Wall Street To Determine Next US President

Tehran, Sept 26, IRNA – An expert on US affairs has said here that the Occupy Movement in US would affect the next presidential elections in that country as many of Americans may not go to the poll on October. "Many of the people who were in the Occupy Wall Street Movement voted for (Barak) Obama in 2008 election and many of them may not go to the poll this time and even do not vote for Obama because Obama has had many changes in both domestic and international polices," said Tehran University professor and expert on US affairs Dr Foad Izadi. Speaking exclusively to the English-language newspaper 'Iran Daily,' the expert said a lot of issues raised by Occupy Movement were expressed by US presidential nominees without saying that they were the ideas of Occupy Movement. The Occupy Movement has had "some effects on both political discourses and also on calculations that are being done with regard to the November election," Izadi noted adding, "This is quite significant for a movement that was quite grassroots and did not have a lot of financial support and media backing." He added that in reality, the US president more or less continued the Bush administration policies. "Because of that it seems that a lot of people that were part of the Occupy Movement may not go to the poll. That is a bad news for Obama because the election is close and if he loses it has some consequences for certain circles then he may be in trouble. They are worried about what the people who were involved in the Occupy Movement are going to do." Asked if the J Street Movement could also affect the next presidential election in the US, Izadi said, "J Street is quite different from Occupy Movement .They are not really in one category. "Occupy Movement is a grassroots, anti establishment, anti Democrat, and anti Republicans, movement or social movement. J Street is a lobby group and it will sit under the banner of Israeli lobby. Israeli lobby has some members of right wings like AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) and it has some members that are not right wing like J Street. But J Street just because is relatively more moderate in comparison to AIPAC, it doesn’t mean it is grassroots movement or it is good movement. "Like AIPAC they oppose Iran’s nuclear program, like AIPAC they support sanctions against Iran. The only difference these two have is that in terms of attacking Iran, J Street is little more moderate than AIPAC so I do not think that you can put J Street and Occupy Movement in the same category," the professor stressed. Commenting on the deficiencies of the US electoral system, Izadi, as a person who spent many years in the US and have conducted a lot of studies on the issue, said "The problem of the US electoral and political system is the influence of money in the political process. "As you may know American corporations pay less taxes and they contribute more money to different political candidates and because of that structure they are having so much influence in the political process. The political process is quite corrupt and is really not functioning well," the expert said. He added that the US political process was not representing the people "but the interests of the rich people who constitute just one present of the society. "To go out of the system one would need to look at third parties. The third parties are not really functioning parties in the US because they do not have abilities to compete with two other parties in terms of money and power." "Many laws written by two parties are basically prohibiting the interest of any other parties except Republican and Democrats," Izadi stressed. Referring to the present political system of US as "quite closed and doesn’t really like challenge in terms of ideology or policy," Izadi added, "Almost half of the people in the US do not vote in the election and the people who vote generally say they are choosing the lesser between two evils. "They are not really happy about the choices. They just go to vote to basically reduce the negative effects of candidate that they have not voted for." According to the professor the present problems of US electoral system were issues like "Electoral College system" and other "technical and legal issues." Referring to the presence of the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in New York where he is to attend 67th General Assembly of the United Nations, Izadi was asked whether Tehran could help democratize the UN. "What Iran is saying about the United Nation is not unique to Iran but what is unique about Iran is that because of its independent foreign policy, Iran can express its opinion quite clearly and frankly and because of that quality Iran stands out, " said the expert. He added, "Iran’s issues in the UN are generally the issues that many other countries are perusing. For example the issue that the UN does not have a democratic structure and the issue of veto power for five countries. In this regard the UN really does not represent many countries in the world. A lot of countries including Muslim countries and third world countries are not represented in the Security Council. Even countries like Japan and Germany have issues with the structure of the UN." Given the fact that Iran is the president of Non-Aligned Movement for the next three years, the professor said Iran may be able to use its position in NAM to advance some of those ideas that were also presented in the final communiqué of the NAM Summit in Tehran few weeks ago. "And from that position Iran may basically be able to be more successful at least in terms of propagating these ideas," Izadi stressed. Commenting of Tehran's view about the winner of the next presidential election in the US, the expert said, "The Iranian government is suspicious of both parties because during both Republicans and Democrats governments Iran has been threatened both militarily and by different types of sanctions." Referring to the long history of hostility of both US political parties with Iran, Izadi said, "General opinion in Iran inside or outside the government is that both parties are basically controlled by the Zionist lobbies and these lobbies have the upper hand in foreign polices and initiative programs of the two parties and because of the influence of the Zionist lobby they are basically following the line that Israel wants." As for current disagreements between US and the Zionists on Iran, Izadi said the disagreement "is focused on tactics not the goals of the US and Israeli governments toward Iran."/end