Interviews

A PBS NewsHour TV report by Margaret Warner (aired Dec. 21, 2009) on Ayatollah Montazeri's funeral in Qom and renewed protests. It profiles Mohsen Sazegara, a Revolutionary Guard co-founder who nightly records online videos advising protesters in Iran. He says today's Guard suppresses people rather than defending the…

A profile by Jean-Pierre Perrin in the French daily Libération. It argues that Iran's opposition lacks leadership, as Mousavi is isolated and his aides are jailed, so Iranians increasingly turn to the exiled Sazegara. Through his website and YouTube, he advises protesters on safety and civil disobedience. The piece…

A blog post reposting a GlobalPost news roundup and an NPR blog item. It notes the tense calm in Tehran after the disputed election protests, Obama's praise for protesters, and a hardline cleric's call for executions. Its focus is Scott Simon's NPR interview with Mohsen Sazegara, a Revolutionary Guard co-founder and…

A radio segment during the 2009 protests in which host Robert Siegel asks Time's Joe Klein and Sazegara about Mir Hossein Mousavi: his political background, what he stands for and what he might do next.

A phone interview by Viviana Mazza for Italy's Corriere della Sera with Mohsen Sazegara, a Revolutionary Guards founder now exiled in Washington, conducted while he marched toward the White House. He calls the Guards and Basij Khamenei's repression machine, describes plainclothes attackers tied to Guards intelligence,…

A policy forum held four days after the disputed 2009 election, with Mehdi Khalaji, Patrick Clawson and Michael Singh. Sazegara calls the protests the first mass mobilisation in Iran's 120-year struggle for freedom without the clergy and with democratic rather than religious demands. He urges the U.S. to say it will…

A guest lecture in Professor Joshua Muravchik's course "Ideas and Values in International Politics" at the Institute of World Politics in Washington. The page introduces his career from senior posts after the revolution to dissident publisher, his 2001 attempt to run for president, his 2003 arrest and his move to the…

A forum broadcast by C-SPAN on the 1979 hostage crisis, in which Sazegara, then a director of the Research Institute for Contemporary Iran and a former member of the Liberation Movement of Iran, appeared alongside two former diplomats who had been held hostage in Tehran.

An interview by Mohammad Tahavori with Mohsen Sazegara for Gozaar. Sazegara divides the Islamic Republic's history into four 'republics': revolution and war, Khamenei's shift of power from clergy to military, the Khatami reform era, and an emerging 'Fourth Republic'. He lists the revolution's ideals, argues freedom…

A report by Azerbaijan's Trend news agency based on a phone interview with Mohsen Sazegara in Washington, ahead of IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei's visit to Tehran. Sazegara says Iran's nuclear program worries both the West and Arab states. The UAE fears Washington's softer stance could lead to compromises at Arab…

An AFP interview, reposted on a blog, with Mohsen Sazegara, a co-founder of the Revolutionary Guards and a Harvard research fellow. He warns that a US terrorist designation of the Guards would raise tensions, push the two countries toward military confrontation and could provoke backlash in Iraq, Afghanistan and…

An NPR Morning Edition report by Renee Montagne, aired after Iran's seizure of 15 British sailors, traces the Revolutionary Guard's history. Former CIA analyst Bruce Riedel describes its 1979 founding and the Quds Force's arms support for Hezbollah and Palestinian groups. Co-founder Mohsen Sazegara says it was meant…