Iran's Opposition Unrest Flares Up again with a Vengance

If the Tehran mullahs thought the worst popular unrest since the Islamic Revolution was over, they should just look out their windows.

Iranians' anger is burning hot once again. (EPA photo)

Because opposition forces have taken on the streets of the capital with renewed intensity ignoring the regime's warnings of using violence to put down the protests.

The new wave of demonstrations was called to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the 1999 student unrest.

The New York Times:

As tear gas canisters cracked and hissed in the middle of crowds, and baton-wielding police officers chased up and down sidewalks, young people, some bloodied, ran for cover, and there was an almost festive feeling on the streets of Tehran, witnesses reported.

A young woman, her clothing covered in blood, ran up Kagar Street, paused for a minute and said, “I am not scared because we are in this together.”

The protesters lighted trash on fire in the street, and shopkeepers locked their gates, then let demonstrators in to escape the wrath of the police. Hotels also served as safe havens, letting in protesters and locking out the authorities. It has been almost four weeks since the polls closed and the government announced that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had won re-election in a landslide.

And it has been almost four weeks of defiance, in the face of the government’s repeated, uncompromising and violent efforts to restore the status quo. The government did succeed in keeping people off the streets the last 11 days, leaving many to simmer on their own as political insiders and clerical heavyweights slugged it out behind the scenes.

The protests ignored the agreement by opposition candidate Mir Hussein Mousavi and his political allies to renounce open defiance of the election results and channel their complains through legal means.

The people had other plans, apparently.