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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Iran
Index
The Khomeini regime has faced severe challenges from several
opposition groups, including royalists, National Front bureaucrats,
intellectuals and professionals, communists, guerrilla
organizations, Kurdish rebels, and distinguished mujtahids
(Shia clerics whose demonstrated erudition in religious law has
earned them the privilege to interpret law). Of these, the
royalists and the National Front leaders have operated mainly from
foreign bases or underground cells. The communists were purged in
1983 when the Tudeh's leadership was almost entirely eliminated.
The main guerrilla group, the Mojahedin, claimed to have made
strides in organizing a war of attrition against the regime. But
because it has operated since July 1986 primarily from Baghdad,
thus giving the impression of collaboration with Iraq, the
Mojahedin's effectiveness and credibility may have been lessened by
the war. The Kurds have been fighting the regime since their 1979
rebellion, even though Tehran has kept them off balance by using
Pasdaran forces. Finally, National Front politicians have openly
displayed their differing views, mostly in West European capitals,
although the group led by former Prime Minister Bazargan was the
only domestic "opposition" party tolerated by the regime.
Data as of December 1987
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