Iran: September 19, 2001

Archives

Iran condemned the attacks. But while the current government got some 80 percent of the vote in recent elections. The other twenty percent of the population back the religious conservatives who have veto power over anything the president or legislature does. The conservatives also control the judiciary and armed forces. If the United States decides to invade Iraq and remove Saddam Hussein, there would be considerable enthusiasm for this in Iran. Saddam is much hated within Iran for invading Iran in 1980. Hundreds of thousands of Iranians died in the war and one publicly announced war aim was the death of Saddam. Moderates were not a majority in 1991, during the Gulf War, and Saddam has not made him self more popular in Iran in the meantime. Iran has fired Scud missiles several times in the past few years, against camps in Iraq. These camps are bases for radical Iranian rebels who operate within Iran. Iran supports resistance forces within Afghanistan. But the conservatives within Iran are still very anti-American and support terrorist activities. All this is having an effect on Iranian politics.