Iran Cheers Revolts as Ahmadinejad Foes See Parallel

Source: Bloomberg

By Ladane Nasseri - Feb 14, 2011 9:09 AM PT

Hours before President Hosni Mubarak stepped down on Feb. 11, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, seen here, said Egypt’s uprising heralded “a new Middle East” without Israeli and U.S. interference. Photographer: Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images
Iran’s rulers are applauding Arab people power as it sweeps away hostile regimes, and cracking down on domestic opponents who today attempted a repeat of the mass protests that roiled the Islamic republic in 2009.

Hours before President Hosni Mubarak stepped down on Feb. 11 and Cairo reverberated with cheers, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in a speech to mark the 32nd anniversary of Iran’s Islamic revolution, said Egypt’s uprising heralded “a new Middle East” without Israeli and U.S. interference. A week earlier, at Friday prayers in Tehran, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said that “the Iranian nation is witnessing the echo of its voice in other parts of the Muslim world.”

Read more at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-14/iran-cheers-egypt-tunisia-revolts-as-ahmadinejad-stifles-domestic-dissent.html

:mad:

Thanks for the thread, Playinghardball.

Unfortunately, that's the way it works. Dissent is seen as being unpatriotic, and less tolerated. If Washington and Tel Aviv wanted to see a real popular uprising in Iran, they would lay off the hostile rhetoric, remove sanctions, and open up barriers to international exchange. But, that's not going to happen because Iran is so useful as a boogeyman to the Right, particularly in Israel.