Generals Rule Iran

General Mohammad Ali Jafari, the head of the Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps, has made it clear that Iran is being officially ruled by military. In an interview this week he has outlined the requirements for a politician, in particular he mentioned former president Mohammad Khatami, to participate in Iran's politics! 

While generals being the ushers of Iran's politics since the last rigged presidential election has been a widely perceived fact both inside and out of the country, this is the first time that the top general has publicly drawn lines for politicians in Iran.

The general was speaking after president Ahmadi Nejad had dropped a bombshell on his military organisation earlier in the week accusing it of smuggling goods into the country using its many ports operating independently and undetected by the country's custom authorities. President Ahmadi Nejad suggested that the general and his colleagues may have other interests, rather than their ideology, to protect after all. "Iranians are smoking close to two billions US dollars value of cigarettes each year; the amount is so big motivation for first class smugglers in the world including "our revolutionary brothers", president Ahmadi Nejad gave an example at a conference for fighting against smuggling held in Tehran last week.

Generals were not happy at all about the remark. Mohammad Ali Jafari denied the suggestion and defended his organisation assuring the proper running and the legitimate use of their controlled ports. It is no secret, nonetheless, that the Revolutionary Guards Corps has been involved in all sorts of business activities in recent years. They have bought into a wide range of money making businesses from the telecommunications and infrastructures to win oil and gas projects without tender! They now, according to reports, control close to 80% of the country's economy. Yet the president revealed their appetite for money and the extent to which the generals were prepared to go to make more. While there have always been rumors about the generals' involvement in the business of drug smuggling into Iran and through to the European market for a long time; president Ahmadi Nejad now adds the smuggling of goods into the country to his "revolutionary brothers'" portfolio. The president certainly exposed the scope and scale of their operations.

Damages have been done; and the top general is angry. Perhaps that was the reason for him to signal the former president's, Mohammad Khatami, "return to politics" as he put it. But his conceit deludes him of his position in Iran today. He and his colleagues should remember the fact that Iran is not Burma and it certainly is not in Southeast Asia. They are in a wrong country; a wrong region; and certainly dealing with wrong people and above all their name is not 'Junta'! Our good generals are mistaken.