Is US pressure really uniting Iran's rival political camps?
Washington's mounting pressure on Tehran might have been expected to forge unity among Iran's rival political camps. But Iranian hard-liners seem to be seizing the moment by attacking an already weakened Rouhani administration ahead of key polls next year.
The recently intensified US pressure on Iran is, according to many observers, bridging the gap between the country's rival political camps. But on the ground, signs indicate otherwise. Indeed, Iran's multilayered politics remains plagued by fundamental internal strife — and the US pressure is exacerbating it.
Calls for unity from Iranian politicians have in recent months grown louder than ever. In a May 12 speech, President Hassan Rouhani urged all to stand together against US hostility. But such unity among clashing political forces as well as the many parallel state bodies in Iran has far from materialized. In fact, the ratcheted-up US campaign in the form of both hostile rhetoric and reinstated sanctions has not brought these Iranian political camps any closer together. It would perhaps not be excessive to even argue that the US pressure has opened a new chapter of the endless infighting in Iran. Now, heated debates are revolving around how to proceed with the United States and whether rapprochement under the current circumstances is the best policy.
These differences could not have been more striking at a recent meeting between Rouhani and figures representing leading political groups. Some of the participants at the meeting maintained that dialogue has to be exhausted before it is completely rejected, while others pushed to take dialogue off the list of Iran's options because of US enmity.
At the top decision-making level, there are vital issues that seem to be falling victim to that very strife — among them the two contentious parliamentary bills on combating the financing of terrorism and accession to the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime, known as the Palermo Convention. Adoption of these bills are part of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) action plan to have Iran removed from its blacklist.
