Iran regime struggles with continuing opposition

Source: Global Post

Speaking on the new current affairs program "Ru Be Farda" ("Facing Tomorrow"), parliamentarian Ali Motahhari said President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's regime must get used to “recognizing dissent.” And he shocked many by saying “the government must issue a protest permit to the Greens" (the term used to refer to Iran’s opposition).

Crossing the Islamic Republic’s invisible line that bans protesters from disobeying Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Iran’s ultimate authority, he added: “Even if someone does not accept the Supreme Leader’s words, we mustn’t say that this person is opposed to the system.”

Then on Sunday regime-sanctioned criticism mounted. A parliamentary committee investigating abuses carried out in Kahrizak, a controversial detention facility south of the capital, delivered a report finding Tehran's former prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi directly responsible for the deaths of three prisoners and 150 others suffering from "limited space, inappropriate nutrition, unsanitary conditions, exposure to excessive heat, verbal and physical abuse," according to Iran’s ILNA news agency. The three deceased prisoners were first described as dying of “meningitis.”

More cracks are appearing in the regime. Last week, an Iranian diplomat resigned from his position in Norway, claiming political asylum for himself and his family. He may be just one of up to 27 defectors since the beginning of the post-election unrest, according to Ali Akbar Omidmehr, a former Iranian ambassador to India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Speaking to Voice of America's Persian service on Saturday, Omidmehr claimed that five diplomats and their families have resigned just in the past two weeks.

Read more: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/middle-east/100112/iran-regime-struggles-continuing-opposition

The Security Council doesn't really know who they're dealing with.