The way ahead is long, but the goal is achievable...

Another demonstration was inevitable.
Incensed at the way they had been harassed and assaulted by civilian-clad Basijis the day before, during the 16 Azar commemoration, several hundred Tehran University opposition students gathered at the Engineering College Tuesday to voice their outrage.
Campus guards however, left the gates of the university open, allowing the Basijis to enter. Police forces outside surrounded the campus.
The paramilitaries then set upon the demonstrators, attacking them with pepper spray, steel clubs, electric batons and tear gas.They broke the windows and cut some of us with the pieces of glass. We lit fires in front of the faculty's entrance, but they poured in and fights broke out in the hallways, one student who was wounded in the scuffle told the WP.
A number of students were arrested.
At Shahid Beheshti University, in northern Tehran, some 200 Basijis confronted 300 students.
Scattered demonstrations also took place throughout Tehran.
Protesters chanted Death to the regime that lies to people! Dictator! Dictator! This is our last warning! And The Green Movement is ready to rise up! among other slogans.
Also on Tuesday, Basijis on motorcycles surrounded Tehran’s Academy of Fine Arts, where Mir Hossein Mousavi works, taunted him, and tried to prevent his departure.
Outraged, Mousavi got out of his car and cried, you are on a mission — do your job, threaten me, beat me, kill me. The paramilitaries eventually left, and Mr. Mousavi was able to go about his business…
Clearly rattled by the magnitude and intensity of the Student Day protests, in spite of the threats and warnings issued before the commemoration, the regime is nervous yet determined to crush all opposition.
The country’s chief prosecutor Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejehi warned the opposition that the regime was running out of patience, I declare that from today there will be no tolerance…Intelligence and security... forces have been ordered not to give any leeway to those who break the law, act against national security and disturb public order, he said. Those officials who fail to uphold the law with sufficient alacrity shall not be spared, we will warn and take other necessary measures even against the Tehran prosecutor if he is not sensitive about those who violate people's rights and disrupt order in the city every day, he concluded.
In fact, 204 demonstrators were arrested on Monday.
The few remaining reformist newspapers (television and radio are entirely controlled by the regime) are also under tremendous pressure.
Yesterday, the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance shut down a prominent reformist newspaper, Hayateno, because it had violated the terms of its license, straying into politics, instead of covering solely economic issues.
Concomitantly, Iran’s television programs are to become even more religious, perhaps in an attempt educate the nation’s youth, led astray by Western values and culture.
Yet, the regime’s heavy-handed tactics are radicalizing the opposition.
The latter has been left with no other option but mass demonstrations and confrontation to vent its anger, and express its rejection of the regime’s repressive policies.
The movement is now questioning the legitimacy of the Islamic Republic itself, since it is that very regime which is denying them their fundamental rights.
The activists are clearly losing patience as well, I take to streets to protest because I want change now not tomorrow. I am fed up with the current situation, one young woman told the LAT.
Some within the establishment are clearly alarmed, and believe that the confrontation between the regime and the opposition must not be allowed to further intensify, and reach a point of no return.
A prominent conservative cleric, Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi, suggests that some sort of compromise must be found, a large number of people formed the majority in the elections and another large number of people the minority. We should sit together and negotiate, and the precondition to that is the creation of a calm atmosphere, he said.
The difficulty here is with the precondition…Assaulting students is surely not the most effective means to restore a calm atmosphere…
In addition, the regime is attempting to enlist those establishment figures who also wield influence in opposition circles.
Last week, the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei asked former President and consummate insider Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who supported Mousavi in last June’s election, to intervene and convince the latter to abandon his campaign against the government. Rafsanjani refused to do so…
The regime, weakened by its divisions, can now only count on its core constituency, the security forces.
Yet, the IRGC and the Basijis are facing a determined and bold opponent, the nation’s youth, students were really brave, one Iranian journalist said, following the 16Azar event. They said all they needed to say today. The way ahead is long. But the goal is achievable.
The next confrontation may take place as early as next week.
The Shiite religious festival of Ashura starts on December 18, and lasts until the 27th.
It commemorates the death of Hussein, a martyr who died in the 7th century…
Activists are already calling for demonstrations during the festival…
The way ahead is long, but the Iranian people are on the march…
(the photograph of the Student Day demonstrator holding a sign saying Death to the dictator can be found here)