Eerie calm masks Iran tensions

          
          BBC NEWS World Middle East EeS calm masks Iran tensions http://newsvote ,bbc ,co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/. ,,
          E1flE NEWS
          Eerie calm masks Iran tensions
          By Jeremy Bowen
          BBC Middle East editor, Tehran
          In the centre of Tehran there are many fewer security forces on the streets. A stadium where
          Basij militia - an arm of the Revolutionary Guard - were based is now being used for sport
          again.
          But the power of the regime is not far from the surface. On the main avenues black cars with the words
          special police painted on them move steadily through the traffic, each one containing four or five men in
          camouflage uniforms.
          It has been much quieter these last few days. One elderly witness said she felt it was the calm of the
          grave.
          The Guardian Council, a constitutional body that supervises elections, is due to give its definitive verdict
          on the presidential poll on Sunday. But the latest remarks by its spokesman Abbasali Kadkhodai are yet
          another indication that it will be a formality.
          He told Irna, the state news agency, that “the election was the healthiest since the revolution... There
          were no major violations.”
          The members of the Guardian Council have been following the line laid down by the Supreme Leader
          Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He has said, several times, that the result is fair and will stand.
          Mousavi pressure
          It all piles more pressure on the opposition and the man who believes he is the rightful winner, Mir
          Hossein Mousavi.
          In a message to his supporters he said his challenge would continue, and urged them to protest within
          the law. He argues that peaceful protest is a constitutional right.
          “When you ask Iranians about the way this might go, a phrase keeps
          cropping up. They say it might seem quiet to an outsider, but there is fire
          below the ashes”
          But the authorities have effectively banned all opposition gatherings, and have deployed Revolutionary
          Guards and the Basij militia to enforce their will.
          It is looking as if the supreme leader will install President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad for a second term.
          Longer-term, the question is whether the fracture in the ruling elite that this crisis has caused will heal.
          The religious and political elite in Iran have had many internal disagreements over the 30 years since the
          Shah was overthrown in 1979.
          But never before have they chosen to take them outside the charmed circle at the top of the Islamic
          Republic in the way that has happened since the election.
          A hint of what was coming was on display in the rancorous debates between the candidates before the
          vote. But that was nothing to what has followed.
          When you ask Iranians about the way this might go, a phrase keeps cropping up. They say it might seem
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          BBC NEWS World Middle East Eerie calm masks Iran tensions http://newsvote.bbc.co. ik/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hiI...
          quiet to an outsider, but there is fire below the ashes.
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          Story from BBC NEWS:
          http ://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/8121060.stm
          Published: 2009/06/26 13:16:11 GMT
          © BBC MMIX
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