Some say tomorrow will bring another dawn and, the opposition will be back on the streets, but will they really show up? The Ayatollah may have put the nail in the coffin.
The Supreme Leader has spoken using no ifs, ands or buts in his words. I've stayed up all night listening to the Ayatollah deliver his Friday sermon in Farsi on IRINN TV, simultaneously translated into English on Press TV and Arabic on Al Alam.
For a week now, Iran has commanded the world's attention. Tens of thousands of protesters demonstrated for six days in a row to express their outrage about the results of the election. Protesters from various walks of life marched in the streets of Tehran "to get their votes back". Some had not even voted but still felt the urge to protest and despite threats from the Basij militia they took to the street. They braved the beatings, and on Thursday dressed in black to mourn their comrades who were killed in clashes earlier during the week.
On Friday, they were nowhere to be seen amongst the sea of Khamenei's followers. They've done the right thing and stayed at home... otherwise, a bloodbath might have ensued.
In his speech, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, has said that the people have chosen who they want as president in the country's recently disputed election.
Delivering a sermon during Friday prayers at Tehran University, Khamenei let there be no doubt about where he stood and strengthened the position of Ahmadinejad.
"Candidates were put forward into public eye, everyone could judge for themselves... they have identified the person they wanted," he said.
Earlier, losing candidates Mousavi and Karroubi, had asked their supporters to show up en masse on Saturday instead of Friday to avoid confrontations.
The Arab media has been abuzz with the "Iranian Intifada," as some have been referring to it. I wonder why this term was chosen... could it be because an Intifada expresses the will of the people but eventually gets crushed?
I've read a headline somewhere that Arabs have kept silent about Iran's political upheaval. This is far from the truth.
The Iranian Election has been the lead story for the past week on more than three dozen Arab stations I monitor in the Arab world with one exception: on Egyptian television when Egypt defeated Italy, the world champions in soccer, in the Confederations Cup semi-finals. The western media ought to stop generalizing and profiling. The Arab world is not a monolith, and the people are different from the governments. Arabs have been very energized by the Iranian Election phenomenon. They've been debating it night and day, blogging about it and even tweeting it! They are even jealous that Iranians can get away with one week of anti-government protests. Imagine if this had happened in Saudi Arabia... or in Egypt where Obama chose to visit and address the Muslim world.
Some say tomorrow will bring another dawn and, the opposition will be back on the streets, but will they really show up? The Ayatollah may have put the nail in the coffin of the opposition, my source in Tehran tells me.
Jamal Dajani has recently acquired a new taste for tweeting