Why the Regime in Iran is Still Standing, After the Protests in Which Thousands of People Died. The Huge Difference Compared to 1989

Saeid Golkar, senior adviser at United Against Nuclear Iran and associate professor of political science at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, at the UC Foundation, did an extensive analysis for Foreign Policy about why it is difficult to demolish power in Iran. The problem is not the lack of popular opposition. The idea that the regime should fall because it has become unpopular is a wrong approach, a serious misunderstanding, in Golkar’s opinion, of how the power in Tehran works. The question is not whether or not Iranians want change, but why this massive discontent fails to achieve a political rupture similar to those that took place in 1989, a year that changed the face of Europe and many other regions of the world. The answer, as uncomfortable as it may be for the establishment in the West, is only one: the regime in Tehran was built precisely in such a way that it can withstand even if people reach the end of their patience.