Shortly after explosions rocked Iranian Revolutionary Guards bases near Tehran Saturday, Nov. 12,  Ahmed Rezaie, 31, was found dead in a Dubai Hotel. He was the son of the high-ranking Mohsen Rezaie, secretary of the powerful Expediency Council and former IRGC commander. The cause of his death strongly resembled the method by which Hamas' contact man with Tehran, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, was slain on Jan. 19, 2010 in another Dubai hotel – injected with a muscle relaxant and smothered with a pillow.

Tehran redoubled its crackdown on dissenters after Hillary Clinton removed the deadline hanging over the resumption of nuclear talks with Iran and limited the threat of sanctions. Opposition leaders accused the Obama administration of undermining their struggle, when harsh sanctions would have helped.

debkafile's Iranian sources reveal that Mir Hossein Mousavi's nephew, Ali Habib, was not shot dead during a Tehran demonstration Sunday, Dec. 27, as reported, but waylaid and gunned down as he left his home. Fresh riots followed the disappearance of the body Monday. The episode became even more ominous when Iran's security services chief Gen. Radan accused Mousavi of the murder to incite further violence. The opposition ...