Doubtful that we'll see irrevocable changes
Wish I could be more optimistic, but the Iranian regime will lash out violently at any hint of real rebellion. Our best course is to support democracy against tyranny and let the world draw their conclusions on who we mean. Lots of middle east countries fit the description. There is a real internal trend towards replacing the current Iranian regime, but it will take much more than we have seen. Best of luck to real freedom fighters (as opposed to terrorist poseurs).
Iran, A tale of two ashuras
I co-wrote this article about Iran for some Pakistani websites (so please keep the target audience in mind, the tone and references are likely to be a bit off for some people here). comments welcome.
http://wichaar.com/news/284/ARTICLE/...009-12-30.html
Iran Gearing up for another Tug-of-War on February 11
The opposition in Iran has been organising ahead of the eagerly anticipated official day to mark the 31st anniversary of the revolution (Let's be reminded that the opposition to Ahmadinejād in Iran has been using the officially-sanctioned holidays to voice its disapproval of the incumbent government). In spite of the outright threats issued by the government officials in Iran against protesters, the preparations for massive demonstrations are well underway:
http://www.payvand.com/news/10/jan/1170.html
Iran executes two over poll unrest
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/mi...746634565.html
Iran has hanged two men over widespread protests that followed the country's disputed presidential election in June last year, an Iranian news agency has said.
"Mohammad Reza Ali Zamani and Arash Rahmani Pour whose cases were confirmed by a Tehran appeals court were hanged on Thursday morning," the ISNA news agency said.
The pair were convicted of being "Mohareb" or enemies of God, and members of the Kingdom's Assembly, an outlawed pro-monarchist group and the People's Mujahideen, a religious movement.
They were also charged with plotting to topple the Iranian government, ISNA said quoting officials.
The executions were the first carried out for election-related incidents.
'Show trial'
Iranian authorities arrested around 4,000 protesters including journalists and reformist politicians in a massive crackdown in the weeks after the disputed election.
The two were among 11 people sentenced to death on similar charges in the wake of post-election protests.
But Nasrin Sotoudeh, Pour's lawyer, denied that her client had any role in the post-election disruption.
"He was arrested in Farvardin [the Iranian month covering March-April] before the [presidential] election and charged with co-operation with the [monarchist] Kingdom Assembly," Sotoudeh told AFP.
She also said she was prevented from representing Pour at his "show trial" in July and that many of the charges were brought against him when he was a minor.
"He confessed because of threats against his family," she said, adding that she was shocked at the news of the executions since she and her client's family had still been waiting for word from the appeals court.
Crackdown
Baqer Moin, an Iranian author and journalist, said the execution was a "political decision", likely intended to "set an example and to frighten some of the people who may shout a slogans that are not of the liking of the authorities".
"We don't really know which group they belong to, one of them is a monarchist and the other one is the Mujahideen group, obviously the Mujahideen group is not very popular but little is known about the monarchist group," he told Al Jazeera.
"Their lawyers have said that these people were arrested much before the elections, I suppose that they have been used as an example specifically as we are approaching the anniversary of the revolution."
He said: "It is an attempt to make sure that the radicals within the opposition movements are not going to take the lead in the anniversary of the revolution."
The June 12 presidential election plunged Iran into its deepest internal crisis since the 1979 Islamic revolution and exposed widening political divisions.
The reformist opposition says the election was rigged to secure the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president.
Denying fraud, Tehran portrayed the protests as a foreign-backed bid to undermine Iran's Islamic system of government.
Iran's eastern front fighting Sunni rebels
A CSM article on Iran's struggle with Jaish al-Adl or Jaish ul-Adl, or Army of Justice alongside the drug smugglers; it's not all brute force there:www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2014/1030/Facing-its-own-Islamic-State-inspired-militants-Iran-wields-a-smaller-stick?
I knew about the smugglers and some insurgency, not that it related to Iran's Sunni minority who live in the south-east, 10% of the national population.
Quote:
Zahedan is known as Iran’s lawless “Wild West,” where the bleak desert borders of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan intersect. Iranian officials, soldiers, and police have lost some 3,000 men during years of combat with heavily armed drug smugglers along a major opium and heroin route to Europe.
.....a sophisticated attack on border post No. 171 in September. In tactics that mirror those used so effectively by the IS in Iraq, a vehicle packed with 1,300 pounds of explosives caused a “cataclysmic” blast that leveled the outer wall, as 70 insurgents in a convoy of six trucks raced to attack.
Backgrounder by a Norwegain think tank, from May 2014, 8 pgs:http://www.peacebuilding.no/var/ezfl...4fd929c9c8.pdf