This is the story to watch. According to Neil MacFarquhar in the New York Times (reg req’d):
In Iran today, several hundred dissident intellectuals, including several clerics, issued a statement supporting the right of Iranians to criticize their government. Further, the statement denounced as “heresy” the possession of absolute power — a reference to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
We’re not just talking a petition here. Students have been demonstrating for nearly a week, and the statement by the intellectuals — including several aides of President Khatami — may signal that the protests will spread beyond their student base. Flashes of 1989 in Tiananmen Square . . .