The Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is not all-powerful either. The Assembly of Experts, which is screened by the government but elected by the people, is in charge of supervising, electing and dismissing the Supreme Leader. The reason why this body has never challenged him is that their relationship is ruled by consensus. Khamenei avoids crossing some red lines and sees himself as an arbitrator, whose mediation between factions serves one clear purpose: Avoid rifts within the system and secure its stability. Most of the time he confines himself to domestic issues. Although he also has extensive powers, they’re hedged in by formal and informal constraints, so he isn’t a dictator either.
On the other hand, it would be far-fetched to say, as many Iranian officials do, that Iran is a democracy. At best, the country can be considered a dysfunctional and repressive semi-democracy. Before Iran can become less repressive, the government will have to eliminate the vague references to “national security” that pepper legislation and stop allowing various bodies to overrule the people’s representatives. The infamous Guardian Council has to cease filtering executive and legislative candidates. Limitations on women’s rights and some of the Supreme Leader’s prerogatives also need to be overcome.
‘Iran supports terrorism throughout the world, especially in Iraq.’ Yes, but Iran is not alone. It would be more accurate to say Iran finances proxies, in particular Hezbollah, Hamas and Iraqi insurgents, that kill civilians. Iran is, however, far from being the only state deploying civilian-killing proxies. The Saudis, Syrians and Pakistanis, to name a few, have their own proxies operating in the region and beyond.
The US and Israel have also supported, or still support, groups with similar credentials. To this day, Washington gives shelter to the Iraq-based Iranian Mujahideen e-Khalq Organization (MKO), which is a recognized terrorist group on Washington’s own list of terror organizations, and which conducts subversive activities within Iran (ironically, in the 1970s the MKO used to kill US personnel in Iran). Some of the most active jihadis today are the progenies of groups that the US supported financially and logistically during the Cold War, particularly in Afghanistan after the Soviet invasion. Israel, for its part, financed and armed the South Lebanon Army (SLA) during the Lebanese Civil War. The SLA fought against the PLO, Hezbollah and their related civilian populations, and its torture camp in Khiam was notorious. There are also rumors of current support. Journalist Seymour Hersh claims the US and Israel work together in support of the Kurdish rebel group PKK and its Iranian branch Pejak. At the same time, one of Washington’s top former weapons inspectors in Iraq, Scott Ritter, claims Israel supports the MKO along with the US.
‘Iran is an anti-Semitic country.’ Unfair. Iran is home to the Muslim world’s largest Jewish population. This 30,000-strong community is represented by a member of the Majlis (Maurice Motamed) and is a religious minority recognized by the 1979 Constitution. There are about 100 synagogues in Iran, 26 in Tehran alone. Some of them are national heritage sites. President Khatami made headlines in 2003 by visiting the Yusef Abad Synagogue in Tehran. There is little government restriction of, or interference with, Jewish religious practice.

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