Tehran, March 19: Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi vowed a “year of perseverance” in his fight against the government, in an Internet message on Friday marking the Persian new year.
Mousavi, who remains steadfast in rejecting the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June last year, said a “retreat would be treason to Islam, the nation and to the blood of the martyrs.”
“We will face issues and problems in (the Iranian year to March 2011). Part of it goes back to the demand of the people after the election which is a rightful demand,” Mousavi said in a statement posted on his website.
“These demands will continue and the new year will be the year of perseverance for this rightful and legal demand.”
Once seen as a pillar of the Islamic regime, former premier Mousavi is now a bitter critic of the country’s hardline leadership along with fellow opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi.
Iran witnessed one of its worst political crisis when Mousavi, Karroubi and hundreds of thousands of their supporters took to the streets after Ahmadinejad’s re-election, protesting that the poll was massively rigged.
The Persian New Year, or Nowrouz, starts on March 21 and marks the arrival of spring.
—Agencies