Not only the Western corporate media but the entire ruling oligarchies were sure of the victory for their candidate Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani standing for the Iranian capitalist elite. The establishment is pushing for a full-fledged liberalist transformation from within the Cleric rule as well as an step-by-step re-integration into the US-led imperial capitalist system. Their asset to sell is their influence in insurgent Iraq which they are ready to wield for a negotiated settlement in return to US non-aggression guarantees.
According to all news reports Ahmadinejad won with the votes of the rural and urban poor. No talk of manipulation can change the very fact that the popular masses of Iran decisively refused both the submission to the US empire as well as the liberalist economic reforms enriching a small elite while impoverishing the broad masses. Thus it was both a anti-imperialist and a class vote.
Amidst the anti-Islamic crusade the Western media machine rushed to denounce the winner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as a religious fundamentalist zealot. They overlook the fact that Rafsanjani is a high-ranking clergyman while Ahmadinejad is a layman. But behind the smokescreens of propaganda also the imperialist elites have to concede not only their defeat but also that it were social and political reason which turned the balance and not religious ones. Retired Marines general Anthony Zinni, former commander of the US armed forces in the Middle East, could not be clearer: "I did not think that Rafsanjani, a relatively moderate leader, would loose. Its true that Ahmadinejad won not thanks to ideology but thanks to the promise to redistribute some wealth to the poor."
The electoral result will have a positive effect on the Iraqi Resistance. As the neo-cons will continue their aggressive move against Tehran, the Iranian leadership will tend less to support the collaborationist forces in Iraq. A comprehensive deal between Washington and Tehran because less probable.
In general the Iranian elections confirm the fact that the US imperial build-up is troubled byan increasing popular resistance. Beside the Iraqi Resistance there is the resurging guerrilla as well as a popular movement in Afghanistan, the turmoil in Bolivia and the consolidation of Bolivarian Venezuela, the popular and armed movement in Nepal against the monarchy and eventually the French referendum against Euro-America.
Anti-imperialist Camp