Here’s an English dub of Khamenei’s speech at Tehran University’s Friday prayers today in which he directly challenges Karroubi, Mousavi, and Rezai to stop the protests. While the dynamics of the current protests most closely resemble the 1979 revolution, there is one key difference I don’t think I’ve heard others mention yet. Khomeini was able to wait out much of the revolutionary protests in Iraq and later France, returning to Iran about two weeks after the shah had abdicated. Today, Mousavi has nowhere near the charisma of a Khomeini, and, crucially, he is inside Iran and most likely under constant surveillance and threat of arrest. There seems little chance that the state will shy from trying to force Mousavi into line following today’s unambiguous message.
I am still looking for a link to the full speech if any of our readers has it handy.
PS: No sooner had I dissed Twitter when it produced something interesting. Here is a full English trans of the Khamenei speech. I have not got the original so can’t vouch.
-WW
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