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Iran
Antiregime Opposition Groups
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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