IRAN: Khatami says protesters won’t back down

(Jeffrey Fleishman – Babylon & Beyond | Los Angeles Times | 11 October 2009) – Former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami has posted a strong declaration on his website that the protest movement in Iran will not die despite violent crackdowns by the military and police. Read the rest of this entry »

Letter from Tehran: Iran’s new hardliners

Who Is in Control of the Islamic Republic?

Iran’s disputed election marked the rise of a new power elite. Now, with more protests looming and a nuclear program facing international pressure, can the Revolutionary Guard and its allies sustain their tightening grip on the Islamic Republic?

(Jerry Guo | Foreign Policy | 30 September 2009) - The headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) are in a European-style palace, replete with Greek columns and a grand staircase, in the eastern suburbs of Tehran. From here, the IRGC orchestrated the crackdown that followed Iran’s disputed presidential vote in June, beating protestors on the street and torturing those behind bars. More ominously, the IGRC and other extreme hard-liners have sidelined fellow conservatives in the Iranian government, carving out their own power base in a regime that is becoming increasingly insular, reactionary, and violent. Read the rest of this entry »

Top Iran reform figures on trial

The trial has begun in Iran of a number of senior opposition figures following June’s disputed presidential election.

(BBC | 25 August 2009) - The defendants, who include former ministers in the 1997-2005 Khatami government, are accused of conspiring with foreign powers to organise unrest. Read the rest of this entry »

Iran Reformists Challenge Supreme Leader

An Open Letter to a Senior Clerical Assembly Demands an Inquiry into Whether Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Is Fit to Rule

(Farnaz Fassihi | Wall Street Journal | 15 August 2009) – In a daring move, a group of former reformist lawmakers, now supporters of the opposition, have challenged whether the Islamic Republic’s top man in power is fit to rule. Read the rest of this entry »

Inauguration Expected To Spark More Unrest In Iran

National Public Radio – August 3, 2009

By Mike Schuster Read the rest of this entry »

Iranians Gather in Grief, Then Face Police

Protesters chanting slogans at an opposition rally at the Behesht-e-Zahra cemetery outside Tehran on Thursday.

By ROBERT F. WORTH and NAZILA FATHI (New York Times, July 30, 2009)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Thousands of people gathered in Tehran on Thursday to commemorate those killed in Iran’s post-election crackdown, but a vast deployment of police officers used tear gas and wooden batons to disperse them, in some of the largest and most violent street clashes in weeks.

The mourners gathered at the freshly-dug graves of protesters, including Neda Agha-Soltan, a young woman whose bloodied image has become an icon of the opposition movement. As opposition leader Mir Hussein Moussavi arrived at the Behesht-e-Zahra cemetery, the police barred him from entering, and angry mourners chanted “Neda lives! Ahmadinejad is dead!” referring to Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, witnesses said. Read the rest of this entry »

Friday Surprise in Iran?

Published on July 16, 2009 in the The Daily Beast by Reza Aslan

AP Photo

Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the second most powerful man in Iran, is delivering the Friday Sermon in Tehran. Will it be the end of the protests, or a new challenge to the regime?

Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the second most powerful man in Iran (after the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei) and one of the principal figures behind the anti-Ahmadinejad movement that has rocked the country over the last month, will deliver the Friday Sermon in Tehran this week, the first time he has been offered the prestigious pulpit in years. Read the rest of this entry »

Breaking News – Important Announcement on Mr. Mousavi’s Facebook Site

Dear All,

Earlier today, Mr. Mousavi’s facebook posted a call for a massive rally to be held next Friday, July 17 toward Tehran University where  Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani will deliver the Friday prayer’s sermon  after a month of absence from public. Mr. Mousavi, and Mr. Khatami will  both be present at this important event. This appears to be the move (on  the part of Mr. Hashemi) that everyone was waiting for. Please find the flyer below.  Iranians can access e-mail. Please distribute widely.

Let us hope it will go ahead successfully and peacefully. Read the rest of this entry »

After a long absence, pro-Mousavi cleric Rafsanjani to lead prayers

Majid Ghaemi Heidari is welcomed at Tehran’s Mehrabad airport. He and four other Iranians were freed after 30 months in U.S. custody in Iraq. (Photo: Javad Moghimi / Fars News Agency)

After a long absence, pro-Mousavi cleric Rafsanjani to lead prayers.  Former President Mohammad Khatami reportedly will also attend Iran’s weekly keynote sermon Friday. The reformists’ return to the event can be seen as a challenge to hard-liners or a sign of a truce. Read the rest of this entry »

Mousavi reportedly will launch political party in Iran

Opposition candidate’s supporters describe plans in a reformist newspaper. Iranian officials release a jailed European journalist and a lawyer says a British Embassy worker will be freed soon.

By Borzou Daragahi – Published July 6, 2009 for the Los Angeles Time

Reporting from Beirut — The top figure of Iran’s nascent political reform movement, opposition presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi, will launch a political party to pursue his goals, a reformist newspaper reported Sunday. Read the rest of this entry »