Word: ahmadinejad
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Ayatullah Ali Khamenei's improbable haste in declaring Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the winner of Iran's June 12 presidential election was motivated by a desire to smooth his ally's path to a second term of office, it had quite the opposite effect. Eight weeks later, as Ahmadinejad was sworn in by Iran's parliament on Aug. 5, the Islamic Republic remains in the grip of an unprecedented political crisis over the legitimacy of both men - a crisis that shows no sign of abating, either on the streets or inside the corridors of power. (Read "Khamenei: The Power Behind the President...
That much was clear in reports from Iran on Aug. 4 that, as part of preparations for the swearing-in ceremony, the Revolutionary Guard Corps had instructed hospitals near parliament to be ready for casualties from the anticipated protests. And the Aug. 3 ceremony in which Khamenei formally acknowledged Ahmadinejad's election victory was marked both by a noticeable awkwardness between the two men, and the noteworthy absence of some key figures in the regime, that may have reflected the bruising power struggle under way among the heavyweights of the Islamic revolution. For the first time in 20 years...
Even if their numbers are dramatically reduced from the hundreds of thousands that first marched to cry fraud in the days immediately after June 12, the very fact that protesters are still taking to the streets - as hundreds did on Aug. 3, while Khamenei was formally confirming Ahmadinejad - is, in itself, remarkable. After all, to protest now is to risk a cracked head, or far worse; for all the mixed signals from Iran's top echelons of power, the security forces have exhibited few qualms about doing whatever it takes to quiet the streets, including the imprisoning of an estimated...
...opposition, and his own legitimacy has been questioned as never before, whether by street protesters breaking a taboo by shouting slogans against him, or by key regime figures like former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani openly rebuking his partisan interventions as an abuse of his office. Even Ahmadinejad himself has lately taken steps that flagrantly challenge Khamenei's authority...
...While Ahmadinejad had his tax run-in with the bazaar, Mousavi does not have a positive record with many bazaaris either. Older bazaaris can still remember Mousavi the firebrand leftist, who as Prime Minister in the 1980s was associated with price controls and food cooperatives during the Iran-Iraq war. But younger managers and workers generally express support for Mousavi, even though, as one pointed out, "Mousavi never visited the bazaar before the election." Bazaaris felt slighted by the snub, and since the bazaar's merchants are still a main conduit to Iran's smaller towns and rural areas, this...