Iranian President - 1979 Hostage Taker?

[GePap]

"clarity"? The clarity that the reform movement is politically weak because it has been unable to push its demands through politically?

Yes, that surely is clear.

One could say that this one of those "its the economy stupid" elections.

[lord of the mark]

Clarity as to what the regime really intends wrt to reform.

the reform movement in Iran has never been able to push its reforms through within the Mullah designed system. Clarity on that was achieved several years ago.

[lord of the mark]

Well SOMEBODY likes the new Prez:

"TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's hard-line Revolutionary Guards pledged their loyalty Tuesday to the country's ultraconservative president-elect, who called for an end to accusations that he took Americans hostage and killed a Kurdish opposition leader.


The guards' welcome of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was in stark contrast to their threat four years ago to attack supporters of outgoing reformist President Mohammad Khatami if they threatened Iran's Islamic regime.


.....

Brig. Gen. Rahim Safavi, head of the guards, offered more backing to the incoming president, saying his 200,000-member force — which reports directly to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — will serve Ahmadinejad's government.

"It's necessary to declare the readiness of the green-uniform Guards and capable Basijis (hard-line vigilantes) ... to support and cooperate with Your Excellency's serving government," Safavi said in a congratulatory message to Ahmadinejad, state media reported Tuesday.

The vast and well-funded Revolutionary Guards are the most potent force available to the regime, are independent of the regular armed forces and have a broad mandate to confront external and domestic "dangers" confronting the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

In 2000, the guards threatened to strike pro-Khatami reformists with "a hammer on their skull" if they insisted on undermining the country's Islamic ideology. Khatami's well-publicized program of democratic reform sought to protect freedoms and lessen restrictions imposed on Iran by hard-line clerics."