(New York Times) Robert F. Worth - Iranian demonstrators have made it clear that their target is not just President Ahmadinejad, or the disputed election that returned him to power in June, but the entire foundation of Iran's theocracy. The protesters took direct aim at Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, chanting, "Khamenei knows his time is up!" They held up flags from which the "Allah" symbol - added after Iran's 1979 revolution - had been removed. Most shocking of all, some burned an image of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the father of the revolution. That creeping radicalization has underscored the rift within Iran's opposition movement, analysts say, and poses a problem for its leaders, including former presidential candidates Mir Hussein Moussavi and Mehdi Karroubi.
2009-12-11 08:01:45Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive