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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 23-Oct-2013
23-Oct-13 World View -- Saudi Arabia continues its break with the United States

Web Log - October, 2013

23-Oct-13 World View -- Saudi Arabia continues its break with the United States

Prime Minister of Pakistan asks for U.S. help with India

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

News of the day from Iran
Saudi Arabia continues its break with the United States
Prime Minister of Pakistan asks for U.S. help with India

News of the day from Iran

Iranian college girls wearing the hijab

Iranian college girls wearing the hijab

Here are some interesting political stories from Iran:

"Several MPs criticized President Hassan Rouhani’s recent statements in which he said that the country’s treasury is empty. MP Abdolvahid Fiazi said, "Mr. Rouhani’s statements are contrary to the statements of the Economy Minister. We ask the administration to convey the reality of the matter to the people."

This is interesting because there's a political conflict brewing in Iran over the economy. Western economic sanctions have badly hurt Iran's economy, and the new president Hassan Rouhani has as much as admitted it in recent statements. But his political opponents are displeased with the admission, and would rather pretend that there are no economic problems.

"Justice Minister Hojjat al-Eslam Mostafa Pour Mohammadi stated, "[The slogan of] 'Death to America' is not one of the necessities of our country, but our country is an anti-Arrogant [anti-Western] country. If there is a need, we will negotiate, and if it is necessary to agree with the enemy we will even do so. This is because it is no problem for us to agree with the enemy for our interests, but we must know that he is the enemy."

The phrase "Death to America" has become a compulsory patriotic phrase in Iran, ever since the Great Islamic Revolution in 1979 and the Iranian hostage crisis in 1980. If you're not willing to chant "Death to America!" on any occasion, then you're not a true revolutionary Iranian. But as the younger generations have grown up, many of them like America, and think that "Death to America!" is irrelevant. This has become an issue between the generations in today's Iran, which is in a generational Awakening era (like America in the 1960s).

"Earlier this week, Ayatollah Rouhollah Khomeini's granddaughter, Zahra Eshraghi, told Sharq Parsi website that she sought to be a "taboo breaker" in the matter of hijab because she "always opposed the way ladies whom are active in the government dressed and [does] not agree with it at all." She added, "If they want to introduce Islam, they can do this with better clothing and hijab." Representative of the Supreme Leader to Greater Tehran IRGC Hojjat al-Eslam Abdolali Govahi subsequently criticized her, and said, "You are damned wrong. Who are you to do such a thing? If we do not say anything it is due to the dignity of Imam [Khomeini] and the Imam’s family."

I posted several funny stories during the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad era about Iran's police rounding up women wearing loose hijabs (headscarves) or no hijabs and carting them off to jail, where they are lectured on proper dress for a young Iranian woman. Now here you have the granddaughter of Ayatollah Rouhollah Khomeini, who was the original Supreme Leader in the 1979 revolution, criticizing the arbitrary hijab requirement, and receiving harsh criticism from the older generation of survivors of the Great Revolution. This is exactly the kind of thing that happened during America's Awakening era in the 1960s, when girls were wearing miniskirts and hot pants, and were burning their bras, to harsh criticism from their parents and the WW II survivor generation. Khomeini must be spinning in his grave. AEI Iran Tracker

Saudi Arabia continues its break with the United States

Ever since Saudi Arabia's surprise rejection, last Friday, of a prized seat on the United Nations Security Council, Saudi officials have been lambasting the United Nations for its hypocricy, and President Barack Obama in particular for adopting policies inimical to Saudi Arabia. The split really began when the Obama administration threw Egypt's leader Hosni Mubarak under the bus when the Arab Revolution began in 2011. Most recently the Saudis are furious at Obama's flip-flop and subsequent decision not to strike the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria, and then the administration's apparent growing closeness to Saudi enemy Iran. In addition, the Obama administration failed to support the Saudis during the Bahrain uprising.

Saudi Prince Bandar Bin Sultan al-Saud, 64, was Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States from 1983 to 2005. He lost influence after that because of loss of confidence from King Abdullah, according to reports. But now Bandar is back in the spotlight, leading the change in policy to move away from the United States, according to reports that quote him as saying that the rejection of the UNSC seat "was a message for the U.S., not the U.N." According to one Saudi analyst, "The shift away from the U.S. is a major one."

However, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday that he had met with Saudi foreign minister Saud al-Faisal on Monday, and that: "I have great confidence that the United States and Saudi Arabia will continue to be the close and important friends and allies that we have been."

As I've been writing for years, Generational Dynamics predicts that in the approaching Clash of Civilizations world war, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and China will be allied against Iran, India and the United States. Reuters

Prime Minister of Pakistan asks for U.S. help with India

Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, in a visit to Washington on Tuesday, is asking the United States to mediate in the dispute with India over the disputed territories of Kashmir and Jammu:

"With its growing influence in India, the US now has the capacity to do more to help the two sides resolve their core disputes, including Kashmir, and in promoting a culture of cooperation."

Kashmir and Jammu was the epicenter of the one of the worst wars of the 20th century, the genocidal clash between Muslims and Hindus that followed Partition, the 1947 partitioning of the Indian subcontinent into Pakistan and India. NDTV (India)

(Comments: For reader comments, questions and discussion, see the 23-Oct-13 World View -- Saudi Arabia continues its break with the United States thread of the Generational Dynamics forum. Comments may be posted anonymously.) (23-Oct-2013) Permanent Link
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