“The best is for the United Nations or some international organisations to monitor another election.” Upon such illusions is disaster built.

The opposition suspects that Khamenei will try to restore order by telling Mousavi and his people that they have been allowed their massive demonstrations and that, despite “unfortunate incidents” – that wonderful autocratic cliché has actually just been used by parliament Speaker Ali Larijani – this was a generous and democratic act by the government. But, Khamenei is expected to say, enough is enough. Any groups disturbing the peace this weekend will be regarded as counter-revolutionaries and dealt with “according to the law” (a favourite Khamenei expression).

If anyone needed proof of the government’s state of indecision, they had only to look at yesterday’s Tehran newspapers. Suddenly, the mass demonstrations were acknowledged in full. A whole front page of photographs showed Wednesday afternoon’s Mousavi rally. Ahmadinejad had said at the weekend that his opponents were mere “layers of dust” – an unwise as well as a childish remark – but across one photograph, demonstrators can be seen carrying a banner which reads: “The layers of dust are making history.”