Century Foundation Iran White Paper Series Fundamentalists, Pragmatists and the Rights of the Nation

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http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/news_press_release,36943.shtml

Century Foundation Releases New Report in Iran White Paper Series; Fundamentalists, Pragmatists and the Rights of the Nation: Iranian Politics and Nuclear Confrontation
Posted on : Tue, 19 Dec 2006 19:27:00 GMT | Author : Century Foundation
News Category : PressRelease



NEW YORK, Dec. 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Current debate on the Iranian nuclear issue tends to overlook the vital role of Iran's domestic politics, according to Gareth Smyth, Tehran bureau chief for the Financial Times, in a revealing report published this week by The Century Foundation. In Fundamentalists, Pragmatists, and the Rights of the Nation: Iranian Politics and Nuclear Confrontation, Smyth argues, "A general level of support within Iran for the nation's 'right' to a nuclear program sits alongside a healthy level of skepticism about Iran's rulers."

A military attack on Iran's nuclear facilities would, he says, rally all the country's political factions behind those rulers, Smyth points out. "If there were to be confrontation with the United States, the leadership would prefer that the conflict turn on the nuclear issue, 'where they have public support,' than on issues such as 'human rights or democracy, where they don't.'"


Iran's position on nuclear enrichment cannot be understood without first grasping the fluid and often opposing factions within the Iranian political system, Smyth says. In his taxonomy of domestic political factions in Iran- fundamentalists, traditionalists, reformists, reformist pragmatists, conservative pragmatists, the Leader, and the Leader's loyalists-few see the acquisition of nuclear weapons as a top priority.

"It can be difficult to locate the center of gravity within Iran's political establishment," Smyth observes. He cautions, however, that these groups and their alliances are fluid: "Political groups in Iran are not political parties in any meaningful sense, and therefore lack institutional means for resolving disagreements."

Drawing on extensive interviews with Iran's political insiders, Smyth places the nuclear issue in the historical context both of Iran's efforts to modernize, and of interference by outsiders-especially the United States-in Iranian politics.