Today Tehran celebrates 30 years since Revolution. There is nothing there to celebrate in practical terms, unless, they want to celebrate misery, and the megalomaniacs mullahs ignoring and trespassing the population rights and liberties. In spite of what President Ahmadinejad wants to sell, the answer to all problems is not to export the Islamic revolution in the region and elsewhere, meaning terrorism under liberation pretenses, and surely is not mass suicide Sooner or later a vast majority of Iranians will realize how corrupt, invasive, ineffective, and downright criminal this Khomeinist ideology is, and look for alternatives. My guess is that most already know what the reality is, but are not [yet] ready to call for regime change.
Nadim Koteich has a good op-ed in ME Times.
Akin to ‘hope,’ the term ‘new,’ in current Iranian political lingo, is merely a metaphor. It is almost exclusively linked to war and confrontation.
Alice Forham writes about the influence of Iran on Lebanon.
Houchang Chehabi told NOW Lebanon that he thinks “to some extent [Iran] would tone down their support for militant groups in exchange for assurances that the West, especially the Americans, would not make any attempt to overthrow the regime,” pointing out that in 2003 Iran made a comprehensive proposal to the US. Further, he said, “I have no proof, but I think that part of the reason that Iraq has calmed down now is that Iran stopped supplying insurgent groups in Iraq in exchange for American assurances that it won't be attacked.” In terms of Hezbollah, specifically, however, he said, “If I had to make an educated guess [about whether Iran's decisions would impact on Hezbollah, I would say it won't… I don't think Iran micromanages Hezbollah."
“I think Hezbollah makes its own decisions based on its own evaluation and appreciation of the political situation, and then Iran just helps it,” he said. “Iran is capable of restraining them if they really want to, but I don't think Iran says "go' and they go.”