If we show tangible results through reform, then the youth will move towards reform rather than revolution. But without progression and with the government’s denial of the existence of a political problem, the people will go for a violent revolution.
Ghazi Farhan and Alaa ShehabiSo there has been an utter lack of fairness in anything that has happened. The entire state apparatus has been turned into tools of repression and persecution. As far as the types of people who have been arrested: you could be sharing a prison cell with some of the best athletes, the best teachers in the country, even the best doctors were there at one point. The dragnet just swept across the entire spectrum of society. And you must have heard of the case of twenty doctors being convicted to fifteen years in prison. These sentences were handed out like parking tickets. In fact, a parking ticket takes longer to issue than some of these sentences, given they were held in these military tribunals.
Monday, November 14, 2011 at 9:50 | Scott Lucas in Africa, EA Global, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran 2040 GMT: Defiance and celebration --- Protesters in Ma'arrat al Nouman chant "Screw Iran and Screw Russia!"
2032 GMT: This video (cell phone, poor quality) claims to show tanks storming Sarmeen Idlib (in the hotspot between Idlib city and Saraqeb) amongst gunfire:
2022 GMT: Evening protests in Kafersita, Hama:
Monarchs at the Gulf Co-operation CouncilThe transformation of Arab monarchies into constitutional systems is a matter ofwhen rather than if. The alternative may be less appealing to those in power today. On a recent visit to Boston in which I met a number of Arab Gulf states students, the debate veered, as it tends to do nowadays, towards Arab constitutional monarchies. To my surprise it was a Qatari, a citizen of by far the richest county on earth often accused of political apathy who remarked to a friend and I, “I don’t agree with constitutional monarchies,” he paused, “I want nothing less than a republic.”
Without urgent non-cosmetic reform the Arab monarchies will simply be kicking the reform ball forward.
2250 GMT: Reality or Illusion Watch. Prominent Iranian academic Sadegh Zibakalam, speaking at the Tehran Media Exhibit, said the "Islamic Awakening" --- declared by the Supreme Leader to be inspiring movements across North Africa and the Middle East --- is an illusion of the Islamic Republic. Zibakalam said the real significance of events is that Arab people are fed up with dictatorship.
1810 GMT: The Plot. In a speech in South Khorasan Province in eastern Iran, President Ahmadinejad has said the "Iranian nation is very kind and just and does not need to terrorist acts".
Responding to US accusations that Tehran planned the assassination of the Saudi Ambassador to Washington, Ahmadinejad asserted, "Every time the Iranian nation moves toward the peaks of progress, its enemies grab it with their teeth showing." He turned the charge of assassination against others, claiming they had killed Iranian scientists.
See also Iran Video Interview: Ahmadinejad Puts Out His Standard Lines to CNN's Zakaria
The Latest from Iran (23 October): Qaddafi Visits the Supreme Leader
1835 GMT: No-Irony-at-All Elections Watch. A leading member of the Islamic Constancy Front, Morteza Agha Tehrani, has urged authorities to safeguard the coming elections and ensure that “votes are not stolen and there is no cheating".
The Constancy Front was established earlier this year by supporters of President Ahmadinejad and his allies. It has been at odds with other conservative factions who have sought a unified front for next March's Parliamentary vote.
In a meeting on Saturday in Qom, Agha Tehrani said: “If you truly want competent people to be elected to office, do not steal or buy votes and do not cheat.”
1605 GMT: CyberCrime. Minister of Communications and Technology Reza Taghipour has declared that the use of VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) and proxies is a “crime": “Now VPNs have been cut off in the country because their use is a legal violation.”
With a VPN, Internet users can get access to internet providers outside Iran by using ISPs within the country. Iranians have been using the VPNs and proxies to circumvent strict censorship by the Islamic Republic of foreign and domestic websites.
Friday, October 21, 2011 at 23:54 | Scott Lucas in EA Middle East and Turkey, Journalism and Media, Middle East and Iran 
Bahrain Foreign Minister Al-KhalifaEarlier this week we wrote of how David Ignatius, the star columnist of The Washington Post, was being used by US and Saudi officials to spin the story of the Iranian plot to kill the Saudi Ambassador to Washington.
Indeed, Ignatius was doing much more: he put out the claim that Tehran was behind the slaying of a Saudi official in Pakistan (on 16 May in one paragraph of Ignatius' story, in July in another paragraph). Iran was involved in the 2005 assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and threats against Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to Beirut. And Gholam Shakuri, the Qods Force officer indicted in The Plot, "had helped organize militant Shiite protesters in Bahrain".
And now the rest of the story....
Thursday, October 20, 2011 at 14:11 | Scott Lucas in Africa, EA Global, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran See also Libya Snap Analysis: Three Down --- How Many To Go?
Libya Video: The Moment When Muammar Qaddafi Was Seized
Libya Video: The Man Who Found Qaddafi Tells His Story
Friday's Libya, Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Goodbye to Qaddafi, Hello to....?
2059 GMT: Anti-Assad slogans chanted in the Deir Bielbe district of Homs, Syria:
2055 GMT: The people of the Khalidiya section of Homs in Syria, chant, "Now it's your turn, Bashar al Assad!"
See also Iran Document: 1st Report of The UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights
Iran Audio Feature: How Ahmadinejad's Advisor Stumbled Into An Admission of The Battle Within
1940 GMT: The Plot. President Ahmadinejad has used an interview with Al Jazeera English tonight to deny any Iranian involvement in the plan to kill the Saudi Ambassador to the US: "Terror is for people... who don't have any logic. People of Iran are pro-logic."
Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani has tried a different approach, declaring that the main suspect in the US, Manssor Arbabsiar, is "addicted to opium and drunken and mentally not well balanced".
1640 GMT: The Plot. Minister of Defense Ahmad Vahidi has insisted that Iran is the most secure and stable country in the world today and that US accusations of Tehran's attempt to kill the Saudi Ambassador in Washington are "an intelligence disgrace".
Ali Motahari1810 GMT: Economy (Mismanagement) Watch. MP Musalreza Sarvati has claimed that Parliament is ignoring the Ahmadinejad Administration's $15 billion shortfall in the approvied budget. Sarvati also asserted that the administration has withdrawn $4.5 billion from the Central Ban, without depositing a compensating amount into the Treasury.
1805 GMT: The House Arrests. The three children of detained Mir Hossein Mousavi have met with Fatemeh Karroubi, who has also been under house arrest for eight months.
Mousavi's children said they have been denied phone contact with parents, whom they have not seen them in five weeks.
