Juan Cole

A truck bombing at a Shiite mosque in Taza, Iraq, near the northern oil city of Kirkuk killed 70 and wounded 170 just after noon as they were leaving after `asr prayers. The press is saying that the bombing came only a day before US troops were to cease patrolling major cities, but this sort […]

Mir Hosain Mousavi issued a powerful implicit denunciation of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Saturday, and insisting again that the results of the presidential election be annulled in favor of wholly new elections. ABC reports: ‘ Mr Mousavi hit back at a speech by the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in which the Ayatollah […]

AP reports that Iranian riot police have deployed tear gas and water cannons against protesters who were gathering for another big demonstration in Tehran. Aljazeera is reporting that a suicide bomber blew himself up near the shrine of Imam Khomeini. Hard to interpret, since I don’t take the reformist camp for seedy terrorist types. My […]

Reformist presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi said Saturday morning that the 4 pm GMT rally on Saturday against the alleged stealing of the presidential election in Iran would go ahead. This despite the threats made by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in his Friday prayer sermon to crack down on “chaos.” Karroubi, a cleric, is not a […]

A correspondent in Iran sent along these thoughts, written as Khamenei was speaking on Friday: “Rough notes…The event is like the old Red Square May Day parades. We look to see who is there, and who is not. Dr. A, Larajani, Haddad Adel, the top leadership is all there. Karrobi and Mousavi are not…but Rezaei […]

The owner of this site is tidying affairs in preparation for dying Saturday at the hands of the Iranian security forces. Mousavi supporters are planning another big afternoon demonstration despite the threats issued today by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei against such protesters. NIAC translates: “I will participate in the demonstrations tomorrow. Maybe they will turn […]

Jonathan Lyons writes in a guest op-ed for IC: As the latest political drama unfolds in Iran, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei may yet come to rue the day, in 1999, that he sought to muzzle one of the nation’s most important constituencies – the handful of most senior clerics who provide spiritual and personal guidance […]

The USG Open Source Center Translates Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s sermon on Friday regarding the finality of the presidential election results and the impermissibility of further protest. Iran: Leader Urges End to Protests, Says Poll Results Can Be Investigated LegallySecond Friday sermon delivered by Ayatollah Ali Khamene’i, leader of Iran’s Islamic revolution, at Tehran University […]

Thursday’s march in Tehran was just enormous, several hundred thousand strong. AFP writes, “Many in the huge crowd walked silently and lit black candles as night fell. Others wore green wristbands or ribbons and carried flowers as they filed into Imam Khomeini Square, a large plaza in the heart of the capital named for the […]