Iran Democracy Monitor No. 70, March 27, 2008
American Foreign Policy Council, Washington, DC

Editor: Ilan Berman

IRAN’S ELECTIONS: CONSERVATIVES VERSUS CONSERVATIVES
After weeks of anticipation, Iran’s parliamentary elections have indeed provided political change – but of an unexpected variety. The March 14th polls saw Iran’s powerful conservative camp easily overwhelm its reformist counterpart, capturing three-quarters of the seats in the country’s 290-member legislature. In the process, however, Iran’s conservatives fragmented “into two coalitions… the Unified Principalist Front of traditional conservatives and the Broad Principalist Coalition of those less enthusiastic about Ahmadinejad,” one newspaper reported. The end result? A divided conservative camp, but one fully – and firmly – in control. (Lahore Daily Times, March 17, 2008)

EDUCATION, IRANIAN STYLE
Anyone looking to Iran's youth for a more moderate social and political line would do well to take a hard look at Iran's primary schools, where the Iranian government is actively cultivating a new generation of radical, anti-Western activists. That's the conclusion of a new, comprehensive study on the subject by international democracy watchdog Freedom House. The report, entitled Discrimination and Intolerance in Iran's Textbooks, outlines a program of systematic indoctrination and radicalization taking place within Iran's schools, perpetuated by mandatory textbooks that promote an uncompromising, confrontational worldview to children as early as the first grade. The implications are clear – and troubling. "The values propagated in the textbooks," the report concludes, "are shaping the way the next generation of Iranian citizens will view the outside world and the majority of the country’s population who are not Shi’a Muslim males." (Freedom House, March 17, 2008)

TRUE TO FORM IN IRAQ
Despite pledges to the contrary from the highest levels of the Iranian government, the Islamic Republic is continuing to assist anti-Coalition insurgents in Iraq, America's top military official in the former Ba'athist state has said. According to General David Petraeus, Iran is continuing to provide "lethal accelerants" - including weapons and resources - to the violence directed at U.S. and allied forces by both Sunni and Shi'a militants. "The rockets that were launched at the Green Zone yesterday, for example... were Iranian-provided, Iranian-made rockets," Petraeus said in an interview with the BBC on March 24th. The arms transfers, according to Petreaus, are part of ongoing assistance being provided to a number of active insurgent factions - which the U.S. military has dubbed "special groups" - by Iran's premier paramilitary unit, the Pasdaran's Qods Force. "All of this in complete violation of promises made by President Ahmadinejad and the other most senior Iranian leaders to their Iraqi counterparts," says the general. (London BBC, March 24, 2008)

SHANGHAI DREAMING
After years of marginal participation, the Islamic Republic is seeking to upgrade its status in Central Asia's premier security bloc. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has told reporters that his government wants to become a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), and that it has secured the support of at least some of the group’s permanent members. The SCO, formally established in 2001, currently consists of six permanent members – China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan – and three observers, India, Iran and Mongolia. (Associated Press, March 24, 2008)

[Editor's Note: The overture represents a significant strategic effort on the part of the Iranian government. Although the Moscow- and Beijing-dominated SCO currently serves largely as a vehicle for regional counterterrorism cooperation, officials in Tehran have made no secret of their interest in making it into a Eurasian analogue to NATO – complete with collective security guarantees which would protect the Islamic Republic in the event of military action against its nuclear facilities. Mottaki’s comments suggest that the Islamic Republic may be making headway toward that goal.]