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Iran Awaits Ballot Results; Obama Effect Expected

Iran Awaits Ballot Results; Obama Effect Expected

Juan Cole 06/12/2009

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On Friday, Iranians and the rest of the globe are eagerly awaiting an outcome in the presidential elections. Iranians started voting Friday morning. Rallies and electioneering were not allowed on Thursday, the day before the vote, leaving Tehran’s streets eerily ghost-like after days of raucus rallies every evening.

Howard LaFranchi at CSM asks what the ‘Obama Effect’ will be on the Iranian revolution. Although it was not decisive, UNscientific polling in Lebanon suggests that Obama did have an effect in the defeat of the Hezbollah coalition, “March 8”, in Lebanon, even if it was a slight one. [Sorry for the typo in the earlier draft, meant to say ‘unscientific polling.’]

Rasool Nafisi sees the democratic use of television as a new element in this year’s presidential election in Iran.

John Kerry finally breaks the taboo in Washington to say what everyone already knows. Under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran has the right to enrich uranium for peaceful, civilian energy purposes. The Bush administration’s lame attempt to unilaterally revise the NPT to forbid Iran from this capability just made the US a laughingstock in the international community.

Aljazeera English interviews Mir Hosain Mousavi on talks with America (he thinks they are coming), and other hot issues.

Aljazeera English reports on the power and influence of Iran’s pious foundations (bunyads).

The same network reports on Iranian-Americans voting in Iran’s presidential elections:

End/ (Not Continued)

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About the Author

Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment. He is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Follow him on Twitter at @jricole or the Informed Comment Facebook Page

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