MESOP NEWS TOP OF THE IRAN AGENDA: ROUHANI IS NO REALLY A REFORMER / RELEVANT SOURCES

Iran Accuses U.S. of Incitement as Protests Relax

A top general for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard claimed on Wednesday that “sedition” in the country has ended (FT) as anti-government protests that began last week winded down.

Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, in a letter to the UN secretary-general, accused the United States of “inciting” the unrest (Al Jazeera), citing what he called “numerous absurd tweets” from U.S. President Donald J. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. At least twenty-two people died and 450 were arrested in the nationwide demonstrations over dissatisfaction with a poor economy and government corruption. Pro-government rallies took place in several Iranian towns and cities (AP) on Thursday.
ANALYSIS

“Even though Iran’s relentless imperialism is denounced by the protesters who do not want to see their nation’s assets wasted in Arab civil wars, the hardliners aren’t likely to change course,” CFR’s Ray Takeyh writes for Politico Magazine.

“These protests don’t require talking heads for explanation. They are about fundamental principles of freedom, opportunity, and democracy—long denied in the Islamic Republic,” Hamid Yazdan Panah writes for CNN.

“[President Hassan] Rouhani comes from a sort of centrist place in the political spectrum in Iran, but he’s not really a reformist. And he hasn’t been able to enact deep political changes that satisfy the demands of many Iranians,” Suzanne Maloney said in an interview on National Public Radio.