President Barack Obama’s withdrawal strategy for Iraq got a big bump this weekend, when the Iraqi military and police presided over massive gatherings of pilgrims […]

The USG Open Source Center translates a communique of Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr of Iraq, calling for continuous demonstrations. You have to wonder whether he […]

Today’s news is that Iran’s hard liners are not happy. AP reports that Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi accused former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani of encouraging further […]

From a friend of a friend in Tehran: The past couple of days everyone I met debated back and forth whether to attend Friday Prayer’s […]

What was Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani trying to say in his Friday prayers sermon? (The text is below). The reform movement and its allies among pragmatic […]

The USG Open Source Center translates the second, political, portion of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani’s Friday prayers sermon. Iran: Rafsanjani Calls For Release of Detainees; Hopes […]

Tehran Bureau has a collection of this and other amateur video from Friday in Iran. Posted at Youtube 7/17: The URL of Nico Pitney’s live […]

Aljazeera English now has a video report on Rafsanjani’s sermon and the Friday protests: Ghanbar Naderi points out that Rafsanjani has a long history of […]

The USG Open Source Center summarizes Rafsanjani’s sermon on Friday. Full translation to follow. FYI — Iran’s Rafsanjani Gives Tehran Friday SermonsCorrected version; providing updated […]