For The National Iranian American Council's Liveblog of the Iranian elections and aftermath go here.
They have translations of the Farsi Twitter streams which are interesting.
It seems that SMS and social networking sites are down throughout Iran, as well as much of the cellular networks.
I am intrigued at how the big minds will interpret these events for the future of Iranian-American relations. Internal strife in Iran might just be disruptive enough to prevent effective diplomacy by the US and the West regarding Iran's nuclear program (could this have been a ploy by the mullahs all along?). And if Ahmadinejad loses his legitmacy he may be much more free-wheeling with his hate-filled speech. He cannot run for re-election after this term (presidents cannot hold more than two successive terms, though there is no limit on total terms in office) and therefore is less beholden to the public, if he ever was anyway.
Ultimately I think we are headed for a military confrontation in Iran at some point down the road, if things remain as they are or worsen. A lot will depend on how these next few days and weeks play out.
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8 years ago
As of now it's disappointing that there haven't been any statements by foreign ministries on the matter, except for, of course, a group of Muslim states in the Middle East. In my view I think they're waiting for some actual, hard evidence that supports widespread fraud. Or maybe, as I read in one article, an illegimate and unpopular Ahmadinejad, both in and outside Iran, would further Western foreign policy efforts at confrontation and sanction.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think?