Up for re-election on May 19, Rouhani’s “moderate’ stance, on which he’s shown no follow-through in terms of abatement of Human Rights oppression, economic relief, or curbing Iran’s adventurism in the region, make his re-election by no means a sure thing. He is opposed by several hardliners, and Khamenei’s attack has put Rouhani on the defensive.
Additionally, the possibility of any actual liberalization is curbed by the real powers in Iran: The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.
If change is to come to Iran, it will only come from the streets, from an Iranian Spring.
If Iranians who want to rid their country of its oppressive regime could be be told that America is behind them and shares their goals, an Iranian Spring could replace an enemy of the United States with a more liberal and pro-Western government
Unlike the Arab Spring movements in Egypt and Libya, where these movements replaced moderate governments with the anti-American Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and the Islamic jihadists who killed our ambassador to Libya.
It seemed like American foreign policy submitted to the enemies of democracy, and didn’t support the street protests in Tehran after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won the presidency in 2009.
F.H. Buckley, author of the book, “The Way Back: Restoring the Promise of America” writes in an article for the New York Post, “Tens of thousands of people marched down the streets of Tehran shouting ‘Down with dictatorship!’ while fighting running battles with the Revolutionary Guards. Obama’s response was a tepid statement that it’s ‘up to Iranians to make decisions about who Iran’s leaders will be,’ and that ‘we respect Iranian sovereignty and want to avoid the United States being the issue inside of Iran’.” Buckley contrasts this with the US spokesman, who supported the Tahrir Square protesters in Egypt even before the Mubarak government fell.
Buckley feels that the time has come to show solidarity with the people of Iran, and he has a suggestion for Trump. “After we ignored the street protests against the Iranian dictatorship, after we cut our disastrous Iran deal, after we abandoned Israel to the threat of medium-range missiles from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, after American hostages were allowed to rot in Iranian jails, let the president welcome NowRuz (the Iranian New Year) with a message to the Iranian people.”
The message should be that the people of Iran have a happy and prosperous new year, and that the hope the freedom that all men deserve from their cruel oppressors, will be realized.
