Iran Lashes Out at West Over Protests

(Nazila Fathi | New York Times | 29 December 2009) – Iran continued to arrest opposition members on Tuesday in what seemed to be an effort to curb further protests after Sunday’s defiant demonstrations against the government, according to opposition Web sites. Read the rest of this entry »

New Clashes Test Iranian Regime’s Grip on Tehran

(Online Newshour | 28 December 2009) – In the wake of weekend protests in Iran that left at least eight people dead, Margaret Warner speaks with a pair of experts about the enduring opposition movement.

Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian-American Council, a nonpartisan organization promoting Iranian-American participation in U.S. civic life. And Karim Sadjadpour, an associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Could the Mullahs Fall This Time?

As protesters poured into the streets of Iran in the biggest and bloodiest demonstrations since June, Trita and Rouzbeh Parsi say this time could be the breaking point.

(Trita Parsi & Rouzebeh Parsi | The Daily Beast | 27 December 2009) – With the government growing increasingly desperate—and violent—the new clashes on the streets in Iran may very well prove to be the breaking point of the regime. If so, it shows that the Iranian theocracy ultimately fell on its own sword. It didn’t come to an end due to the efforts of exiled opposition groups or the regime-change schemes of Washington’s neoconservatives. Rather, the Iranian people are the main characters in this drama, using the very same symbols that brought the Islamic republic into being to close this chapter in a century-old struggle for democracy. Read the rest of this entry »