Friday, June 12, 2009

waiting on tehran

wowza. unprecedented turnout for the iranian presidential elections today. they've extended polling for at least four extra hours. certainly this insane turnout is a good sign for reformist challenger mousavi.

so the eyes of the world are on iran. foreign engagement with iran has been somewhat suspended as people have held their breath waiting for today. does it matter though? khamenei ain't goin' nowhere. how then, would the dynamics of a new government pan out, with a head of the executive, at least rhetorically, more willing to engage the rest of the world? how big an electoral mandate would he have to have to avoid a major whip-cracking from khamenei and the guardian council?

do i actually have enough people who read this to do an open thread?
meh, probably not. go for it, though, and i'll spin some more thoughts later when i make more progress on the annual report i'm supposed to be writing. regardless, between last week's cairo speech, the much-viewed and commented upon max blumenthal video, and iran's election, it's an interesting fortnight in debates on american mid-east policy issues.

UPDATE: no one/everyone (fp bloggers) wins so far. get ready for the whole country to be completely stabby for the next, like, three days while the votes are counted. check out the nyt liveblog here.

2 comments:

  1. The weeklong runup to this election in the American press makes me wonder whether or not Mousavi really stands a chance. Has Mousavi really been as popular as the press indicates?

    Here's some more news that just broke: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8098305.stm

    No matter what the results, the issue of securing peace in/with Israel remains the most important issue. I'm not sure a new president in Iran will alleviate those tensions overnight.

    Love,
    Amato

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  2. "was", rightly. although khamenei's kind of a punk, i guess.

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