Iran: The Egyptian Revolution Is Not Our Export--It's An Import!

From Al Jazeera, makes an interesting observation on how Iran's interpretation of the Egytian revolution may have changed:

Iran's clerics, and its Supreme Leader, have mostly been pushing the line that events in Egypt are the ideological stepchild of Iran's 1979 revolution.

At Friday prayers last week, Khameinei declared:

This is what was always referred to as the Islamic awakening created by the victory of the great Islamic revolution of the Iranian nation and is showing itself today.

But as Iran's leaders claim to have successfully exported their political model, (claims that didn't seem to go down too well in Egypt), Iran's former President Ayatollah Rafsanjani believes the opposite: that Iran may, in fact, end up importing Egypt's revolution.


Reading from Iranian newspapers, Enduring America says:

Rafsanjani wrote even more sharply that people want the 'bad elites' sentenced and bad political ideas removed. His conclusion? "No dictator can stop popular movements ... People want democracy.

Not much detail given beyond this, and it's tempting to dismiss it as political opportunism from an opposition figure, but it's interesting to see him speaking out strongly once again.

If that is the new attitude of the Iranian government, then it will only cause them to be more paranoid and crack down on the protesters even more.

Technorati Tag: Iran.