UPDATED Iran: "We are Going to Make the Future Better"

UPDATE 1030 GMT: EA readers are already making useful refinements to this article. In addition to the comments which remind me that Iranians are currently celebrating the extended Nowruz holiday --- which may account in part for this quiet political phase --- an activist says simply, "Don't forget that Iranian expression, 'Fire under the ashes'."

There has been a notable drop in news from and on the Iranian opposition in recent days. Discussing this with an EA correspondent last night, amidst the distraction of the Caspian Makan affair, I pondered if "the Greens were lying low/regrouping/rethinking/fading into sunset". The correspondent replied, "They are all in a very poor shape right now" because of the regime's suppressions and punishments.

So could the "regime  feel confident enough to relax the pressure and get a semblance of 'normal' in its rule"? We agreed that this would be "tough since now they are merely keeping law and order with a strong fist policy".

Still, that's not the most hopeful of conclusions. So, as we closed with the agreement that we would next consider the significance of the upcoming mayoral election in Tehran, was it just a case of being tough-minded and pessimistic journalists?

I was only shaken out of these thoughts this morning when I read the comment from an EA reader who lives in Iran:

We are hopeful and patient....We are going to make the future better. In Persian we say if God wants [it will happen]. We want to make it and we’ll make it.

And so another day begins.