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Special Report: Iran
The Gathering Storm, June 26, 2009
By Rick Santorum
Posted: Friday, June 26, 2009
THE GATHERING STORM
Publication Date: June 26, 2009
SPECIAL REPORT: IRAN The world is watching Iran like never before. The presidential elections of June 12 set the stage for escalating drama and intrigue both within the Islamic Republic and without it, and while this crisis is one that ultimately only Iran can sort out, that does not preclude the leader of the free world from lending its ear and airing its voice, as I recently argued in a piece posted on National Review Online.
What exactly should be the role of the U.S. in this whole affair? That question has elicited a firestorm of debate in Washington (see commentary war below), with the key division lying between those who see the threat of Iran's nuclear capability as the baseline pivot point, and those who, assuming the nuclear threat to bean inevitable state of nature regardless of the powerbroker, would rather devote resources to a complete overhaul of the regime itself. What is nowindisputable on either side is the state to which the "structural underpinnings of the entire Islamic approach to modern political self-rule" are crumbling, as pointed out by Reuel Marc Gerecht inthe New York Times earlier this week.
At the pure level of events on the ground, here is a chronology of the main developments following the election onJune 12 (Reuters): June 13 | Hard-line incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad officially wins presidential election with nearly 63% of the vote compared with 34% for reformist challenger Mirhossein Mousavi, authorities say. Thousands of protesters clash with police. Mousavi calls result a "dangerous charade". | June 14 | Mousavi says he has formally asked Iran's Guardian Council to annul the election. | June 15 | Seven people are killed during a huge march by Mousavi supporters in central Tehran, state media says. There are also pro-Mousavi demonstrations in the cities of Rasht, Orumiyeh, Zahedan and Tabriz. | June 16 | Leading Iranian reformist Mohammad Ali Abtahi, a former vice-president, is arrested, his office says. The Guardian Council says it is ready to carry out a partial recount of ballots but rules out annulling the poll. Thousands of pro-Mousavi demonstrators march in northern Tehran. Ahmadinejad's supporters mobilise thousands of demonstrators in central Tehran. Authorities ban foreign journalists from leaving their offices to cover street protests. | June 17 | Thousands march in central Tehran. Ahmadinejad defends the legitimacy of the vote, telling a cabinet meeting it has "posed a great challenge to the West's democracy," Mehr news agency reports. | June 18 | Thousands of Mousavi's backers rally in Tehran to mourn those killed in the mass protests. A spokesman for the Guardian Council says it has begun examining 646 complaints submitted after the June 12 vote. Iran's English-language state television has reported eight people killed in five days of protests. | June 19 | Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says protest leaders will be responsible for any bloodshed if rallies continue against the election, which he says Ahmadinejad won fairly by 11 million votes. | June 20 | The Guardian Council says it is ready to recount a tenth of the votes in the disputed election. Riot police are deployed in force, firing teargas and using batons and water cannon to disperse groups of several hundred Iranians who had gathered across Tehran. A suicide bomber blows himself up near the shrine of Iran's revolutionary founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in Tehran, Iran's semi-official Mehr news agency reports. State television says more than 450 people are detained during clashes in Tehran in which at least 10 people are killed including Neda Agha-Soltan who, according to her fiancé, had been caught up accidentally in the protests. Graphic footage of the young woman's death is seen around the world on the Internet. | June 21 | Mousavi urges supporters to continue protests, issuing an oblique appeal to security forces to show restraint. Ahmadinejad accuses the United States and Britain of interfering in Iran's affairs. | June 22 | Hardline Revolutionary Guards issue a statement saying they will firmly confront in a revolutionary way rioters and those who violate the law. Police break up a protest in Tehran hours after the Guards issued their statement. | June 23 | Guardian Council again rules out annulment of the election, saying there have been no major polling irregularities. However, Khamenei accepts a request from the council for a five-day extension to the deadline for candidates to make complaints over the election. Riot police and Basij militia on Tehran's main squares ward off mass protests. US President Barack Obama says the United States is appalled and outraged by Iran's crackdown. Britain expels two Iranian diplomats after two of its diplomats had been expelled from Iran. | June 24 | Iran pursues a security crackdown to suppress any more unrest. | June 25 | Ahmadinejad lashes out at President Obama, warning him against "interfering" in Iranian affairs and demanding an apology for criticism on the government crackdown. | June 26 | TheWhite Househits back at Ahmadinejad's claim, accusing the Iranian President of seeking to blame the U.S. for unrest following Iran's disputed election. |
To read the stories of the dissidentsfrom inside Iran, click here. For photographs, click here, here, andhere (warning: some content may be inappropriate for children). For videos of the protests and ensuing violence, click here, here, here,here, and here(warning: some content may be inappropriate for children). Battle of Ideas between U.S. Foreign Policy Experts:
Should we focus on blocking Iran's nuclear capability threat or undermining the regime that controls it? What follows is a presentation of the two major camps debating how exactly the U.S. should engage Iran given recent events. There is no doubt but that the rules of the game have undergone a dramatic makeover within the Islamic Republic. So what does that mean for President Obama? And for the rest of us? It is important to present the most compelling voices from both sides, as you will see below. But let it be known that I reside in the second group, with those who would help the courageous Iranian people overturn a nasty government that has denied them their rights, betrayed their confidence, and humiliated them in almost every conceivable way since June 12. For the Iranian people on the streets are not risking their lives over the nuclear issue, although that appropriately is one of our concerns. More fundamentally, they are fighting for freedom. View from the Left: The Need to Maintain Diplomatic Relations for Direct Talks with the Islamic Republic View from the Right: The Need to Undermine a Dictatorial Theocratic Regime - "What Do Iranians Want?" Jeffrey Gedmin, The Washington Post
- "Five Ways Obama Could Promote Freedom in Iran," Dan Senor and Christian Whiton, Wall Street Journal
- "Fragile at the Core," David Brooks, New York Times
- "'No Comment' Is Not an Option," Paul Wolfowitz, The Washington Post
- "Hope and Change - but Not for Iran," Charles Krauthammer, The Washington Post
- "The Koran and the Ballot Box," Reuel Marc Gerecht, The New York Times
- "Obama's Persian Tutorial: The President has to choose between the regime and the people in the streets," Fouad Ajami, Wall Street Journal
- "An Overlooked Force in Iran," Anne Applebaum, The Washington Post
- "Iran's Democrats Deserve Full Support: Appeasing tyrants has never worked in the past," Garry Kasparov, Wall Street Journal
- "The June 12 Revolution: Whatever happens in Tehran, there's no going back to the Ayatollah Khomeini's Islamic Republic," Reuel Marc Gerecht, The Weekly Standard
May the wisest minds and hearts win. And may our President hear and heed their voices.
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