After being subjected to suppression and terror for over 30 years, the Iranian people have taken to the streets once again to rid themselves of the clutches of the dictatorial regime in Iran. They are learning these days that the regime's overthrow will not be a mere repeat of the downfall of the Shah's regime. There are many significant differences. The Shah's regime lessened suppression at the behest of Jimmy Carter, then president of the United States. And, this was enough to bring about the end of his regime in the next 27 months.
But the scope of the current religious dictatorship's crimes and the hatred of people towards it are much more than the Shah's time. Therefore, were the regime to decrease suppression and terror even the slightest bit and stop hangings and torture in its prisons, it would not last for as long as 27 months, but will be overthrown in less than a week.
According to AFP on July 23, the British prime minister on Wednesday expressed support for the rights of protesters in Iran. This is a positive stance, but the Iranian people these days are not involved in a verbal confrontation against the clerical regime. Their conflict is real and involves paying a very tangible price. They are killed on a daily basis in prisons, they have been arrested and placed under torture, but still have refused to abandon their struggle. Therefore, they expect whoever that supports them to make the regime pay an equally tangible price as long as it continues suppression in Iran.
The experience of the past decades has proven that this regime is completely dependent on suppression, massacre, and torture. Therefore, the international community will never be able to force the regime to abandon suppression through mere verbal denunciations. The international community bears a heavy burden to pay the real price, meaning to disregard economic interests, refuse to give in to the regime's intimidations, to confront the regime over its extensive human rights abuses. It should also bring the regime’s leaders on trial at an international tribunal in order for them to answer to their crimes against humanity.
Although the spell of terror in Iran has not been shattered completely, the continuation of the rifts and chasms at the highest levels of the clerical regime have worked to encourage continued protests and uprisings in Iran, making the situation irreversible. We will never experience the conditions prevailing before June 13. The spell that has really been shattered these days in Iran has been the spell of the Supreme Leader. People in Iran have felt the dark shadow of the Supreme Leader over their heads for the past three decades. The Supreme Leader is an absolute ruler politically over and above the president, the government, and the Parliament. He is the one that can enter ideologically in every Iranian citizen’s most private affair and make decisions about it. He is the one that has seemingly occupied a “holy” position and no Iranian citizen has the right to oppose him even in their individual mind let alone in actual fact. During the recent uprisings, the Iranian people used the rifts at the top of the regime to shatter this spell and have paid with their blood along the way. The chants of death to Khamenei by the people and their demands to dismiss him by other clerics are impacts of this event.
The breaking of this spell also has a message and a lesson for the international community. The message is that Iranians who have shown the ability and courage to overcome such a dark spell should not be ignored in Western foreign policy circles. Governments, which despite the Iranian people's demands to overthrow the regime, talk about dialogue with the regime and giving it a chance until the end of 2009 resemble soccer players outside the playing field, who have no goals and are running after a ball in vain.
But what is the lesson here? The lesson the Iranian people are offering the international community, and especially the leaders of Western countries, is this: The clerical regime was able to instill fear in the Iranian people through the spell of the Supreme Leader. Although the people could see the injustices committed by the Supreme Leader, they did not dare to express their opposition for 30 years. But, when they found the courage to chant the slogan "Khamenei is a murderer, his rule is illegitimate," they realized that they should have attacked the regime's Supreme Leader much sooner.
The international community has also come under the spell of the regime’s Supreme Leader. It has lost its will and is unable to stand up to the regime’s illegal measures and intimidations. The Iranian regime's suppression of popular protests has shocked the entire international community, but Western leaders are still contemplating summoning their ambassadors in protest or ceasing their diplomatic relations until the end of the suppression. They are still contemplating if this would amount to interference in Iran's internal affairs or not.
The clerical regime pays no respect to the UN Security Council resolutions in regards to its nuclear program, and recently Khamenei and Ahmadinejad defiantly spoke of continuing the regime's nuclear program. However, none of the leaders of Western countries have the will to declare that patience is no longer possible and that if the regime is not ready to abandon its obscure nuclear program then a firm policy must be adopted against it without wasting any more time. And, further widespread sanctions against it must be imposed and it should further be isolated in the international arena to became paralyzed..
Truly what are Western leaders afraid of? Perhaps they are afraid of the regime's claims about its ability to mobilize Muslims around the world, its ability to take hostages, and severing of economic ties, etc. This is where Western leaders must learn from the Iranian people and refuse to be intimidated by the weak Supreme Leader who has only been able to survive through fear mongering.
Analysis – Iranian uprising: Beginning of the end (other parts)
