Although I yield to no one in my enthusiasm for ‘the Twitter Uprising’, we should not get too carried away with the idea that Presidential Candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, is some kind of Ghandi type figure, about to bring unbridled freedom in Iran.
It is true, he supports some domestic reforms, and some relaxation of strict Islamist laws (all of which is welcome), but the question is, where does he stand on the fundamental issues?
The signs are that Mr Mousavi, would not be much different from what has gone on before. He helped create the feared Ministry of Intelligence and Information (which ruthlessly targets oppositionists). There is also a fair amount of evidence that he helped found Hezbollah and was on its leadership Council during the 1980s – including arranging funding. Unsurprisingly, Mr Mousavi has been a major proponent of calling for Hezbollah to be used as an attack force against Israel, and his views on Hamas are not thought to be much different.
It is worth remembering also Mr Mousavi, was Prime Minister of Iran during the purge of 1988, when many thousands of ‘political’ prisoners were killed, on the orders of Ayatollah Khomeini.
Mr Mousavi’s term as Prime Minister saw renewed hostility towards America and his establishment of the Iranian chemical weapons programme. His government brought nuclear centrifuges on the ‘open market’ thus setting in train the nuclear armament programme that is close to completion today. I mention the above, not to put a dampener on the remarkable events in Iran, just to show that the outcome may not be quite what we wish for.
