Mousavi Details Fraud;
Shariatmadari Calls for Opposition to Be Prosecuted
WaPo reports that opposition leader Mir Hosain Mousavi has released documents alleging bias in the June 12 presidential elections in Iran. He slams the Revolutionary Guards for interfering in the election.
Mousavi's website in Persian is here.
Hosain Shariatmadari, a close adviser to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, called in an editorial Saturday for Mousavi and Karroubi to be prosecuted for their continued agitation against the announced outcome of the June 12 elections.
On the other side of the aisle, the reformist Assembly of Qom Seminary Scholars and Researchers issued a condemnation of the Guardian Council for playing a partisan and unfair role in the presidential elections, and warning that it could never again be trusted.
Veteran BBC correspondent Jim Muir thinks that the conflict in Iran will go on for some time.
Ayatollah Mohsen Kadivar, an important reformist thinker now teaching at Duke University, told Der Spiegel that the Iranian form of theocracy has failed and that Khamenei made a foolish error in tying himself so closely to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Despite wanting reforms, Kadivar is a Khomeinist and not a revolutionary. That he is so disheartened as to declare the regime a 'failure' is a sign of how far things have gone in Iran.
MP Masoud Pezeshkian bravely addressed the Iranian parliament on June 2, decrying state violence against the protesters:
Pezeshkian had been Minister of Health and Medical Education in Iran during former president Mohammad Khatami's second term, 2001-2005. He was elected a member of parliament from Tabriz in 2008.
End/ (Not Continued)
posted by Juan Cole @ 7/05/2009 12:59:00 AM
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7 Comments:
The Mullahs won the streets battle but are losing the war. Qum's leaders have just called the election result illegal, and more and more deputies are also speaking out (AhmadiNajad needs their vote to form a government.)
The demonstrators did well to shy away from violent confrontations. The militias would have killed huge numbers of them, but the victims would have been presented as a violent mob. The millions that showed up already registered public revolt, which is enough.
I read the article of the Washington Post (not the report as I do not understand Persian). Were is the "smoking gun" ? That this or that personality is a friend of Ahmanidejad does not prove there were irregularities. It is like accusing Bush or Obama of having friends in the upper echelon of the U.S. administration ... Doh ! Frankly Mousavi at this stage is hanging on straw... Strangely enough Mr. Mousavi does not point out to his exclusive interview on Al-Jazeera the night before the election which is a complete and utter breach of the law (no campaigning)
Looks like Biden just gave Israel the green light to have its way with Iran.
"Vice President Joe Biden seemed to give Israel a green light for military action to eliminate Iran's nuclear threat, saying the U.S. 'cannot dictate to another sovereign nation what they can and cannot do.'"
Also: "He (Ahmadinejad) repeatedly has called for Israel to be wiped off the map and contends the Holocaust is a 'myth.'". Isn't that sort of a linguistic myth, busted right here on IC?
So, we desperately long for the Iranians to be free, but if Israel should happen to kill a few thousand in a preemptive military strike, (which would hardly be a catalyst for for democratic reform) that's OK too. Since Iran does not currently have a nuclear weapons industrial complex, Israel would have to content itself will destroying research labs, universities, scientists etc.(I read that Moussavi's daughter is a nuclear physicist, so Israel may have marked her for elimination.)
Is Biden just being Biden? If that's the case Obama should fire him, or send him to Montana to count Grey wolves for the rest of the term. I can't think of a more incendiary thing to say at a time like this.
Hi Dr. Cole,
Thank for all your updates. I was hoping to see your angle on this story from Reuters:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090705/wl_nm/us_iran
Apparently, the Assembly of Qom Seminary Scholars and Researchers released a statement against Khamenei et al.
Also, a Greek journalists working for the Moonie Times was released, so that's good.
The NYtimes article on the statement by the Association of Researchers and Teachers of Qum plays up this move as highly significant while a few seemingly highly informed reader commentators play down the importance of this group. I have no doubt that this is an important chess move in a game that is not played out yet but who is this group? Juan, can you comment on their relative position in the hierarchy or idea scape of their world? Also I am wondering if Rafsanjani is in anyway behind this move as I automatically assumed that this was the upshot of his much-rumored maneuvering in Qom.
Actually, Mohsen Kadivar has been speaking of the current government as a "failure" for several years now, so it's hard to see why you consider this evidence of "how far things have gone in Iran."
And it's not clear what you mean by referring to him as either a Khomeinist or with the term Ayatullah, normally reserved for senior jurists within the Shiite seminaries rather than all clerics.
professor, i was hoping from you more analysis on the significance of this stance from qom scholars as opposed to the news being dispassionately conveyed. is your neutral tone itself a signal not to get our hopes up?
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