IRANIAN REGIME WORRIED BY PEOPLE’S PRO-AMERICANISM
By Afsane Bassir Pour
PARIS, 25 Apr. (IPS) As President George W. Bush has also warned the Islamic republic to stop meddling in Iraqi affairs, an influential French daily says Iranian officials are worried by the “obvious pro-Americanism sentiments” of ” the Iranian people”.
Iranian officials are worried. Worried of the American presence next to their doors, on the East as well as to the West, worried of the invasion of Iraq “with so little popular resistance”, worried of the fast fall of the Baghdad regime, worried of the sidelining of the UN, worried of the total disillusion of the Iranian people that, since the beginning of the Iraqi crisis, has resulted in a fierce pro-Americanism of the population… but, especially, worried of the vox populi, that asks for “a change of the regime with the help of the American marines”, the daily “Le Monde” wrote.
This demand is taken enough seriously in the political circles so that the resumption of the relations with America –a 24 years-old taboo – had moved forward on the political agenda in Tehran. These relations had been broken on the eve of the establishment of the Islamic Republic and the hostage taking of 55 American diplomats in 1979.
Did I say “heh?” Oh, yeah, I did.
UPDATE: The reader who sent this says he found it here, where there’s this wonderful comment:
If the wanton exercise of America power were ever to lead to general acceptance of this idea, [that] “the best defense…against the Americans would be to reinforce…democracy in order to deprive them of their arguments”, we’d have won.
Indeed.