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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jacob Snyder who wrote (97238)	5/2/2003 12:14:52 PM
From: Sun Tzu	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

> They do, however, have a popular base in Washington: LOL! Yah, I know. > Soona Samsami, U.S. representative of the council Huh?!! So how many other officially declared terrorist organizations have a representative to the Congress? > saying a revolution is underway in Iran to overthrow the government They've been saying that for 22 years. > The congressional policy statement views Khatami and Khamenei as closely aligned. No way! The best way to look at this, is to think of Khatami as akin to Gorbochev [sp?] He wants to establish changes which will maintain the integrity of the regime at the expense of large scale shifts in policies. The hardliners are opposing it on two counts: Firstly they are worried that implementing reform will make things go out of hand as it did in Soviet Union. Secondly they have argued that even if it does not get out of hand, the Islamic regime will be so only in name if they implement all that Khatami wants. Khatami's answer to the above points has been, "perhaps, but if you don't give in, there will be a revolution and you will not have Islam as part of it even in name". There are in fact people who'd welcome that outcome. So while some nationalists and reformers have joined Khatami's rank and file, others have been actively undermining him and have been using antagonstic tactics. For example, the Monarchists and the MKO and some of the factions in Iran have no interest in seeing the regime improve. Because that would stop their own rise to power.