Struggle Within Iranian Elite

Pepe Escobar: Two camps locked in fierce struggle, as Revolutionary Guard stages an election "coup."

"What happened in Iran was basically a military coup," Pepe Escobar tells TRNN Senior Analyst, Paul Jay, about the Iranian presidential election last week. "The coup was supplied by the Revolutionary Guard, with the connivance of the Supreme Leader."

"What we have here is a war between two factions in an extremely complicated and fluid Iranian political system," Escobar says of the presidential race between the main candidates, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Mir-Hossein Mousavi, last week.

Ahmadinejad was re-elected the Iranian president four hours after polls were closed.

Escobar explains that political allies of Ahmadinejad include older Revolutionary Guards and the Basij militias, who answer directly to the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

For further interviews or to contact Paul Jay, visit The Real News website.