Tehran, July 17: Former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a rival of re-elected President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, will lead weekly prayers in Tehran on Friday for the first time since last month’s disputed Presidential Election.
Opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi, the election runner-up, plans to attend the same prayers at Tehran University in his first official public appearance since the June 12 vote that provoked mass protests by his pro-reform supporters.
Pro-reform cleric Mehdi Karoubi, who came fourth in an election he and Mousavi say was rigged in the hardline incumbent’s favour, will also be present, his spokesman said.
June’s election stirred the most striking display of internal dissent in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution and exposed deepening divisions in its establishment.
At least 20 people died in post-election violence. Mousavi and the authorities blame each other for the bloodshed. The security forces have managed to largely quell last month’s street demonstrations, but Mousavi has remained defiant.
There was a large police presence near the university a few hours before the prayers were due to start at around 12:30 pm (0800 GMT), a witness said. Scores of policemen were standing at or near the central Enqelab square, the witness said.
Many Basij militia members with batons were also seen near the university.
“I’ve never been to Friday prayers but me and my friends will go to this one,” one female Mousavi supporter said. Reflecting concern the event may turn into a show of strength by Ahmadinejad’s pro-reform opponents, Intelligence Minister Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei said on Thursday:
“The vigilant Iranian nation must be aware that tomorrow’s sermon should not turn into an arena for undesirable scenes.”
Leadership rift
The sermon at Tehran University is broadcast live by state radio and can reach a huge audience.
Rafsanjani, an influential cleric who was president in the 1990s, will lead the prayers after a two-month absence. Some of his relatives, including his daughter Faezeh, were arrested briefly for taking part in pro-Mousavi rallies.
Ahmadinejad on Thursday issued veiled criticism of Rafsanjani, a Mousavi supporter whom the president enraged during the election campaign by accusing him of corruption.
“Nobody has the right to recognise special rights or incentives for himself or his relatives,” Ahmadinejad said in a speech in the northeastern city of Mashhad on Thursday evening.
But Anoush Ehteshami, an Iran expert at Britain’s Durham University, said he did not expect a confrontation between Mousavi and Ahmadinejad supporters during the prayers, when worshippers gather both inside and outside the university.
“I doubt very much Ahmadinejad will be there. This is if you like the reformers’ turn at Friday prayer,” he said.
The authorities reject vote rigging charges. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has endorsed Ahmadinejad’s victory, but Mousavi says the next government will be illegitimate.
The election also strained ties between Iran and the West, already at odds over Tehran’s nuclear program. Western powers criticised the protest crackdown and Iran, the world’s fifth-largest oil exporter, accused them of meddling.
—Agencies