1. Wednesday: “Eyewitness reports say there have been clashes near the parliament building in the capital Tehran, in the streets around Baharestan Square.” Reports suggest that the number of protesters was around 300.
2. Thursday: There is general agreement amongst the media that there are going to be protests tomorrow, maybe the largest we’ve seen this week.
3. Khamenei Vows No Retreat: Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed on Wednesday he would not budge in response to protests over a disputed election that has sparked the biggest street demonstrations since the 1979 Islamic revolution. “I had insisted and will insist on implementing the law on the election issue … Neither the establishment nor the nation will yield to pressure at any cost,” Khamenei said.
4. Mousavi Arrest/House Arrest Rumors: Rumors abound that Mousavi is either under house arrest or his physical arrest is imminent. One of the reasons why people believe he could be arrested is because of this article in Kayhan, a newspaper closely affiliated with Khamenei: “Its following these murderous acts that the wave of people’s desire for revenge from Mir Hossein Mousavi is increasing day by day, and Mir Hossein will not be able to avoid assuming responsibility under the guise of attending memorial services for the victims, or childish acts like lighting a candle…” It seems like the official state media is preparing the population for his arrest.
5. Iranian candidate Mohsen Rezaie withdraws voting complaint: “He said, as a ‘selfless soldier for the Islamic republic,’ he could not pursue his allegations given the ‘critical’ and ‘pivotal’ political and social conditions of the country. He said controlling the situation was more important than election results.” At the end of the day, these candidates belong to the system, even if they got burned by the handling of the elections. In other words, they have a vested interest in the continuity of the status quo.
6. Monday Night “Allahu akbar” Chants: See the video here. I’m not sure about the date of this video because although it says Monday (June 22), the video is also dated June 23. Nevertheless, the echo of “Allahu akbar” is tantalizing.
7. Chomsky on Iran: Fast forward the first 3 minutes and the rest is Chomsky’s insight.
8. Translation of Iran Slogans and Signs: See the images and translations here.
9. The Daily Show’s “Jihad Walk”
10. Surveying Arab Sentiments on the Iranian Demonstrations: “Most Arab governments dislike the current Iranian regime, so you would think they would be pleased to see it toppled, or tempered by its own people. Yet, if such change were to occur through street demonstrations choreographed via a web of digital communications, whispered messages, and rooftop religious chants in the middle of the night, Arab leaders of autocratic regimes would be unhappy — because they would sense their own vulnerability to similar mass political challenges. The fact is not lost on anyone that the Iranian regime effectively withstood and defied American-Israeli-European-UN pressure, threats and sanctions for years, but found itself much more vulnerable to the spontaneous rebellion of many of its own citizens who felt degraded by the falsification of election results by the government. Arab regimes and leaders have worked themselves into a lose-lose situation whereby they would be unhappy if the Iranian regime stayed in power, and unhappy if it were removed through popular challenge. The same awkwardness defines the perspectives of Arab citizens. Most Arabs do not want to live in an Iranian-style political system that blends theocracy with autocracy; but many were pleased to see the pro-American Shah overthrown by Quran-carrying demonstrators. They would also be unhappy to see the Iranian regime overthrown because they enjoy its defiance of the United States, Israel and the UN in particular, along with its development of a nuclear capability. At the same time, ordinary Arabs would feel jealous were the demonstrators in Iran able to topple their regime for the second time in 30 years — because this would highlight the chronic passivity and powerlessness of Arab citizens who must suffer permanent subjugation in their own long-running autocratic systems without being able to do anything about it. Whether Iranian street demonstrations challenged the Shah or the Islamists who toppled him, Arabs watch all this on television with a forlorn envy.”
Arash. Maybe if the Palestinians weren’t occupied and busy being pressed out of Jerusalem, waiting in check-point lines, and able to live the way those Israelis do, they would offer their time to make placard for Iranians? How should anyone know. What a narrow-minded question.
Anything that upsets Arab regimes is a good thing.
Arash Kahen the Occupation Soldier has memory loss. It was only a couple days ago that he criticized commenters here for bringing up the issue of Israel when the post was about Iran, and then he himself just now brought up Israel when the post was about Iran.
His words verbatim: “really? r we seriously going back to Israeli/Palestinian issue now? Come on Nazanin and then you claim you don’t want to divert the attention. Amazing! Funny part is that I am the one who is trying focus on Iran’s issue and subject matter of the post…”
Funny thing is, once again, you got caught for being the hypocrite that you are.
Arash is beginning to lose it, it seems. Of course, we all knew he lost it a long time ago when he said Stalin killed more Jews than Hitler. I suppose he did if you are a holocaust denier, which is exactly the type of website he used to prove his point! And then he rails against Ahmadinejad for holocaust denial. Hypocrite is EXACTLY the right word.
its already winding down in iran. i dont even watch teh news with as much enthusiasm…
iran is so last week.
Hi Arash,
I’m really curious what you will say about this based on your reasoning in your blog that “it’s pretty simple. you don’t let fundamentalist islamic regimes get nukes. Is that islamophic and racist? Yes. but….”
OK, the humor aside, if you were President Arash, what would you do to “not let them get nukes”? How do you deal with a regime that no American president has ever been right about? A regime whose leader doesn’t WANT engagement – I’m talking about Khamenei of course, not Mousavi et cetera. Khamenei wants nuclear energy. The bomb, I’m not sure about, but it’s definitely possible.
What do you do Mr. President Arash? Please be creative!! No “i would bomb the shit out of them and show them who rules”. Thanks!
Nazanin, there is absolutely nothing to get out of engaging Arash. Arash has no serious background knowledge on any of the topics discussed on this blog. He has to make things up as he goes along, as Ive documented over and over and over again. I mean just look at when he says 99.9 % of Iranian Jews would die for Israel. Does he have a public opinon poll showing that? No. He made the number up. Arash is nothing more than a very emotional, below average law student who just picked a side and irrationally defends it. He has no background on iran, israel, or palestine, nor of the relationship between these parties. All he has are opinions based on nothing, or things he makes up in his head like how stalin killed more jews than hitler. He also exploited his father’s experience in Iran to score cheap political points. He is a despicably horribly person. He is a blatant liar, exploits his own family members, and tried to sleazily sleep with a friend of mine. In short, there is nothing to gain out of engaging him there are much more interesting Zionists to have a dialogue/debate with. JZ, for example, while also ignorant, has at least SOMETHING to contribute. Arash has nothing. He doesnt even have a decent enough grasp of the language. He thinks the phrase “All of a sudden” is “out of a sudden”, and he has been in this country for most of his life!
Arash, i made severa grammatical errors in that paragraph. Can you find them for me?
Actually, I wasn’t hoping to get anything but laughs from engaging him. He’s hilarious. When I read the first amendment declaration, I almost choked. I also wanted to bring him back to the topic, which isn’t Pouya or his biography. Let’s talk about Iran – which Arash claims to know about. This is a scholarly socio-political affairs blog which Pouya tends to really well. I think that if you compare it to Arash’s blog which is full of cartoons that mock the size of Ahmadinejad’s nose or obsess over the Iran/Hitler analogy (Hitler would be pissed with A’jad, wouldn’t he? Denying him the evil achievement he is best known for?) I think it’s good that Arash reads this blog. I wish he would try to learn something instead of attack the people who challenge him on what he doesn’t know. He accused me of blaming Neda because I blamed Mousavi for leading a shitty movement that doesn’t seem to amount to more than senseless killing.
I don’t know him personally, but I understand some of Arash’s views about Israel because I used to believe some of them too; but there’s a point when you realize that you can’t defend the indefensible. I think Arash has an identity problem, like a lot of Iranian Americans, and that he has found a solid identity within the Israeli right wing mentality, one that a lot of Iranian Jews find themselves dwelling in. It feels safe and strong. IT’S NOT. It’s a false sense of security. Iranian Jews are just another political chess piece for the state of Israel to push Iran to the brink.
I also found that I was just keeping my eyes closed for no good reason: pride. Arash, the things you are writing publicly will haunt you. Please try to keep an open mind and stop making a fool of yourself. If you want to side with “the students”, you should see that their struggle is not different than the people whose oppression you deny in “the holy land”. I don’t know if there is a God, but would a creator be proud of his creation when they are tearing each other to apart in his name? Or founding nations that oppose his commandments?
Its nice to debate opinions with someone with the same base knowledge as yourself. Then, you can have legitimate disagreements. With Arash, you cannot bc he has such a low base knowledge on all of these things. He actually said Egypt invaded israel in the 1973 war. Imagine if pouyas blog talked about the red army invading germany in the battle of stalingrad, it would be absurd to be debate WWII with him wouldnt it? It would be like me debating a brain surgeon on how to remove a brain tumor. Its absolutely absurd. Unfortunately, Arash is not a rational thinker, so he doesnt see how absurd most of what he says is. Opinions i dont care about, its the historical record and arash’s “knowledge” of it that we mock on this blog.
🙂 are you saying that since historical knowledge doesn’t inform his opinions, hate does? I think he sometimes just rushes to google for info and isn’t picky about sources when he argues with you and Pouya, e.g. the Stalin link/source. Arash what were you thinking?!
So iv been watching some of these “peacefull” protestors, and in many videos they have posted, you see the protestors purposly going after security forces, with rocks and thier own batons. Like I live in Canada, and if you touch a police officer.. they will come down so hard on you .. you wont know what hit you, I have seen it happen on more then one occassion. I dont agree with the portrayal that Iran is killing it people in teh streets.. like even on BBC they said the government hasnt used live ammunnition on protestors yet.. but probably only because they knwo more deaths will create more anger. As if the security forces would prefer to mow down everyone. Their was another video they showed on CNN of how a brave woman takes on security forces. and you basically see a crowd of the police in an crowd telling people to move on.. and then teh girl runs from behind one of the officers and kicks him in the back.. at this point another officer hits her with a baton. Like im not saying it all right what the security forces are doing.. but im saying some of the protestors havent been exactly peacefull either.
Nazanin, it is so much more than that stalin example. He would often make things up about the human rights organizations (like that they would never condemn Iran, LOL) when all he had to do was go on their websites to see how factually false what he was saying was. He said Norman finkelstein went to the Iran holocaust conference. he said hezbollah massacred tens of thousands of lebanese christian civilians. I think its hate, and a lot of intellectual laziness. Its much easier to say something you want to believe without looking it up to see if its right or not.
To add on to that, he also doesnt understand things like public opinion polls. He doesnt know that if you want to guage what people actually think instead of just saying what YOU think they think, you use public opinion polls. Very simple concepts that he doesnt grasp very well.
Z- I don’t think it matters. The regime had limited support in the American public in terms of the anti-war movement. But what they have done to these protesters, and the way the American public opinion has been swayed on this is not even debatable, especially after Neda, whose death and even more ridiculous “foreign bullet” defense has sealed their fate. Rafsanjani better bust a move, because the revolution will steamroll him too. Don’t tell me you don’t think that foreign intelligence hasn’t salivated at this ability for the students to march and march and videotape their fight.
🙂 I see. Arash, when did you come to the US, if you don’t mind saying? Thanks.
Nazanin- Well to be honest, I dont think the Anti war movement can do much, even if these unfortunate events never took place. Really, seventy percent of the british public was against the Iraq War, yet it still occured. Iran defense. will come only from its own capibilities, that is it. And that is the only reason the US hasnt attacked during Bush era, even his generals where telling him its a very bad idea. As for Rafs, he did try from what i have heard, but it failed. And i think this was deperation move by him, he knew Nejad was coming for him, so he was hoping for a Mossawi win. I have spent the last week. reading a lot of articles.. and specially when you read Rafs open letter to Kham published in Mossawi papers, you can see Rafs had this planned. What to do if they lose the election. Wich i do think Mossawi did, because i have been getting in touch with a lot of my relatives in Iran, and I got some in Shiraz, Mashad, Isfhan, Tehran. you name it and i got family thier. and with the exception of 2 cousin in shiraz, they all supported Nejad. A lot of them switched from Mossawi to Nejad after the debates, wich even the times reported Nejad was the better canditate. Because the president managed to link Mossawi to Rafs. So i think a lot of people, specially the none “westernized” people in Iran came out to vote for Nejad. And if you see how vigourously Nejad debated in those debates, like he used all his cards to try to get public opinion. If the fix was in months before, as mossawi claims. Why would he try so hard? and go after many leading figures in the establishment? As for Neda’s death, I agree it was a great tragedy, but i dont know if i buy the story of a basiji just walking up to her and shooting her randomly. I wouldnt not be suprised if more info comes out later on, and if it is true, then hopefully that member if he is on video or what not. will be arrested and tried for the murder. And yeah im sure foreign intelligence are cheering whats going on, but at same time. i think you will see a much more aggressive Iran after this settles. So they wont be salivating for to long. Specailly if Rafs power is severely undermined and his “people” are purged from the “establishment’. BTw to all of you that I have been discussing/debating with.. i have to say thank you. Its nice to find people that you can discuss Iranian politics with, in an intelligent manner.. regardless of our backgrounds and viewpoints. SO yeah thanks to all and Ipouya for running this blog and allowing us all a platform to share and discuss. 🙂
Hi Z,
You know what I have been afraid of saying all along? These protests did take a violent turn. If they really had been about Mousavi, I think some people hijacked it. We know who those people are – MKO. Why doesn’t anyone believe that they exist in Iran? Why doesn’t the regime confront them head on? They have some of the most powerful brainwashing tools and they absolutely are not pacifists. There isn’t a family in Iran who hasn’t had a direct/indirect experience with this wretched Rajavi and her followers. They haven’t disappeared after the 80s! They’ve gotten worse. There was one report of a violent act outside a Basij office. It got no attention at all. I don’t think those were Mousavi supporters, to be honest. They are mostly peaceful. The basij office came out and said “STOP!” and I think a motor rider caught on fire too. I saw Neda and most of the students were like her. Harmless and frustrated, but not violent.
I think what you’re saying about Ahmadinejad’s amazing debate performance – the boldness of what he said – is true. A lot of Iranians appreciated that boldness and I think it has been undermined, but it doesn’t matter anymore. The regime hasn’t done a good job on the PR end of this. Nothing new there. Again, I don’t know why they don’t confront the MKO element of this more directly. Are they afraid of MKO? I know there are a lot of them, but they’ve been disarmed.
http://jahannews.com/vdcbs0bs.rhbs8piuur.html
Hi N, I agree the PR handling of this by Iran was pretty bad. At same time, I have lived in Canada all my life, and they never EVER portray Iran in a positive light. Lets not forget who controls most of the media here. Even people in the left wing of poliitics, despise Iran because it is a religous state. Iran has, and will always be portrayed as the enemy of the west, and frankly the west wont portray Iran in a positive light, unless it abandons it revolutianary ideals; more specifically its support of Hezbollah, Hamas , etc. Watch they do that, you will see how the media begins to portray Iran will change completely. Even thought it domestic politics wont change. I also think that Kham had to restore order to the streets, cuz Rafs was using argument with other clerics, “This choas will bring you all down if we dotn stop it, and best way to stop it is to remove Kham”. That is why the clamdown occured, I mean their where days in wich the security forces werent even deployed. As for the MKO, i dont doubt they played a role, but yeah i think they represent a minority in the crowds. Their was a picture http://jahannews.com/images/docs/000055/n00055348-r-b-000.jpg and they had this on CNN two, with caption Mossawi supporters carrying fake rifle to scare of security forces. LIke when I saw that, i knew something fishy was really going on, I mean no where in the world do you get into clashes with police and cary a “fake” gun to scare them. I mean police shoot people for putting thier hands in thier pockets let alone fake guns. Unless it really wasnt a fake gun? And where I saw major bias in media, nobody in CNN bothered questioning the intelligence to cary a fake rifle, in a protest.