By the Numbers

€1,000,000,000: Amount in loans that China has pledged to Iran to fund municipal projects in the country's capital. “The loan would be used for several construction projects in Tehran, including road networks,” Hossein Mohammad Pourzarandi, a senior official at Tehran municipality, explained.

To Those Iranian Expats Calling for "Revolution"

Mehdi Karoubi responds:

I would like to request from Iranian diaspora to pay attention to some of their demands, expectations and slogans. Unfortunately, some of the excessive remarks that take place outside of Iran lead to internal pressures, and the regime takes advantage of these remarks to increase internal pressure on opposition forces within Iran.

Iranians abroad are the voice of the Iranian people outside of Iran. I am hopeful that as we move forward, the messages and slogans inside and outside Iran will be more aligned. We must also be careful and pay attention to the various influences. Sometimes people with influence who use harsh rhetoric only provide fuel to the ruling government to suppress the movement. This movement will continue and gradually the efforts both within and outside Iran will be better coordinated. It is important that we realize that our victory will require time and will not happen overnight.

The Deal with The Newest Deal

Unfortunately, personal obligations have prevented me from posting on a regular basis during the last few months. While I will continue to remain tied down until early August, I will be posting two items in the coming week. First, I will share my comprehensive look at the role of networks in Iranian social movements. Using the three case studies of the 1979 revolution, the reform movement under Mohammad Khatami that culminated with 1999's 18-Tir uprising, and the current Green movement, I will show how networks have and continue to facilitate political change in Iran.

Secondly, as the one-year anniversary of last year's fraudulent election approaches, I will be publishing a piece in a journal examining the irony of just how much stronger the Islamic Republic would have been had Mir-Hossein Mousavi's electoral victory been allowed to stand, and consequently, how much weaker (and moribund) the current regime has become as a result of the stolen election, not to mention the violent crackdown and current state of affairs that followed.