http://www.iran-press-service.com/ips/articles-2004/august/iran_conservatives_14804.shtmlBy Kamal Nazer Yasin
Posted Saturday, August 14, 2004
In response to deepening domestic and social challenges, a neo-conservative movement is fast gaining influence in Iran, and now appears poised to take charge of shaping the country’s political agenda. This new force in Iranian politics features a blend of old-style devotion to the principles of the 1979 Islamic revolution with new-found pragmatism on nagging domestic issues.
Many leaders of Iran’s neo-conservative movement, including Tehran mayor Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nezhad, maintain close connections with the Revolutionary Guards, the chief enforcer of the Islamic Revolution. For much of the Islamic republic’s existence, there has been an effective taboo on the Revolutionary Guards’ involvement in politics. This taboo now appears to have been broken.
In general, conservative forces can rely on the support of 20 percent or less of Iran’s population. Conservatives have been able to wrestle power from reformists in recent years in part through the manipulation of the country’s religious oversight bodies, in particular the Council of the Guardians, and by taking advantage of public apathy generated by the inability of reformist forces to push through their legislative agenda.
In addition to Iran’s political, social and economic problems, the confrontational stance adopted by the United States under the Bush administration has infused the neo-conservatives with a sense of urgency. The Bush administration, in which American neo-conservatives hold sway over Iranian policy, view Iran as a member of the "Axis of Evil," and, before US forces became bogged down in Iraq, often spoke of the need for regime change in Tehran.
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(486 posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
