritarian system reform itself? For more than one country, Iran’s domestic reverberations and their endgame are far more worrying than its nuclear chess game.”
via Beirut’s The Daily Star.
in the European media.
Four thousand people chanting “death to the dictator” is not a sign of regime stability. As Iran boasts of another nuclear achievement, communal pride in the country’s scientific prowess translate into political stability.
The state controlled media presnts the parade commemorating the 31st anniversary of the Iranian revolution as a walk of unity with a “final” message for the opposition. But with Persian2English reporting plainclothes police targetting anti-government demonstrators with paintballs, the government’s posture is aggressive and defensive.
For the incumbent powers, the problem is where to crack down? The political fissures go right tot the top.
Meanwhile in Israel, a common view is that attacking Iran is less risky than letting it obtain nuclear weapons. From this perspective, the Iran’s democratic movement isn’t a factor. Its an IDF target too.
The persistent fantasy
Foreign Policy’s useful survey Who Wants to Bomb Iran? offers more evidence of one of the most peculiar fantasies in U.S. opinion making circles: that democratic forces in Iran would welcome–or not object to–a U.S/Israeli attack on their country’s nuclear facilities. The chairman of the US military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen is under no such illusions so the phenomenon is less a political danger than an interesting species of American provincialism which assumes the benevolence of U.S.-inflicted violence is apparent to its victims.
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