Mir-Hosain Mousavi, leader of the reform faction in Iran who maintains that last Friday’s elections was stolen, has rejected as inadequate the government’s offer of a limited recount of ballots. Note that the head of the Guardianship Council, to which this task has been assigned, is Aytatollah Ahmad Jannati, a notorious hard liner and partisan supporter of Mahmound Ahmadinejad. The reformists want a whole new presidential campaign, saying that last Friday’s process was a charade. The state authorities have rejected this demand.
The reform faction was planning further street protests on Wednesday despite the government’s crackdown. Arrests of figures close to former president Mohammad Khatami are being reported. He had led the reform movement 1997-2005.
Foreign media is now being forbidden to cover the protests by the Iranian authorities, which means we will more and more be dependent on Iranian eyewitnesses (see the two postings below for events of the past two days). Many foreign journalists have been told to leave Iran. The Revolutionary Guards are also threatening an internet crackdown. LOL they don’t know about P2P
Global Post challenges the allegation that the trouble is only in Tehran, the capital, with reports of crowds setting fire in metal trash bins in downtown Ahvaz.
CSM has an eyewitness account of a Basij civil militiaman firing into the crowd on Monday.
Alexander von Rosenbach makes some interesting observations here
Despite their stand that polling suggests an Ahmadinejad victory was plausible, Ballen and Doherty now also admit that reformist ideas were held by the vast majority of their respondents, including Ahmadinejad supporters. This finding puts paid to the stupid assertion by Richard Perle and David Frum that Iranian elections are between fanatical fundamentalists and extremely fanatical fundamentalists. (Why can Neoconservatives not see that they are themselves fanatical fundamentalists?)
Pictures of Tuesday’s march for Mousavi are here.
Russia Today has video on Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s offer of a limited recount of some ballots in last Friday’s contested presidential election.
Aljazeera English examines Iran’s power struggle. This report is an excellent guide to the major personalities in the struggle and the social forces they represent.
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