Tehran, June 21: Mir-Hossein Moussavi helped found the Islamic republic of Iran and led the country as prime minister during the grinding war against Iraq in the 1980s. For the close confidant of revered revolutionary leader Ayatollah Khomeini to now be the leader of the opposition is unprecedented in Iranian politics.
A year ago, Iran experts would have laughed at the idea of Moussavi becoming a dissident. Now, a sizeable portion of the one- time political elite from the 1979 revolution has joined him in the opposition, including former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
“The crisis in Iran can no longer be downplayed,” a political observer said.
The current confrontation between the regime and Moussavi’s election supporters on the streets of Tehran started with a midnight campaign rally on election night, June 12.
Moussavi said that he had won but noted irregularities in the vote. Soon after, the Iranian Interior Ministry announced that incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had scored a victory with more than 60 per cent of the vote.
The protests quickly followed.
Irregularities became manipulation, according to Moussavi’s camp. Rhetorical restraint quickly evaporated, with the opposition now accusing authorities of outright election fraud.
The regime in Tehran was at first triumphal, then issued ominous warnings to the opposition, threatened outright police force and finally ordered a crackdown, all in a vain attempt to deter the opposition from contesting the official election results.
Eight to 12 people have been reported killed since the demonstrations began. Saturday’s new level of violence left an unclear death toll, but several images of the dead were already circulating on the internet.
In a Friday speech, even Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called for a halt to the protests. In response to opposition charges, Iran’s Guardian Council offered a recount of 10 per cent of the votes, selected at random, to quell doubts about the veracity of the poll.
But Moussavi boycotted Saturday’s session of the Guardian Council, which had been convened to review alleged fraud in last week’s election, the council disclosed. Moderate cleric Mehdi Karroubi similarly skipped the session, and only conservative candidate Mohsen Rezaei attended the review, council spokesman Abbas-Ali Kadkhodaei told state television.
Moussavi supporters – forming what he called a “beautiful green wave” – have demonstrated mostly peacefully, with some exceptions. Clad in green arm bands, sashes or T-shirts, tens of thousands became hundreds of thousands, and their ranks seem to keep swelling.
On Saturday, a massive demonstration could have collided head-on with a forceful police presence. But protestors displayed a new strategy; instead of one giant rally, they gathered in smaller groups in many locations.
Witnesses spoke again Saturday of turnout for the demonstration in the tens of thousands. Clashes took place, regardless, not only with police but also Ahmadinejad supporters.
There were numerous injuries on all sides.
The former establishment technocrat turned protest leader seems to know that there is no way back.
“Be certain that I will always be with you,” he told supporters.
–Agencies