Group items tagged

In the wake of mass street protests against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's relection, meanwhile, Iran's Basij militia has called for the defeated opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi to be prosecuted. The semi-official Fars news agency said the militia - a volunteer force of Islamic government loyalists - had accused Mr Mousavi of nine offences, including propaganda against the state, and complicity in disrupting national security. It is our historic responsibility to continue our complaint and make efforts not to give up the rights of the people Mir Hossein MousaviIranian presidential candidate Iran frees five from UK embassy In a letter to the chief prosecutor, the militia said Mr Mousavi had been involved in the street protests, in which about 17 protesters and a number of militia members were killed.

In the wake of mass street protests against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's relection, meanwhile, Iran's Basij militia has called for the defeated opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi to be prosecuted. The semi-official Fars news agency said the militia - a volunteer force of Islamic government loyalists - had accused Mr Mousavi of nine offences, including propaganda against the state, and complicity in disrupting national security.

Shots have been fired at an opposition rally in Tehran where more than 100,000 Iranians were protesting against the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

An Associated Press photographer saw one person killed when shots were fired from a compound for pro-government militiamen. Several other people appeared to have been seriously wounded in Tehran's Azadi Square. BBC's Persian service quoted an eyewitness saying that four protesters have been killed.

The gathering followed an announcement from Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that he had ordered an investigation into claims vote-rigging had given the incumbent president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a landslide victory.

A newspaper editor seen as close to Iran's top authority said on Saturday defeated election candidate Mirhossein Mousavi and a former pro-reform president had committed "terrible crimes" which should be tried in court. In a commentary published in his hardline Kayhan daily, editor-in-chief Hossein Shariatmadari suggested Mousavi and his supporters in last month's disputed election had acted on the instructions of the United States.

"An open court, in front of the people's eyes, must deal with all the terrible crimes and clear betrayal committed by the main elements behind the recent unrest, including Mousavi and Khatami," he wrote, referring to former President Mohammad Khatami, a leading reformist who backed Mousavi in the election. Another hardline newspaper, Javan, said 100 members of parliament had signed a letter to the judiciary calling for the leaders of "post-election riots" to face trial, pointing to Mousavi and fellow defeated moderate Mehdi Karoubi.

"All they did and said was in line with the instructions announced by American officials in the past," Shariatmadari, who is close to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, wrote.

Mousavi, 67, who was Iran's prime minister during the 1980s, has a reputation for being incorrupt. He has surprised analysts by emerging as a serious challenger to Ahmadinejad and is thought likely to coast to victory in Tehran, while the incumbent is strong in the countryside and small towns.

The contrast between the camps could not have been starker. Mousavi supporters are predominantly young and urbane. Many of the young women in the chain would be accused by conservatives of wearing "bad hijab" – meaning their compulsory head covering is only loosely attached.

"Ahmadinejad has done nothing good for our country," said Neda Ahmadi, 24, wearing blue eye make-up and a tight-fitting jacket and jeans beneath her hijab. "Musawi can improve Iran's relations with other countries and focus on our own people's needs."But Lida, another 24-year-old woman, who was at the president's rally, called him "a truthful man who leads a simple life". Iran she said, "has not been isolated but is showing itself as it wants other countries to see it".

In the most significant development, Ahmadinejad appeared to have irked the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, over his performance in Wednesday night's debate with Mir Hossein Mousavi, his main opponent in next week's presidential election."One doesn't like to see a nominee, for the sake of proving himself, seeking to negate somebody else," Khamenei said in a speech commemorating the 20th anniversary of the death of the Iranian revolution's spiritual leader, Ayatollah Khomeini. "I have no problem with debate, dialogue and criticism but these debates must take place within a religious framework."

Khamenei has previously given Ahmadinejad his public backing and his support is considered essential if the president is to win a second term. Ahmadinejad may have been relieved to note that the supreme leader also found fault with his rival's rhetoric, particularly a segment where Mousavi criticised the incumbent for his "extremist" foreign policy."I do not accept the sayings of those who imagine that our nation has become belittled in the world because of its commitment to its principles," Khamenei said, adding "this path will continue until final victory".

Ahmadinejad's accusations of corruption prompted a string of senior figures – including former president Hashemi Rafsanjani – to demand a right of reply.

"Like you, I believe the correct path is reforms that return to (Islamic) principles but refine them," Mousavi said Tuesday in a message to Khatami

"Mousavi is seeking to win the support of both reformers and moderate conservatives," said Tehran-based political analyst Hedayat Aghaei.

He clashed with Khamenei — then Iran's president — over political authority and powers. The prime minister post was eliminated after Mousavi's term.

The influential former Iranian Prime Minister, Mir Hossein Mousavi, will contest the Iranian presidential election on 12 June. Mr Mousavi, who speaks Persian, English and Arabic, held office during the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-1988. His candidacy may split voters opposed to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the current president who is likely to stand again. His rivals include ex-President Mohammad Khatami and Mahdi Karroubi, both of whom are leading moderates.

Mr Mousavi was the prime minister under the presidency of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is now the Islamic Republic's supreme leader. He is also a member of Iran's Expediency Council which is the country's top political arbitration body.

defeated candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi says he will present documents that prove electoral fraud.

a number of Iranian scholars are set to form a committee to preserve the vote of the people. The committee aims to "make public documents proving fraud and irregularities in the election," Mousavi said in his latest statement issued on Wednesday.

The opposition leader added that the committee would pursue its objections to the vote result through the judiciary. "I will join this committee as well," Mousavi confirmed.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's president, has won a second term in office after a bitterly fought election, Iran's interior ministry has said.Ahmadinejad took 62.63 per cent of the vote, crushing Mir Hossein Mousavi, his main rival, who got just 33.75 per cent, according to results released on Saturday.

The Guardian Council, a powerful body of clerics which oversees Iran's constitution, is still to release its count, but there seemed little doubt about the result after Ayatollah Ali Khameini, the supreme leader, congratulated Ahmadinejad.

Mousavi, who had himself declared victory just moments after the polls closed on Friday, described the decision to declare Ahmadinejad as the winner as "treason to the votes of the people".  "I personally strongly protest the many obvious violations and I'm warning I will not surrender to this dangerous charade," he said in a statement. "The result of such performance by some officials will jeopardise the pillars of the Islamic Republic and will establish tyranny."

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been re-elected as president of Iran in a resounding victory, the interior minister says.With more than 80% of results in, official figures said he won 62.6% of the vote, amid a record high turnout.

But reformist Mir Hossein Mousavi has also claimed victory, calling the result a "dangerous charade", as backers vowed to appeal for a re-run. Police have sealed off Mr Mousavi's campaign HQ, preventing his supporters from holding a news conference.

There have been reports of police deploying on the streets of Tehran and beating people with truncheons as small groups gather to protest.

In an unprecedented public appeal, former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani urged the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to rein in the president, who in the debate last week accused Rafsanjani of corruption.

The outburst came as supporters of Ahmadinejad's most serious rival – the leading reformist contender Mir Hossein Mousavi – kept up the pressure with a second day of mass rallies.

Khamenei, who had previously backed Ahmadinejad, last week also rebuked the president for his remarks in the debate.

Iran's top legislative body says it is investigating 646 complaints from the three defeated presidential candidates over last week's election.The powerful Guardian Council said it had invited Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mehdi Karroubi and Mohsen Rezai to a meeting on Saturday to discuss the complaints. Another key body has raised eyebrows by failing to endorse the election result.

Guardian Council spokesman Abbasali Khadkhodai said a "careful examination" of the 646 complaints from the three candidates had begun. "We decided to personally invite the esteemed candidates and those who have complaints regarding the election to take part in an extraordinary session of the Guardian Council on Saturday," he said.

The Guardian Council - made up of six clerics and six lawyers - is traditionally loyal to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iran's defeated moderate candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi has cancelled a big rally amid unrest over President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election.The interior ministry had declared planned protests illegal.

The BBC understands that Mr Mousavi called off the rally after being warned that militias policing it would be equipped with live rounds.

Following two days of unrest over the weekend, the interior ministry said on Monday: "Some seditious elements had planned to hold a rally." It added: "Any disrupter of public security would be dealt with according to the law."

A key rally against Iran's presidential elections will go ahead on Saturday - in defiance of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei - opposition sources say.

The wife of defeated candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, and an aide to another rival candidate Mehdi Karroubi, said the rally would go ahead.

Abbas Mohtaj - head of Iran's State Security Council and also deputy interior minister - issued a direct warning to Mr Mousavi. "Should you provoke and call for these illegal rallies you will be responsible for the consequences," he said in a statement.

"If there is any bloodshed, leaders of the protests will be held directly responsible," Khamenei declared in his first address to the nation since the upheaval began.

"The result of the election comes from the ballot box, not from the street," the white-bearded cleric told huge crowds thronging Tehran University and surrounding streets for Friday prayers. "Today the Iranian nation needs calm."

He said any election complaints should be raised through legal channels. "I will not succumb to illegal innovation," he said, in an apparent reference to the street protests, which have few precedents in the Islamic Republic's 30-year history.

"From here on in, we will have a government that operates in the most unhealthy of conditions in terms of its connection with the people. There are many in the society, including myself, who do not accept its political legitimacy," said Mousavi. "It will be a weak government. And the concern is that as a result of this weakness, it will sink into the abyss of making concessions to foreigners."  "Public support has taken a serious hit," wrote Mousavi. "A regime that has relied for 30 years on public support cannot switch this support with security forces."

The Iran Participation Front Party. the largest reform movement party in Iran, published an announcement in which it labeled the presidential elections "a revolution" and called the official results "unacceptable." The announcement also claimed, "The elections were a result of a revolution that has been in progress for a year and has damaged the legitimacy of the regime both inside and outside of Iran."

Iran has accused the European Union of interfering in its internal affairs, and has demanded a formal apology before the two meet for talks on Iran's nuclear program.

But, last week’s televised debate between Mousavi and the incumbent, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, shed light on just how high the stakes are for the Friday election. Ahmadinejad spent much of his time defending the achievements of his hardline foreign policy: He claimed that by following the guidelines of the Islamic Revolution, Iran had weakened Israel and forced America to change its policies. Mousavi, drawing on the authority of his personal acquaintance with Ayatollah Khomeini, who returned from exile in France in 1979 to lead the revolution and found the Islamic state, countered that Ahmadinejad had misunderstood the precepts of the revolution. It was never about needlessly antagonizing the West or about focusing on distant problems in the Holy Land at the expense of those closer to home.

Mousavi is not a perfect candidate: he bears a 20-year absence from the public stage, and neither his electoral platform, which stresses competent management over major political reform, nor his personal charisma — he mumbles and rushes through his speeches — are particularly stirring. But despite his weaknesses, he has managed to attract an unprecedented outpouring of support among the young and the middle and upper classes of the country’s cities.

A political party affiliated with Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, the former president and key member of the Iranian regime, on Sunday called on Mir-Hossein Moussavi, the opposition leader, to form a “political bloc” that would pursue a long-term campaign to undermine the “illegitimate” government. Hossein Marashi, spokesman for the Kargozaran, stayed clear of directly challenging the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but told the Financial Times in a telephone interview that Mr Moussavi was now the leader of an opposition that was not without options.

“With the lack of legitimacy of the Ahmadi-Nejad government, sooner or later the country’s management will face various crises,” he said. “Mr Moussavi should set up an official political front which can embrace the defenders of the real Islamic republic . . . against those who are distorting it and are represented by Mr Ahmadi-Nejad.”

Adding to the tension, footage on the Facebook networking site showed a young woman supporter of Mr Moussavi being shot in the chest during the Saturday protests. The graphic footage, which was widely viewed, showed the woman dying in front of her father who desperately tried to save her.

Outraged supporters of the moderate candidate, Mir Hussein Mousavi, who claimed his defeat in the Iranian election at the hands of hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was manipulated, took to the streets of Tehran again today raising the prospect of more violent clashes.

In a sign of the anger among Mousavi's supporters, they chanted "the president is committing a crime and the supreme leader is supporting him", highly inflammatory language in a regime where the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, is considered irreproachable.

Crowds also gathered outside Mousavi's headquarters but there was no sign of Ahmadinejad's chief political rival, who is rumoured to be under house arrest.

Ahmadinejad's challengers are backed by a coalition of prominent Muslim clerics and veteran Iranian politicians who oppose Ahmadinejad's policies both at home and abroad, turning this election into an unusually stark confrontation between two political factions with opposing views of the future of Iran.

Mir Hossein Mousavi, a former prime minister who is backed mainly by Tehran's educated urban elite, has stressed that he would calm international opposition to Iran's nuclear program by providing guarantees -- which he has not specified -- that Iran will not turn its research on atomic energy into an effort to build nuclear weapons.

Ahmadinejad's main challengers advocate better relations with the United States. They promise to ensure that Iran's nuclear program will have strictly peaceful purposes, and they say the Holocaust should not be an issue in Iranian politics. "Ahmadinejad's comments on the Holocaust were a great service to Israel," Mehdi Karroubi, a cleric and the most outspoken opposition candidate, told a group of students in April. "What has happened that we now have to support Hitler?" he asked. "This is none of our business."