Iranians start to see the truth about Assad

It seems unbelievable that anyone in any country could not feel revulsion at the use by the Assad regime of chemical weapons on its own people. It does not matter about the political goals being pursued by a government, nor even about any core sympathies with a particular regime — when that regime stoops so low as to use poison gas against helpless civilians, killing some 1,400 people many of them women and kids, when that happens, no decent person can ignore it.
For Iran, Syria, along with Iraq, Hezbollah in Lebanon and until recently, Hamas in Gaza have been key pawns in its policy to divide and exert influence over the region. For ordinary Iranians, fed propaganda about the incursion of foreign terrorists who led an uprising against the legitimate Assad regime, the civil war that has torn Syria apart is regretted for entirely the opposite reasons to those shared by the rest of the Arab world.
Yet Iranians are not fools. Even strong supporters of the theocratic regime of supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei know that in economic terms, successive governments have — under his guidance — embarked upon a series of disastrous policies which, even without the additional impact of international economic sanctions, have undermined both Iran’s public and private sector enterprises. And this has been of particular grief to middle class merchants — the bazaaris — who were among the most enthusiastic supporters of the revolution that overthrew the Shah.
And since they have access to international media through cable stations, Iranians are in a position to compare what their own government is telling them about Syria with what the rest of the world is learning. It may well be that they felt unease at reports of the savagery with which the Assad dictatorship has set about crushing a popular revolt. Clearly they will have felt great sympathy for the refugees. It does not matter where their sympathies may lie, no one with a heart, could fail to be moved by families who have lost everything as they flee from a conflict over which they have no control.
Now it seems that for many, the revelations of poison gas attacks have proved too much. Iran’s former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has come out publicly criticizing the Assad dictatorship for the gas attack. Rafsanjani said that not only had Syrians been poisoned by their own government but now they could be expected to be attacked by foreigners.
The former president’s intervention has apparently stirred up a storm. Government supporters have been sharply critical of Rafsanjani, who was barred by the Council of Guardians from running in this summer’s presidential elections, won by Hassan Rouhani. The anger has apparently been greater because Rafsanjani’s supporters have asserted that Rowhani and his Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif fully supported his remarks. This may have been mischief-making on the former president’s behalf, or it could indeed reflect remarks that have been made in private among the top political circles, in which Rafsanjani still moves.
What has perhaps been more notable has been the groundswell of support on social media which the remarks have made. Once again the opposition that was crushed so ruthlessly, following the fraudulent re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is reasserting itself, this time using the greatly enhanced power of social media.
And it would appear that Rafsanjani is emerging as the figurehead for this renewed protest. He has chosen to intervene and be critical on an issue that no one could claim to be illegitimate. Supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei and his people cannot justify what has happened. Yet they have refused to condemn, even mildly, the appalling actions of Assad.
They have thus left the way wide open for Rafsanjani to challenge them indirectly. There could yet be cause to regret that the Council of Guardians blocked Rafsanjani’s run for the office of president, a vote that, had there been no interference, he would very probably have won. However the vote would have been fixed and the resulting protest would have been considerable, big enough even to rock the government, perhaps even fatally.
Some may see Rafsanjani’s intervention as opportunistic. He is after all a wily and experienced politician. But there are those who choose to believe that he spoke from the heart and in so doing, reflect the view of many ordinary, decent Iranians who draw the line at the bestial behavior of Assad in gassing innocent women and children.