The current plan for sanctions against Iran leaves the regime between a proverbial rock and hard place since its choices are complied or die.
The adoption of “Countering Iran’s Destabilizing Activities Act of 2017” by the United States Senate has rendered a variety of reactions from Iran resembling the terrified status of the regime’s senior ranks. Iranian media have widely referred to this new bill and the resulting authorizations as the “mother of all sanctions” and the “sanctions black hole.”
Iran’s leaders are criticizing Trump’s recent visit to the Middle East and the resulting agreements. But sanctions and public pressure are having an effect.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei lashed out strongly at the Arab coalition and the United States in strong remarks recently.
“The U.S. president stands alongside the leaders of a tribal and backward system and does the sword dance, but criticizes an Iranian election with 40 million votes… Even with a multi-billion dollar bribe to America, the Saudis cannot achieve their goals in the region,” he said.
Today Hassan Rouhani was announced as the winner of Iran’s presidential election. Of course, these ballot boxes do not represent the voice of the Iranian people but portray the result of a failed engineering campaign and a final decision made by Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. This is also a show of his utter fear of a nationwide uprising against the mullahs’ apparatus.
The interactions during Iranian regime presidential election show are a turning point in the developments taking place within the regime and the overall political situation of Iran.
400 votes were cast from a village of seven families in the “presidential” election
It seems that three components have played a part in forming this situation:
Iranians will be taking advantage of the May 19 presidential election to voice their apathy and respond to calls being made to boycott the so-called polls. They may also use the sham elections to spark an uprising against the regime.
The Iranian people have lost all hope in any form of real elections in Iran, knowing the theocratic regime vets all candidates based on their loyalty to the ruling establishment. This leaves no room for free and fair elections, and thus any expectation of changes inside Iran or in the regime’s foreign policy through elected officials is utterly naïve.
It appears already fierce internal disputes among Iranian regime officials have risen to new levels during the first two 2017 presidential debates held on April 28th and May 6th. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani repeated his strong remarks against the camp loyal to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. However, a close review of the debates sheds significant light on the truly disastrous conditions inside the mullahs’ regime.
On April 14, Senator John McCain visited Albania, lately becoming the permanent residence of the vast majority of the 3,000 Iranian dissidents evacuated from the former US military base of Camp Liberty in Iraq. McCain met with a number of that community’s former residents, many of whom lost loved ones in a series of attacks carried out by Iran-backed proxies in Iraq. There are 3,000 more pro-democratic activists working in stable conditions to bring about the end of the theocratic dictatorship and return self-determination to the Iranian people.
