iran
The Middle East is once again on fire, not because of American warfare, but due to apparently genuine movements aiming to get rid of old rulers and obsolete political systems. Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, and Yemen have all either passed the threshold of revolution or are on the verge. The dominos have fallen and it would not be imprudent to call it a day for rulers in other Arab countries like Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, or Jordan.
Head of Iran's Culture and Islamic Relations Organization Mohammad Baqer Khorramshad reiterated that the recent developments in the Middle-East and North Africa have resulted from Iran's soft power.
While the U.S. seems to be supporting the series of revolutions surfacing in the Middle East and Northern Africa, the big winner in the end may be Iran. Host Guy Raz speaks with Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett about the chance that these revolutions will shift influential balance in Iran's favor.
"New media and old media converge to become now media." That maxim, so persuasively articulated by 21st century public diplomacy guru Matt Armstrong, has now become real in a Voice of America Persian language television program called Parazit.
The voanews.com website was back to normal when I checked. Using Google cache, I found the hacked version, work of the "Iranian Cyber Army," which apparently went after all VOA sites.
The demise of autocratic regimes, first in Tunisia and right after in Egypt, has triggered a broad debate that centers on the following question: Is the coming regime in Egypt, which carries a central importance for the Arab world, likely to resemble Turkey, or Iran?
As the Islamic regime of Iran gears up this week to celebrate its 32nd anniversary, the people of Iran face monumental economic challenges similar to those faced by other countries in the region like Tunisia and Egypt.
A US-based Iranian journalist and analyst speaking at the Herzliya Conference on Wednesday urged the West to combine sanctions with human rights activism to curb Teheran’s nuclear ambitions.