The world seems to be in crises nearly all the time. The foremost is the Palestinian issue. That links every Islamic country in the Mideast: Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Of course they all expound to the Islamic religion except for Israel, which is a Jewish Republic.
This past week the world press has covered the recent elections for president in Iran. We in the United States look upon that as important position…. being the president of Iran. However Iran is an Islamic Republic and is really led by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamemei. So the position as president is mainly the front man for the Ayatollah.
Iran's Interior Ministry announced Saturday that incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had won 63.29% of the vote in the country's presidential election — a landslide. But Iran's opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi says he won and that the result had been rigged; Mousavi supporters have taken to the streets in Tehran and other cities to protest the official outcome.
If we Americans think Mousavi will be able to turn the election to his favor… we have got another thing coming. Mousavi supporters have organized marches to protest Iran’s disputed presidential election in an extraordinary show of defiance that appeared to be the largest anti-government demonstration in Iran since the 1979 revolution.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called for an inquiry into opposition claims that the election was rigged in favor of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The ayatollah’s call was the first sign that Iran’s top leadership might be rethinking its position on the election. Khamenei announced Saturday that the election results showing a landslide victory for Ahmadinejad were fair, but on Sunday he met with Mir Hussein Moussavi, the former prime minister and moderate who was the main opposition candidate, to listen to his concerns.
There is some underlying premonition by us in the U.S. that Ahmadinejad’s landslide election will be over turned and a more moderate government will be put in place. Our hopes are that the moderate government will detour from the path of building a nuclear weapon to destroy Israel. Any war with Israel will draw the United Stated in to defend Israel.
Iran is missing an opportunity to embrace the rest of the world with being a partner in peace. They have a tremendous resource – oil. They could play a major role in sustaining the rest of the world. And, their people are moving to a more moderate life style, versus the stance of hard core Islam. At the center of Iran’s position to build a nuclear weapon and long range missiles is not to protect it self from its neighbors Iraq and Afghanistan – it’s to destroy Israel.
I have hopes… but I’m also realistic. Iran is too far down this path of no return. If the recent election is overturned, there is hope. Otherwise, we going to be dealing with an Iran that will be a thorn in our side for some time.
