by Kenneth Andrews

Created on: June 26, 2009   Last Updated: July 05, 2009

At the time of writing, thousands of Iranians are protesting over what they claim to be a rigged election in the Middle Eastern state. The authorities have reacted with violence and, despite their best attempts to draw a veil of secrecy over the unfolding scenes, tens of thousands of mobile phones photographing and filming the situation in the streets, have been posted all over the Internet, marking the coming of age of the ubiquitous Twitter service, of which everybody seems so fond these days.

How could the Iranians be helped in their struggle against this oppression? Because it does indeed seem as though there were serious irregularities in the electoral process (in one region there were more votes recorded than there were people living in the area). It is the instinct of the free world to intervene wherever oppressed peoples are struggling for their basic human rights.

But how can we help them? It is a hard question to answer because for most countries, the obvious answer would be diplomatic pressure from the world's governments. This is already happening, but Iran is a regime notoriously oblivious to international opinion and has even been on the counterattack, claiming that the protests are being fuelled by elements from the USA and the UK. Relations between Iran and these two nations are, it goes without saying, even more strained than ever. Most recently, British diplomatic staff have even been arrested by the authorities on charges of subversion, and it even seems possible that they may be put on [show] trial. Like so many problems in the Middle East, this local concern could easily become an international powderkeg.

Diplomatic pressure may win some concessions from the hardline Islamist rulers of Iran in the long run perhaps, but not before we have seen a good deal more violence and cruelty and chaos on the streets of Tehran. And with the best will in the world, the international community is probably more concerned with making headway on the even scarier problem of Iran's nascent nuclear programme.

I strongly suspect that nothing short of armed revolution is going to help the people of Iran at this point, but there is no question of us supplying Iranian protesters with weapons to inflame the situation. But I do feel that in a matter of weeks, perhaps days, something terrible will happen and we will have a Tiannemen Square for the 21st Century. And then, sadly, it will all be over and the diplomatic route will be the only way to try and improve

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