Globe and Mail - Iran's calculus of terror

Op-ed - As they prepare to deal with renewed democratic challenges, Tehran's rulers are taking note of how the world responds to Syria's Assad regime, say [McGill's] Payam Akhavan and Shirin Ebadi

The massacre of 108 civilians in Houla on May 25 is but one instance of a wider Syrian policy of terror that has claimed more than 10,000 innocent lives. It is the tragic but predictable response of a tyrannical regime that will stop at nothing to stay in power. For Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, any compromise is a sign of weakness.

Instead, his reply to the legitimate demands of Syrian citizens is systematic violence. This is the catastrophic logic by which the leadership is digging its own grave ever deeper as its cruelty steadily alienates both the Syrian people and the world community.