Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Elder of ZiyonIn short, Iran intended for many years to become a world superpower, and it wanted to use a combination of scientific expertise, military strength, and fearmongering to reach that goal. But above all - Iran intended to become the undisputed leader of the Islamic world, to move the center of the world's power from the US to Islamic lands.
While I made some mistakes - not realizing at the time how limited the powers of Iran's president were, and how Ayatollah Khamanei was really pulling all the strings, as well as underestimating the hatred that Sunnis and Shias have for each other - the analysis holds up pretty well for an 8-year old editorial.
Reading the tweets from Iran's Supreme Leader today one can see that this strategy has not changed at all.
Khamenei is, of course, pushing Islam as the enemy of the West and a liberator from Western ideas:
But he has also been spending a lot of time lately trying to heal the Sunni-Shia rift by emphasizing what they have in common and berating those who try to keep their conflict going. He even attended a recdnt pan-Islamic conference.
Of course, the evil US and UK are the ones behind the 1300-year old rift to begin with:
You can see that Iran only wants unity under its leadership, because unity is not meant to heal Islam, but to entrench Iran as the undisputed leader of Islam.
Given that the Shiite-Sunni divisions have only grown over the past couple of years, it seems unlikely that Khamenei will make any headway. But an Iranian nuclear weapon - or clear demonstration that it could build one at will - would change the calculus of the region tremendously, especially since Sunni Gulf states are no longer feeling like the US is protecting them.
Note also how Khamanei creates a cult of personality around himself, with every single graphic featuring - him.
Just like every other autocratic dictator.
