The question mark remains how long Iran’s rulers will tolerate the demonstrations, and indeed how long the protestors will stay in the streets until what many analysts expect will be a “Tiananmen moment.” They fear a replay of the Chinese government rolling out tanks to ruthlessly crushed pro-democracy demonstrations in 1989 — China’s economic growth and centralized control being something of a model for the mullahs…

The general sentiment [in earlier protests] was that everyone should go home and try to solve their problems through the ballot box, noted Ervand Abrahamian, an expert on Iranian opposition movements at Baruch College. But the chance of that kind of compromise has been soured by the sentiment that Friday’s election was stolen.

“Those arguments don’t work now because the ballot box has proved to be a cul-de-sac,” said Mr. Abrahamian.