Reza Aslan: Khamenei to Soften Tone?

Reza Aslan writes on The Daily Beast today that there are reports that a deal may be in the works in Iran that would result in a run-off election between Ahmadinejad and Mousavi. This is apparently the work of former president Ayatollah Rafsanjani, who heads up the council that picks the supreme leader, currently his nemesis, Ayatollah Khamenei.

Though the government's brutal crackdown has quieted things today in Tehran, Aslan says things are still raging in the provinces: "[D]espite the fact that protests in the capital city of Tehran have diminished, there are still reports of massive protests taking place in other parts of the country, including in Tabriz, Isfahan, Kermanshah, Mashad and Shiraz. These protests have been significantly smaller due to the brutal security crackdown, but they have also been much more forceful and violent."

He says that Khamenei's Friday prayers tomorrow should be a good indication of a softening of tone and therefore whether these reports of a compromise are real or not.

Now, would that new election be any freer than the one two weeks ago, aye, that's the rub.

More on Basiji Hunters

I forwarded the info in my previous post to an Iranian-American (I'll not disclose name or even gender, because this person still has family in Tehran), who responded: "It's definitely true and they are very community-connected." This person had been a protester in the 1979 revolution that overthrew the Shah, which of course led to the current regime. "This is happening all over again for a better future, I hope."

Update from Iran's Elections

So this doesn't have anything directly to do with magazines, the main topic of this blog. But it's stunning -- and I think everyone who can should be paying attention and spreading reports of the amazing developments in Iran. I don't know how this will turn out; might very well lead to a bloody crackdown and an even more repressive state. Let's hope for a better outcome than that.

Here's a report from Channel 4 News in the UK: