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Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article6605062.ece
The Fight for Iran's Future Is Far From Over
[Times-UK] Amir Taheri - For 30 years, Iran has suffered from a split personality: trying to remain faithful to the late Ayatollah Khomeini's ersatz version of Islam while pretending to have a people-based system of government. The regime has deployed 100,000 men from the paramilitary Basij to control Tehran and eight other major cities. But such a build-up cannot be sustained. There is the risk of the fighters siding with the protesters. Hussein Taleb, the commander-in-chief of the Basij, said Monday that "large numbers of individuals dressed as members of the Basij" have been arrested after they took part in protest marches. If the Basij disintegrates, the regime could play its trump card: the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. However, the IRGC is also split, with an unknown portion of it sympathetic to the opposition.