Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Jundallah versus the mullahtariat

Sunday's suicide bombing in Iran has set off a war: it's the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps against Pakistani Balochistan-based Jundallah and the massive drug trafficking network in the area. In terms of the turbulent, internal political equation in Iran, the show of force against a key element of the mullahtariat could not be more devastating.


By Pepe Escobar
Asia Times

"Fasten your seat belts; it's gonna be a bumpy ride. As a crucial subplot of the New Great Game in Eurasia, Balochistan - on both sides of the Iran-Pakistan border - promises turbulence aplenty. Welcome to United States General Stanley McChrystal's self-fulfillment prophecy - "Chaos-istan" in action..........

The IRGC - the key component of the dictatorship of the mullahtariat currently in power in Tehran - is seething, to say the least. It is one thing to repress student protests in Tehran; but how could they not see this coming, and how could they not prevent it, considering their allegedly good ground intelligence on Jundallah's support by the US, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia?......

But in terms of the turbulent, internal political equation in Iran, the symbolic meaning of the suicide bombing could not be more devastating.

It paints the IRGC - the key pillar of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's military dictatorship - as weak and incompetent, capable of beating up students in urban Tehran but incapable of controlling the country's porous borders. Full spectrum dominance types could not dream of a better outcome. "

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