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Fierce Repression in Iran Suggests Regime Fears for its Future

(Economist-UK) The massive and violent demonstrations that engulfed Tehran and other cities on Dec. 26-27 suggested that repression only deepens and broadens the opposition. The government's tactics, along with Khamenei's silence and the increasingly ungloved intervention of the Revolutionary Guards, the elite military corps that commands the plain-clothes basij militia used for crowd control, may reflect a growing sense of desperation. Signs of the regime's fading legitimacy are numerous. Even the pragmatists among Iran's friends, such as Russia and China, now fear their longer-term and potentially lucrative interests in Iran may be hurt by too close an embrace of the regime. If they refuse to vote against tougher sanctions expected to be proposed soon against Iran at the UN Security Council, even Ahmadinejad and Khamenei may start to fear that their days in power may be numbered.
2009-12-30 08:43:52
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