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Iran Loses Clout in Arab World

(Christian Science Monitor) Scott Peterson - Six months after Iran's contested presidential election, a new narrative is arising around the Arab world in which Iran is no longer a political demigod. Beset in recent months by the bloody spectacle of regime enforcers stamping out pro-democracy protests, and by dozens of deaths, torture, and allegations of rape in secret prisons, Iran is losing influence among some of its friends in the region and stiffening opposition among foes. Many analysts, in fact, believe the autocratic crackdowns in Iran may mark the end of a years-long arc of expanding Iranian and Shiite prominence across a wide swath of the Arab world. "I think we have seen the peak of the Islamic Republic's power in its current configuration," says Ali Ansari, director of the Institute for Iranian Studies at St. Andrews University in Scotland. Iran's influence has "slipped very badly," he said. Joost Hiltermann, the deputy Middle East program director for the International Crisis Group in Washington, said, "I think that there is no genuine support for Iran in the Arab street." "Iran is more and more viewed as quite a fundamentalist, authoritarian Islamic regime, and not [one] that wants to protect the rights of Muslims," says Massoumeh Torfeh, an Iran expert at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies. "After all, the people who are suffering in the prisons in Iran are also Muslims. The people who were killed in the demonstrations were also Muslim." "After 30 years, [the Islamic system] is losing, it's getting tired, it's getting old. It no longer has any new ideas, any new strategy to offer. It's just fundamentalist heated speech, and nothing more than that," says Torfeh. On the West Bank, admiration for Iran remains tight. Sheikh Mahmoud Musleh, a Hamas parliament member in Ramallah, says leaders like Ahmadinejad should serve as a "model" for Arab nations. In Jalazoun near Ramallah, where graffiti showing machine guns and the Palestinian flag dominates, local men praise Iran. "Any enemy of Israel's is a friend of the Palestinians," says Abu Mohammed. "In any case, not one Arab country is capable of fighting Israel in the way that Iran is able."
2009-12-04 08:01:03
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