Iran Snap Analysis: The Meaning of Today's Khamenei-Ahmadinejad Show

Having watched President Ahmadinejad's speech live and the Khamenei commemoration of Ayatollah Khomeini on a two-hour delay, blogging the presentations "as live", my reaction is....

That's All There Is?

Latest Iran Video: Pro-Regime Crowd Shouts Down Khomeini Grandson (4 June)
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The rhetoric for the setpiece was pretty standard, as was the crowd response. Amidst his presentation of glorious Iran v. the "West" and "Iran", the Supreme Leader made barbed references to the opposition --- even threatening execution --- but there was nothing new in substance. Nor was there any evidence that, beyond the attendance of the faithful in the shrine, there was mtuch spontaneous public support for the regime's hard line. (Certainly I struggled to see the "millions" that Press TV claimed.)


The Ahmadinejad speech was even less significant. He strained to claim legitimacy from the election, but the crowd response was pretty listless. Even among those, who would have been encouraged to attend because of their loyalty to the regime, it was hard to see the mass support that the President was claiming.

Indeed, the two distinctive developments pointed to ripples of trouble. The President's speech was marked not by those who attended but those who stayed away, i.e., almost anyone of political significance. And the supporters of the regime did it no credit when they shouted down the grandson of Ayatollah Khomeini, whose death was supposed to be the occasion of respectful commemoration.

Comments

[WitteKr]

Homylafayette: "Free goodies: It must be another regime event"
http://homylafayette.blogspot.com/2010/06/free-goodies-it-must-be-another-regime.html" rel="nofollow">http://homylafayette.blogspot.com/2010/06/free-...

[Luke]

Unless I'm badly mistaken, Mohammad-Ali Abtahi (!) was sitting in the first row, several seats right of the Larijani brothers.