BEIRUT — The recent protests against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed reelection look to many observers like a repeat of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, a "people power" movement aimed at toppling the existing power structure.
But Iranian officials would beg to disagree. The postelection discord, they say, is more like a very heated dispute between two brothers, perhaps fighting vociferously over the best route to take on a road trip.
If there's a fundamental clash occurring, they suggest, it is between the Islamic Republic and the West.
In a recent interview, Mir Masoud Hosseinian, the charge d'affaires at the Iranian Embassy in Beirut, accused Western powers of misreading and manipulating the unfolding political crisis in Iran to serve their own ends.
"We stood against the West during all these 30 years," said Hosseinian, who has also served as a diplomat in Syria and Egypt. "And that resistance has created a hatred in their hearts. They sought an opportunity for revenge."
What's your assessment of what is happening in Iran?
[Defeated presidential candidate] Mir-Hossein Mousavi participated in elections, accepting the rules of the game. If the system did not want Mr. Mousavi, it would have removed him from the list of candidates, just as there were 200 candidates at the start, but the regime accepted four candidates. They were accepted by the regime and they also accepted the framework.
Some say the framework was suddenly changed.
They are free to say that. But 24 million people, according to what was announced, were on the side of Mr. Ahmadinejad, and 13 million did not want him. This clearly demonstrates that democracy exists in Iran. My point is that the problem was private, as with two brothers who had problems that can be resolved and will be solved.
Do you think this problem can be solved?
Of course. . . . Iran is a country that has stood for 30 years against the United States and Britain, the arrogance of the West. They want that Iran and the current regime does not exist! Whether an Iran with [former President] Mohammad Khatami or Mousavi or Ahmadinejad . . . they want this regime to disappear.
But President Obama this year acknowledged the Islamic Republic and has agreed to start a conversation.
Obama is the president of American institutions and not the president of the American people. Little by little, he is forced to bend to the rules of American institutions. The evidence is that he has again extended for one year sanctions on Syria.
