But an analysis by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy concludes the Syrians don’t seem to be listening to the Iranian advice. It notes that Iran has restrained the use of live fire to minimize casualties that might energize the opposition and launched show trials with coerced confessions to demoralize their followers. “Yet the Assad regime has not applied many of these lessons,” the analysis says. One area in which the Islamic Republic pioneered and which has been adopted by Syria is to exploit the Internet to identify opponents.
