The eruption of the Arab Spring, was and is perceived as a political opportunity by Iranian actors, both on the left and right of the political/ideological spectrum. Political opportunity is defined by social movement theorists broadly as "consistent—but not necessarily formal or permanent—dimensions of the political environment that provide incentives for people to undertake collective action by affecting their expectations for success or failure" (Tarrow qtd. in Meyer and Minkoff 2004, 1459). According to Gamson and Meyer (1996), "there is a component of political opportunity involving perception of possible change that is, above all else, a social construction" (283). The implication here is that the existence of political opportunity is contingent upon it being recognized and framed as such by motivated activists. In the wake of the recent revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, political figures in Iran have offered competing claims of inspiration for the protests now spreading through the MENA region. One narrative makes the case for the Islamic Revolution of 1979 as a slow burning catalyst for popular unrest directed towards corrupt and often Western backed leaders. The other offers a direct correlation to Iran's Green Movement sparked by the 2009 presidential election. This paper aims to compare the discourse of regime leaders to that of opposition activists, each seeking to frame current events in the region as a reflection of their particular aspirations and competing worldviews. Benford and Snow's literature on challenges facing movement adherents embroiled in contested framing processes will be employed as a means of highlighting some of the various obstacles to political transformation in the case of Iran. The authors outline three major challenges that serve to structure this discussion: “1 counterframing by movement opponents, bystanders and the media, 2 frame disputes within movements, and 3 the dialectic between frames and events” (Benford and Snow, 2000, 625). It is my intention in this paper to outline the collective action frames of regime and opposition leaders invoked in relation to the ongoing protests in the region and illustrate the unique challenges facing each narrative in relation to the three aforementioned variables. In so doing this paper will help clarify the unique challenges inherent to political transformation inside Iran by highlighting the impact of this framing debate on the political opportunity space for dissidents/reformers inside the country, contributing towards a refined understanding of the interplay between authoritarian resilience and political mobility of opposition actors.