OPPONENTS of taking a
tough line on Iran have always claimed that imposing sanctions (not to mention
threatening military action) would strengthen the Islamic Republic's most
radical elements.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice looks to have bought that argument. Last
week, she agreed to water down the new sanctions that her advisers had devised
against the Islamic Republic.
Waving an olive branch, Rice also called for a peaceful resolution of the
dispute over Tehran's illicit nuclear ambitions.
Events inside Iran, however, provide a different picture. The Council of the
Guardians of the Constitution, a 12-man committee of mullahs and their legal
advisers, this week rejected applications from nearly 4,000 men and women to run
in the March 14 general election. Nearly all the denied applicants belong to the
21 groups designated by Western observers as "reformist" opponents of the
ultra-radical President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
