Tag Archives: Tehran

14Jun/11

Where the Dead Are Considered Dangerous

The world will never have a peaceful Iran until it has a free

By HOMAYOUN MOBASSERI AND NIR BOMS

Wall Steet Journal, 6/15/2011

 

At last month’s Group of Eight meeting in France, world leaders observed that the “Arab Spring” actually began in Iran. They were right: Today’s Middle Eastern uprisings began when Neda Agha Soltan was shot to death in the streets of Tehran in the summer of 2009. She died with her eyes open as millions of people poured into the streets demanding change after rigged presidential elections that June. The demonstrators received little support from the democracies of Europe or America.

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14Nov/10

It’s (Iranian) Economy Stupid or Is It Us?

Caspian Weekly

Last year, following the rigged presidential election that gave president Ahmadinejad his second term, Iran was in turmoil. Millions of Iranians poured to the streets in protest. The brutal crackdown and the dramatic pictures of protests have captured the world’s imagination and sympathy. Following a few months of protests and failed hopes, the streets became quiet – but perhaps not for long.

Last Friday Hussein Sajedi-Niya, security forces chief of Greater Tehran announced a “neighborhood security plans” in where security officials will practice in more than 2000 (!) neighborhoods in greater Tehran. He too senses that this relative calm is hiding more than what meets the eye. The Islamic regime is in the midst of an economic turmoil, the likes of which has never been seen in its tumultuous 31 years of history. While the regime desperately seeks a way out of it, the Iranian people are already paying a very heavy price, perhaps more than they can afford. Unless this course is altered, masses of Iranians will soon have far less to lose. And that spells trouble to an already weakened and politically fractured Islamic regime.

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