Tuesday, May 06, 2008
The internal debate over Iran's proxy war
Lest you think that American allegations that Iran is waging a proxy war in Iraq and elsewhere are an invention of the BusHitler neocons or David Petraeus, consider that Mohammad Khatami, Iran's former president, is leveling the same charge:
A former Iranian president has said that exporting violence to other countries is "treason" against Islam and Iran's 1979 revolution, an apparent accusation that the country's hard-line rulers are engineering unrest abroad.
Mohammad Khatami, a reformist and popular intellectual, made no mention of U.S. and Iraqi accusations that Iran is arming and training Shiite extremists in neighboring Iraq. But he said Iran should avoid actions that give it a bad image.
Engineering violence in other countries would be contrary to the goals of the 1979 Islamic revolution led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Khatami said.
"What did Imam (Khomeini) want and what did he mean by 'exporting the revolution'? Taking up arms and causing explosions in other countries and establishing groups to carry out sabotage in other countries? Imam was strongly opposed to these behaviors," Khatami told students in northern Iran on Friday.
"This is the biggest treason to Islam and the revolution."
Now, all of this has to be taken with a huge grain of salt. It is an obviously disingenuous political attack on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Guardian Council. Khatami himself supported Hezbollah, and knew enough to worry that it was behind the September 11 attacks. Indeed, Khatami is really the Iranian Jimmy Carter, insofar as he was a weak, sanctimonious leader who promised reform he never delivered and has managed to look much more noble in his retirement than he ever did as president. But -- and this is huge -- this story shows that it is politically credible for a prominent Iranian to denounce Ahmadinejad's adventurist foreign policy. For that to be true, Iranian elites would have to be largely persuaded that Iran is, in fact, fighting and underwriting just the proxy war that the Bush, Olmert, and Maliki governments accuse it of waging.
4 Comments:
By 
, at
Tue May 06, 11:55:00 AM:
"But -- and this is huge -- this story shows that it is politically credible for a prominent Iranian to denounce Ahmadinejad's adventurist foreign policy."
The story does show that your first conclusion (from early on in the post) is correct, that Iran is viewed as the guilty party by Iranians as well as by Bushitlerites. It says nothing whasoever about the "political credibilty" of denouncing the policies promulgated by Ahmadinejad. Until proven otherwise, you have to assume those policies are supported by, and may have originated with, Khamenei, and so I disagree with the conclusion you reached at the end of the quote. To be right, you'll need to see lots more credible politicians than Khatami start making visible protests.
By 
TigerHawk, at
Tue May 06, 12:07:00 PM:
Good point, but I believe that there have been other such complaints from the opposition inside Iran. Too busy to hunt for them now, though -- anybody out there who can help?
By Ray, at
Tue May 06, 01:53:00 PM:
It's a coded attack against Khamenei, I think. Interesting. The first sign of life the Iranian opposition has found since it was sandbagged back in '04.
By , at
Thu May 08, 11:45:00 AM:
If it's news of political infighting from the alternate universe you want, it's news you'll get.
