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Pressure on Iran Increases from U.S.

(Wall Street Journal) Peter Spiegel and Chip Cummins - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's accusation this week that Iran is becoming a military dictatorship run by elements of the militant Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is the public expression of conclusions privately drawn by U.S. officials and administration advisers for months. Senior U.S. officials and Iran analysts said the administration may be able to rally world opinion against the elite military group in a way it has yet to manage against the religious leaders who sit atop the regime. Gordon Duguid, a State Department spokesman, said Tuesday the Revolutionary Guards is "currently in control" of nine of 22 cabinet ministries. Focusing on the Revolutionary Guards also allows Washington to target an organization that is - through its paramilitary militia, the Basij - primarily responsible for the violent crackdown against demonstrators in the wake of June's presidential elections. "The IRGC is a convenient target because it's the entity that manages Iran's nuclear program, it's the entity that liaises with extremist groups throughout the Middle East, and it's the entity which is overseeing the brutal crackdown on the Iranian people," said Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
2010-02-17 07:50:24
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