The controversial article, carried by The Fars News Service, affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, credited Karroubi, though, for maintaining his belief that the elections was rigged. “In response to your question in particular, I must say that I also recognize the president of the Islamic republic officially,” Fars reported Mr. Karroubi as saying.
The statement attributed to Karroubi caught on like wildfire, further confusing the political crisis in Iran.
In the aftermath, two views have competed to decode Karoubi's message, with a dominant one rushing to conclude that political winds are shifting in Iran, while the second dismissed the story on the basis of being a total fallacy.
However, both views failed to capture the essence of Karoubi's statement, which he himself put in context two days later in an interview with the Financial Times. Through this interview Karroubi's strategy seems to have stuck to four pillars.
- Maintaining a harsh stance against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to the extent of predicting his early exit from office.
- Standing by his assertions that the presidential election was rigged.
- Saving the Valey El Fakih Ali Khamenei any criticism, defending him against the sharp slogans used in the demonstrations and called for his death and even appeasing to him.
- Underscoring the fact that the regime is in danger.
Through the above four pillars emerges a tactical move on Karroubi's side, given the fact that the demonstrations are rapidly evolving in a direction deemed, by the regime, too radical to tolerate any further.
Death to the dictator, to Khamenei, to Ahmadinajad substituted the original slogan "where is my vote", while demonstrators' wrath ratcheted up to the point of burning the posters of Khamenei and Khomeini. Karroubi's maneuver, hence, aims at reviving the initial reason that got the Iranians to the streets, which was, short after, overshadowed by a wide range of interests, some of which aim at overthrowing the whole regime.
Accordingly, Karroubi walked, in the interview a fine line. He highlighted his loyalty to the system and tried to dispel the impression that the opposition targets Ali Khamenei's mandate while at the same time he appealed to him to rescue what is at stake due to Ahmadinejad's policies.
In short he decided to throw back the ball to Khamenei, leaving it to him to find the way out of the crisis. "I accept the Islamic republic and I accept the constitution. I don’t agree with slogans that call for changing power structures; our slogans are within this system and this constitution. Our constitution has some weaknesses but has lots of [democratic] capacities" he said.
Yet, Karroubi noted that a "strong body (...) can be weakened following incidents and illnesses and that "the Islamic republic has paid enormously for these four or five years of Mr Ahmadi-Nejad".
However Karroubi acknowledges that his move is not one he can bet the farm on. "The truth is", he concludes, "there is no news yet that the other side seeks a solution. The other side still thinks the post-election event was “sedition”. They believe things are going back to normal and the so-called sedition is being put off".
It is not hard to consider Karroubi's move too little too late.
The green movement, the true leader of the opposition, has developed an irreversible stance to introduce serious changes to the way Iranians have been governed for the past 31 years. People from all over the political spectrum came together to the conclusion that the system is incapable of carrying on.
This is a fact to be emphasized in the upcoming rallies in early February, in an attempt to co-opt a massive pro-regime march to commemorate the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Karroubi's move, in this sense, is a cry over spilled milk and he knows it.
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