MichaelMoore.com

June 21st, 2009 7:18 AM

Mousavi Calls for More Iran Protests as 10 Killed

June 21 (Bloomberg) -- At least 10 people were killed during clashes with Iranian police and defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi called for further demonstrations in defiance of Iran's supreme leader.

If Iranians "are not able to defend their rights in a civil, peaceful reaction, there will be dangerous ways ahead," Mousavi, who claims officials rigged President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's June 12 re-election, said in a statement on his Web site.

Ten people were killed yesterday and more than 100 injured in rioting, state television reported today, quoting deputy chief of police Ahmadreza Radan. He said security forces did not use firearms and "terrorist groups" among the protesters were responsible for the casualties. CNN television, citing staff at a Tehran hospital, said 19 people were killed.

In a sign of widening divisions within the regime, Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said a majority of Iranians contest the official results of the election, state-run Press TV reported on its Web site today, citing comments he made yesterday on Channel 2.

Iran's Security Council and police yesterday warned Mousavi against holding rallies. The day before, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, supreme leader of the Persian Gulf nation of 73 million, ordered a halt to the demonstrations.

Hundreds of thousands of Iranians have opposed Ahmadinejad's re-election in the largest demonstrations since the Islamic Revolution that ousted the shah in 1979. The protests and split within the ruling elite mark an unprecedented challenge to the authority of Khamenei, the successor of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, leader of the Islamic Revolution.

Majority Opinion

"The opinion of this majority should be respected," Larijani said on a Web site affiliated with him, Khabaronline, Press TV said. The parliament speaker, a former head of the Security Council, sat to the right of Ahmadinejad during Khamenei's Friday prayers address at Tehran University on June 19 in which the supreme leader backed the president.

"The fact that Larijani has come out like this is going to really cause problems for Ahmadinejad, the supreme leader and the regime itself," said Kaveh-Cyrus Sanandaji, an Iran expert from Oxford University in the U.K. "This is undermining the regime internally, there is dissent at the very top echelons of government."

In Washington, President Barack Obama urged an end to the crackdown. "We call on the Iranian government to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people," he said in an e-mailed statement.

Protesters Killed

At least 15 people were killed before yesterday's protests, the British Broadcasting Corp. said.

The turmoil in Iran poses a dilemma for Obama: speaking up in support of the protesters may undermine the very forces he supports, while keeping quiet exposes him to domestic political criticism.

"If we appear to be cheerleading for some sort of opposition movement on the streets, it intensifies the opposition of the hardliners," said Suzanne Maloney, an Iran analyst at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

A mausoleum housing Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the first supreme leader of the Islamic republic who died 20 years ago this month, was hit by a blast, killing three people, including a suicide bomber, Press TV said, without airing any film of the incident. Eight people were injured, the channel said. The report couldn't be independently verified.

Tear Gas

Video aired by Press TV showed scores of demonstrators being scattered by tear gas yesterday. A separate video aired by the British Broadcasting Corp.'s Persian service showed hundreds protesting in another location.

An amateur video posted on Facebook showed protesters chanting "death to the dictator!" attacked by baton-wielding anti-riot police.

Hundreds of anti-riot police blocked protesters from reaching the rally site, beating some of them, according to a witness cited by Agence France-Presse.

As many as 2,000 protesters gathered in front of Tehran University, close to the rally site, AFP said, citing a witness.

After the protests were broken up, Mousavi, 67, posted a letter to the clergy-led Guardian Council on his Web site, repeating his call for the election to be annulled and alleging that vote-fraud had been planned months in advance.

Election Recount

The Guardian Council said it was ready to recount "randomly" up to 10 percent of ballot boxes, Press TV said.

Larijani, a member of the so-called "moderate conservatives" who oppose Ahmadinejad, criticized the Guardian Council, saying it should not "side with a certain presidential candidate," Press TV reported.

"The Guardian Council should use every possible means to build trust and convince the protesters that their complaints will be thoroughly looked into," the parliament speaker said.

Foreign news media have been banned from covering rallies and Internet and mobile phone connections are sporadic, making texting impossible and conversations difficult.

Khamenei in his speech two days ago reaffirmed Ahmadinejad's electoral victory, calling it a "real celebration" for Iran and a "political earthquake" for the country's enemies.

Vote Count

Ahmadinejad won about 63 percent of the vote, to Mousavi's 34 percent.

Mousavi is allied with Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, 75, who heads the Assembly of Experts, which has the power to appoint or dismiss the supreme leader, though Rafsanjani has stayed quiet since the election. Khamenei, 69, said during Friday prayers that he's had differences with Rafsanjani, a former president, and his views are closer to those of Ahmadinejad.

The Security Council has blamed an "organized network" led by groups with connections to foreigners for stoking the demonstrations.

General Esmaeil Ahmadi-Moghaddam, commander of the Iranian Police, said that until now his forces have tolerated the demonstrations even though 400 police had been injured. "If this goes on, he said, "we will protect the security of the society and the people."

Ahmadinejad's opponents accuse him of wrecking the economy, which suffers from 10.5 percent unemployment and an inflation rate of almost 24 percent, and driving Iran into international isolation over the country's nuclear program.