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BBC NEWS | Middle East | Unrest challenges Iran's republic


As demonstrations against the Iranian election result continue, the situation in Tehran is becoming unpredictable and potentially explosive.
Throughout Sunday, crowds gathered in a number of areas. Often they were not organised protests.

In traffic jams, car drivers hooted their horns in opposition to the government. Crowds stood on the pavement, chanting and showing v-signs.
In some places, the police were out in force. Some of them were in full riot gear. Others charged into action on the back of motorbikes.
They seem to have been given clear instructions not to open fire. Though occasional gunfire has been heard, mostly police have been wielding truncheons and batons in often brutal fashion.
Stifled aspirations

It is difficult to get any reliable picture of the scale of the protests in Tehran, let alone the whole country.



But they spread rapidly during the evening. The cheers and chanting echoed even in customarily quiet middle-class neighbourhoods.
Many Iranians came out on to their roofs to shout "down with the dictator".
It has become a challenge not just of an election result, not just to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei himself.

That means it is, in effect, a challenge to the whole basis of the Islamic Republic.

For two years I have watched as young, ambitious Iranians go about their lives with growing frustration.

They feel the system stifles their aspirations. Now they feel that their intelligence and their pride has been insulted by an election result many Iranians believe is blatantly fraudulent.

And President Ahmadinejad's almost casual dismissal of their complaints just adds to the anger.
Without precedent
Make no mistake, President Ahmadinejad still has plenty of supporters.
They turned out in large numbers in the victory rally he held in central Tehran on Sunday afternoon.

He has focused his rhetoric on foreign governments and the international media, blaming them for stirring up the trouble.

There is a danger now that the two sides could come to blows.
And many people will fear that the government will authorise the police to open fire, if the situation slides further out of control.
Yet it is hard to see what political compromise is possible.
Mr Ahmadinejad is defiant, confident in the support of the supreme leader.
The opposition will know that the formal appeal process has minimal chance of success.

It is a situation without precedent in the 30-year history of the Islamic republic, and the outcome is impossible to predict.

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I Are Baboon

Gee, I couldn't see this coming a mile away...

bio-chem

'bout damn time these people started to step up for themselves.

chobby192

Some people just don't seem to know how to take a defeat.

China has become more capitalist than America; America has become more communist than China.
~ Propaganda Buster

maxpro2

Yeah I'm sure that is all that is going on in Iran.... just sore losers who can't take defeat.

IainDaniel

And some people are just retards.

Obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.

Michael Jordan

bio-chem

Is it painful being you? I mean is their a physical ailment associated with your condition?

chobby192

Thanks for the kind word, moderator.

China has become more capitalist than America; America has become more communist than China.
~ Propaganda Buster

chobby192

You give your 100% before the election. After the election, if you are lost show respect to the winner. If you win you show your humbleness.

China has become more capitalist than America; America has become more communist than China.
~ Propaganda Buster

min0 lee

In the 70's it was the other way around, if my memory serves me right.

IainDaniel

Any time Troll.

Obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.

Michael Jordan

maxpro2

You should be neutered.

lnvanry

while Chobby's social skills aren't exactly polished he made a point, albeit crudely.

Ahmedinejad won with a landslide victory...and even if some polling stations had voter fraud its pretty hard to use several thousand votes as a basis for upturning an election where the victory margin was in the millions. Western media is showing up how many protesters and upset at the loss (and fraud, which is rightly deserved)...but Iran's general populous has spoken...its just the students and Iranian rich have are much more vocal when they lose.

It does have the potential to get real ugly and shooting has already started
One Iranian dead as shots fired at Mousavi rally | U.S. | Reuters

My gut tells me this will be put down soon...not in a China style approach but with a much firmer hand than our government. Remember, they don't have freedom of the press or freedom of speech. When the Ayatollah commands, you follow.

WillBrink

Here's what happens to those that do. I wont imbed this as it's very graphic. A young women sniped through the heart for protesting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?eurl=ht...&v=vlehNLfk90c

All they have to fight back with is rocks and sticks....Freedom is not free, but Democracy will find a way....

- Will @ BrinkZone


The No#1 Science Based Performance, Fitness, and Bodybuilding Resource on the 'net....

KelJu

It is obvious this is the same troll mother fucker that created blooming lotus.

chobby192

Give me a break. Are you calling me names just because you got bored?

China has become more capitalist than America; America has become more communist than China.
~ Propaganda Buster

min0 lee

There was a member here by that name, she was crazy like you.

maniclion

Sounds like those folks could use some good old fashioned American Liberation.......

"We are like tenant farmers chopping down the fence around our house for fuel when we should be using Natures inexhaustible sources of energy — sun, wind and tide. ... I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don't have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that."
Thomas Edison: In conversation with Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone

Dale Mabry

What makes you think that, the oppression coupled with the oil?

If sense were common, everyone would have it.

4/2007-Current 75th Ranked most popular image 1 spot behind Prince's bulge...

bio-chem

LOL

Big Smoothy

American liberation. Destroy a place, kill, and then steal their resources. Same today as 150 years ago.

From Andrew Jackson to GWB.


This said, the mullahs in Iran are nutters IMO, and I think this is an internal issue.

I think Ivanry hit it right on the head. Yes, there was fraud and this stinks, but the majority of the population supported Ahmadinejad.

Military men are dumb, stupid animals, to be used as pawns for foreign policy
– Henry Kissinger (January-February 2003 edition of Eagle Newsletter)

lnvanry

Some dum dum rigged the election too far and skewed everything past the acceptable level...I guess thats karma