Today, my Iranian friends were optimistic: they believe that Ahmadinejad and Khameni are through, and that in due time their replacements will dismantle the Supreme Council.
*******UPDATE: CSM: In shift, Iran's protesters demand new republic
At the end of a rocky week, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sought to quash mounting evidence of a rift with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, claiming they were "like father and son."
"The efforts of ill-wishers to insinuate such doubts is fruitless, and they will surely take such wishes to their graves," said Mr. Ahmadinejad. "This road is blocked to the devils."
Demonstrators flooded the streets of Tehran on Thursday in large, countrywide protests. But in a development signaling a new stage in the confrontation, they adapted the Iranian Revolution's most famous slogan – "Independence, Freedom, Islamic Republic" – to their latest demand, shouting instead: "Independence, Freedom, Iranian Republic."
"Before, the demand was just for a rerun of the elections, but since yesterday, people are running a step ahead and asking for more," says Masih Alinejad, a Tehran-based reformist journalist, in a telephone interview. "They're also becoming divided. Some people still want [defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein] Mousavi, but others are demanding more than just a rerun of the elections: They now are calling for an Iranian rather than an Islamic republic."
THIS PROTEST HAS BECOME A REVOLUTION!
YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST!
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