Farzad Agah writing for Al Jazeera

Some very good insights from an Iranian journalist with Al Jazerra. This guy appears to lean towards the opposition, nonetheless his article is a good, objective analysis of the real struggle for hearts and minds – not the one among the Iranian people but rather among the senior clerics.

Mousavi, his key ally Rafsanjani, and others sympathizers are trying to exploit two very important beliefs of the senior clerics:

1) The long term interests of the Islamic State are far more important than the short term interests of any particular government,

2) The compatibility of the Islamic State and democracy must be maintained and not surrendered to the secular critics who deny it.