IRANIAN ELECTIONS June 2009

You could be forgiven for not noticing the moment that has just passed. Not a moment in time but more of a proverbial "moment".

This moment slipped by with many in the world not even noticing, slipped by and ... disappeared. Yet this was an important moment. It was one of those moments that change the world - the entire world. This was why it was important. The shocking thing is not that it has gone and many in the world did not notice. No. The shocking thing is what happened in this moment ... and indeed, how the world WILL notice in the coming days, the coming weeks, the coming months and years. The shocking thing is how that one past moment will change the world forever.

How will it change?

The world is about to be changed into a much darker place than it has been ... and no one noticed. The world is about to become far more unstable ... and no one noticed. And if this happens (which there is no stopping it now) then the worlds economies and all the pain that has been endured over the past year will suffer even more.

So ... what happened in this moment that not many in the world noticed? Why so profound? Why so dangerous?

This is the moment that the Iranian elections returned Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the continuing President of Iran. Amid claims of massive fraud and election manipulation, Iran, which did have a democracy, had a brief moment of hope - a spark of light amid disastrously failed domestic policies, internal oppression and external extremism. Now that has gone.

Now the ruling authorities have allowed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to continue as President, the Iranian people can only wonder what will happen next. There will be many, many disenchanted people in Iran. Many of these people will all too clearly understand the power behind the President - and where it is leading them. Many more hardships will have to be endured - and it will be easy for the Iranian government to blame these hardships on someone else.

Iran is no longer a democracy.

And with respect to the rest of the world ... what we will now see will be a far more extremist and hard line approach by the Iranian government, with further funding to terrorist organisations, further instability throughout the Middle East, and of course a further resumption of their reach for nuclear weapons. The likelihood of such weapons reaching terrorists have now taken a step closer.

With its natural resources Iran should be a rich country. But it isn't. With its ingenuity Iran should be one of the leaders in global affairs. But it isn't. It desperately needed to change. But it now won't. Not for another four years at least and by then even greater damage will have been done.

With the unfortunate passing of the Iranian elections the world will never be the same. The extremist vision of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and those who hold the power behind him is about to be unleashed throughout the world. Iran deserves more than this. We all deserve more than this. What a sad day this is.

Yes, you could be forgiven for not noticing the moment that has passed. Yet for sure you will notice the moments about to be.

Regards

JS

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