OUR ENEMIES’ GLEE
AMIR TAHERI:

November 16, 2006 — RADICAL elements across the Middle East see last Tuesday’s defeat of President Bush’s Republican Party as their victory.

Calling the election “the beginning of the end for Bush,” Ayatollah Imami Kashani told a Friday congregation in Tehran that the Americans were learning the same lesson that last summer’s war in Lebanon taught the Israelis.

Tehran decision-makers believe that the Democrats’ victory will lift the pressure off the Islamic Republic with regard to its nuclear program. “It is possible that the United States will behave in a wiser manner and will not pit itself against Iran,” says Ali Larijani, Tehran’s chief negotiator on the nuclear issue.

His view is echoed by academics with ties to “Supreme Guide” Ali Khamenei. “The Democrats will do their best to resolve Iran’s nuclear issue through negotiations, rather than resorting to threats,” says Yadallah Islami, who teaches politics at Tehran University. “Bush will be forced to behave the way all U.S. presidents have behaved since Richard Nixon – that is to say, get out of wars that the American people do not want to fight.”

Jenny Hatch