Video: President Obama’s remarks on Iran at the G8 meeting

11 July 2009

Filed under: Nuclear program , President Obama

‘Up to judge to free detainees’

Source: Etemaad via Iran News Daily

11 June 2009

A deputy prosecutor-general has said that those still in detention over post-election riots are mainly accused of action against national security and vandalizing public properties.

Mahmoud Salarkia said the cases have been referred to the judiciary for legal proceedings.

He dismissed allegations that the 20 drug traffickers hanged last week were among the rioters.

Filed under: Domestic Politics, Presidential Election

Iran preparing new proposals for West

Source: Iran Daily

11 June 2009

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Saturday Tehran is preparing another package of proposals on major political, security and international issues.

Speaking at a joint press conference with his visiting Omani counterpart Yusuf bin Alawi, Mottaki said Iran has “clear stands“ about various developments, IRNA reported.

“We are preparing a new package of proposals that would be considered as the basis for Tehran’s negotiations on major regional and international developments,“ he said.

Filed under: Nuclear program , Manouchehr Mottaki

11 July updates from Iran: inside the Basij, tolerance and its opposition

11 July 2009

WSJ: Inside the crackdown
By the eighth day, demonstrators alleging that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had rigged his re-election were out by the hundreds of thousands. Mr. Moradani says he mobilized in a 12-man motorcycle crew, scouting out restive neighborhoods across Tehran. He battled protesters with a baton and tear gas. The demonstrators fought back with rocks, bricks and bottles. Mr. Moradani says he handcuffed scores of demonstrators and dragged them away as they kicked and screamed.

“It wasn’t about elections anymore,” says Mr. Moradani, a short, skinny man with pitch-black hair and a beard. “I was defending my country and our revolution and Islam. Everything was at risk.”

LA Times: Advisor to Supreme Leader calls for tolerance of dissent
Mohammad Mohammadian, a midranking cleric who heads Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s office of university affairs, acknowledged the simmering discontent over the vote, which sparked massive protests and a violent crackdown last month.

“We cannot order public opinion to get convinced,” Mohammadian said, according to the Mehr news agency. “Certain individuals are suspicious about the election result, and we have to shed light on the realities and respond to their questions.”

Providing an unyielding counterpoint, Maj. Gen. Hassan Firoozabadi, the armed forces chief of staff, issued stern warnings against protesters.

“God has chosen us in military uniform to sacrifice our lives against the enemies,” he said, according to the Iranian Students News Agency, or ISNA. “Certain individuals and groups imagine that we will back down if they shout slogans against us. We have come to die, and we have proved our determination during the war with Iraq.”

Filed under: Domestic Politics, Presidential Election, Reform , Green Movement

Protests in Iran will continue

Source: Rooz

08 July 2009

Meeting with a number of his friends and supporters yesterday, Mir Hossein Mousavi predicted that the popular protests will continue, noting, “The legitimacy of this government is questionable because people don’t trust it. This makes the government weak inside even if it keeps up appearances.”

The wartime prime minister spoke about the tenth presidential election in this gathering: “A deep and serious event took place in this election. That protests subsided or were silenced doesn’t remove the basis of the matter. I think this opposition movement will continue. The regime’s problems became evident in this election and I thank God that these problems became evident so quickly.”

Filed under: Domestic Politics, Presidential Election , Green Movement, Mir-Hossein Mousavi

7 July updates from Iran: “philosophies of the Green Movement,” opposition stands firm

07 July 2009

niacINsight
10:19 am: “The Philosophies of the Green Movement” — Mousavi has listed on his Facebook page important principles for his movement to follow. Some excerpts:

1.) The demonstrations scheduled for July 9th are to be non-violent and within the bounds of the law. However we must prepare ourselves for reaction from non legal personnel and the best weapon here is patience and calmness.”

2.) Our second weapon is a red flower. [During the 1979 Revolution, demonstrators would approach lines of soldiers and place red flowers in their gun barrels as a sign of peace and friendship.]

3.) Remember that the ‘path’ and ‘participation’ is important – not the ‘destination’. If you are faced with armed forces, just change your direction and continue on your path.

4.) We are not in the position to take risks, but we must be in the position to accept responsibilities. We must be ready in body and spirit.

5.) Wear regular clothing and do not use make up or fix your hair in a way that can be used to identify you; we don’t want the children of the revolution to be oppressed any further than this.

6.) Do not bring any personal identification or anything that can be used to identify you.

7.) Refrain from carrying any jewelry or any other expensive items.

8.) Just write the phone number of your closest relative on a piece of paper and carry it in your pocket for emergencies only.

9.) Just use silent gestures such as holding up your two fingers and avoid using harsh chants such as “death to” – instead use chants such as “long live”. The best chant is “Ya Hossein… Mir Hossein”

BBC: Iran ’security state’ lambasted
Iranian opposition leaders have criticised what they describe as the “security state” imposed in the country after the controversial June elections.

They also called for the release of people detained during mass protests that followed the vote.

Runner-up Mir Hossein Mousavi’s website said the call was backed by fellow defeated candidate Mehdi Karoubi and former President Mohammad Khatami.

Tehran Bureau: Reformers hold firm
Most important, none of the oppositionists are backing down. Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mehdi Karroubi, and former President Khatami have all continued to press their challenge to the regime. According to a reformist newspaper in Iran, Etemad-e-Melli, Mousavi is planning to organize a political party that can carry the movement forward. (There are, in Iran, no real political parties. In the election, although Mousavi ran with the support of the reformist establishment, students, the business class, women, and other constituencies — including many clerics — he did not have a political party to support him, with offices in cities and provinces and a staff.)

Mousavi also laid out a detailed challenge to the fraudulent, June 12 presidential election, in a 24-page document issued Saturday. He pointed out that the interior minister, who counted the votes, and the head of the Guardian Council, who certified the bogus result, are both close allies of Khamenei and Ahmadinejad who’d endorsed the president’s reelection. He noted that the commanders of the Revolutionary Guard had said they wouldn’t accept anyone but Ahmadinejad. And he charged that twenty million extra ballots were printed. Amid charges that he is a traitor and threats to arrest him, Mousavi’s latest moves show that he isn’t giving up.

Filed under: Domestic Politics, Presidential Election , Green Movement, Mehdi Karroubi, Mir-Hossein Mousavi

Iran Participation Front responds to pressure on prisoners

Source: Rooz

TV confessions are worthless

The pro-reform Iran Participation Front (Jebhe Mosharekat Iran Islami) issued a statement on Saturday in which in addition to warning government elements over their drive to forcefully extract so-called confessions from those who had been detained in recent protests against elections in Iran, declared that the ruling faction in Iran is “not content in attaining power by any means and is now working on an extensive domestic purge of the legal political opposition.” The statement was issued after Iran’s state-run television network aired a forced confession of Amir Hossein Mahdavi, the imprisoned editor of reformist newspaper Andishe No (New Thought) which supports Mir-Hossein Mousavi.

Filed under: Domestic Politics, Presidential Election, Reform , forced confessions, Green Revolution, Iran Participation Front

June 29 updates from Iran: Basij ‘imposters,’ British ‘meddling,’ women police out in force

29 June 2009

This video shows Karroubi with demonstrators, but we can’t confirm if it is in fact from today. (Source: niacINsight)

RFE/RL: Basij ‘imposters’ blamed for havoc
As officials prepare to slam the door shut on any effort to revisit the June 12 election, they appear to be going on the offensive over allegations of thuggery and killing on the part of security forces.

Iran’s English-language Press TV quotes police officials saying they’ve uncovered “armed impostors who posed as security forces during postelection violence in the country.”

niacINsight: The end of the beginning
Indeed, the post-election demonstrations have neither been an uprising of intellectuals and students nor die-hard anti-regime elements from northern Tehran. Instead, the masses that poured in the streets included large numbers of people who often have been loyal to the Iranian government and who in many ways have a stake in its survival. (We can call them Iran’s political middle, or its swing voters.) This is precisely why this movement has constituted such a threat to the Iranian government — not once since 1979 has such an alliance of Iranians come together…

Although successful at first, the discipline has clearly broken down. This should be no surprise — the movement is by now in effect leaderless. A source close to Mousavi says that the first and second circle of people around Mousavi have all been arrested or put under house arrest. Mousavi himself has limited ability to communicate with his team and his followers. The lack of leadership is visible on the streets, where demonstrators exhibit unparalleled will and courage, but lack direction and guidance.

BBC News: Iran frees five from UK embassy
“Out of nine people, five of them have been released and the rest are being interrogated,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi said at a news conference, state television Press TV reported.

Iran’s Intelligence Minister Gholam-Hoseyn Mohseni-Ezhei on Sunday said “the British embassy played a crucial role in the recent unrest both through its local staff and via media”, Iran’s Irna news agency reported.

BBC News: Calm on street belies Iran’s turmoil
A round may have been won. But even if the opposition can’t get the election overturned, this does not look like the end of the fight.

The crisis has split the top leadership of Iran in a way that has never happened before in the 30 years of the Islamic republic.

They’ve disagreed among themselves many times, but now they are arguing in public. Ayatollah Khamenei no longer presents himself as the nation’s arbiter, above politics.

Instead he has plunged in to support President Ahmedinejad’s re-election. And Mir Hossein Mousavi, the man who thinks he is the rightful president, has crossed the reddest of Iranian red lines.

He has defied the authority of the supreme leader and criticised him, very severely, from his website

niacINsight: June 28 updates
5:47 pm: According to a contact in Tehran, women police are now out in force. Not that the women protesters were free from being attacked, but now there is a special female force solely designed for them.

3:33 pm: Ayatollah Javadi Amoli Calls for Separation of Powers in Iran
“When one person alone enacts, executes and judges the law, there will be problems” (Translated from Mowj news)

Amoli, who led the Friday prayers sermon in Qom, believes that the best way to resolve the current situation is a separation between the executive branch, the judicial branch and the Islamic jurist. Amoli said separation of powers is not a recent phenomenon and it existed before Islam. “Separation of powers does not belong to a particular century. Islamic and non-Islamic governments have it now, too,” he said.

2:32 pm: Iranian activists are reporting that Mehdi Karoubi, Morteza Malekian, Faezeh Hashemi & Effat Mar’eshi were among today’s demonstrators.

Filed under: Domestic Politics, Presidential Election, Reform, Supreme Leader , Green Revolution, Mehdi Karroubi, Mir-Hossein Mousavi

Video: green balloons

26 June 2009

Filed under: Reform , Green Revolution

Mousavi’s statement to the Iranian diaspora

Source: niacINsight

26 June 2009

Dear compatriots,
Honorable Iranians living abroad,

Your widespread and energetic presence in this year’s 22 Khordad elections is indicative of your ties to our beloved Iran, and your admirable worries about the future of your country, and as I mentioned to you in my election message, Iran belongs to all Iranians and all layers of the populous are responsible for its future, and enjoy the same rights in it.

I feel obliged to thank you for your epic presence in determining the future of your country. Your widespread welcoming of these elections and your green and energetic presence at the ballot boxes was so large that it even forced the government and the organizers of the elections to admit to a 300% increase in the participation of Iranians in the tenth presidential elections outside of the country.

Your trust in this insignificant civil servant and your decisive vote for me in most of the voting stations outside of the country has placed a heavy burden on my shoulders. I would like to give you my assurance that I remain true to my existing pact with you and all layers of the great people of Iran, and using all legal avenues will demand your deserved rights that have been violated at the ballot boxes.

Unfortunately, as you witness in the international media, contrary to the letter of the constitution, and the stated freedoms in the Islamic Republic, all my communication with the people and you has been cut off, and people’s peaceful objections are being crushed. The national media which is being financed with public funds, with a revolting misrepresentation is changing the truth, and labels the peaceful march of close to three million people as anarchist, and the media that are being controlled by the government have become the mouthpiece of those who have stolen the people’s votes.

I’d like to thank you again for your peaceful objections which have received widespread coverage across the world, and would like to ask you that by using all legal channels, and by remaining faithful to the sacred system of the Islamic Republic, to make sure that your objections are heard by the authorities in the country. I am fully aware that your justified demands have nothing to do with groups who do not believe in the sacred Islamic Republic of Iran’s system. It is up to you to distance yourself from them, and do not allow them to misuse the current situation.

Mir Hossein Mousavi
1388/4/3

Filed under: Domestic Politics, Presidential Election , Green Revoluton, Mir-Hossein Mousavi