Editorial Daily Star (Lebanon): Iran Is Nothing Like The Image Presented In U.S. Narratives

[Hissyspit]

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&article_id=85138&categ_id=17

Iran is nothing like the image presented in US narratives
By The Daily Star

Monday, September 10, 2007

Editorial

American pundits and policymakers tend to betray a stunning level of ignorance about Iran. Scores of them have made doomsday predictions about what is likely happen if President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad "gets his hands on a nuclear weapon." Statements such as these reveal an obliviousness about the power structure in Iran, including the fact that the armed forces fall under the command of the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has issued a fatwa banning the production of nuclear arms and who reiterated on Sunday that his country "has no plans to create this deadly weapon."

The pundits often demonstrate a lack of understanding or appreciation of the complexity and dynamism of Iran's system of governance, which has evolved considerably since the days of the Islamic Revolution. Interestingly, Iran could be on the brink of yet another transformation, given the recent election of Ali Akhbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a conservative pragmatist, as head of the Assembly of Experts, a powerful body that has the authority to appoint and remove the supreme leader. Rafsanjani has hinted that under his leadership, the assembly will play a more active oversight role, and perhaps even introduce key reforms such as term limits on the supreme leader.
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Iranians are unlikely to abandon their system of Islamic rule. However, the Iranian public has over the past few years demonstrated an unquenchable thirst for change. Both Mohammad Khatami and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were elected to the presidency on campaign promises to deliver something new, whether in the form of political or economic progress. The parties of both leaders have been punished at the ballot box for failing to deliver on their pledges. And there is every reason to believe that the Iranian people will continue to hold their leaders increasingly accountable.