Ord

Iran's hardline regime sharply escalated the post-election confrontation on August 8 by putting two foreign embassy staffers and a French teacher on trial alongside dozens of political dissidents. The stepped-up campaign to characterize the widespread unrest since the June 12 presidential election as a foreign-led attempted "soft overthrow" appears to be an effort by the ruling faction to rally the increasingly-splintered conservative base against a popular — and old — enemy: the West… fortsetter her