Word: ahmadinejad
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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...
...failure of the regime to quiet the streets and to close ranks behind Khamenei in his endorsement of a second Ahmadinejad term is without precedent in the Islamic Republic's 30-year history. As leading U.S.-based Iran scholar Farideh Farhi told the Council on Foreign Relations, Khamenei and Ahmadinejad had assumed that "if they use a sufficient amount of violence, they can put an end to the popular anger that has been generated. [Instead], they continue to be surprised by the resistance that is being shown - not only by major players in Iranian politics, but the people of Iran...