In the Arena

Tehranny

  • Share
  • Read Later

Via Andrew Sullivan–who, it saddens me to say, has flown from the Atlantic to our rival, NewsBeast: The Iranian tyranny has apparently arrested the two most prominent reform figures, Mir-Hussein Mousavi and Mehdi Kharroubi and their wives. I interviewed both men when I covered the Iranian elections in 2009 (indeed, I was the last journalist to interview Mousavi, who has been under house arrest since he “lost” the election to Ahmadinejad).

These arrests are, obviously, further confirmation of the prohibitive awfulness of the regime…but they may also be more than that: the regime is seeming slightly shaky lately. The international sanctions are hurting the Iranian economy; the probable US/Israeli sabotage of the Bushehr nuclear reactor may be just the tip of the problems now plaguing the Iranian program; and, of course, the democracy movements sweeping the region are a reminder of the freedoms Iranian people don’t have.

The Obama Administration is being a bit more aggressive in its condemnations of the Iranian government these days, which is probably a reflection of its desire to show that it’s on the side of the people in the streets throughout the middle east. But I’m still wary about the Administration getting too vocal in support of the Green movement: it may well give the Supreme Leader and his thugs a green light to really rip into the demonstrators who may take to the streets tomorrow–and, believe me, the Iranian government has the power and the religious army to wreak havoc. The Revolutionary Guard and basij (the religious police) do not at all resemble the Egyptian Army that refused to attack the protesters or the Libyan Army that splintered. They consider the protesters heretics, enemies of God, and have few second thoughts when it comes to brutalizing them.

Iran is one of my favorite places. The disconnect between the barbaric regime and the eminently civilized people I’ve met there is the greatest of any country I’ve ever visited. I hope the day is near when this terrible government is ended. I fear, though, that it will have to happen from within–through an enlightened leader who allows gradual reforms–rather than from the streets.