1. What will happen on August 5th: “With Mr Ahmadinejad due to be sworn in for a second term on 5 August, the government has a tough choice. If it makes concessions in the face of continuing demonstrations, that would be a humiliating climb down. If, as seems more likely, it clings to power, it [...]

1. Global protests over Iranian crackdown: “Protesters in dozens of cities worldwide on Saturday demanded the release of hundreds of detainees in Iran who were arrested in the bloody aftermath of the Islamic republic’s disputed presidential election. Saturday’s global day of action across about 100 cities in six continents was organized by United For Iran [...]

1. In Friday sermon, Rafsanjani criticizes Iran’s crackdown: Tens of thousands of Iranians attended Friday prayers at Tehran University and the audience roared with shouts of “freedom!” as leading cleric Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani obliquely criticized the government for its crackdown on protesters. Outside, a small group of pro-democracy protesters were beaten by police and [...]

1. Rafsanjani to give Friday sermon, Mousavi and Khatami to attend: “The semiofficial Iranian Labor News Agency reported Sunday that Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani will deliver the nation’s weekly keynote religious sermon. Rafsanjani, who chairs powerful boards that oversee the office of the supreme leader and adjudicate disputes between government bodies, is the highest-profile [...]

1. Talking as if Iran is approaching a civil war: “Gen. Sayyed Hassan Firouzabadi, chief of Iran’s Joint Armed Forces, said Iranian soldiers were willing to die as they did in the brutal eight-year Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, according to the state-run Fars News Agency. ‘Some may think that by protesting and chanting their [...]

1. 18 Tir Demonstrations: “Iranian pro-government Basij militia members dispersed crowds of protesters here Thursday — sometimes with force — witnesses said. An estimated 2,000 to 3,000 people crowded the streets in different locations of the city, and headed toward Tehran University, the site of a student uprising in 1999. Several protesters were hit on [...]

Mousavi’s Potential Next Step: “Mousavi hinted on Monday that he may move away from the tactic of protests and create a political party to work in what he called ‘a legal framework.’ Late Monday, he met with the other top stars of the reform movement — former president Mohammad Khatami and Mahdi Karroubi, another election [...]

1. Exploiting Iranian Poet Sa’adi: I’m not gonna lie, it sort of annoys me to see so many Iranians using Sa’adi’s humanistic poem to get non-Iranians to care about Iran, but they themselves fail to recognize the poem’s meaning and disregard the rest of the world. Do these same Iranians who are posting this poem [...]

1. Iran ‘lifts block on SMS texting’: Reports from Iran say that SMS text messaging services have been unblocked for the first time since disputed presidential elections. However, Iranian news agencies say there are still technical problems. Text messaging and social networks were widely used by protesters in mass rallies following the election.  2. Hardline [...]

1. Mousavi’s Latest Statement: Mir Hussein Mousavi issued a statement today in response to Guardian Council certifying the election results. Mousavi said the majority of the people including him do not recognize the legitimacy of the current government. He expressed his fears about a grave danger facing the country because people no longer trust the government. [...]