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Why Does Iran Conduct Elections?

Nima Sharif
mullahs hang youth for listening to musicRight around this time every year, Iranians start preparing for their new year celebrations (No Rooz) which is on 21 March.  The festivity, observing the end of winter and beginning of spring and the Persian traditional New Year, celebrates life and brings joy and happiness to Iranian homes and it also brings a lot of shopping crowd to the streets.

That was not the case last Friday. 

Considering the fact that Friday is weekend in Iran and at a time just a week away from No Rooz, the streets of Tehran and other cities were unusually quiet.

Where was everyone?

On Friday 14 March, the Iranian regime, once again devised a parliamentary (Majlis) election.  Far from any real democratic election norms that you may have in mind, the candidates were actually hand picked by the ruling clergy in advance of the election. 

Iran – Eternally Unelected, Extremely Vulnerable

Ali Safavi
The Iranian regime seems adept at assigning paradoxical functionalities to certain political or economic tools and mechanisms. Construction cranes, for example, are meant to help erect buildings and further economic progress everywhere else in the world. But, in Iran, they are used to hang people.

Likewise, political elections are the cornerstone of the world’s representative governments, but in Iran, they are used to uphold the rule of an unelected few.

Iranian elections a façade for terror-sponsoring regime

Hossein Abedini
As the Iranian regime prepares itself for upcoming parliamentary elections on 14 March, I am reminded of a day in Turkey exactly 18 years before it, when the mullahs’ brutal nature and their support for terrorism became a stark reality for me. On 14 March 1990, in mid-afternoon I was sitting next to the driver taking me to the Istanbul airport, when suddenly a car carrying four men blocked our path. Another car pinned us in from behind. Seconds later, two men, one from the front car and one from the car behind, raced out with automatic guns. As they approached, I opened the car door and rushed at them carrying only a small briefcase. One of the men fired nine bullets. I was shot in the chest and stomach and gravely wounded. As the second man tried to fire a coup de grace, his gun jammed. The assailants fled.

Iran – Continued Nuclear Warhead Development Revealed

Stop Fundamentalism, 20 February, 2008 – The main Iranian opposition organization, The National Council of Resistance of Iran, which is based in Paris, revealed today new details of the Iranian nuclear weapons development facilities and what was specifically called Iran’s “nuclear warhead project” at a press conference held in Brussels.

The information disclosed included details of locations of all development sites involved, and names of officials and experts participating in the project.

Iran – Tehran’s new terror escalation meant to extend, solidify gains in Iraq

Alireza Jafarzadeh
Last week I made public new information about another escalation in the terrorist meddling of the ayatollahs’ regime in Iraq. I obtained the information from my sources inside the Iranian regime. These intelligence sources are associated with a network of Iran’s main opposition, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, based in Ashraf City, Iraq.

IRAN – EU’s flawed combat against terrorism

Goesta Groenroos     
"Injustice is the best ally for terrorism," reiterated Dick Marty, the Swiss senator in a press conference last week following the ratification of a resolution by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe condemning the methods used by the EU and the UN Security Council for blacklisting groups and individuals.

Iran – The menace of the mullahs’ fundamentalism

Ali Safavi
In 2007, the turmoil in Pakistan culminated in the gruesome assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on Dec. 27. Although the epicenter of this political tremor shook Pakistan, its ripple effect was quickly felt throughout the world.

Iran Gulf Confrontation Message to Bush on Eve of Mideast Trip

 Alireza Jafarzadeh
In a blatant display of belligerence and outright provocation, and on the eve of President George W. Bush’s trip to the region, the Tehran regime had five speed boats of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC) harass three U.S. Navy ships in the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend.

The Strait of Hormuz is the major waterway connecting the Gulf of Oman to the Persian Gulf and is vital to the free shipping there. The Pentagon described Tehran’s actions as "careless, reckless and potentially hostile." Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice described the move as "provocative and dangerous."

Iran – Democratic Movement gets a boost from student protest

Alireza Jafarzadeh
The short-lived euphoria of Tehran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the pro-engagement circles in Washington, over the December 3 bombshell release of the National Intelligence Estimate on Iran’s nuclear program, was short-lived.

Iran – The folly of phony peace with the mullahs

Ali Safavi
The international community, with the United States in particular, continues to grapple with ways to confront Iran’s nuclear defiance. Backers of the status quo urge that appeasing the reigning mullahs will finally break the impasse. They felt quite justified and encouraged by the findings of a National Intelligence Estimate report, earlier in December.