Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 03/2010

Setback for Iran's Opposition: Khamenei's Hardline Reinforced

Mehdi Khalaji

February 2010

The Washington Institute for Near East Policy

Abstract

A few hours after the official demonstration marking the February 11 anniversary of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei stated, "Was the presence of tens of millions of motivated and aware people in the festival of the thirty-first anniversary of revolution enough to awaken [to their mistakes] the internal enemies and deceived individuals who sometimes hypocritically speak of 'the people'?" Khamenei had spent months worrying that the opposition Green Movement would hijack the anniversary.