Unrest In Iran -- July 2, 2009

A man in Paris holds up a picture Neda Agha-Soltan who was killed during a protest against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election in June 2009. Iran on Wednesday stepped up its campaign against dissenters, shutting down a reformist newspaper, but presidential election runner up Mir Hossein Mousavi continued to challenge the results. (AFP/File/Miguel Medina)

Iran Unrest Shifts Power Dynamics -- Washington Post

Reformists Must Rethink Strategy

The large-scale protests in Iran since its hotly disputed June 12 presidential election have shaken the Islamic republic's long-standing balance of political power.

For decades, hard-line members of Iran's cleric-led government controlled the judiciary, military, intelligence and state media. But reformists also had wide public support and room to push for more moderate social and political policies.

That delicate balance worked for both sides, providing an outlet for people who chafed at the Islamic regime's austerity and isolationism, while ensuring that the core system, created after the 1979 revolution, would not be seriously challenged. The reformists did not advocate a revolutionary overhaul. The general view was that Iranians did not want another revolution.

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More News On The Unrest In Iran

Iran Opposition Leaders Speak Amid Crackdown -- Wall Street Journal
Iran hardliners urge legal action against Mousavi -- Yahoo News/Reuters
Opposition Leaders Court Arrest by Defying 'Unlawful Iranian Regime' -- The Times
Iran leader's foes to continue disputing election -- L.A. Times
Defiant Opposition Leaders Refuse to Accept Ahmadinejad Government -- Washington Post
Khatami denounces Iran election, arrests -- Reuters
Attacks, arrests slowing online news from Iran -- CNN
Europe Weighs Pulling Envoys From Tehran -- New York Times
Iran unrest not affected energy sector-oil official -- Reuters
In Iran, Conspiracy Theories Flourish As Regime Tries to Regain Legitimacy -- Time Magazine
Iraqi top Shiite clerics are silent on Iran -- Washington Post
Time for an Israeli Strike? -- John R. Bolton, Washington Post opinion.