(Wall Street Journal Europe) Ilan Berman - To hear Iranian officials tell it, the geopolitical earthquake now taking place in the Middle East represents an "Islamic awakening" that will forge a new regional order more sympathetic to Iran. But the renewed anti-regime uprisings that have taken place in recent weeks in Tehran, Isfahan, Mashad, Shiraz and other cities - and the brutality of the Iranian government's response to them - tell a very different story. Clearly, Iran's ayatollahs are deeply worried that the "Arab Spring" could end up bringing down their theocracy as well, and are working feverishly to prevent such an eventuality. What can and should the U.S. do to aid Iran's opposition? America needs to ratchet up the international focus on the plight of the leadership of the Green Movement - arrested former presidential candidates Mir Hossein Mousavi, a former prime minister, and Mehdi Karroubi, twice speaker of Iran's parliament. The writer is vice president of the American Foreign Policy Council in Washington.
2011-03-09 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive