Return of the Gorbachev in Iran?
Thursday, May 26, 2005 at 8:17AM ■"Iran's Ex-Leader Seeks Return In the Trappings of a Reformer," by Neil MaqFarquhar, New York Times, 25 May 2005, p. A1.
■"Europe Gets Iran To Extend Freeze In Nuclear Work: Dispute Is Unresolved; Delay Provides Political Cover as Iranian Pick a New President," by Elaine Sciolino, New York Times, 26 May 2005, p. A1.
As I blogged earlier in the year, "heeeeeeeeeeeeere's Jani!" as in Ali Akhbar Rafsanjani, the liberal former president and "self-styled free-marketer." Think it wouldn't matter if he made a good showing in the election? Think again. Rafsanjani's ideas speak to Iran's overwhelmingly young and incredibly ambitious youth population. He's all about individual empowerment and the diminishment of the mullahs' reach.
So the Europeans are right to let this dynamic play itself out in the Big Bang environment that is the Persian Gulf right now.
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