Iran Mullahs See Window Of Opportunity In Iraq USADI Dispatch, 05/21/04
Iran is hard at work to rip the most benefit from current state of affairs in Iraq and take advantage of the US-led coalition’s preoccupation with security and political issues there. The mullahs believe there is a window of opportunity after June 30 and until the US presidential elections in November, and they are determined to make the most of it in terms of both their nuclear weapons program and consolidation of their clandestine infrastructure in Iraq.
Agence France Presse reported earlier this week that "the Iranians are more confident [that their nuclear breach will not be reported to the UN Security Council] because they know they're needed in Iraq." Recent realignment of forces within the power structure of the regime point to Tehran’s preparations to carry out its sinister plans.
There are growing indications of the increasing role of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) in government agencies and other centers of power in recent months. Iran’s rulers have been alarmed by rising anti-government sentiments across the country in the past several months and a downward spiral in the economic fortunes of Iranians.
The most recent sign of the IRGC’s prominence came earlier this week when the head of the state television and radio network (IRIB), Ali Larijani, was replaced by his deputy Ezatollah Zarghami, a former IRGC Brig. Gen. with a long record of involvement in crackdown at home and terrorism abroad, dating back to the early 1980s.
Zarghami’s appointment follows last February’s sham parliamentary election in which dozens of IRGC commanders won seats. In fact, the Guards Corps played a major role in getting the IRGC personnel and their families out to vote. It also helped bus in thousands of people from Tehran’s surrounding villages to the capital’s main voting poles to showcase a high turnout in an election millions of Iranians shunned.
With Zarghami at the helm, the IRIB will no doubt step up its disinformation campaign against Iran’s democracy movement and its fundamentalist propaganda beamed into Iraq. There are already a dozen radio and TV broadcasts jointly controlled by the IRIB and IRGC, broadcasting venomous propaganda into Iraq to wreak greater instability by spreading extremist views.
That’s not all. Late last month, Reuters reported, “Iran's Revolutionary Guards are overseeing some 400 nuclear experts in order to prevent further leaks of sensitive information about Tehran's atomic facilities.” And a US official expressed "explicit concerns" that the Iranian military was controlling the nuclear weapons programs.
On May 19, the Eurasia Insight wrote, “The Revolutionary Guards reportedly dominate Iran’s embassy in Iraq, and have garnered praise in Tehran for running effective intelligence and diplomatic operations” there.
The growing influence of the IRGC in Iran’s centers of power is sanctioned by the mullahs’ Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Fearing the explosive potential of popular discontent as summer approaches, the ruling clique has to rely on the IRGC’s iron fist to clampdown further on Iran’s democracy movement and political dissidents.
Equally significant, the rise of the IRGC reflects Tehran’s determination to intensify its meddling in Iraq and vigorously pursue its nuclear weapons program.
Washington needs to be very vigilant about these developments and warn Iran’s rulers that suppressing Iranian dissidents, interfering in Iraq and pursuing nuclear weapons will not be tolerated. More importantly, the United States should embrace democratic opposition forces that are working to unseat the ruling mullahs. This is imperative because only a regime change in Tehran would ultimately rid Iran and the region of the ayatollahs’ menace.
USADI Dispatch is a commentary by the US Alliance for Democratic Iran (www.usadiran.org)
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