Masoud Shafaee

Two years after massive protests shook Iran in June 2009 following President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's widely contested re-election, the Iranians are closely watching the slew of uprisings that have rocked the Arab world. The regional upheaval has naturally alarmed the Iranian leadership, for although it has offered Iran some strategic gains, it has resulted in far greater geostrategic setbacks. more

For the past seven months, countless parallels have been drawn between the current uprising gripping Iran and the events that ultimately led to the demise of the Pahlavi monarchy some 30 years ago. Whether or not the comparisons are accurate, one irony that cannot be escaped is that the regime is facing increasingly vocal dissent from the very clerical class that brought it to power. more

It remains uncertain whether Iran will ultimately accept the agreement that negotiators in Geneva drafted late last month to send Iran's stockpiled enriched uranium abroad for further enrichment. But the deliberations in Tehran have made one thing clear: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is under enormous domestic pressure from all sides to reject the P5+1 deal. more

As uncertainty has given way to acceptance regarding a second term for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, many -- including U.S. President Barack Obama -- are stressing the need to continue engaging Iran in hopes of curbing its nuclear program. But both engagement and further sanctions risk casting the U.S. as precisely that which the Iranian regime has so far been unable to: an interfering Western power. more

Despite post-election speculation on the prospects for a second Iranian revolution, the current situation more closely resembles a civil rights movement. The choice before Iran is that between a more open, but still-controlled society on the one hand, and a police state on the other. But at present, Iran's supreme leader is unwilling -- or unable -- to let the country move in either direction.
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