Iran Remains on Edge as Election Recount Begins

JUDY WOODRUFF:

A nervous government in Tehran, a cautious government in Washington. We assess the latest developments on the Iran story with Geoffrey Kemp, the director for regional strategic programs at the Nixon Center. He served as special assistant to President Reagan for national security affairs and advised the president on Iran policy.

And Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian-American Council, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization promoting dialogue between the United States and Iran. He's the author of "Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Iran, Israel, and the United States."

Gentlemen, thank you both for being with us. Trita Parsi, I'm going to start with you. How do you read today's events, the announcement by the Guardian Council that they are going to permit a partial recount and the fact that there's been this clampdown on the news media?

TRITA PARSI, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies: I think this is a test of wills from both sides. I think Khamenei wanted to go forward with this partial recount by the Guardian Council because he wanted to calm things down and he wanted to win time. And he wanted to see five, six, seven days from now, will the protesters be as determined, will they be as angry as they are today, and see if he can get a better situation a couple of days from now?

The opposition seems to have agreed to this, as well, because, A, they want to also gain some time and regroup. They did not have a plan on how to react to this, because this took them by surprise, but also because they want to show that they are not anti-revolutionaries.

Because it's critical for them to be able to get support from various elements of power inside of Iran in order to be able to win. But if they come across as if they're actually going for the complete collapse of the system, that will make it very, very difficult for them.