How Broad Is The Opposition?

by Patrick Appel

Joe Klein tries to make sense of this morning's events in Iran:

So what does this mean? As an Iranian friend of mine predicted yesterday, this means that Rafsanjani intends to lead an Iranian opposition front to the Khamenei-Ahmadinejad government. Given his stature--he is the one opposition leader who is part of the regular Friday Prayer rotation--this seems a clear indication that Iran remains something less than a totalitarian state, controlled by the Revolutionary Guards. The question now is: how broad an opposition front? Will it include people like Mohsen Rezaie and Ali Larijani, conservatives who are at odds with Ahmadinejad, as well as the Green Revolutionaries? Will it include conservative newspapers like Resalat, which have been critical of Ahmadinejad? Will it be able to moderate the ruling junta in any way? There's no way to know...but it is good to know that the struggle in Iran continues, and may now have an organizing force.