Why would the Iranian press quote ‘Intelligence officials’ and not the justice ministry?
PHARES: Because most likely when the opposition is widening, the regime unleashes its strongest arm, the intelligence services. If anything this is an indicator that the Azeri movement, and all other movements are getting stronger with time. SMITH: The report states: “Tehran’s Islamic Revolution Court sentenced the four suspects without announcing the length of their sentence. “‘They have confessed to trying to distance the people of Iran from the government and introduce the United States as their sole savior,’ the court said in a statement. “Two of the detainees are internationally renowned doctors Arash and Kamyar Alaei, who specialize in HIV/AIDS. “In the Monday press conference, the top Iranian counterespionage official said that the US intelligence agencies had resorted to ‘soft overthrow projects’ over the past decade, as there is no international statute law against such measures.” What are we to deduce from such arrests? PHARES: It means the middle class in Iranian Azarbaijian
