Tehran is in a state of emergency as the government continues its increasingly brutal crackdown against protesters. Hardliners and opposition politicians are searching for a compromise behind the scenes, but Iran's supreme leader is refusing to make any concessions.
The pressure must be great indeed when someone like Abbas Abdi no longer wants to talk. Whether as a revolutionary or a reformer, Abdi, 51, has never lacked courage and a willingness to take risks. During the 1979 occupation of the US Embassy in Tehran, he was one of the first to scale the embassy walls. With his calls to "fight against global arrogance," he became the most famous of the hostage-takers that held more than 50 US citizens captive for 444 days.
But Abdi was also on the front lines when it came to criticizing the Iranian theocracy. A few years after the revolution, he sharply attacked the mullahs, accusing them of corruption and nepotism. He knows the inside of Tehran's notorious Evin prison well as a result. And yet Abdi continues to fight for liberalization and democracy.
But even Abdi has been left speechless by the brutality with which the regime is currently proceeding against critics of the supposed election victory of incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The veteran politician rejects calls to his mobile phone if he sees a foreign number on the screen. He also politely but firmly declines to take calls on his landline, even when he knows the caller. Speaking in hushed tones, as if this could prevent the Iranian secret police from hearing his words, he reminds the caller of the consequences for Iranians of having contact with foreigners, especially journalists.
In last week's Friday prayers, revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country's supreme leader, himself characterized the international media as an "enemy" of Iran, claiming that it had "portrayed many things incorrectly." Since then, speaking with representatives of the foreign press has become dangerous for Iranians.
The prohibition also applies to SPIEGEL, which conducted a two-hour interview with President Ahmadinejad a few weeks ago, and with his main challenger, Mir Hossein Mousavi, a few days later. After last week's SPIEGEL cover story, entitled "Rebellion against the Radicals," Kayhan, the main pro-government daily newspaper, called the German news magazine a "Zionist paper."
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