Fareed Zakaria got into a little spat over the weekend when he interviewed via satellite Tehran University Professor Mohammed Marandi. Zakaria grew exasperated with Marandi's efforts to minimize the brutal crackdown in Iran. Marandi blamed opposition leader Mousavi for causing civil unrest within Iran after the election, and the United States and other western countries for urging Iranians to riot, in the hope of regime change. Zakaria compared Marandi to the 1980's era Soviet officials who "spoke perfect english, where everything was fine" until it all collapsed, asking if he too will one day be viewed as a "mouthpiece for a dying repressive regime."