But on Sunday, the main student activist website, Daneshjoo News, issued a statement calling for a big opposition demonstration on the anniversary of the Islamic Republic on Feb. 12th. Bloggers also are calling on opposition leaders to rejoin the fray.
“The democracy movement we started is spreading in the region and today we are witnessing the awakening of the Arabs. It’s time for us to once again join hands and prove to the world that dictatorship must end,” the Daneshjoo News statement said.
On the streets of Tehran, a new slogan is being sprayed on walls: “Seyed Ali, go be with Ben Ali”—refering to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Tunisia’s former President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, who was ousted by protests in that country earlier this month. The Tunisian protests helped inspired the current unrest in Egypt and antigovernment protests in other Arab countries, including Yemen, Algeria and Jordan.
Iranian state media, meanwhile, are portraying Egypt’s uprising as a better-late-than-never Islamic revolution, similar to the one that toppled the Shah and paved the way for Iran’s current Islamic Republic, more than 30 years ago. State media have also painted the protests as a popular outpouring against Egypt’s alliance with the U.S. and longstanding peace with Israel.
Official news agencies prominently ran excerpts of a speech last year by Mr. Khamenei. In it, he mentioned the growing division between Egyp…
