Guarded optimism...and soccer

With such a revolution in communication going on, with unrest in Iran watched by so many, perhaps the model doesn't have to be Hungary after all. Signs suggesting otherwise. We'll hope and we'll see.

There are very interesting things that are taking place right now. Some of my sources in Iran have told me that Ayatollah Rafsanjani, who is the head of the Assembly of Experts -- the eighty-six member clerical body that decides who will be the next Supreme Leader, and is, by the way, the only group that is empowered to remove the Supreme Leader from power -- that they have issued an emergency meeting in Qom.

Now, Anderson, I have to tell you, there's only one reason for the Assembly of Experts to meet at this point, and that is to actually talk about what to do about Khamenei. So, this is what I'm saying, is that we're talking about the very legitimacy, the very foundation of the Islamic Republic is up in the air right now. It's hard to say what this is going to go.

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But troubling signs continue.

"We are fighting with our lives and the world is just watching," said Ali, a Tehran University student who did not want his full name used for safety reasons. "They see how the government is trying to silence us, how they are beating us -- but they don't come to our help. It's OK. We will succeed, even if we have to fight alone."

In Iran's southwestern city of Shiraz, 28-year-old hospital nurse Najmeh has also taken to the streets in mass demonstrations every day since Saturday, but says she is now too afraid to participate.

"The police are everywhere you look," she said. "They hurt and arrested so many people last night that one wants to go out."

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Here's an interesting article on Iran and soccer: How soccer explains the world -- except Iran