The only Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner begged the world to stop her country becoming “another Zimbabwe” yesterday as the regime gloated at foiling the opposition’s plans for another massive demonstration.

“Tomorrow will be too late. Tomorrow we will face tragedy. Please help us,” Shirin Ebadi said in a speech in Geneva. Referring to the increasingly brutal crackdown on the so-called Green Movement, she added: “Before Iran becomes another Zimbabwe, please think of a solution.”

Dr Ebadi, a human rights lawyer who has lived in de facto exile in the West since President Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election, was speaking before the UN Human Rights Council’s review of Iran on Monday. The review is unlikely to worry a regime that cares only about survival.

Most analysts agreed that the opposition had suffered a setback but that the struggle would continue. “Yesterday may prove a pyrrhic victory for the regime,” said Nader Mousavizadeh of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. “All the challenges it faces — its loss of legitimacy, increasing international unity around sanctions and Iran’s growing economic crisis, are as significant today as they were before.”

Three broadcasters — the BBC, Voice of America and Deutsche Welle — accused the regime of breaking international law by jamming their Farsi-language broadcasts to Iran.