Iran Cleric Says British Embassy Staff to Stand Trial

By ALAN COWELL and STEPHEN CASTLE
Published July 3, 2009 in the New York Times

PARIS — Brushing aside British and European efforts to seek the release of local British Embassy staff members held in Tehran, the Iranian authorities indicated Friday that they planned to put some of them on trial — a move that deepened a diplomatic crisis and could provoke the withdrawal of ambassadors.

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IRAN:  Women at Forefront of Popular Defiance

By Sara Farhang

Iran is home to one of the most vibrant women’s movements in the region. (Photo credit: faramarz/flickr/creative commons)

TEHRAN, Jun 25, 2009 (IPS) - When tens of thousands of protesters braved the ongoing government crackdown to gather in Tehran’s Baharestan Square in front of the Parliament building Wednesday in response to a call by supporters of Mir Hossein Moussavi and Mehdi Karroubi, they were met with some of the harshest violence seen since Iran’s post-election turmoil erupted nearly two weeks ago. Read the rest of this entry »

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Khatami denounces Iran election, arrests

Protesters in Iran walk past a poster of former president Khatami and reform party leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi. (Photo: Reuters)

Story posted by Reuters on Wednesday,  July 1, 2009 1:42pm EDT.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Moderate former president Mohammad Khatami criticized the outcome of Iran’s disputed election and called for the release of people arrested since the June 12 vote in a hard-hitting statement on Wednesday.
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Killed and Detained Since 12 June

Last updated by the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran on 1 July 2009.

Here is the list of those killed and detained in Iran, updated as information becomes available. The list is by no means comprehensive and does not include people arrested at protests on the streets.

Government officials have announced a total of 627 arrests in Tehran since 13 June 2009, 170 people detained prior to 15 June, 457 detained persons on 20 June, and 27 dead. Other sources claim these numbers are much higher. The Campaign believes, based on reports received from within Iran, as many as 2,000 people could be under arrest throughout the country. The following is a list of prominent political personalities, journalists, and students that the Campaign has received.

Click here for alphabetized list

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The Gandhian Moment

Ramin Jahanbegloo - published in Dissent Magazine on June 20, 2009

WITH THE refusal of Iran’s political establishment to re-run the elections, more repression and violence seems inevitable. However, what we are witnessing since the first demonstrations against the results of the presidential elections might very well be considered as a major nonviolent movement in a Gandhian style. There is already an evident similarity between the civil disobedience movement in today’s Iran and successful nonviolent movements led by Gandhi in India in the 1920-1940s and Martin Luther King Jr. in the United States in the 1950-1960s.
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Iran’s Clenched Fist Election:  What’s next for US policy

The Carnegie Endowment For International Peace

Policy Discussion held on June 25, 2009 in Washington D.C.

With demonstrations across Iran subsiding under a brutal security crackdown, and opposition leaders hoping to turn protests into strikes and other acts of civil disobedience, Carnegie hosted leading Iran experts Ambassador Nicholas Burns, Abbas Milani, and Karim Sadjadpour to discuss the aftermath of the election and its implications for U.S. foreign policy in the region.  David Ignatius moderated the discussion.

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Speaking out against violence in the Iranian Parliament

On June, 28, 2009, Masoud Pezeshkian, a member of Iran’s parliament spoke out against violence and torture.  (Video is in Farsi with English in closed captions.)

Dr. Masoud Pezeshkian speaks against government actions in Majlis by using Imam Ali as the example. Imam Ali is the son in law of Prophet Mohammad and is considered the role model of Iranian citizens. His birthday is celebrated as father’s day in Iran. Dr. Pezeshkian in his speech uses Imam Ali’s letter to Malek Ashtar that specifically tells him what he should not do just because he is in position of power exactly what the government of Iran has been doing these past few days.

Iran ‘must free UK embassy staff’

Published by BBC News on June 28, 2009

The European Union has demanded the immediate release of Iranian staff at Britain’s embassy in Tehran detained on Saturday over post-election unrest.

EU ministers meeting in Greece warned that “harassment or intimidation” of embassy staff would be met with a “strong and collective” response.

Iranian media reported the detention of eight local staff at the UK mission over their alleged role in the unrest.

UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband dismissed the allegations as baseless.
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Iranians rally at Ghoba (Qoba) Mosque

Mousavi supporters join Beheshti commemorators

Published by Press TV - Sun, 28 Jun 2009 20:36:24 GMT

Hundreds of Iranians have gathered in a mosque to commemorate the martyrdom of former chief justice Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti.

Supporters of defeated presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi also marched down Tehran’s Shariati Street from north to south and silently gathered outside the Ghoba Mosque — where the event was being held.
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In Iran, the protests have quieted, but the protesters are simmering

Iranian security forces on motorcycles make their presence known on a Tehran street. Postelection rallies have quieted, but such patrols have been common, as authorities keep an eye out for would-be demonstrators.

By Borzou Daragahi for the Los Angeles Times - June 27, 2009 23:20 PDT / June 28, 10:50 Tehran time

Iranians who demonstrated against the election results are not moving on. They are biding their time, weighing their options — and seeing their government in a dramatically different light.

TEHRAN — The young men and women enter Haft Tir Square tentatively.  Their pace slows as they discreetly glance around. They spot the club-wielding uniformed security officials and plainclothes Basiji militiamen, scan the square for other would-be demonstrators. Read the rest of this entry »