The UK embassy attack crisis could hand hard-liners just the type of Iran-versus-West escalation they have always tried to leverage to their advantage. The outward confidence of the parliament speaker, Ali Larijani, and other officials suggest Iran s Islamic leadership is far from panic mode - and could even have set the showdowns in motion by sending paramilitary loyalists into Tuesday's demonstrations. "All this could not have happened without a green light from the highest level," said Mehrzad Boroujerdi, an Iranian affairs expert at Syracuse University. "There's no doubt that hard-liners will look for ways to strengthen their hand."

Iran s parliament is set to summon President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for questioning over an economic scandal and his polices after the required number of lawmakers signed a petition Sunday, the latest salvo in a long battle between the president and his rivals.

A rapid succession of challenges directed at Iran in recent days has reignited a debate in Tehran over how to deal with the rest of the world. Iran s rulers, led by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, continue to refuse any negotiations in which they would have to compromise. But an influential faction is now pushing for back-channel talks with the United States as a step toward lowering the tensions raised by U.S. allegations about an Iranian assassination plot.

Every summer, Iranian police get tough on women who violate the country s strict Islamic dress code by adjusting their veils and long coats to try to cope with the rising temperatures. But this year, amid the annual crackdown, the issue of how women wear the veil - and what the government does about it - has become part of an intensifying rift between President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and powerful Shiite clerics.

Iran's constitutional watchdog rebuked the president Wednesday for trying to merge Cabinet ministries without parliamentary approval - the latest sign of discord at the highest levels of the ruling Islamic system in Tehran.