Middle East
The Battle Within — Ahmadinejad v. Rafsanjani in 5Â Scenes
Is Tehran Immune from the Arab Spring Â
Iran has so far remained relatively unaffected by the winds of change that have swept through the Middle East and North Africa. Yet this was not a foregone conclusion. Given the opposition s ability to build on a recent wave of mobilisation to revive the calls for protests triggered in 2009, why has it not taken advantage of the regional domino effect?
As Arab Spring unfolds, who is watching Iran?
Mideast upheavals open doors for Saudi strategies
Revolt in the Arab World, But Not in Iran – Why?
Iran is a different case because the country already had a revolution in 1979. Even those Iranians who are in the opposition called for reform within the system rather than revolution. It is not a climate of fear that explains the survival of the Islamic Republic but the absence of revolutionary fervour. No state can cling to power merely through brute force
Iran the loser, now and in years to come.
The Arab uprisings could have been Iran s greatest triumph. After all, revolutions in Islamic countries have a certain appeal to the mullah regime. But six months after the beginning of the protests, Tehran seems to be at a loss: Are the revolutions a good or a bad thing for the Islamic Republic? Nothing worked out quite as expected. And Iran s Arab allies are struggling, too.
Khamenei: Iran backs Arab uprisings unless pro-U.S.
Iran sees threat to its clout amid Arab Spring
Iran has been isolated by the Arab spring
Nerves are fraying in Tehran as initial glee over Arab spring upheavals turns to alarm. Iran welcomed the fall of its old enemy, Egypt's Hosni Mubarak. But the uprising now threatening its key Arab ally, the Syrian regime of Bashar Al-Assad, is a different matter altogether. Worse still, the thought that the region's revolutionary mood may inspire Iran's own much-bludgeoned green opposition to rise again inspires real fear.
Cameron Says Popular Uprising Is Possible in ‘Basket-Case’ Iran
U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron, praising the Arab Spring of democratic protests across the Middle East and North Africa, said a similar revolt in Iran should not be ruled out. The Iranian regime is one of the most dictatorial and most repressive of all, Cameron told lawmakers in London today. And if the Iranian people start to see that there is a future for a democratic Egypt and a democratic Tunisia and a Libyan people struggling to throw off their hideous leader, then people in Iran who have attempted this before might think, well actually we don t have to go down this autocratic path.