During Shah Muhammad Reza Pahlavi, Iran wanted to be a regional power in the Middle East, but it could not, it continued to be an oil producing power, nothing more.
After the 1979 Clerics and Ayatollahs revolution, Iran wanted to be a regional Middle Eastern power through spreading propaganda fears of “exporting” the revolution to the scared neighboring countries, especially to the Arab Gulf monarchies but also it could not.
The Arabs have been too proud, too weary, too suspicious, too historically distrusting Iran and vice versa, that they accepted the tyranny of their Arab brethren than to give their Islamic Iranian “Brethren” the joy of dominance over them.
So where does that leave Iran, what does Iran want besides blackmailing the world community into a dialogue through calculated threats of becoming a nuclear power and its hypocritical and demagoguery and empty and pity threats to Israel every now and then. And to add insult to injury, Iran mastered in between 1979 and now, a unique diplomacy, the Hostage Diplomacy, by picking up and kidnapping foreigners like any outlaw and jail them with no proof or due process and accuse them of what else but the famous “spying”.
They got motivated by America’s humiliation during the hostage crisis of 1979 and the failure of Jimmy Carter to free America’s diplomats. Or maybe it was the curse of the poor exiled ailing and dying Shah that Carter and America decided that he was too of a burden or it did not trust his son Ali to govern.
America knew that the Shah was dying of cancer few months before the end of the “Shahenshah”. The Shah actually through his dictatorship, personal, unrealistic and obnoxious lavish spending and lifestyle contributed the biggest chunk for the fall of Iran in the hands of the Mullahs.
Actually besides the other factors, I think the Shah was an obstacle to the very much needed Shiite power in the Middle East, that was to do the job of supporting tiny Shiite groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon, and later on in Iraq and supporting forces that were created in the Middle East like Hamas in Gaza and Jihad and the rest of these “Media Terrorists” to balance and even substitute for the failing and corrupt Arab liberals and their flipside, the military generals. And to create a momentum for a calculated, again, democratic rise that is now paving the way to political popular organizations dressed with the flag of Islam to rule and create not a regime drive towards peace with the State of Israel, but a popular drive by the same entities that keep publicly attacking Israel but somehow will ensure on the popular level that the peace with Israel, which should be the case anyway, is something that appeals to the masses in the Arab and Islamic countries in the Middle East and beyond. Because if this drive to peace comes from seemingly conservative religious political parties, then it would definitely have the pragmatic appeal it needs and the credibility to pass.
Arab tyrants and regimes have lost all credibility and crumbled or one by one start to crumble. They lacked popular support, so no other alternative but the use of Islam, rather than Arab nationalism and traditional Arab politics.
The continuation of Iran’s Hostage Diplomacy- the other side of it- on the surface appears to be threatening the world, the US, and Israel with nuclear power but in reality Iran wants dialogues and recognition and here we reach the hard part, to some.
Iran wants some sort of recognition of a status like Turkey as the main Islamic powers. Iran wants talks and wants pampering and wants most importantly to avoid popular revolution that if it takes place, it could very well send the clerics to the same finale and destiney of Shah Pahlavi and maybe worse. The Iranian people have had it but waiting for the ignition to start and for leaders to arise.
The results of the questionable 2009 presidential elections in Iran caused massive popular uproar that Tehran did not witness since the religious scholars seized power from the Shah in 1979. The Iranians are fed up with the status quo, fed up with the privileges and status scholars have in comparison with the rest of the country and fed up with a deteriorating economic situation that should not be the case in a leading oil producing country like Iran- the Iranians stand in line to fill their car with Gas.
The Iranians are also fed up with the adventurous and seemingly confrontational style of their president Ahmadinejad. The Iranian wants freedom, they long to the day when their country get rid of Supreme Ayatollahs, the new Shahenshahs, and their cronies and be just a regular country with a president and a parliament.
Iran longs for the time when they can say and talk and just breathe freedom and for women to thrive with and without head cover; it’s up to them and not to the clerics. The governing religious body in Iran has substituted the repressive Shah regime with another repressive regime, different names, but same methods.
The defunct regime of Shah Muhammad Reza Pahlavi had the “Savak” as its oppressive Paramilitary army to control the lives of the people and the Mullahs now have the “Basij” to continue the job. The Iranians do not go as of now as far as asking for a regime change completely, they are asking for more freedom and more democracy. But I think they want more and will not settle for middle ground. The Iranians historically have moved from one extreme to the other- Maybe now they have learned to get things done on stages.
The future of Iran might turn to be as of its neighboring Turkey, with a liberal democratically elected Islamic party and with the religious scholars going back to their natural place, where they belong, modestly speaking, which is the place of education and universities and Mosques.
Picture is courtesy of PBS Frontline from images of the 2009 revolution.
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Romancing Iran Jamil M. Shawwa Posted January 15, 2013
After the 1979 Clerics and Ayatollahs revolution, Iran wanted to be a regional Middle Eastern power through spreading propaganda fears of “exporting” the revolution to the scared neighboring countries, especially to the Arab Gulf monarchies but also it could not.
The Arabs have been too proud, too weary, too suspicious, too historically distrusting Iran and vice versa, that they accepted the tyranny of their Arab brethren than to give their Islamic Iranian “Brethren” the joy of dominance over them.
So where does that leave Iran, what does Iran want besides blackmailing the world community into a dialogue through calculated threats of becoming a nuclear power and its hypocritical and demagoguery and empty and pity threats to Israel every now and then. And to add insult to injury, Iran mastered in between 1979 and now, a unique diplomacy, the Hostage Diplomacy, by picking up and kidnapping foreigners like any outlaw and jail them with no proof or due process and accuse them of what else but the famous “spying”.
They got motivated by America’s humiliation during the hostage crisis of 1979 and the failure of Jimmy Carter to free America’s diplomats. Or maybe it was the curse of the poor exiled ailing and dying Shah that Carter and America decided that he was too of a burden or it did not trust his son Ali to govern.
America knew that the Shah was dying of cancer few months before the end of the “Shahenshah”. The Shah actually through his dictatorship, personal, unrealistic and obnoxious lavish spending and lifestyle contributed the biggest chunk for the fall of Iran in the hands of the Mullahs.
Actually besides the other factors, I think the Shah was an obstacle to the very much needed Shiite power in the Middle East, that was to do the job of supporting tiny Shiite groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon, and later on in Iraq and supporting forces that were created in the Middle East like Hamas in Gaza and Jihad and the rest of these “Media Terrorists” to balance and even substitute for the failing and corrupt Arab liberals and their flipside, the military generals. And to create a momentum for a calculated, again, democratic rise that is now paving the way to political popular organizations dressed with the flag of Islam to rule and create not a regime drive towards peace with the State of Israel, but a popular drive by the same entities that keep publicly attacking Israel but somehow will ensure on the popular level that the peace with Israel, which should be the case anyway, is something that appeals to the masses in the Arab and Islamic countries in the Middle East and beyond. Because if this drive to peace comes from seemingly conservative religious political parties, then it would definitely have the pragmatic appeal it needs and the credibility to pass.
Arab tyrants and regimes have lost all credibility and crumbled or one by one start to crumble. They lacked popular support, so no other alternative but the use of Islam, rather than Arab nationalism and traditional Arab politics.
The continuation of Iran’s Hostage Diplomacy- the other side of it- on the surface appears to be threatening the world, the US, and Israel with nuclear power but in reality Iran wants dialogues and recognition and here we reach the hard part, to some.
Iran wants some sort of recognition of a status like Turkey as the main Islamic powers. Iran wants talks and wants pampering and wants most importantly to avoid popular revolution that if it takes place, it could very well send the clerics to the same finale and destiney of Shah Pahlavi and maybe worse. The Iranian people have had it but waiting for the ignition to start and for leaders to arise.
The results of the questionable 2009 presidential elections in Iran caused massive popular uproar that Tehran did not witness since the religious scholars seized power from the Shah in 1979. The Iranians are fed up with the status quo, fed up with the privileges and status scholars have in comparison with the rest of the country and fed up with a deteriorating economic situation that should not be the case in a leading oil producing country like Iran- the Iranians stand in line to fill their car with Gas.
The Iranians are also fed up with the adventurous and seemingly confrontational style of their president Ahmadinejad. The Iranian wants freedom, they long to the day when their country get rid of Supreme Ayatollahs, the new Shahenshahs, and their cronies and be just a regular country with a president and a parliament.
Iran longs for the time when they can say and talk and just breathe freedom and for women to thrive with and without head cover; it’s up to them and not to the clerics. The governing religious body in Iran has substituted the repressive Shah regime with another repressive regime, different names, but same methods.
The defunct regime of Shah Muhammad Reza Pahlavi had the “Savak” as its oppressive Paramilitary army to control the lives of the people and the Mullahs now have the “Basij” to continue the job. The Iranians do not go as of now as far as asking for a regime change completely, they are asking for more freedom and more democracy. But I think they want more and will not settle for middle ground. The Iranians historically have moved from one extreme to the other- Maybe now they have learned to get things done on stages.
The future of Iran might turn to be as of its neighboring Turkey, with a liberal democratically elected Islamic party and with the religious scholars going back to their natural place, where they belong, modestly speaking, which is the place of education and universities and Mosques.
Picture is courtesy of PBS Frontline from images of the 2009 revolution.
http://
 |
| Picture is courtesy of PBS Frontline from images of the 2009 revolution. |
Romancing Iran Jamil M. Shawwa Posted January 15, 2013
