Abbas Amanat

To the extent that they could be ignored, nothing, but if they could not be ignored, and it's actually quite remarkable that this is very embarrassing to them, but somehow they think that this propaganda machine of them is working.

Yes, it is.

There's an incompetence across the board.

I mean, despite all of this massive government administration, or whatever you would call it, all these various components of it, there is a sense of inefficiency and incompetence.

that is associated with, in every action that you see, even in their suppression of this street movement.

But in answer to that question, you would see that this riot police

it's quite obvious that they were trained for the purpose.

So their appearance, everything, these are not just regular army forces or soldiers as conscripts.

They are professional forces.

And they come not only on foot number, but they come on motorbikes.

So there are, you would see in any of these demonstrations, there are 10, 12, 15, 20 motorbikes.

with two passengers, one in front riding, one in the back, fully equipped with a baton, with paint guns, with pellet guns, and with bullets.

So they are very fully equipped, and they are terrifying.

They go through the demonstrations and hit and beat people.

And then they arrest.

And then you see behind the first line,

of these riot police, you would see all these latest models of these special armored trucks for

moving to the demonstrations and arresting people, throwing them into this.

And then behind that, water cannons, you see?

And I was looking at that and say, okay, this is Tehran probably.