Iran opposition to hold demonstrations despite government warnings

[alp227]

Source: The Guardian

Opposition activists in Iran will go ahead with a banned rally in central Tehran on Monday in defiance of warnings by the regime and a heavy security presence in the capital, a senior figure in the green movement has told the Guardian.

Ardeshir Amir-Arjomand, a spokesman for the former presidential candidates Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, accused the government of hypocrisy for voicing support for protesters in Egypt and Tunisia while refusing to allow opposition activists to stage a peaceful demonstration.

"Our dictators in Tehran are ruling the country with terror and panic," he said. "They are afraid of their own people. They only sanction whatever pleases themselves and disapprove of anything that is not under their surveillance. The call for renewed street protest in Iran is a clear sign that the green movement is still alive and that's why they're afraid of it."

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have been quick to compare the uprisings against western-backed autocrats in Tunisia and Egypt to Iran's Islamic revolution in 1979.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/13/iran-opposition-demonstrations-government-warnings

[Ken Burch]

1. Brave people.

And this is the ONLY way democracy can come to this region...when it's called for by the people, from below. Not as a spoil of conquest, like the shamocracy in Iraq.

[applegrove]

3. very

[dipsydoodle]

2. quick to compare

Well at least they are accurate comparisons.

Odd how nobody draws comparisons with the Cuban Revolution against what was in effect another US puppet.
Maybe that's because Cuba's one started with just Fidel, Raul , Che and 12 others. Quite amazing when you look back.

[joshcryer]

4. There's no comparison.

http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/anarchist_archives/bright/dolgoff/cubanrevolution/toc.html

Cuba's revolution was by decree from the top down, not from the masses from the bottom up like Egypt.

The Egyptian protesters want a say in every part of the formation of the new constitution and government.

[dipsydoodle]

5. I was agreeing

with "the uprisings against western-backed autocrats in Tunisia and Egypt to Iran's Islamic revolution in 1979."

I added in Cuba in the respect that it was a successful revolution - still is.

[bananas]

6. hope it goes well. nt

[nyy1998]

7. Go Iran!!!! Take down the Ayotollah!!!! nt

[rollin74]

8. I wish them luck

very determined and courageous people they are given the recent brutality and bloodshed by the Iranian gov't against demonstrators

Iran live blog:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/2011/02/iran-live-blog-25-bahman-14-february.html