: US War Talk Creates Political Instability In Iran

The US and Iran are wrestling with each other, and that’s a good thing. Warming (well, slightly warming) relations have allowed “people-to-people” cultural exchanges such as last week’s wrestling competition in Iran (where the US took third place) as well as the increasing popularity of Iranian cinema among US moviegoers. But George Bush’s infamous “axis of evil” speech chilled the relationship, and the post-Iraq war/pre-Iran war talk from key US officials threatens to take it down further. Now another kind of wrestling is going on – the political kind. The US is charging Iran with fomenting terror, building nuclear arms, and trying to remake Iraq in its own image. Iran vigorously denies the charges, saying that it is fighting al-Qaida, has promised to stay out of Iraq, and is open to inspections of its nuclear facilities. “We’re trying our best,” said Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi. “We have strong objections to al-Qaeda, politically and religiously.” The tensions are exacerbating internal political tensions in Iran that pit the elected government of Mohammad Khatami (and the disaffected youth that back him) against the unelected government of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Waiting in the wings are Iranian monarchists who are keen to take advantage of the turmoil to finance an internal rebellion. “I think you can buy yourself a free Iran today for $20 million,” said neocon Michael Ledeen to a rally in Los Angeles. Gee, that’s only a small fraction of the cost of the US war on Iraq!

Shahed Amanullah is editor-in-chief of altmuslim.com.