Busy On All Fronts
The Islamic Republic of Iran is a busy place these days. In Tehran, the capital, as well as other Iranian cities, thousands of political dissenters gathered to protest state suppression of the peoples' discontent in the aftermath of the presidential elections in June. Whose corrupt, undemocratic proceedings brought an extension of power for Iran's president, and business as usual for the ruling Ayatollahs.Iran's Revolutionary Guards warned the Republic's opposition not to cause any disruptions to the country's 30th anniversary celebrations of the storming of the U.S. embassy in Tehran. Protesters, despite the certain knowledge that they would be brutally assaulted by the Revolutionary Guards, the police and the vicious Basij militia, turned out in their thousands, wearing the bright green colour associated with the country's opposition.
Police responded by firing teargas, arresting protesters for their troubles, opening fire and injuring people as Basij militiamen clubbed men and women and charged into the crowds of demonstrators, leaving them with bloody head wounds. Batons, tear gas and electric prods were used to influence the protesters to desist. After all, what these protesters were engaged in was clearly illegal.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei pronounced it a crime to question the June election, in defiance of the reinstatement of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Cellphone networks were shut down to ensure that word couldn't get out and organization of an enlarged protest would be disrupted. Iranians accustomed to hearing the mullahs denounce the U.S. as a 'den of spies' spat their contempt: "The real den of spies is the Russian embassy".
In honour of the fact that Russia was the first country to recognize the disputed victory, and doubtless Russia's engagement with Iran's fledgling-to-completion nuclear plans. "What's important is not that we got people out, but they came from across the social spectrum - old, young, male, female, religious and irreligious. This is a people's movement that the system can't destroy", explained one activist.
But business as usual continues in Iran, for it is conspiratorially busy in advancing its agenda within the geography of the Middle East, and beyond. Happily sticking its finger in the eye of the UN's IAEA, and the Security Council's nuclear-condemning resolutions. Enjoying the suspense of the nuclear-enrichment deal it has no intention of confirming.
And doubtless also, fuming about the interruption to its plans of further arming Hezbollah and Hamas, through the nasty intervention of Israel's having waylaid a ship en route to Syria, with 500 tonnes of weapons, including stacks of various-sized rockets, mortar rounds, hand grenades, and ammunition for AK-47 rifles.
Labels: Middle East, Technology, Traditions, Troublespots
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, November 05, 2009
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