In Search of
Iranian Moderates
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Spot
the "moderate." Hassan Rouhani (right) was hand-picked as
Iran's president by Supreme Leader Khamenei (left).
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Ever since Hassan Rouhani became president of the Islamic Republic of
Iran, Americans have been told that a fundamental change had occurred, that
the latest Iranian election had been a once-in-a-lifetime event, and that
Iran's formerly adversarial regime had been transformed into a moderate
one.
In Iran, however, what has changed is precisely nothing. The Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is as powerful and dangerous as ever.
Iranian support for terrorists has increased. And Iran's genocidal rhetoric regarding
Israel ("the malignant Zionist tumor") and America (the great Satan) has not softened.
Since Rouhani replaced Ahmadinejad, all that has changed is U.S. policy
towards Iran and the administration's willingness to lie to the American
people about it.
Moderate Iranians exist, but a
genuine moderate within Iran's government cannot exist.
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The assertion that Rouhani's government somehow brought
"moderates" to power in Tehran, and that these are people the
West can – and should – deal with, was proven to be false when Ben Rhodes spoke to The New York Times. The
State Department has even taken steps to erase from the historical record evidence of its
duplicity in promoting the narrative of "moderation." Not only
were there no real changes in Tehran, but the "moderates" in the
Iranian government never even existed. In the last election, any moderates
who might have tried to compete were scrubbed by the regime as candidates.
Nevertheless, U.S. President Barack Obama himself personally guaranteed
the peaceful nature of both Khamenei and Rouhani: he told us that "Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah
Khamenei has issued a fatwa against the development of nuclear weapons, and
President Rouhani has said that Iran would never develop a nuclear
weapon." To date, no such fatwa has been seen by anyone.
Rouhani seems to have been lying.
Like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster, much has been written about the
"moderates" in Iran's government. The problem is that, like
Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster, the Iranian moderate is also a myth.
Granted, moderate Iranians do exist, but a genuine moderate within Iran's
government cannot exist: the Iranian system is designed to prevent it. When
he set up his revolutionary government in 1979, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini
saw to it that no one could rise to power without its consent.
Khomeini was careful not to run afoul of the Koranic
prohibitions against "making partners with Allah" (in Arabic,
"shirk"),
so he came up with a solution. He formed the velayat-e faqih (rule
of the jurisprudents) which, according to Christoph
Reuter, is "a dictatorship of clerics." This arrangement allowed
Khomeini to rule under the pretense that he was protecting Iran and all of
Shia Islam until the return of the 12th Imam, who went into
hiding in the 10th century. To ensure that the clerics could not challenge
him, Khomeini created for himself the title of rahbar (supreme
leader). According to terrorism expert Matthew
Levitt, a 1986 U.S. Intelligence report on this system states that it
"virtually equates Khomeini with the Mahdi -- the 12th
Imam."
The velayat-e faqih is comprised of the most important mullahs,
all hand-picked by Khomeini. Only those who are approved by the rahbar
are allowed to hold office and run in the phony elections that try to pass
for Iranian "democracy." Every one of Iran's
seven presidents has been selected by the same system.
The first president, Abolhassan Banisadr, might well have been a
moderate: when he urged the release of the Americans held hostage after the
embassy was stormed, he was impeached by Iran's Parliament (Majles). The
second president, Mohammad Ali Raja'i, was less moderate than Banisadr, but
after initiating negotiations to release the hostages, he was assassinated. The third president, Ali Khamenei, served
from 1981 until 1989, when he succeeded Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and
became the second rahbar of the Islamic Republic. From that point
on, Khamenei selected those who ran (often uncontested) for the office.
The only possible way for there to be genuine change in this system is
for it to be initiated by a new rahbar. However, as Khamenei has
shown no tendency to deviate from his predecessor's vision, nothing has
changed, and unless something prevents the 76 year-old Khamenei from
selecting the next rahbar, nothing is likely to change.
Iranian officials who don't live up
to the Supreme Leader's expectations are impeached or killed.
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Because Hassan Rouhani was hand-picked to run for president, there was
never much of a chance that he could be a genuine moderate, and, if he were
discovered to be one, zero chance that he could survive in the regime.
Those who fail to live up to the rahbar's expectations are impeached
or killed.
So what has changed in Iran? Only the government's image. Compared to
the ravings of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the calm demeanor of Rouhani might well
appear moderate -- but that is an illusion. Compared to Ahmadinejad,
Rouhani might look paternalistic, almost statesman-like in his elegant
pressed robes. He always smiles; he never shouts. His rise to power shows
only that the regime has learned the utility of outward appearances to an enemy
obsessed with outward appearances.
The government of Hassan Rouhani is but a more presentable face of the
same regime that has continued its medieval sham trials, escalated torture and increased its already record-breaking execution rates. It is the same regime that arrests squirrels and pigeons for spying, and only now has turned its
counter-espionage attention to Kim Kardashian. It is the same regime that has
threatened to wipe Israel off the map and launch missiles at the U.S. -- only now the Obama
administration has provided it the means to do so, if Iran has the patience
to wait 10 years, maybe fewer. It is the same regime that came into power
vowing to defeat the "Great Satan," only now the "Great
Satan" is saying that Iran does not really mean it.
Since Hassan Rouhani came to power, the only thing that has changed is
the American government's willingness to accept the Iranian government's
lies and pass them on to the American people.
A.J. Caschetta is a Shillman-Ginsburg fellow at the
Middle East Forum and a senior lecturer at the Rochester Institute of
Technology.
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