A classic revolutionary dilemma

By Dilip Hiro

By marshalling the regime's coercive instruments, Iran's 70-year-old Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has, for now, succeeded in curbing the popular, peaceful challenge to the authenticity of Iran's fateful June 12 presidential election. But he has paid a heavy political price.

Before his June 19 hardline speech at a Friday prayer congregation, Khamenei had the mystique of a just arbiter of authority, perched on a lofty platform far above the contentiousness of day-to-day politics. In his sermon, he asserted the validity of the re-election of Mahmud Ahmadinejad while the Guardians Council, the constitutional body charged with validating any national election, was still dealing with 646 complaints about possible election misbehavior and fraud. As a result, he damaged his status as a just ruler, a matter of grave importance since justice is a vital element in Islamic values.