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Source: http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/7579/iran-deep-state
Iran: The Deep State Endures
(Gatestone Institute) Lawrence A. Franklin - The results of Iran's recent elections signify next to nothing. The people were given a limited choice from a thoroughly vetted set of pro-regime candidates, all of whom favor Islamic rule. The political superstructure of Iran's government is much like that of the former Soviet Union. The office of the President, the parliament, and the court system have little real decision-making power. They are more for show, for the people to let off steam. The Rouhani era will not usher in an Iran which will conduct itself like a conventional member of the nation-state system. The unelected leaders of Iran's deep state institutions are even more powerful today. The Council of Guardians, the Assembly of Experts, the Ministry of Information and Security (MOIS), the IRGC's Intelligence Bureau, the Special Courts, and the Office of the Supreme Leader remain largely insulated from external pressure and domestic transitory moods. Western governments need to accept the harsh reality that the Islamic Republic of Iran remains a revolutionary regime. All decisions over ballistic missiles and associated delivery systems, the pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability, export of the revolution, aggressive support of the Shi'a ascendancy in the Gulf and militant acts of inhumanity towards their own people are made by the deep state. The writer was a former military attache at the U.S. Embassy in Israel and was the Iran Desk Officer for the U.S. Secretary of Defense.