Here is an update on Iran. Keep an eye on Iranian President Hassan
Rouhani and the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
It is now reported
that at least 21 people have been killed.
It appears that Iran
is blocking encrypted messaging apps among the growing protests. Hundreds
of Iranians are being detained as the government clamps down on the protesters.
Ray
Takeyh, who is an Iranian-American Middle East scholar, argues that the
Islamic Republic has a chance of surviving the political unrest. Back in 2009, the so called “Green Revolution”
nearly brought down the Iranian government.
This time too, “It is possible that an Islamist regime…will survive this
latest challenge to its authority,” but with little mercy in killing its own citizens. Should the Islamic Republic survive, however,
Takeyh argues that, “the Iranian theocracy will not be the same, with the
principal casualty of this week being the presidency of Hassan Rouhani. As the
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his hardline disciples assess their
predicament, they are likely to hunker down and insist on more repression at
home.”
Takeyh argues that,
As Rouhani’s presidency lingers, Khamenei and the hardliners are likely to use their commanding institutional power to finally impose their vision of pristine Islamist rule. In their eyes, both reformers and centrists stand suspect today as their promises have only provoked popular insurrections. Iran’s conservatives are imbued with an ideology that views the essential purpose of the state as the realization of God’s will on Earth. Such an exalted task mandates the assumption of power not by tentative moderates but devout revolutionaries.
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| Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (left) gives an endorsement letter to newly elected President Hassan Rohani during a ceremony for his confirmation as Iran's president in Tehran on August 3. |
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