July 9th in Iran: An Uneventful Day
The much-anticipated four-year anniversary of violent protests in Iran has come and gone rather peacefully compared to what had been expected. There were a few minor street fights between Islamic vigilantes and youths but they were small, according to news agencies in Iran, but other reports have them tabbed as being running street battles with minor injuries. The Iranian government put a clamp on any media reports coming out of Iran about the protests, instead focusing media efforts on the visit by International Atomic Energy Agency head Mohammad El Baradei. They hoped that they could throw the light off any protesting that might occur by offering more news about the visit of El Baradei.
First, I would like to touch on El Baradei's visit. El Baradei did not get what he had hoped he would get in his visit to Tehran. The only thing that was agreed upon was that an IAEA inspection team would travel to Iran this week to further the discussion. The Iranians still did not sign the additional protocol as was desired by El Baradei, which would allow for more intrusive inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities. Perhaps the IAEA team coming to Iran is a start in the right direction but I think that Iran is just stalling the inevitable. I don't think that they intend to allow for more intrusive inspection, as I believe that their "peaceful" weapons program is a cover for a nuclear weapons program. The more that Iran stalls and tries to hold off on inspections, the more guilty they appear.
As far as the protests that were supposed to take place are concerned, I had at one time felt that the restrictions that the government had placed on the protesters would not stop the protesters from holding their rallies. However, these restrictions may have put a damper on anything the students had planned to do, which is very unfortunate. Something particularly odd happened the day prior to the anniversary of violent student protests (July 8th) four years ago. Three student leaders held a press conference to state that they have cancelled all organized protests. You would think that would have pleased the hard-line members of the government as well as their strongmen, the Islamic vigilantes. Well it wasn't to be. Right after the student leaders finished their news conference, they were immediately arrested by Islamic vigilantes and taken away. This surprised many as the students had just announced that they would not be holding protests so why arrest them? I figure that it was added insurance to the Iranian government, as well as to their vigilante strongmen, that these student leaders be held to prevent the outbreak of large and violent protests. It may have done the trick.
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