Democracy in Iran

Jun 19, 2013 Editorial

The Academy Award-winning film “Argo” reminded the world of the beginning of the United States’ tumultuous relationship with Iran. It was not the overthrow of the US-backed Shah of Iran and the “hostage crisis” of 1979″ by Islamic radicals under Ayatollah Khomeni. It went all the way back to1954 to the CIA-instigated coup of Iran’s democratically-elected Prime Minister. It all had to do with securing oil to drive the resurgent US economy after WWII.
Since 1979, Iran has worked hard to evolve a system of governance that combines Islam’s stricture for the state to be guided by Islamic principles and those of the western notion of “democracy”. Iran is ruled by a Guardian Council of theocrats under which a President is elected to govern on a day-to-day basis. The core security and foreign policy issues, including the nuclear dialogue about which the US has expressed grave concerns, are handled by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Last week, Hassan Rouhani, who is a moderate follower of Ayatollah Khomeni, was elected as Iran’s President by a landslide. Unlike the elections of 2009 in which Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won a second term that precipitated street protests after many citizens felt the polls were rigged, this one has shown that Iran has a well functioning system to give voice to the aspirations of the people – within Iran’s unique power structure. Mr Rouhani defeated several more conservative rivals thought to be much more favoured by the Guardian Council.
The Council, first of all, controls the process as to which presidential candidates get on the ballot. In this case it not only disqualified the nominee of Ahmadinejad, but also former President Rafsanjani, who was also a moderate. The latter along with another former President, Khatami, threw their support behind Rouhani and the result was a surge in female and youthful participation that resulted in record voting levels. Noteworthy also was the call of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for people to come out and vote irrespective of their choice.
Rouhani took special pains to make his position clear on women when he stated during the campaign, “In my government, differences between women and men won’t be tolerated.” He also called for less harassment of youths by the “moral police”. There is great hope that internally, Mr Rouhani will be able to mediate between the reformists and the conservative factions in the governing elite. His big test will be whether he would be able to revive the economy which has been crippled by increasingly stringent US-backed sanctions since 1979. Asserting that Iran was engaged in uranium enrichment for the production of nuclear weapons rather than its peaceful use, the US has been able to bring other countries to support the sanctions.
The election of President Rouhani, who was Iran’s negotiator with the international community for years on the nuclear issue, has brought new hope that he would be able to reduce tensions in this area. On Monday, President Obama suggested that the election results demonstrated that the Iranian people “want to move in a different direction”. He affirmed that the US was “open” to holding new talks with Iran over its nuclear program but that sanctions would remain in place until the international community was satisfied about its peaceful nature.
Normalisation of relations between Iran and the USA is crucial for the lessening of tensions in the Middle East. Many analysts see the ongoing battles between the Shias and Sunnis in Lebanon and Syria as a proxy for the realpolitik that is being played by the US to counter Shia Iran, which is forced to commit scarce resources to support its allies in the Syrian government and Hizbollah. The effect of the sanctions on stymieing the aspirations of Iranians for a better quality of life might just force the government to make concessions.
Also on Monday, Obama said that President Putin of Russia said that Iran might now be open to inspection. The same day, Rouwani confirmed that his country wanted to confirm its nuclear work fully met international standards. There is hope.

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