Exiled Iranian opposition leaders hail Ahmadinejad's election

Yahoo News:

Exiled Iranian opposition leaders hailed hardliner Mahmood Ahmadinejad's victory in Iran's presidential election, saying it would bring Tehran's Islamic regime a step closer to collapse. READ MORE

While the election of the conservative Islamist might bring tough times for Iranians in the short term, they said, it will ultimately fuel internal opposition, put external pressure on the government and expose cracks within the regime.

Several Iranians in California, home to the most of the 400,000 to 600,000 US-based Persians, said they were shocked but thrilled at the victory of the Tehran mayor, even though his social and political values and beliefs are diametrically opposed to their own.

"We are really excited, this is a very good thing for the opposition to the Islamic republic," said Roozbeh Farhanipour, an activist of the secular Marzepour Gohar political group and a former Iranian student leader who fled to the United States in 2000.

"A moderate Taliban has become the president of Iran, but it's the last stand of the regime," he told AFP in a reference to Afghanistan's harsh Islamic leadership that was ousted in a US attack in 2001.

In contrast with US-based Iranian exiles, the US State Department denounced the election as flawed and said Iran was "out of step" with a trend toward freedom in the Middle East and Central Asia.

Farhanipour and other activists who had called for a boycott of Friday's poll said the shock result was a sign of deep discontent with the 26-year-old Islamic regime and with outgoing reformist President Mohammad Khatami, who failed to implement major political and social changes.

"This sends a message that the people don't believe in the Islamic Republic any more and that they cannot any longer do what they want to the people," the 33-year-old said in Los Angeles.

"Ahmadinejad is a short cut for the opposition and a move toward the revolution. I hope that this is the last president of the Islamic Republic."

While the multiple exiled Iranian opposition groups are deeply divided on many issues, all those reached Friday claimed that a new hardline president would step up international and internal pressure on their country's Islamic leadership, shortening its lifespan.

"Ahmadinejad is the Islamic Republic at its best," said Bihan Mehr, of the Iran National Front, or Jebhe Melli, a liberal democratic party founded in Iran in 1950 but branded infidel by the Islamic regime.

"With this guy, the world and Iran will get to bottom of the problem real quick," said the 46-year-old property developer who left Iran when the last shah was toppled in 1979.

Mehr called on the European Union, international community and global business to take a tough stance against the new ultra-conservative president in a move that would further isolate and apply pressure to his government.

The man who lost Friday's presidential polls, ex-president and cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, would have presented a more moderate face to the world, extending the tenure of the Islamic government, Mehr claimed.

"The voters had a choice between a hardliner and a thief and they chose the right guy for the opposition," Mehr said. "Now the opposition must organise quickly."

He said Rafsanjani could have "wheeled and dealt" with West by appearing more flexible.

"But with Ahmadinejad, there will be no fooling anyone. I think this has sped up the process of recognising the brutality and lack of skill of this regime," an ecstatic Mehr said.

Even monarchists, still bitter over the fall of the shah's secular government, appeared to welcome the election of a tough Islamist who they said would further restrict political expression, democracy and the rights of women.

A source close to the son of the last shah, Reza Pahlavi, said in Los Angeles he was surprised but very pleased with the stunning polls outcome.

"It's a good thing for Iran because it ends all the deception and pretence," the source, who requested anonymity, told AFP.

"Rafsanjani is much more ruthless and much more dangerous, but he would have deceived the world about who he really is. With Ahmadinejad, what you see is what you get.

"That's good for long-term, but bad in the short term," the source said. "This is now a crucial time for the opposition to unite and organise both inside Iran. They should be encouraged," he said.

I regretfully agree!