A roundtable discussion on the anti-government protests in Iran is taking place today at The Center for Iranian Studies (CIS) at Tel Aviv University (TAU). The event is entitled, "The Struggle for the Islamic Republic: A Flash in the Pan or Real Change."

A video stream of the event can be seen here, from 4 PM until 8 PM Israel time.



The first session - “Whither Iranian Politics? Calibrating Civil Unrest” – will be chaired by Dr. Liora Henelman-Baavur of TAU, and will feature the following speakers:  



* Prof. Rasool Nafisi of Strayer University

* Mr. Raz Zimmt of TAU

* Prof. Bernard Hourcade of Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris

* Prof. Stephen Kinzer of Northwestern University in Chicago

* Dr. Mehrdad Khonsari of the Centre for Arab and Iranian Studies in London.

The second session is entitled: “Prospects for Change in Iran's International Posture,” and will be chaired by TAU’s Prof. David Menashri. Speakers will be:



*<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> Prof. Shahram Chubin, <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Geneva Centre for Public Security

* Prof. Trita Parsi, National Iranian American Council

* Dr. Toby Dodge, Queen Mary University, London

* Prof. Steven Miller, Harvard University

* Prof. Peter Jones, University of Ottawa

Wednesday, the 12th day of the nationwide uprising in Iran against what many feel was a "stolen election" on the part of President Ahmadinajad, eyewitnesses said nine people were killed or wounded, including a 10-year-old who died by police-administered tear gas. Central Tehran was the scene of clashes between people on the one hand, and the clerical regime’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the paramilitary Bassij force, special anti-riot force, plain-clothes agents, the State Security Forces (SSF), and agents from the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), on the other hand.