Word: tehran
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Those old enough to remember compare the atmosphere on Tehran's streets ahead of Friday's election to the heady days of Iran's revolution 30 years ago. For a week now, the capital's main arteries have been clogged by tens of thousands of supporters of opposition presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi, often in cars and on motorbikes, waving large green banners, stretching their torsos out the windows to dance to blaring techno beats composed for the candidate, urging a vote for the man best placed to unseat President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad...
...allowed him to open up to his interrogator. Alexander then nudged the conversation in a new direction, pointing out that Iraq and the U.S. had a common enemy: Iran. The two countries needed to cooperate in order to prevent Iraq from becoming supplicant to the Shi'ite mullahs in Tehran - a fear commonly expressed by Sunnis. Eventually the imam gave up the location of a safe house for suicide bombers; a raid on the house led to the capture of an al-Qaeda operative who in turn led U.S. troops to al-Zarqawi. (See pictures of U.S. troops' 6 years...
...There is a bipolarity in Iranian politics right now," says Mohammad Atrianfar, a political analyst in Tehran. "The change they were seeking in the U.S. is happening here too. People are trying to unseat Ahmadinejad." There are also plenty of people who want the current President to stay, and Ahmadinejad has styled himself as the candidate of change itself, the anticorruption revolutionary the Islamic republic needs for its revival. But while an Ahmadinejad victory would mean more of the same populist economics and antagonism toward a "hostile" U.S., a Mousavi upset could herald the revival of reformist politics in Iran...
...recent Friday afternoon in south Tehran, an auditorium packed with some 6,000 Ahmadinejad supporters was filled with anthemic music as large video screens showed images of Iran's nuclear-energy facilities and the recently launched Omid satellite - achievements the Ahmadinejad Administration prides itself on. Above the crowd, banners with pictures of the Supreme Leader Ayatullah Ali Khameini and Ahmadinejad covered the walls. (See the photo essay "Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: Iranian Paradox...
...retired teachers, and yet they could barely sustain our household of seven," said an enthusiastic Amin Kazemi, a 19-year-old student of software engineering, at Friday's rally. "Since Ahmadinejad, both their salaries have gone up and we can live with dignity." (See pictures of health care in Tehran...