citizens then it loses legitimacy. the islamic republic has never been as powerful outside its own borders as it is today. with the demise of the i ask caliphate the regime is facing a further loss in popular support for its military actions and growing calls for a radical change in. priorities. in the eyes of many iranians the unfair to should no longer use history as a means of propaganda and instead focus on ensuring economic and social justice for all and guarantee freedom of speech. such reforms appear key to the regime survival without change it is likely that further protests will follow and even uprisings they in turn could lead to a spiral of violence and to a radicalization of the regime or to its collapse.
but the supreme leader refused to give in to the demonstrators he up held up medina jansa point went and put down the protests with extraordinary brutality. my. colleague from on a probably saved the regime that year but what price in knew he would need to give some leeway if his hold on power were to be preserved. i think this sort of awareness that iran had been through its own brush with potential regime instability in two thousand and nine with the most serious protests that had taken place since the one nine hundred seventy nine revolution cast a very long shadow and it was clear that. there was a consensus decision to move away from the kind of provocations that characterize
nine hundred eighty s. is to this day an ally and an. essential tool in the latter s resistance to israel i am for a. it s through syria that iran has provided hezbollah with logistic and strategic count. and if you talk to iranian officials today many believe that the reason israel did not attack iran at the height of the nuclear standoff was because they were afraid of hezbollah loss of power of retaliation not because of iran s capabilities so for tehran defending the damascus regime is a question of self interest it must not for as of late two thousand and eleven the islamic republic decided to send military advisors to has been in syria to support bashar al assad its efforts to crush the rebellion.
wielding influence in the internal political debates of the country this other protagonist meaning the iranian people. at the end of december two thousand and seventeen tens of thousands of them took to the streets in eighty towns and cities across the country. despite the repression leaving twenty five people killed and three thousand seven hundred arrested they denounce the deterioration in their standard of living widespread cronyism and corruption amongst the leadership with cries of down with hezbollah and not carter not lebannon my soul is for iran. these demonstrators address the salient point if the regime prefers to spend resources on its lebanese syrian iraq and yemeni allies rather than on its own
heroic flexibility which allowed them to make the compromise that was pretty painful with the great satan. in the name of heroic flexibility the leader and allowed himself to overcome the islamic republic s visceral anti americanism one of the regime s major ideological standpoints and enter negotiations with the united states. the islamic republic s anti americanism goes back to the early days of the revolution. in november one thousand nine hundred seventy nine iranian students