{"id":1778,"date":"2003-06-02T02:33:03","date_gmt":"2003-06-02T07:33:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/?p=1778"},"modified":"2003-06-02T02:33:03","modified_gmt":"2003-06-02T07:33:03","slug":"us_war_talk_creates_political_instability_in_iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2003\/06\/us_war_talk_creates_political_instability_in_iran\/","title":{"rendered":": US War Talk Creates Political Instability In Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><table cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" border=\"0\" align=\"right\">\n<tr>\n<td><img><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td align=\"right\">\n<div class=\"caption\"><\/div>\n<p><\/p><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p>The US and Iran are wrestling with each other, and that\u2019s a good thing.  Warming (well, slightly warming) relations have allowed \u201cpeople-to-people\u201d cultural exchanges such as last week\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.payvand.com%2Fnews%2F03%2Fmay%2F1144.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">wrestling competition<\/a> in Iran (where the US took <a href=\"http:\/\/www.payvand.com%2Fnews%2F03%2Fmay%2F1124.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">third place<\/a>) as well as the increasing popularity of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.msnbc.com%2Fnews%2F914196.asp\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Iranian cinema<\/a> among US moviegoers.  But George Bush\u2019s infamous \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.csmonitor.com%2F2003%2F0530%2Fp11s01-cods.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">axis of evil<\/a>\u201d 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 \u2013 the political kind.  The US is charging Iran with fomenting <a href=\"http:\/\/www.smh.com.au%2Farticles%2F2003%2F06%2F01%2F1054406076593.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">terror<\/a>, building <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailytelegraph.co.uk%2Fnews%2Fmain.jhtml%3Fxml%3D%2Fnews%2F2003%2F06%2F01%2Fwiran01.xml%26sSheet%3D%2Fnews%2F2003%2F06%2F01%2Fixworld.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">nuclear arms<\/a>, and trying to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fworld%2Farchives%2F2003%2F05%2F31%2F2003053405\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">remake<\/a> Iraq in its own image.  Iran vigorously denies the charges, saying that it is <a href=\"http:\/\/famulus.msnbc.com%2FFamulusIntl%2Freuters05-31-071910.asp%3Freg%3DASIA\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">fighting al-Qaida<\/a>, has promised to stay out of Iraq, and is open to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.irna.ir%2Fen%2Fhead%2F030602123104.ehe.shtml\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">inspections<\/a> of its nuclear facilities.  \u201cWe\u2019re trying our best,\u201d said Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi. \u201cWe have <a href=\"http:\/\/www.time.com%2Ftime%2Fmagazine%2Farticle%2F0%2C9171%2C1101030609-455806%2C00.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">strong objections<\/a> to al-Qaeda, politically and religiously.\u201d  The tensions are exacerbating <a href=\"http:\/\/famulus.msnbc.com%2FFamulusIntl%2Freuters06-01-081657.asp%3Freg%3DMIDEAST\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">internal political tensions<\/a> in Iran that pit the elected government of <a href=\"http:\/\/famulus.msnbc.com%2FFamulusIntl%2Freuters05-21-064153.asp%3Freg%3DMIDEAST\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Mohammad Khatami<\/a> (and the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com%2Fwp-dyn%2Farticles%2FA51233-2003May28.html%3Fnav%3Dhptop_tb\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">disaffected youth<\/a> that back him) against the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.arabtimesonline.com%2Farabtimes%2Fworld%2FViewdet.asp%3FID%3D456%26cat%3Db\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">unelected government<\/a> of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.  Waiting in the wings are <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailystar.com.lb%2Fopinion%2F02_06_03_e1.asp\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Iranian monarchists<\/a> who are keen to take advantage of the turmoil to finance an internal rebellion.  \u201cI think you can buy yourself a free Iran today for $20 million,\u201d said neocon <a href=\"http:\/\/www.beaufortgazette.com%2F24hour%2Fspecial_reports%2Firaq%2Fstory%2F903280p-6290390c.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Michael Ledeen<\/a> to a rally in Los Angeles.  Gee, that\u2019s only a <a href=\"http:\/\/money.cnn.com%2F2003%2F03%2F17%2Fnews%2Feconomy%2Fwar_cost%2F\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">small fraction<\/a> of the cost of the US war on Iraq!<\/p>\n<p><i><\/i><\/p>\n<p>Shahed Amanullah is editor-in-chief of altmuslim.com.\n<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Despite warming &#8220;people-to-people&#8221; ties over the past five years, increasing tensions with the US is creating political turmoil in Iran.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":530,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-briefings"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>: US War Talk Creates Political Instability In Iran<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Despite warming &quot;people-to-people&quot; 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